5 Non-Surgical Treatments for Knee Arthritis

 Stiff and aching joints can make it tough to get through the day. Whether it affects your knee, elbow, shoulder or hip, chronic joint pain is debilitating and sometimes unbearable. 

Among these, the knee joint is the most common joint to develop arthritis. Knee pain that wakes you up from sleep can result in Osteoarthritis. It is also known as “wear and tear” arthritis. This type of joint inflammation generally happens in old people and also in younger athletes whose joints are harshly used repeatedly. Osteoarthritis usually develops due to the wearing down of the protective cartilage in a joint. Due to this, the bones begin to rub against each other and cause shooting pain. Another type of injury that you can develop in the knee joint, is called post-traumatic arthritis. 

Arthritis can result from many causes:

• Trauma or injury

• Wear and tear

• Age

• Inflammation

• Infection

Let’s now talk about, the 5 non-surgical ways to treat knee arthritis.

• Physical Therapy - Physical therapy is the first line of treatment for knee arthritis. It can help to treat knee and joint pain and chart your road to recovery. Regular stretching of the quadriceps and hamstrings helps in taking the stress off the knees. Strengthening these muscles can help in proper knee alignment and reducing the pain. A physical therapist can suggest a variety of methods that can help you get back in motion. 

• PRP therapy - Regenerative therapy is an emerging field that uses your body’s ability to heal itself and can help to overcome joint pain. Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is a highly effective treatment for treating knee injuries. This treatment involves taking your blood which is then spun into a high-speed centrifuge after which some specific portions are injected into your knees.   

• Stem Cell Therapy - Stem Cell Therapy is one of the best-known types of regenerative therapies and is mostly used for treating joint and tissue damage. The reason why stem cell therapy works so well is that it uses stem cells and growth factors to reduce pain. Some of the benefits of stem cell therapy are:

1. Less pain from past injuries

2. Reduced joint stiffness

3. Reduced dependency on medications

4. Improved mobility

Injections of stem cells reduce inflammation, repair damaged tissues and may help to prevent knee replacement surgery.  

• Antiinflammatories - Antiinflammatories can prove helpful in treating knee swelling and pain for most people.  

• Ice - It is a safe and effective treatment and can be used after strenuous activity which may include extensive walking.   

Get professional help at New York Spine & Sports Rehabilitation PC

Our doctors at NYSS specialize in providing PRP, Stem cell therapy and physical therapy to treat and heal knee injuries. We have the best knee specialist doctor in North Bronx and joint specialist doctors in North Yonkers. Our cutting-edge therapies help in restoring function and regaining a healthy lifestyle. For any medical assistance, schedule an appointment with us.

How a Physical Therapist can help in Pain Management

 Illnesses, accidents and injuries leave us with a common side effect - Pain. Chronic pain can interfere with your day to day activities and can also have profound effects on your ability to concentrate, relax and enjoy life. One of the best ways to manage chronic pain is Physical Therapy. An experienced professional who evaluates and treats physical conditions related to injury, diseases or disability is called a Physical Therapist. 

Who is a Physical Therapist?

According to the American Physical Therapy Association, a physical therapist is a trained medical professional with experience in diagnosing physical abnormalities, restoring physical function and mobility, maintaining physical function and promoting physical activity and proper function. 

When do you need a physical therapist?

Physical Therapists can treat a wide variety of medical conditions depending on their speciality.

Conditions such as:

• Sports-related injuries

• Cardiopulmonary conditions

• Musculoskeletal dysfunction

• Neurological conditions

• Pediatric conditions

• Women’s health and pelvic floor dysfunction
  
  

What are the benefits of Physical Therapy?

The benefits of Physical Therapy include:

• Pain management

• Avoiding surgery

• Fall prevention

• Recovery from injury

• Recovery from stroke

• Management of age-related medical problems 

• Improved balance

How Physical Therapy helps relieve pain?

Physical Therapy is beneficial in relieving pain through the following ways:

• Increases physical strength - Depending on your condition, a physical therapist may teach you some exercises designed to strengthen your muscles and soft tissues. Often the cause of chronic pain is pressure on nerves in your joints, which can be in your spine, knees, hip, elbows or other joints. Therefore, strengthening the muscles around the joints can help them in providing better support. It can help in relieving the pressure on your nerves.

• Improves flexibility - Improving your flexibility can also help your body from unhealthy movement patterns that you may not be aware of. Physical Therapy can help to relax your body. Your physical therapist can guide you to ease the tension and strengthen your muscles so that your body can move correctly. 

• Teaches you correct movements and postures - Most people are unaware of the incorrect postures and movements they take in their daily lives. You could be bending, lifting, walking, running, sitting or moving incorrectly which, might contribute to your chronic pain. Therefore, learning the correct movements and postures can help to significantly decrease the pain you experience.

The first session with the physical therapist will be to watch the way you perform your routine activities. Once the physical therapist has understood your problems, he or she can guide you in taking the right steps to correct your movements and postures. 

• Electrical, hot and cold therapies - The physical therapist has many tools to treat your immediate pain. They can also use things like transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, hot & cold therapies to help reduce inflammation to ease some of the pain you might be experiencing. These therapies can help in improving your body’s ability to heal.

Why choose New York Spine & Sport Rehabilitation PC for physical therapy?

Our trained therapists provide pain management treatment and care in North Yonkers, Bronx and Manhattan locations of New York. They can help individuals who face conditions of musculoskeletal and orthopedic origin, back or neck pain, joint-related disorders, sports injuries, balance problems and post-surgical rehabilitation. Our therapist, physician and patient work together as a team in the recovery process. We provide treatments that include manual therapy, exercises, balance training activities, patient education etc. 

You can book an appointment with us for any doubts and queries. We are just a call away!

6 Factors to Keep in Mind before Choosing a Joint Pain Specialist

Choosing a joint pain or knee pain specialist can be a relief but also overwhelming. Chances are that your primary doctor might have advised you to see a joint specialist; but the question is how you find the best joint pain specialist in North Yonkers for yourself. Here are the top 6 factors to keep in mind.

1. Ask your Primary doctor for a referral – To begin, ask your primary doctor to give you a referral. You can also ask family or friends and other health related professionals to suggest you someone they know and are reliable. Make sure that you research well about each recommendation, including their credentials, licenses and experience. Following this, you can call and consult each doctor personally.

2. Check for their licenses and credentials – Board certifications and licenses are very crucial factors to consider when you are choosing a joint pain specialist or a knee specialist doctor in North Bronx, Manhattan or any part of the country. These certifications will give you a peace of mind that your doctor has the required skills and training for orthopedic care. You can easily find your doctor’s medical school history, training certifications and other license information easily on the Internet today.

3. Consider the doctor’s experience – When it comes to health and surgical issues, the more experience the doctor has, the better your outcome will be. Refer to their website or a previous patient they have treated and see how many specific conditions your pain specialist has treated successfully. Moreover, if your treatment is complicated and you have confusion regarding it, ask your doctors to educate you on it regarding the complication rates and ask them how many surgeries have they performed for the same condition?

4. Comfort is important – You cannot get the best care unless you are comfortable with your doctor and feel free to discuss everything. Choose someone whom you are comfortable with and who supports your health requirements. Notice how he/ she respond to your questions. Are they empathetic towards your questions and welcome them? How do they respond? Do you feel engaged or stressed after your first visit? Find someone who’s interested in knowing you and your treatment preferences.

5. Check for the Quality of the Facility – Consider the quality of the medical facility before you finalize on a pain specialist. The quality of the hospital matters since patients at top-rated hospitals have better survival rates and fewer complications. They are equipped with the best tools, doctors and skills to have 100% efficiency. In addition to this, also consider the hospital’s location. You might have multiple follow ups and visits which mean you’d need a more convenient location.

6. Go through patient reviews – Going through patient reviews will help you understand what other people feel about the health professional. It says a lot about how a doctor practices medicines and how it is operated. Patient reviews typically comprise of people’s experiences with locking in appointment, thoughts on the facility environment and the type of comfort they tend to receive. Reviews will help you understand how well the doctor engages with the patient and how friendly and comforting the hospital environment is.

After you have followed these steps and decided on a joint pain specialist in North Yonkers for your treatment, the next step is to get an accurate analysis and diagnosis of your symptoms. Based on the analysis and the diagnosis, the knee and joint pain specialist will help you choose the best treatment option. At the New York Spine & Sports Rehabilitation, our skilled joint and knee pain specialists in North Bronx, Manhattan and New York offer non-invasive, painless pain intervention treatments to treat your pain and help you get back to normal activities. If you are suffering from joint or knee pain, get in touch with us today!

How to Choose the Best Joint Pain Specialist for your Chronic Pain?

If you suffer from chronic joint pain and have never received pain management treatment from a physical therapist, choosing the right professional can be very daunting and challenging. Chances are that your friends or family might suggest you a physical therapist with their own personal experiences. But otherwise, it’s a complete guess game to decide where you should turn for pain relief.

Choosing a joint pain specialist is one of the most crucial decisions you can make, since it affects the quality of your life. But how do you know you are making the right choice?

We’re here to help. If you in search of good joint pain specialists in Manhattan and don’t know where to start, read on.

1. Check for their Expertise – Pain management specialists or physical therapists use non-invasive and interventional pain management therapies to treat various pain conditions. They evaluate the patient’s history, analyze the symptoms, diagnose a treatment plan and come up with the best solution to eliminate the pain. This is why specialized expertise is needed before they can start working.

There are different types of physical therapists and many of them have more than one specialty. If you are troubled with chronic pain, ensure that your pain management doctor is board-certified in pain medicine/ interventional pain management, and has relevant certifications in anesthesiology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and others.

2. Look at how they handle people of different age groups – People from all age groups suffer from chronic pain. But, the elderly experience more complications in their conditions that come with old age. Hence, the pain specialist needs to have good experience and excellent care taking qualities to handle the physical as well as the emotional part of the pain healing process. Having said that, he or she should also have experience in dealing with pain-related conditions of all age groups.

3. Check for their Facilities & Specialty – Owing to technological advancement today, medical, pain relief centers have embraced using fine medication and equipment for accurate treatment of pain. Advanced equipment is capable of identifying and treating pain faster and with efficient results. So, you should ensure that the pain specialist you choose has a facility equipped with the latest, advanced facilities for all types of condition treatments.

4. Choose for a Facility nearby – Pain relief does not happen overnight. Moreover, if it’s non-invasive, interventional pain treatments, you need to be patient and up for multiple visits. Some people might need many sessions of treatments to recover completely. So, it is recommended to choose a facility nearby your place. Travelling to and for treatments might make the pain worse, so it is better to choose a therapist near your locality.

NYSS Checks all the Boxes Right

At New York Spine & Sports Rehabilitation, our joint pain specialists are experienced, board-certified MDs and physical therapists that specialize in non-invasive treatments for acute and chronic joint pain as well as back physical therapy in New York. Our team is dedicated to enhancing the quality of your life by evaluating and treating your pain from the root. We get to the source of the pain and heal it.

Want to know us better? Get in touch with our joint pain specialists in Manhattan today!

5 Ways to Get Rid of all your Neck Pain Woes

Neck pain or a pinched nerve in the neck is an inevitable problem because most of us are on our phones these days. Even driving for a long time at a stretch can also cause neck pain and other problems. However, most of the times the issue is not that serious and the neck pain can be relieved within a short span. But, in other cases, it can take a toll on your health and indicate a serious illness or injury, which will need an expert’s attention.

If the pain is extremely serious or continues to bother you for a long period of time, seek the help of a medical professional. Here are a few causes of neck pain:

• Muscle strain/ tension

• Poor posture

• Poor sleeping habits

• Injuries/ accident

• Arthritis/ spondylosis

• Osteoporosis

• Pinched nerve

• Pinched nerves

Out of all above-mentioned causes, poor posture is associated with most cases of neck pain. Many times, it also happens due to wear-and-tear. Here are a few things you should try for treating neck pain management treatment and care.

• Maintain a good posture – While you are sitting or standing, make sure that your shoulders are in a straight line over the hips and your ears are directly over the shoulders.

• Take few stretching breaks – If you are working long hours on the computer or travel long distances due to work, it is crucial that you take little breaks in between. Get up every few hours, move around, and stretch your body at regular intervals. Also, take little breaks and do short sets of physical exercises throughout the day.

• Ensure you have an ergonomic office space – Make sure that you sit straight with the feet flat on the floor. Your knees need to rest slightly below the hips and your computer/ laptop should be kept at an eye level. So, make sure that you adjust your chair accordingly. Also, it is advisable to use good armrests for the chair along with a set of keyboard and mouse.

• Use your phone appropriately – Tucking the phone between the ears and shoulders while talking can induce neck pain. If your hands aren’t free, use a set of earphones or headset. It is advised to take regular breaks from using the phone and limit usage. Stretch your muscles after using phone for long hours.

• Don’t carry heavy bags – The weight of heavy bags can strain the neck, especially if you are carrying heavy items in a bag and carrying it on one shoulder. Make sure that you place the straps on both the shoulders.

• Sleep properly – While sleeping, keep your head and neck aligned with the body. Sleep on the back and keep the thighs elevated on pillows. This will help flatten the spinal muscles.

When should you see a doctor?

If the symptoms of neck pain continue to exist for more than a week, visit us. At NYSS, our physical therapists and board certified MDs will help you get rid of neck pain and pinched nerve effectively with various non-invasive treatments. Our neck pain and pinched nerve treatment will help you get back to living and enjoying life. Book an appointment with us to know more.

4 Ways to Age-Proof your Knees for the Long Run

Almost everyone has experienced some form of knee pain in their lives. Whether it is due to an injury, arthritis or excessive use of muscles that protect vulnerable joints, our knees need some TLC. In fact, arthritis is one of the single greatest causes of chronic disability among adults in the US. 

But, here is the good news. Majority of chronic knee pain is avoidable or can be easily treated. Regular exercising and physical therapy are just as effective as other surgical options needed to recover from knee pain. By employing the following strategies, you can easily age-proof your knees.

1. Strengthen your Muscles – Enhancing muscle strength stabilizes the knee joint and enables the muscles to absorb stress better. While strengthening generally involves working on hamstring muscles and quadriceps, it shouldn’t end there.
   To maximize the function of your knees you should include a variety of exercises in your routine such as squats, wall sits, brisk walking and more. But, if your knee pain is severe, it is best to work with a physical therapist who can evaluate your requirements and customize the right work outs for you.
   
   
2. Lose a Few Kgs– If you are a little overweight, each extra kilogram you put on can translate to 4 kgs of extra pressure on the joints. Losing weight can help you with releasing pressure on joints and betters your overall health. Being overweight can contribute to an increase in knee and joint pain and can also increase your risk of developing osteoarthritis. Losing a few kgs can reduce the pressure on your knees and protect it from daily wear and tear.
   
   
3. Practise Good Posture – Your body is constantly at work, holding itself upright, against the force of gravity. Thus, proper posture is the key to avoiding unnecessary stress on the back, hip and knee joints. For instance, when you are sitting on a chair, rest your feet on the floor and keep your knees and hips bent at a 90-degree angle to avoid stress on your knees.
   
   
4. Eat Right – There is no one specific diet to follow that guarantees no joint pain. But, the task is to add certain nutrients in your diet to protect your joints. Studies show that a regular consumption of Omega-3 fatty acids lower inflammation caused by joint pain. Additionally, adding fish, sardines, tuna, and other leafy vegetables like spinach and eggs can also help you prevent knee and joint problems.

Having said this, it is equally important to get your knees checked by a physical therapist if your pain worsens. In majority of the cases, knee pain stabilizes with physical therapy and related pain intervention techniques. At New York Spine and Sports Rehabilitation, our knee specialists in North Bronx can help you with both physical therapy and surgical options to treat knee pain by analysing your existing condition. To know more about our expert doctors, get in touch today! 

 

5 Ways to Treat Joint Pain without Surgery

If you’ve above 50, your joints that have served you well for years now gradually start to hurt and swell. Your joints start making popping or cracking sounds and you may even feel like a grinding sensation in them as you move. Chances are you have developed joint pain, something we see very often at New York Spine & Sports.

The term joint pain and arthritis go hand in hand. Arthritis means inflammation of a joint and is used to collectively describe many diseases and conditions that affect joints, tissues surrounding the joint and other connective tissues. Arthritis is the damage or loss of cartilage between bones in joint, and when it is damaged, it results in pain and swelling.

There are many efficient ways to relieve the joint pain and improving function before resorting to surgery. Here are the 4 most effective ones:

·         Physical Therapy – The first line of treatment for joint pain or arthritis is choosing physical therapy. Stretching your hamstrings and muscles will help in taking stress off the joints. Additionally, strengthening the muscles help in maintaining proper alignment of the joints and minimizes pain.

·         Anti inflammatories– If you are looking for instant and effective treatment to moderate joint pain, ice is very safe and effective and is typically used after strenuous activity including extensive walking. Anti Inflammatories are effective in treating joint pain for most people.

·         Steroid Injections–If your knee pain continues after trying physical therapy and other treatments, the next treatment is steroid injections. Steroid injections work instantly and are effective for most people but only last for an average of 4 weeks. Injections of hyaluronic acid which is a natural lubricant and anti-inflammatory are also very effective for joint pain treatment.

·         PRP Therapy – This is a highly-effective type of therapy which stands for Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy. In this treatment, platelets are taken from your own blood spun in a high speed centrifuge and then specific portions are injected in your knee. Several studies have shown this therapy to be highly effective in treating joint pain.

Suffering from Joint Pain or Arthritis? Come see our Joint Pain Specialists

If you are suffering from pain, inflammation or stiffness in your joints, please get in touch with our joint pain specialists in Manhattan. Make an appointment with New York Spine and Sports and we will take it from there. If you do not have joint pain or arthritis, we can determine the course of action that will help you get the best possible outcome and relieve you from any pain. We are here for you! Get in touch with our joint pain specialists in Manhattan today!