Arthritis

Arthritis is a common presentation for our clients at The Physio Rooms Woodvale. Arthritis comes in two main forms:

Osteoarthritis affects the joint surfaces and might commonly affect large, load bearing joints such as the hip and knee although it can also be found in the spine and other joints of the body. This is what your family or friends might refer to as wear and tear or degenerative changes.
Rheumatoid Arthritis is an auto-immune disease where your own immune system triggers a response that will usually affect the joints in the hands and feet. This might result in pain and discomfort along with some deformity in these joints. Rheumatoid arthritis regularly requires medical treatment but physiotherapy can be a great adjunct to treatment.

Common Symptoms:

Pain over the joints/ joint surfaces
Inflammation/swelling and/or redness over joints
Pain in the morning that might improve with movement

What Can We Do?

Hand On Physiotherapy:

This includes a number of treatment techniques aimed to reduce symptoms, manage swelling and improve function. They may include:

Soft tissue massage
Dry needling
Range of movement stretches
Cryotherapy (Ice)

Exercise Based Physiotherapy:

Exercise based physiotherapy is particularly essential for the treatment and management arthritis. In knee osteoarthritis, increasing the strength of your quadriceps muscles is strongly correlated with reductions in pain and improvements in function. Your physiotherapist will design a specific exercise program for you based on your individual needs and requirements. Some of the exercises might include:

Muscle activation exercises (during the early phase of injury).
Individual muscle strengthening to maintain capacity of muscles surrounding the affected joint.
Full body exercises or modifications to exercises to ensure that you are as strong as possible to offload the affected joint/s.

All of our patients will have the option to carry out their rehabilitation exercises one to one with their physiotherapist or take part in one of our exercise classes in our on site gym.

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