THE GENTLE AND NOT SO GENTLE GYMNASTICS OF PHYSIOTHERAPHY…Don’t knock it. Many patients are discovering its goodness in coming back to life vitally. Physiotherapy clinics are coming up all over Goa!

By Pankajbala R Patel

September 8 is observed as World Physical Therapy Day or Physiotherapy Day and today there is a lot the features and instruments of physiotherapy can do to make a patient feel better post-surgery and after their body beautiful’s physiology has been messed up courtesy an unfortunate accident, incident or tragedy….

FOR most of us who are living longer and longer in good health or bad health it is important we think of wooing good health more! It is not only matters what kind of food and beverage you put in your mouth (dentures notwithstanding).
It is equally important you try and use each and every part of your body beautiful so that your posture stays robust, your muscular system in working condition and conditions your nervous system – which is aligned and intertwined with the skeleton which is the central scaffolding of your vitally important skeleton.

MAKES A DIFFERENCE
MOST of us may be only cursorily aware of how huge a difference in healthcare a session of physiotherapy can make for the betterment of a patient’s confidence and general health condition or homeostasis. Most seniors we have seen can always do with some kind of physiotherapy when they’re recovering or convalescing from serious surgery or medical treatment…most patients look for health-conscious tiffin services as also physiotherapy where they are introduced to by now familiar aids beginning with the wheelchair, a walker, a walking stick or a four-pronged walking stick which offers more balance…there are also a slew of body posture improvement collars and adjustable soft and firm to check out to see if it eases pain.
Recently, we purchased soft and hard collars to hold the neck in good posture, an orthopaedic heat pad (“the ultimate in pain relief”) as well as a lumbo sacral belt to support the back and to allay low back pain…there’s also a cold gel pad for a senior experiencing extreme pain because of a condition diagnosed as “chronic cervical compression myelopathy lumbar canal stenosis.”
It is perhaps not so widely known that hot and cold pad fomentation or treatment alternately improves circulation and eases pain. In Ayurveda learning there is a principle which says hot is good but cold is better for while the first inflames, the latter contracts; hence, bathing in cold water is better than hot water! The patient, in his mid-70s, has a couple more health issues which not only robs him of his confidence to live but makes him feel isolated in mind where sadness and depression are constant, making it a challenge to cheer him up.

PHYSIOTHERAPY BEST
ONE of Goa’s top-notch neurologists, Dr Sanat Bhatkar, recommends physiotherapy as the best form of recovery (along with multi-vitamins because this patient I am familiar with tends to starve himself, has become frail and afraid to walk, especially going out of the house even in a wheelchair). Patients like this always need somebody around in the house to connect with.
I must stress here that two things which can make a lot of difference to a senior patients is a walker and a wheelchair. Get these at the earliest before the inevitable happens: a fall. Seniors fall easily in the home while negotiating themselves from room to bathroom trying their best not feel like they’re a burden on any member of the family!
A lot of patients also suffer from depletion of financial resources as many can ill-afford medical care, often they tend to forego the aids they need to make life a little more comfortable for themselves. There is of course no 100% comfort in life as a healthy, moving, walking, bending, functioning body and mind (not to mention a heart and soul not stressed out by anxieties and worries). A good physiotherapist working with a senior citizen will also note any mental health or loneliness issues with their patients. Many patients seek friends calling them or visiting them for a cup of tea or coffee but the tendency is most of us tend to leave senior citizens alone in this respect!

YOUNG GENERATION CAN DO MUCH
WHAT will it take for a younger generation to sit with their seniors and perhaps teach them something: Like how to better use their smart phone or how to play a game of chess or scrabble – or occasionally take them out for a ride around Goa or meal somewhere once in a while? Few young people in a family or a friendship circle think about how easy it is to cheer up senior patients.
But to come back to the invaluable goodness of physiotherapy and Physiotherapy Day which is observed on September 8, it may be noted that this observed or celebrated primarily to raise awareness about the many chronic pain therapies which now exist to being relief to a suffering patient who may or may not be a senior citizen who has made it into his/her 70s, 80s, 90s and 100 years when it is celebration time. Yes, I would think better, more protein-rich diets, the drinking of adequate pure water and physiotherapy play key roles in tandem to restore health and fitness to patients young and old.
Physiotherapy is a science much studied and it is a section medical doctors or technicians have to qualify and be practically trained in not to just understand patients and their changing moods but also how a slew of today’s medical machines, gadgets, improving posture regimes can make a difference for the better for a patients just out trauma care or surgery in hospital.

FATHER OF PHYSIOTHERAPY
DO you know that goodness of physiotherapy dates back to 1813 when the “father of physiotherapy” Per Henrik Ling founded the royal Institution of Gymnasium Physiotherapy to generally and specifically help restore movement and function when someone is affected by injury, illness or disability. There was no looking back after that.
Yes, physiotherapy can also help or reduce your risk of injury or illness in future. It takes a holistic approach in which the patient plays the central role in his own caring and education. Physiotherapy covers a gamut of things from movement to exercise to manual therapy, as also education and counselling to slow down and halt further deterioration of body beautiful.
Basically, there are four types of physiotherapy: geriatric physical therapy, sports physical therapy, orthopaedic physiotherapy and paediatric physical therapy and all revolve around various modalities of massages, heat therapies, exercises, electrotherapies, hot and cold water fomentations and some more – altogether physiotherapy takes a holistic approach to complement, prevent, diagnose and therapeutically manage a patient suffering chronic pain.
There is something called the Physiotherapy Competence Framework which says a physiotherapist plays the role of being a medical expert, communicator, collaborator, leader, health advocate, scholar and professional. Not to mention the role of a friend you can trust when you may trust nobody else to do the right thing for your wellbeing!
Interestingly, this year World Physiotherapy Day on September 8 focuses on arthritis and forms of inflammatory arthritis, taking an in-depth look at rheumatoid arthritis and axial spondolyarthritis. Per Henrik Ling who founded the royal Central Institute of Gymnastics which carried out massages, manipulations and exercise to bring relief to a wide range of patients in chronic pain would be a very happy man today – if he could see how far physiotherapy has progressed to great patients of chronic pain.
Today there is a World Confederation of Physical Therapy (WCPT) better known as World Physiotherapy which was founded in 1951 to mark the unity and solidarity of the global physiotherapy community. Perhaps if you have benefited from physiotherapy you might want to thank your physiotherapist today, that is on September 8. Go for it! (to be continued.)