Blog - Activa Physiotherapy Ottawa

Hand Exercises to Relieve Arthritis Pain

Hand Exercises for Arthritis Relief

Activa patients often experience symptoms of arthritis in their hands (wrists and fingers). As arthritis cushions joints and wears away at cartilage, it causes stiffness, pain and inflammation. Everyday tasks like turning a doorknob, holding a utensil or typing on a keyboard can be very painful.

We recommend these simple home exercises to relieve stiffness and pain from arthritis in your hands. If you are taking prescribed medicine for your arthritis, these exercises will help further relieve your arthritis pain.

How physiotherapy helps sciatica pain

Sciatica pain: physio can help

Sciatica means “pain down the back of the leg,” usually caused by trapping the sciatic nerve running from your lower back down through the buttocks along the back of each leg. A common form of back pain, sciatica is typically caused by pressure on the sciatic nerve from a slipped disc.

Physiotherapy treats sciatica with excellent results. While sciatica can be extremely painful, permanent tissue damage is rare as most pain is caused by inflammation, improving over time. As nerve pain is caused by a combination of pressure and inflammation on your nerve root, physiotherapy treatment focuses on relieving these conditions.

Sciatica pain can range from infrequent and irritating to severe and debilitating. It usually affects one side of the body with pain radiating through the buttock and down the leg. Sciatica is often associated with constant pain burning or tingling down the leg, weakness, numbness or difficulty moving the leg or foot or shooting pain that makes it difficult to stand up and sit down.

How physiotherapy helps relieve arthritis pain

Living with arthritis

Arthritis can cause pain in one specific area of your body or widespread joint and muscle pain. Understanding your arthritis helps to manage its effects.

If you experience arthritis, our physiotherapist will assess your condition to help you understand what’s happening to your joints. Your treatment plan will then consist of pain relief methods such as:

Ice packs for soothing swollen joints
Hot packs for relaxing tense and tired muscles
TENS units (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) help block pain by sending pulses to your nerve endings through pads placed on your skin. A tingling sensation helps to soothe painful areas

Activa Celebrates 23 Years in Rockliffe Park / New Edinburgh

Activa is proud to celebrate 23 years of service in Rockliffe Park / New Edinburgh

Thank you for your ongoing business and referrals! We look forward to offering physiotherapy, massage therapy and personal training to you, your family and friends in Ottawa for many years to come.

We appreciate your referrals and welcome new patients in 2018.

If your family, friends and coworkers need physiotherapy, massage therapy or personal training, please let them know that we welcome new patients.

Happy Holidays from Activa

Activa Physiotherapy Ottawa wishes you and your family all the best during this Holiday season.

Please be advised that Activa will be closed from December 22, 2017 until January 2, 2018 due to renovations.

Feel free to contact us if you would like to schedule your physiotherapy or massage therapy appointment for the New Year: 613-744-4188.

Happy Holidays!

Barbara Stefanska, RPT MA
Owner, Activa Physiotherapy Ottawa

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Mommy Thumb Prevention: 5 Exercises

We recently shared a blog post about preventing Mommy Thumb, which is a condition increasingly experienced by new moms known as de Quervain’s tendonitis, de Quervain’s stenosing tenosynovitis and mother’s wrist.

While anyone can develop de Quervain’s, mommy thumb is caused by ongoing stress on the wrist among new mothers who repeatedly lift their babies.

Recognition and physio is vital to help relieve mommy thumb pain, along with exercises to strengthen your palm and wrist.

Mommy Thumb: 5 Ways to Relieve Pain

“Mommy thumb” (de Quervain’s tenosynovitis) is a common condition among new mothers when tendons from the thumb to the wrist are inflamed causing mild discomfort to severe pain on the thumb side of the wrist.

While anyone can develop de Quervain’s, mommy thumb is often caused by stress on the wrist among new mothers who frequently lift their babies. Studies show that women are four times more likely than men to develop de Quervain’s.

Prevention of mommy thumb is challenging as mothers need to lift their children repeatedly — up to 30 times daily! Mommy thumb rarely goes away on its own, therefore early recognition and physiotherapy treatment is crucial.

4 Tips: Preventing ACL Knee Injury in Female Athletes

Over the past 30 years, the number of females participating in recreational and professional sports has largely increased. As play has evolved from a defensive approach to an emphasis on power and speed, so has the increase of serious injuries among young female athletes.

An area of concern among young female athletes is severe knee injury to the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). The ACL is one of the four major ligaments of the knee connecting the front of the tibia (shinbone) with the back of the femur (thighbone). The ACL helps provide stability to the knee joint.

Female athletes who play basketball, volleyball and soccer are eight times more likely to suffer an ACL injury compared to male athletes, according to the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. ACL tears in the knee are most noticeable in sports which involve jumping, sudden stops and pivots during play.

Back to school backpacks: Protect your kids from back pain

With back to school in full swing, your kids are back to carrying their backpacks filled with books, items and learning materials. As many children and adolescents walk to and from school, parents should be aware that a heavy backpack can cause back pain and other strains.

Activa recommends 3 tips to help your children stay safe and avoid back problems this school year and onwards.

Relieving Low Back Pain from Golf

With golf season in effect, Activa recommends that you take care in gentle exercises and stretching to prevent golf injury. If you are experiencing low back pain from a recent round of golf, it is not advisable to stress inflamed muscles by continuing to play golf.

Taking some time off from golf will allow your muscles to heal faster, as will applying heat or ice to your lower back and ibuprofen to decrease inflammation and help with your recovery.