09-27-2023 Primtime Living - Flipbook - Page 12
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A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Movement-Based,
continued from page 6
subsequent clinic visits. Different exercises
are substituted based on the improvement in
range of motion and strength that happened
as a result of the patient’s commitment to
working at home.
In addition to exercises, physical therapists may add other techniques to help
muscles relax or to stimulate them, such as:
• Manual therapy – hands-on treatment to
get joints to improve movement.
• Soft tissue therapy – massaging tissues
to get them to relax.
• Dry needling – insertion of thin needles
into the muscle or tissue to stimulate
movement.
• Cupping – the use special cups to create suction to increase blood flow to
muscles and tissues.
Early Intervention
Some patients call Dr. Bowman for
an appointment at the first sign of pain.
Common conditions like neck pain or back
pain or a twinge of the shoulder can be tackled through physical therapy. Patients not
only get through an uncomfortable episode,
but PT can prevent the issue from becoming
a chronic condition.
“One of my favorite instances is when a
patient comes in just starting to feel an issue
– not when it has become debilitating,” Dr.
Bowman says. “Instead of needing to care
for them for two months, they come in for two
weeks or two visits and they can return to
the activities they were doing. Some people
come in and get quick changes to their
strength exercises and rebuild or retool what
they were doing before.”
Dr. Bowman refers to one patient in his
70s who comes in when he feels a tweak,
and just wants to be checked to be sure his
body is functioning properly. Dr. Bowman
performs an evaluation, recommends a few
changes to his exercise regimen and sends
him home. A week later, he returns for a
follow-up, and he’s back to normal. He may
not be seen in the clinic again for two years.
“Early intervention is better because you
can return to things sooner,” he says. “I think
there are times and instances when you
know if a week or two goes by and you’re still
hurting, you should see a physical therapist
or at least talk to your primary care provider
and see if physical therapy is right for you.”
Waiting too long can not only mean dealing with pain for a longer period of time, but it
can exacerbate an issue. The body weakens,
leading to a loss of muscle mass and atrophy.
Peter Bowman, PT, DPT assisting a
physical therapy patient.
Preventative Care
As individuals age, the body weakens and
develops arthritis, which results in inflammation or swelling in one or more joints.
According to the Centers for Disease Control,
an estimated 58.5 million adults in the United
States have arthritis, which is a natural progression of decades of use of the joints and
tissues around the joints.
Many people turn to physical therapy to
combat the impact of arthritis on the body.
PT can help manage symptomatic arthritis
and teach exercises to help the body become
stronger to enable activity to continue.
“A lot of people like to do yard work, but
instead of trying to figure out modifications
on how they can continue to do their yard
work, they just stop doing it,” Dr. Bowman
explains. “Physical therapists can help to
modify different functional activities or daily
living activities to enable them to return to
yard work, or sports like golf.”
Some patients choose to see their therapists on an annual basis, much like a physical
from a primary care provider.
“We look at it on a year-by-year basis and
see how people may differ from one year to
the next and what may be stronger and what
may be weaker,” Dr. Bowman says.
In addition to functional improvements,
physical therapy also can also provide systemic benefits. By improving natural movement and enabling an increase in activity,
patients may experience reduction in high
blood pressure and improved nutrition.
Another aspect of preventative care,
according to Dr. Bowman, is warming up
muscles prior to activity. If pickleball is the
designated activity, for instance, jog a few
laps around the court for a few minutes to
get the muscles going. Dynamic stretching
or active stretching, he says, is good as well.
Regular activity, particularly strength
training, can promote bone health in older
adults.
“The stronger you are, the more it will
help with everything as you’re aging,” he
explains. “Sometimes, we all just want to
go for a walk or do some kind of cardio. We
forget that doing some lifting at the gym or
squats or some kind of bodyweight activities
will help engage the muscles and get them
going.”
Cross training, by participating in a variety of activities, will give different muscle
groups a workout and limit fatigue and injury
over time.
For a good warm up routine, consult a
physical therapist who can design a program
specific to the individual and the type of
sport or activity. Dr. Bowman and his team
of experts are accepting new patients in
Hunt Valley and at Camden Yards. Their PT
practice will expand to UMBC and Laurel in
Spring 2024.
“The effects of the anxiety itself were
bad enough—constant, existential fear
coursing through my body, an almost
complete inability to sleep, so stressed
that I could barely force myself to eat.
But more than anything, I had no idea
how this happened or what I could
do about it. I felt like I was stumbling
around in absolute darkness, completely unable to see, with something or
somebody whacking me in the head
with a blunt object every few seconds—
blows I never saw coming.”
He also shares how even after getting help from a physician, he still feared
that someone would find out about
his condition and use it against him.
Looking back at when he picked up a
prescription for clonazepam that his
doctor had phoned into his local pharmacy for anxiety, he writes:
“I picked them up with a sense of
shame more in line with somebody trying to score heroin in a back alley. What
if the pharmacist recognized me? He
knew what these pills were for. I’d be
outed as a mental patient, and I didn’t
want that label. I also, without giving
the matter much thought, concluded
my career would be over. Voters, I figured, wouldn’t want to be represented
by somebody with a debilitating mental
illness.”
“It’s important to remember that anxiety disorder can be managed, treated
and controlled. The earlier you seek
treatment and get help, the better,” says
Sheppard Pratt’s Marino.
As my wise friend Tim told me once,
“There is nothing courageous about
suffering in silence when there is help
out there.”
Anxiety disorder,
continued from page 5
struggle with debilitating anxiety and
chronic pain. He chronicles his six-year
search for the right diagnosis for his
physical and mental pain that involved
over a hundred different health care providers. His frustration with the American
health care system, as well as the fear
and shame attached to having an anxiety disorder definitely spoke to me.
In the beginning of the book, Smith
writes:
“I woke up one morning in early
April of 2016 and seriously considered
the possibility that I might never be
able to get out of bed. Could I ever
find the strength, courage, and focus to
just get up? Crippling anxiety, chronic
pain, muscle atrophy, and an increasingly confusing mix of pharmaceuticals
coursing through my body had brought
me to this point of doubt. I felt broken
and pathetic.