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Rehabilitate those joint pains away
By Dr. Rafael L. Prieto
Advanced Pain Centers of Alaska
Are you or someone you love suffering from joint or muscle pain? You are not alone.
Each year roughly 20 million Americans will visit their physicians for treatment of their joint aches and pains. According to the Arthritis Foundation, musculoskeletal conditions such as osteoarthritis present an estimated cost to the U.S. economy of $86 billion per year in direct expenses, lost wages and production.
Despite the extent of the problem, many patients do not feel that they are taken seriously by their medical providers. Some patients will be prescribed medications with uncomfortable and possibly even dangerous side effects. And since most medications treat only symptoms, those who are suffering will continue to spend money on pills and time in doctorÕs offices.
Not all joint pain is arthritis, and chronic musculoskeletal pain does not need to be a life sentence.
At Advanced Sports Medicine and Rehab, our team of board certified physiatrists (rehabilitation physicians) will assist you in designing a rehabilitation program to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain without surgery using the most advanced rehabilitation methods and diagnostic tests.
Treatment proceeds using a sports medicine approach, which can be defined as the medicine of exercise. This includes not only diagnosis, but also injury prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and performance enhancement through training, nutrition and psychology. We also manage the exercising needs specific to children, females and those with permanent disabilities.
Treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain should involve the whole person, and complex cases require a team of experts from different disciplines like physiatry, physical therapy, nursing, health psychology and pain medicine.
Initial evaluation is followed with a comprehensive treatment plan which is focused on an exercise program which we design in collaboration with physical therapists and other members of the rehabilitation team. Treatment with the right exercises is successful for painful backs, joints and muscles. Other treatments such as medications or injections may also be used in conjunction with exercises in order to augment the effects of the program.
Even progressive conditions like osteoarthritis respond to exercise. This appears counter-intuitive at first, since wear and tear occurs after exercise by definition. However, in most occasions a correctly performed exercise program stimulates connective tissue repair and remodeling at a greater rate than the small amount of tissue breakdown that takes place. Exercise also assists with proper nutrition of cartilage, since in most joints weight bearing is felt to be crucial for cartilage to extract nutrients from the joint fluid.
If you are interested in following a sports medicine approach to joint and muscle pain contact Anchorage-based Advanced Sports Medicine and Rehab at (907) 278-2741.
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