Pinnacle: Sprain Or Strain?

Pinnacle: Sprain Or Strain?

Health & Fitness The Newsletter About Your Health And Caring For Your Body

Did You Just Suffer a Sprain or a Strain?

You’ve probably had a sprain or strain at some point in your life. Chronic sprains and strains are not good as they lead to lasting problems such asweakness and joint damage. However, did you know that being strong, flexible and having good posture can go a long way to stopping sprains and strains? Sprains and strains are extremely common injuries to the musculoskeletal system. What is a sprain? A sprain is an injury that overstretches or tears a ligament (tissue that connects bone to bone), which provides joints their stability. A severely damaged ligament during an injury or accident can cause a joint to become unstable. Symptoms may include

you still have pain from a past injury, this is probably because you never fully recovered from the sprain or the joint is unstable. Sprains can be mild, or they can be traumatic, such as in the case of an automobile or workplace accident . What is a strain? A strain is an injury that overstretches or tears muscles or tendons (connects muscles to bones). A strain typically occurs at the point where the muscle is becoming a tendon and is stretched too fast, then suddenly contracts, as with quickly grasping for a falling heavy object. (continued inside)

pain, inflammation and in some cases, the inability to move a joint (elbow, wrist or shoulder). Sprains occur when a joint is forced beyond its normal range of motion, such as bending your wrist back during a fall. If

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He a l t h & F i t n e s s The Newsletter About Your Health And Caring For Your Body

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Do You Have Shoulder, Elbow or Wrist Pain? You try to get through the day, but that nagging pain in your shoulder, elbow or wrist just keeps your attention focused on it. It sure is hard to concentrate on work, your family and other activities you need to do! We can help you get back to living!

It is common to fixate on that body part that hurts. The thought is that because it hurts there, the problem is right there! However, this is often not the cause. You see, the body part that is painful is usually the one that is doing all the work, because other areas are not doing their job. The body is truly amazing and all the parts work together as one whole, most of the time. However,whenanareaofyourbodybecomes weak or stiff because it was abused from poor posture, stress or injury, even an old one, other areas strain from the overwork to pick up the slack. A common word that is used for this type of repetitive injury strain is called “tendonitis”.This is simply an inflammation of the tendonsof thatarea,whichattachmuscles to bones. For example, a very common complaint is tennis elbow and even pain in

the forearm or wrist area. However, why is this happening in the first place? The upper extremity works in 3 parts, the shoulder, elbow and wrist. They rely on each other to make the incredible movements of your arm so you can reach grasp and do ordinary daily tasks we take for granted. They rely on your posture to be good in order to function properly. When you slouch or sometimes do a repetitive task, like reaching acrossyourdesk,certainmusclescanbecome too tight or strong while others become weak. This muscle imbalance leads to that area not working as well as it should. For example, you sit at a desk all day and you slouch your shoulders. Now, your shoulder doesn’t work as well, but you still move your mouse around with your arm, which causes your wrist and forearmmuscles tooverwork.As thishappens

over time, you start to notice aches and pains in your wrist and elbow. If this goes on too long, it becomes severe and you seek out medical help. Typically a brace may be put on the area, but that is not where the problem is, right? It’s because your shoulder was stiff and weak from your slouching. Now, a good occupational therapist has the right medical training to spot where your posture is not optimum and how you are compensating. With the right evaluation and treatment from Pinnacle PhysicalTherapy, you can be back to doing what you like to do, quickly and easily. Then with the training we give you, you can help yourself stay well for the long haul and know what to do to prevent the problem from happening again. Give us a call today if your shoulder,elboworwrist ishurting,wecanhelp!

ELASTIC BAND INTERNAL ROTATION

Strengthens Arms Always consultyour therapistorphysicianbefore startingexercisesyouareunsureofdoing. Try this movement if you are experiencing arm pain. While holding an elastic band at your side with your elbow bent, start with your hand away from your stomach, then pull the band towards your stomach. Keep your elbow near your side the entire time. Repeat 10 times on each side.

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Your hand and wrist are an amazing, complex part of your body that allows you to touch, grasp, hold and manipulate most everything you do in the day. Just imagine if your hands were not working properly. For many people this is a reality and a painful one they face each day. Each hand and wrist contains, 29 bones, 29 major joints, 123 ligaments,17muscles in thepalm and 18 muscles in the forearm and numerous nerves. There is a lot that needs to work together at the right time and right place. When you suffer from pain in the hand or wrist this can be a result of overuse, arthritis, injury and even congenital problems. Having an expert to evaluate, and then put you on the right path to having the maximum use of your hand again, begins with seeing a hand therapist. A hand therapist is needed when pain, dysfunction, trauma or disease processes occur at the hand, wrist, forearm, elbow and/or shoulder. Due to the complexity of the hand and upper extremity, a hand therapist should be your first choice for rehabilitation.

Hand and wrist pain can be for a variety of reasons, such as movement, limitation due to crush injuries, fracture, tendon lacerations, nerve injuries, burns and wounds, carpal tunnel syndrome (nerve compression), Dupuytren’s contracture, Dequervain’s synovitis, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy / Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. The key to less pain in the hand is regaining the proper movement of the joints and regaining the strength of the muscles in the hand, forearm and even shoulder. At Pinnacle PhysicalTherapy, our expert hand therapists treat wrist and hand pain everyday. We also provide advanced evaluation and fabrication of custom splints for hand,elbowandshouldersupport. If you believe that you may need therapy foryourhand,wrist,elbow or shoulder please call us today. The sooner we see a patient, the more optimum it is for their recovery, so don’t delay. We will get you back to feeling better today and get you back to doing the things you have been missing out on. We will get results for you!

Staff Spotlight

“We’d like to introduce Christian to our Pinnacle community. Christian is our new PT Tech at Mill River. He was raised in Coeur d’Alene, then went on to play baseball at Olympic College in Seattle. He will be graduating from the University of Idaho with a Bachelors in Psychology. He plans to apply to PT school next year to one day receive his DPT.” Welcome Christian our New PT Tech