Category: Uncategorized

The Nervous System is made up of two parts

1. Central Nervous system which includes the brain and spinal cord

2. Peripheral Nervous System which connects the nerves running from the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body (arms and hands, legs and feet, internal organs, joints, eyes, ears, nose and skin.

Peripheral Nerves have their own function:

· Sensory Nerves carry information about sensations e.g. pain and touch. Sensors in the skin help people identify whether an object is sharp, rough, smooth, hot or cold, still or moving

· Motor Nerves are responsible for transmitting messages which control muscles like switching on or turning off contractions. This allows activities like walking, catching a ball or moving the hand and fingers to pick something up.

· Autonomic Nerves are responsible for regulating automatic body functions like blood pressure and bladder function.

A peripheral neuropathy occurs when the peripheral nerves are damaged or destroyed and they are unable to transmit messages from the brain and spinal cord to the arms, hands, legs and feet.

Motor nerve damage can lead to muscle weakness, difficulty walking or moving the arms, cramps and spasms.

Sensory nerve damage often results in tingling, numbness, pain and extreme sensitivity to touch.

Autonomic nerve damage may cause a person heartbeat to go faster or slower, they may get dizzy when standing up, sweat excessively or have difficulty sweating at all. It may cause difficulty in swallowing, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation, urination, abnormal pupil size and sexual dysfunction.

Most people presenting with a neuropathy have a POLYNEURPOPATHY where multiple nerves are affected. Other people might experience a MONONEUROPATHY which is usually the result of damage to a single nerve or nerve group caused by trauma, injury, local compression, prolonged pressure or inflammation.

For some people the cause of the neuropathy is unknown, and this is called idiopathic neuropathy. However, there are many known causes: diabetes, chemo-induced abnormalities, toxic neuropathy (exposure to toxic chemicals) poor nutrition, kidney failure, chronic alcoholism and certain medications.

Treatment for a peripheral neuropathy very much depends on the symptoms and underlying cause. In diabetes as an example the underlying diabetes needs to be managed to prevent greater nerve damage from occurring and to prevent secondary complications from developing.

Physiotherapists can help people with a peripheral neuropathy, this is often in relation to situations where mobility and control of movements is impaired.

The spinal cord is a long fragile network of fibres that travel between the brain and the bottom of the spine. The spinal column is made up of a column of bones called the vertebra, these bones protect the spinal cord. 31 pairs of spinal nerves travel out from the spinal cord between each vertebra. There are motor nerves that carry commands from the brain and spinal cord to other parts of the body, namely skeletal muscles which help us to move. The sensory nerves carry information to the brain from other parts of the body. Where the spinal cord ends there is a bundle of nerves called the cauda equina. The spinal cord is responsible for transmitting nervous impulses which help us to move our body, feel pressure and control vital functions like breathing, blood pressure, bladder and bowel.

Damage to the spinal cord can happen as a result of trauma like an accident or as a result of infection or disease. If it is damaged the communication between our brain and the rest of our body is disrupted resulting in a loss of movement and sensation from below the level of the injury. The degree of loss of movement and sensation will vary from person to person. The higher up the damage the more movement and sensation will be lost.

Paraplegia: affects the movement and sensation in the legs and sometimes the stomach muscles. It is caused by a spinal cord injury in the back.

Tetraplegia: affects movements and sensation in all four limbs, as well as stomach and chest muscles. It occurs as a result of a spinal cord injury in the neck.

Healthcare professionals use letters and numbers to classify the level of spinal cord injury that someone may have. Physiotherapists complete detailed motor and sensory testing to help to classify spinal cord injury levels. SCI in the neck would be classified as C1-C8 (cervical spine), SCI in the back would either be classified in the Thoracic region (T1-12) or the lumbar region (L1-5).

Incomplete spinal cord injuries are most common. Here, there is some preservation of movement or sensation below the level of injury. Complete Injuries are where both sides of the body are affected and there is no muscle function or voluntary movement or sensation from the level of injury and below.

Problems that might arise from spinal cord injury include:

· Muscle Weakness or Paralysis

· Reduced ability to breathe independently

· Loss of general Mobility and Balance

· Loss of Functional Movement

· Poor Posture

· Pain

Physiotherapists use detailed assessment techniques to gain a clear picture of how a spinal cord injury may affect you. Physiotherapists are paramount in helping those who have suffered a SCI to reach there goals no matter what stage they are at in their recovery following the injury.

Treatments are tailored to an individual’s need and may include:

· Stretching

· Flexibility and strengthening exercises

· Breathing exercises

· Balance and posture exercises

· Functional activities

· Mobility education (gait re-education / mobility aid and orthotics use / wheelchair use)

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is an injury to the brain caused by a head injury (trauma to the head).

The severity of the TBI may vary from a brief period of unconsciousness, sickness or dizziness caused by a mild trauma to serious physical and cognitive deficits resulting from a severe head injury.

There are many different possible causes of head injury:

· Falls and Accidents at home, at work or when out and about

· Road Traffic Accidents

· Assaults

Minor Head Injury:

Brief period of unconsciousness (less than 15 minutes), or just feeling dizzy and sick. @ 75 – 80 % of all head injuries fall into this category. Post traumatic amnesia lasts for less than 15 minutes Attend A&E but experience no lasting effects

Moderate Head Injury:

Loss of consciousness for between 15 minutes – 6 hours, or a period of post traumatic amnesia of up to 24 hours Often kept in hospital overnight and then discharged Are likely to suffer from tiredness, headaches and dizziness, difficulties with thinking, attention, memory, planning, organising, concentration, irritability and word finding problems. For most people these symptoms gradually improve but for some they last for 6-9 months.

Severe Head Injury:

Unconscious for 6 hours or more or a post traumatic amnesia of 24 hours or more. Likely to need hospitalisation and extensive inpatient rehabilitation before discharging back into the community. Depending on the length of time in coma, these patients tend to have more serious physical deficits

The brain is a very intricate organ. Each area of the brain is responsible for controlling different body functions. The effects of brain injury are dependent on several factors e.g. type of injury, location of injury in the brain and severity of injury.

Symptoms may be:

· Physical e.g. movement disorders, balance problems, headaches and dizziness

· Mental e.g. cognitive (memory, processing and planning etc), behavioural (anger problems) emotional (tearful, depressed, labile)

Most people make an excellent recovery following a brain injury however some physical symptoms which may have a great impact on daily life, are not always noticeable to others. Physiotherapists with specialist knowledge in neurological conditions and TBI carry out a detailed assessment and help devise individualised treatment plans jointly with people who are living with TBI.

Areas where physiotherapists can help include where there may be problems with:

· Mobility – movement may be slow, and balance can be affected. People may need mobility aids or wheelchairs because their balance is poor. Physiotherapists can guide on the most appropriate mobility aid and the most appropriate exercises to improve balance and reduce the risks of falls. Specialist analysis of movement by a neurological physiotherapist will help guide improvements with efficiency and quality of movements.

· Spasticity – Dependent on the location of the brain injury often one side of the body may be affected more than the other. Limbs may be stiff or weak and the range of movement is limited. Physiotherapists can give specialist postural advice to help minimise the risk of contractures from developing. Physiotherapists can help devise weight bearing, stretching and range of movement exercises to minimise the negative effects of spasticity.

· Weakness or Paralysis (hemiplegia where one side of the body is more affected than the other) – Physiotherapists can help set strengthening programmes to target specific muscle groups, always with the aim to improve daily function. Sometimes physios may advise adaptive equipment that can be used to maximise function.

· Ataxia – (irregular, uncontrolled poorly co-ordinated movement) Physiotherapists can help develop strong core muscles which give a stable base from which limbs can lead and work from in a more co-ordinated way. Physiotherapists can set a programme of repetitive task practice to gain more accuracy of movements during activities. Improvements to balance and coordination of gait can help reduce the likelihood of falls.

· Sensory Impairment – following a brain injury it may be difficult for a person to know where their limbs are positioned without looking at them. Sensation of touch on the skin may be reduced lost or exaggerated. Walking patterns, balance and posture may all be affected by impaired sensation. Physiotherapists can advise on sensory stimulation treatments and can help target exercises at improving postural awareness.

· Fatigue – excessive tiredness is common following all types of brain injury, a huge amount of energy is being expired not only by the brain trying to heal but by the high levels of cognitive and physical burden the TBI may have caused. Physiotherapists can help with pace management strategies in order to ensure enough exercise is completed to stimulate the neurological system into wakefulness whilst ensuring enough rest time is factored in so that tasks may be achievable.

In December 2019 Doddie Weir (Scotland Rugby star) raised awareness of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) as he accepted the Helen Rollason Award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show. He gave a fantastic and emotional speech demonstrating how the disease can affect even the fittest of people. He showed how with the right support from those around you, people who are affected by MND can continue to live a fulfilling and fruitful life. What an inspiration!

Our brains and spinal cord contain a huge volume of nerves (motor neurones) which transmit messages down to our muscles to control how they work. In MND the motor neurones are affected, the transmission of the messages from the brain along the spinal cord to activate the muscles to make them move is slowed down and eventually stops.

MND affects any muscle group. This means that the disease can affect muscles which help you walk, talk, eat, drink and breathe. People with MND will find that these functions may be compromised. If the muscles do not receive the nervous transmission through to them to make them activate, the muscles can not move. If muscles do not move, they become weak, underlying joints become stiff, muscle mass wastes and contractures can develop.

MND is a progressive disorder which means symptoms will get worse over time. The disease can be rapid in its progression for some people but slower for others. MND is a life shortening illness, there isn’t a cure for MND but that doesn’t mean there is nothing that can be done to help those who suffer from it. Quite the contrary! People living with MND benefit hugely from the help of health care professionals and voluntary organisations in helping them manage the disease and to support them to continue living with as much independence as possible for as long as possible.

Most cases of MND affect people between the ages of 50-70 but the disease is not exclusive to this age group, younger adults are also diagnosed. The disease is rare, and men are affected almost twice as often as women. There are 4 different types of MND, each type affects people in different ways;

· ALS – Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is the most common form. In the early stages people with the disease may notice they trip or drop things. The disease causes weakness and wasting in muscles affecting the limbs resulting in muscle stiffness and cramps.

· PBP – Progressive Bulbar Palsy affects the muscles in the face, throat and tongue. Speech may be slurred and there may be some difficulty swallowing.

· PMA – Progressive Muscular Atrophy affects fewer people than ALS. It is usually slower to get worse and people with this form of the disease may notice weakness and clumsiness in the hands.

· PLS – Primary Lateral Sclerosis causes weakness in the lower limbs although there may also be clumsiness of the hands and slurred speech. This form of the disease also affects fewer people than ALS and is slower to get worse.

MND is difficult to diagnose. There is no direct test for it. Diagnosis can be a challenge and take a long time to be conclusive. Diagnosis is made by a neurologist and is based on understanding the symptoms a person may be having and through expert exclusion of other neurological conditions which may present similarly.

There is a huge amount of research being carried out into what causes MND, the medical world is hopeful that there will be a cure one day. It is still not possible to be clear about what causes MND. In most cases there is no history of the disease within a family and it is thought that a mix of genetic and

environmental factors may be involved. Environmental triggers could be a mixture of things that you eat, breathe, touch or drink. Research is rapidly working towards understanding these triggers

MND can cause a range of symptoms including;

· weakness or loss of movement in the limbs (muscles in the hands, feet or mouth are usually affected first),

· muscle tightness and cramping which causes pain,

· difficulties with speech, swallowing and saliva management

· problems with breathing and extreme tiredness

· twitching and rippling sensations under the skin

Dependent on the symptoms and progression of the disease there are some medications which may help, a specialist neurologist can guide use of these.

A physiotherapist with expertise in neurological conditions can provide a valuable support mechanism for people with the disease. Regular physiotherapy assessment helps to ensure treatment and intervention is reviewed and adapted according to the changing needs of the presentation. Physiotherapy will not reverse the damage to muscles weakened by MND, but it can help to reduce the discomfort that stiff muscles bring, improve flexibility and reduce secondary complications from developing. Physiotherapy can introduce aids and adaptations which may help facilitate independence with activities of daily living (walking / showering / bathing / dressing /cooking/ getting in and out of bed / getting up and down stairs etc).

We at Silver Physio will take our time to find out from you what your goals might be. You can give us some guidance on what matters most to you in life and we can use our specialist skills to assess your current function and support you though your MND journey. No matter what stage you are at with your diagnosis our specialist staff can help you troubleshoot and positively tackle whatever this disease throws at you!

Epilepsy is a common neurological condition that can affect anybody at any point in their life. It most commonly develops in childhood or in people over 60 years of age.

Epilepsy is characterised by a person experiencing repeated seizures. During a seizure bursts of electrical activity in the brain temporarily affects how the brain works. People are affected by seizures in different ways depending on which area of the brain they are happening in.

Physiotherapists can provide a lot of helpful input to people who suffer from Epilepsy. Improving overall health and well being through exercise to improve fitness, energy and mood and relieving stress helps to reduce seizures and the impact of epilepsy in some people.

Seizures can affect someone when they are awake or asleep.

· Simple Partial Focal Seizures are also known as ‘Auras’. Here you stay awake while the seizure is happening. You may get a rising feeling in your tummy, a sense of déjà vu, an unusual smell or taste, tingling in your arms or legs, stiffness or twitching of part of your body. An Aura is often a sign that a different type of seizure is about to happen.

· Complex Partial Focal Seizures cause a loss of sense of awareness and random body movements. You will not have any recollection of these signs after the seizure has occurred.

· Tonic – Clonic Seizures. Here, in the Tonic phase you lose consciousness, your body goes stiff and you may lose your balance and fall to the floor. In the Clonic phase (which typically lasts a few minutes) your limbs jerk about, you may lose control of your bladder, you may bite your tongue, you may have difficulty breathing.

· Absence Seizures usually only last up to 15 minutes and mainly affect children. You will stare into space or look like you’re daydreaming, there may be some jerking movements of the body.

· Myoclonic Seizures often happen soon after waking up and the whole body, last for a few seconds but can be rapidly repeated on a short space of time.

· Atonic Seizures are very brief, and you will fall to the ground as your muscles suddenly all relax

· Status Epilepticus is where the seizure lasts a long time, or a series of seizures occurs where the person doesn’t regain consciousness.

It can sometimes be hard to find out exactly why seizures have started. Causes of epilepsy are complex and sometimes hard to identify. Causes may be:

· Genetic Tendency: Inherited from both or either parent, or not inherited due to a change in your genes

· Structural e.g. the brain not developing properly or due to damage of the brain from a brain injury, an infection, a stroke or a tumour.

· Structural changes due to genetic conditions e.g. neurofibromatosis which cause growths affecting the brain

Seizures are exhausting, it is important that people with epilepsy are healthy and fit in order to help them to cope with the demand’s seizures may have on the body. The risk of having seizures can be

reduced by getting plenty of sleep each night, learning stress management and relaxation techniques, avoiding drugs and alcohol, taking all medications as prescribed by doctors.

Physiotherapists can provide a lot of helpful input to people who suffer from Epilepsy. Improving overall health and wellbeing through exercise to improve fitness, energy and mood and relieving stress helps to reduce seizures and the impact of epilepsy in some people.

Arranging for a physiotherapist to come out to see you is taking the first step towards forming a strong relationship whereby a professional with knowledge and skills works along with you, the specialist in your own body!

An initial assessment by a physiotherapist forms the foundation on which a detailed treatment programme can be set and tailored to your specific needs. The physiotherapist is often arriving with a blank canvas of knowledge about your condition. They are ready for you to detail (under their guidance) all the information that is needed to create the bigger picture of what will work for you.

Subjective Assessment

A subjective history is taken first. Here the physiotherapist will ask you for some basic demographics (name, contact details, NHS number, date of birth, height, weight).

It is then important for the physiotherapist to know the nature of why you have sought out a physiotherapist opinion. A description of your diagnosis, how the presenting condition has developed and who had recommended you have some physiotherapy are all discussed. It might be that there are other agencies involved in your care like other health care professionals, voluntary organisations, specialist nurse or medical teams and details of these are often helpful to physios as they build the bigger picture of who is involved in your condition management.

The physiotherapist needs to know what medications you are taking. Understanding medications is an important skill for physios to have as some medications may influence things like movements, levels of wakefulness or co-ordination of movements just to name a few!

Pain is often a reason people seek out the help of a physio. The physio will want to know where your pain is, and they will chart this on a body map in their notes. They will ask you about the nature of the pain: Is it sharp and stabbing? Is it dull and constant? How would you rate the pain on a visual scale of 0-10? Are there factors that aggravate the pain or factors that ease the pain? What type of medications do you use to manage the pain? Are you managing to get some good quality sleep? If your sleep is affected in what way, does it leave you tired and easily fatigued?

It is important to know how your condition impacts on your day to day life. The Physio will ask you about what matters to you in your life. Have you got people around you to support you? Do they live with you? What help do they offer you (carers / companionship / financial management?) What is the environment like that you live in (is it all on one level, is there a lift, can you manage climbing stairs?) What hobbies do you have and how do you spend your time? How does your condition impact on you completing your hobbies and daily activities?

You may be asked whether you have had any falls. This gives the physio an idea of your balance needs. You may be asked what the nature of the falls have been (mechanical e.g. slips or trips vs medical e.g. blacking out due to a cardiac problem or neurological event). How frequently have the falls occurred? Did the falls happen when you were unwell with something else? Is your blood pressure stable or does it drop when you stand making you feel dizzy and faint? If you fall how do you call for help? How do you get up? The falls may be multifactorial in nature so much of the information in other parts of the physiotherapist’s assessment will help build a picture of why you may be falling and what could be done to treat it!

What are you hopes from undergoing physiotherapy? What are your goals and time frames to achieve them in? How do you best like to learn? What approach works best for you (some people like a physio to guide them through all of their exercises every time they do them, others like to receive education and advice on a variety of things that they can do so that they may feel empowered to self-manage their condition under occasional ‘check ins’ with the physiotherapists to see that they remain on the right track!)

The physio may ask you about your hearing and vision. Whether you wear any hearing aids or glasses as impairments to these senses can affect balance and contribute to your movement safety.

Anything else that you think might be relevant to tell you physiotherapist is worth bringing up! There’s nothing worse than wishing you’d said something but not feeling at the time that it would make a difference to do so! You are the expert in your own body, the physio needs to know what you are thinking so that they may tailor the intervention to suit you!

Objective Assessment

This is where the physiotherapist will want to see you move! They may want to feel some of your movements! They may ask you to discreetly move some clothing so that posture etc. can be assessed. The physiotherapist will ask for your consent to treatment. If there is anything that you do not feel happy about, you must let them know!

The physiotherapist will ask you to demonstrate some movements. The range of your movement is assessed, and the strength is checked by the physiotherapist physically resisting some of your movements. A muscle power scale (0-5) is used to grade each muscle group.

A postural assessment is completed. The Physiotherapist will adapt the postural assessment to whatever position is suitable for you. For some people who have limited mobility this is looking at how their limbs and trunk are positioned in bed, for others it may be looking at your posture up against gravity (in sitting or standing). The physio is looking for symmetry in positioning and muscle mass. They are checking for any compensated movements which may cause secondary muscle imbalance and resultant pain.

The physiotherapist may move your joints quickly through their range, here they are looking for any catch to the movement assessing the tone of the muscle and looking for the impact this may have on your posture.

A sensory assessment may be completed. Here the physiotherapist will check what sensation you can detect. Sensory assessment takes different forms – it might be assessing whether you can detect light touch, whether you can discriminate between two different areas, whether you can detect hot and cold or whether you can detect the difference between sharp and blunt. The outcome of sensory testing is helpful as it helps explain why someone moves in the way that they do if their sensation is impaired. Physiotherapists can give guidance on how to manage particular issues which arise due to hypersensitivity (treatment techniques might be exposure to different textures or weight bearing as just two examples).

Assessment of Co-ordination and Proprioception (awareness of what position a joint is in) is often a helpful tool in the physio assessment kit! It helps the physio to understand how neurological impairment causing these issues may impact on achieving activities of daily living. Here the physio

may ask you to complete basic co-ordination movements with your hands or feet. A visual field test is also helpful at ascertaining the cause of co-ordination deficits.

The physiotherapist may like to look at your balance. This might be in sitting or in standing. You may be asked to complete some balance tests (stand without support feet apart, stand unsupported feet together, repeat each with eyes closed). Assessment of your balance will be pitched at the right level based on how the physiotherapists observes you moving in different postural sets (sitting vs. standing).

The physiotherapist may observe your walking. Here they will ask you to repeatedly walk up and down a given space. They may ask to see you walking inside and outside or up and down stairs. Throughout the assessment the physiotherapist is looking at how you move through each component of the gait cycle.

Is the assessment ever complete?

The initial assessment gives a large volume of information to the therapist and allows the basis for guided conversations with you to be formed in order to help you to set realistic goals to be achieved through physiotherapy intervention. The physiotherapist will work with you to establish what treatment method would work best for you. The physiotherapist will use the assessment outcomes during conversation with you to ascertain what frequency and duration of physiotherapy would honestly be right for you.

In every subsequent physiotherapy session, the physio is always assessing and reassessing to ensure that therapy is goal orientated and targeted specifically for your changing needs.

Physiotherapists use outcome measures to help mark progress. As an example, in someone who has a balance impairment a Berg Balance score may be used. This is where a person is asked to complete a series of balance tasks and a score is given to each one, the total score at the end is used as a baseline. After physiotherapy intervention targeted at improving balance is completed the Berg score may be completed again and the therapist is looking for an improvement in the score. Outcome measures are researched and validated tools which work as a great measure for physios to reference their intervention against and a great motivator for patients to see how well they are progressing! There are outcome measures for all sorts of impairments (in balance, in movement, to score pain etc.) The physiotherapist will choose the most relevant for your condition.

It’s important to remember that an open dialogue between you and the physiotherapist is essential to achieving the best results. You are the expert in your body, and you know what approach works best for you. The physio’s job is to be there to provide expert skills and guidance in order to help you achieve your goals!

Effective treatment of a stroke can prevent long term disability and save lives.

A stroke is an abnormality involving the circulation of blood to the brain, causing permanent damage. This damage is the result of either a blood vessel blockage that cuts off blood flow to the brain (ischaemic stroke) or due to bleeding into the brain (Haemorrhagic stroke).

Ischaemic Strokes occur as fatty deposits narrow the blood vessels to the brain or by a blood clot forming and dislodging within the heart or blood vessels that carry blood to the brain. If treated quickly enough this type of stroke can be completely reversed!

If you suspect you might be having a stroke or you notice signs and symptoms of a stroke in someone else, call 999. By getting urgent timely treatment the affects of the stroke may be less severe.

Use the FAST test to assess for a stroke (Stroke Association 2019)

F – Face: Can the person smile? Has their face fallen on one side?

A – Arms: Can the person raise both arms and keep them there?

S – Speech problems: Can the person speak clearly and understand what you say? Is their speech slurred?

T – Time If you see any of these three signs, it’s time to call 999.

This test helps to identify three of the most common signs of a stroke however there are other factors that you should be aware of and seek medical attention urgently if you notice;

· Sudden onset of numbness or weakness on one side of the body

· Difficulty finding words or speaking in full sentences

· Sudden blurred vision or loss of sight in one or both eyes

· Sudden memory loss or confusion, dizziness or a fall

· A sudden severe headache

We at Silver Physio can help support people who’s lives have been affected by Stroke. We have specialist skills in helping guide people towards their goals no matter what stage they are at in their journey post stroke. Our team can support you with well referenced advice and education about stroke. Our focus is on raising the profile of stroke awareness with the aim to minimise the effect that a stroke may have on an individual and those who support them.

1. Having an outlet for stress is essential: outlets such as massage or exercise can be very effective
2. Having a good social support network: being isolated can increase risk of stress related cardiovascular disease by as much as 5 times
3. Being in control: people are less stressed when they have flexibility, autonomy and control over processes in the workplace and in their life

• Reduce cortisol levels (the body’s main stress hormone)
• Increase serotonin (AKA the happy chemical)
• Pain modulation
• Muscular tension relief
• Improve sleep
• shown to reduce blood pressure

CAUSES OF INACTIVITY

People may have some difficulty walking or being active because they may have become unwell.  There are a number of reasons why people lose their mobility.  Some of these reasons are:

• Fallers who broke an arm or leg and now lost ability to function as normal
• Loss of confidence in general mobility and going outdoors
• Fear of falling
• Prolonged illness resulting in people being bedbound
• Weakness due to inactivity
• Age related muscle wasting and loss of mobility
• Poor motivation
• Depression
• Dependence on carers and family members
• Neurological conditions e.g. stroke, Parkinson’s Disease, MS
• Poor environment, e.g. steep stairs, narrow entrances, loose carpets
• No appropriate walking aid
• Pain
• Stiff joints or arthritis

BENEFITS OF EXERCISE

Exercise comes in all forms and shapes.  It does not necessarily mean you have to go to the gym to make a difference. Walking is always a good exercise.  You may also want to make use of the stairs if you are able to climb them.  Other people may need a tailored exercise program to work on specific muscle groups to strengthen and help with mobility

Exercise in any form is good for the following reasons:

– It improves mood and self esteem

– Decreases anxiety especially regarding mobility and fear of falling

– Improves breathing and ventilation of the lungs

– Increases fitness

– Increases muscle strength and endurance

– Lowers cholesterol which will reduce the risk of stroke

– Increases flexibility and joint range of motion

– Increases bone density

– Increases muscle mass and decreases fat mass (controls weight)

– Improves circulation

– Relieves pain

– Maintains independence

– Improves cognition or mental ability

– Reduces the risk of falls and improves balance

– Lowers blood pressure and prevents heart diseases

– Reduces stress

– Relieves constipation

– Improves posture

– Improves sleep

We have a wide knowledge of exercise and strength training. A home visit could help to tailor your exercises to help you function in your own home environment.  Please contact Silver Physio for an assessment and further advice.

To arrange a home visit and get your rehab started ASAP, email us at office@silverphysio.co.uk or telephone: 020 3637 8988.