Bone and Joint Awareness Week

As a physical therapist, I spend a good portion of my day working with my patients to make changes to their musculoskeletal systems, helping them to overcome problems associated with pain, movement, and strength.

The musculoskeletal system is a complex system made up of bones, muscles, tendons, cartilage, ligaments, joints, and other connective tissue. It literally provides the frame for our body, providing support to the body and the organs within it and stabilizing us as we move.

When the musculoskeletal system isn’t working correctly, we experience pain and discomfort, decreased mobility and function, and other things that affect our overall quality of life. Musculoskeletal disorders include conditions like arthritis and osteoarthritis. The system is involved with neuromuscular and neurological conditions like multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and Downs Syndrome. Dysfunctional can also be caused by trauma, like a broken bone, a torn ligament, or a pulled muscle. We can also develop wear and tear over time, whether it’s caused by aging, activity, and overall health, especially if we aren’t proactively working to keep our bodies functioning properly.

Nearly half of adults have a musculoskeletal condition, making it one of the most common health problems. These conditions reduce our quality of life, making us able to do things that we want or need to do, limited by pain or loss of function. And problems can occur at any age – a child unable to participate in a dance recital due to a twisted ankle, a 25 year old who can’t work at his construction job due to a back injury, or an 80 year old who can no longer live independently because of significant limitations from arthritis.

 

This week, October 12 – 20, is Bone and Joint Awareness Week, recognized globally by the Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health and other health organizations.

It is a time to bring awareness to the importance of the health of our musculoskeletal system.     

 

Physical therapists help patients recover from problems related to the musculoskeletal system, and can help you reduce or avoid some of those problems in the first place!

• If you have experienced an injury that you’re not completely recovering from – a knee injury, for example – a physical therapist can help decrease the severity of pain and the impact on your daily life.

• If you’re experiencing  pain or decreased function due to things like osteoporosis or arthritis, a physical therapist will work with you to improve your strength to decrease stress on your joints, teach you exercises that promote better bone density, and improve your balance so that you don’t have to feel worried about a fall.

• If you have experienced trauma that resulted in damage to bones, ligaments, tendons, and/or muscle, a physical therapist will make sure that you are on the right road to recovery, respecting the natural healing process and timelines of the human body, while also appropriately challenging your body during the rehabilitation process.

Your therapist will do an evaluation to determine what factors are contributing to the problem, and then teach you ways to adapt activities, to strengthen or stretch muscles, to increase your motion, and to retrain your body to do what it’s supposed to be doing, rather than what it wants to do.

And even better than helping you recover from something, physical therapists can help with prevention of musculoskeletal problems in the first place. This may include teaching you lifestyle modifications, modifications of how and where you work, screenings to determine risk of injury, or annual PT exams to learn what can be address now before it develops into something more. Prevention is a major component in avoid the financial, physical, and emotional costs associated with developing more major conditions. Too often, a problem that could have been avoided results in more money, time, and energy spent on doctors’ visits, medication and injections, diagnostic imaging, surgery, and then the rehabilitation after all of that, not to mention lost wages, lower quality of life, decrease independence, and increased stress.

Since this is Bone and Joint Awareness Week, take the time to learn more about the importance of maintaining the health of your musculoskeletal system, and the rest of your body, all essential parts of your well being and quality of life. Visit a physical therapist to help you with preventative measures or to address a problem before it develops into a bigger issue. Many times, a small discomfort when moving can grow into a very large, expensive problem that could have been avoided. Just like maintaining your car to make sure that you around, maintain and repair your body so it’s there for you to live your life as you want. Make yourself and your musculoskeletal system a priority by practicing safety, self-care and seeking medical care when needed.

 

 

 

Article author, Dr. Alyssa Arms, PT, DPT, OCS holds a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and later obtained a Board Certification as an Orthopedic Clinical Specialist (OCS). She is also the President and Owner of Back in Step Physical Therapy in Centennial, Colorado, and is an instructor at her PT alma mater.