Physical therapy

“ Now I will not go into the subject of psycho-therapy. We pay special attention to mental questions but we do not neglect the physical by any means. Every physical disorder which is found is corrected, if correction is possible. We have complete physio-therapy and occupational therapy and all other facilities for treating nervous cases. We are careful never to stress too much on the physical treatment we give these patients, because by so doing we suggest to them conditions they really do not have and by that means prolong their functional disorders. ”

“ Imagine how disheartened and frustrated you might feel after a period of unsuccessful therapy, only to find out afterward that your problems could be traced to a physical cause. It is essential that you eliminate the possibility of a physical basis for your problems before seeking therapy. In fact, most therapists routinely recommend that you have a complete physical before entering therapy. ”

“ How do you suppose it affects students of an Osteopathic college to read in a representative journal that the secretary of their school, and the greatest of all its boosters, calls medical men into his own family when there is sickness in it?
There are many men and women practicing to-day who try to be honest and conscientious, and by using all the good in Osteopathy, massage, Swedish movements, hydrotherapy, and all the rest of the adjuncts of physio-therapy, do a great deal of good. ”

“ MASSAGE, SHEET-PACKS, ETC. MASSAGE, Which is the application of motion and pressure to the body, is a most important factor in preserving or restoring health. It affords a sick person all the benefit to be obtained from exercise without the physical effort, which he is unable to exert. The sweat glands, capillaries, and lymph channels, which constitute thousands of miles of tubing, in the body of a grown person, are, by carefully and systematically applied massage, stimulated to action. The currents in these vessels are a necessity of life. When they are obstructed, weakness is the result ”

“ It is waste of energy and money to have a Physiotherapy Aide spending hours of time in massaging a stiffened joint when, if her work could be supplemented by properly directed physical exercise in a shop or upon the farm, the same member could be so used as to assist in restoration quite as readily as from massage. ”

“ Inasmuch as the strain of piano playing is very slight, the first lesson may last thirty minutes if the physician so decides. The patient should be encouraged to practice freely at other times during the day as long as his interest can be sustained. Chief attention must be placed on the use of the fingers requiring exercise. As is true in all forms of functional occupational therapy, the impatient patient will try to speed his work by using unaffected joints or by improper use of muscles. ”

“ Occupational therapy is exercise through work—purposeful, productive work with an incentive. The incentive is twofold—to produce something useful and to hasten recovery.
Patients who have had destruction or other disease of the nerves which activate their muscles develop varying degrees of loss of muscle-power known as palsy or paralysis. When a nerve is pressed or cut, it usually heals in such fashion as to permit return of muscle-power. ”

“ In the case of women, the hair should be dressed by the nurse to avoid any physical effort on the part of the patient. To take the place of ordinary exercise, two measures are employed, the first of which is massage or rubbing; the second, electricity. By the kneading and rubbing of the muscles and skin the liquids in the tissues are absorbed and poured into the lymph spaces, and a healthy blush is brought to the skin. This passive exercise is performed in the morning or afternoon, and should last from one-half to an hour, every part of the body being kneaded, even the face and scalp. ”

“ Perhaps there is also a transfer of the function of certain degenerated nerves to other tracts than those in which muscle impulses originally traveled. The improvement in muscular control originally obtained is a striking illustration of how much nature is able to compensate for even organic lesions and is a lesson in the necessity for never ceasing to try to do something even when the case seems hopeless. Certainly locomotor ataxic patients would seem the least likely to be benefited by training in movement and yet this movement therapy for tabes has had some wonderful results. ”

“ AS elsewhere expressed, the fast in itself is but a means to an end, but by its use in the treatment of disease, many mechanical defects in organs are entirely overcome through muscular rest and relaxation. Certain accessories are, however, brought into play. Bodily cleanliness and sanitation are essential, and mechanical adjustment of bones, muscular manipulation, and the internal bath are all invaluable concomitants of treatment.
In connection with muscular manipulation and bone adjustment, two distinct schools of healing have arisen in late years, those of Osteopathy and Chiropractic. ”

“ They promote a general regeneration of the blood that will eventually lead to a complete cure.
Physical treatment may be made to assist the proper circulation of the blood, opening at the same time the pores of the skin for the withdrawal from the body of disease elements and the introduction of desirable material. Massage, gymnastics, ablutions, and various kinds of baths and packs constitute the most of the healing measures of this description resorted to. ”

“ It seems worth while to emphasize this treatment by manipulations and massage, because it represents a psychotherapeutic factor in the treatment of these injuries. The hiding away of a limb or a joint for days and perhaps weeks, while they wonder whether it is getting better or not is most discouraging to patients. To have the physician see it, to have him declare that it is getting on well, to have the evidence of their own senses that conditions are gradually improving, is of itself a valuable factor for that satisfaction of mind which conduces to the regular functioning of tissues. ”

“ The therapeutic effect of exercise, massage, hydrotherapy and electrical influence are all called into use, and the medical treatment is directed to any complicating disorder of the bodily functions. No part is overlooked. The physical machine is restored as far as possible to working order in the hope that mental restoration will be the consequence. In a hospital thus conducted harsh or abusive treatment means the immediate dismissal of the offender. ”

“ Some therapists will instruct you to tense your arms, hold the tension for ten seconds or so, then relax and feel the resulting sense of relaxation, the sense of relief from tension and strain. Or, some therapists use suggestion, asking you to imagine that your arms are becoming heavier and heavier, encouraging you to relax deeply. Each of your major muscle groups is relaxed in turn until you feel fully relaxed. This first phase of therapy usually takes from two to six sessions. ”

“ When Osteopathy is practiced as a combination of all manipulations and other natural aids to the inherent recuperative powers of the body, it will appeal to reason in such a way and bring such good results as to make and keep friends.
I am fully persuaded, and I believe the facts when presented will establish it, that it is the physio-therapy in Osteopathy that wins and holds the favor of intelligent people. But Osteopathy in its own name, taught as “a well-rounded system of healing adequate for every emergency,” has grown and spread largely as a “patent medicine” flourishes, i. ”

“ In the class of beneficial adjuncts may be placed massage, hydrotherapy, spondylotherapy, dietetics, osteopathy, Christian Science, suggestive therapeutics, mechano-therapy, and many others. Each of these has its field of usefulness; each taken alone is productive of some good in some cases at least. Each might possibly augment the results of Chiropractic, or hasten them in some cases, if judiciously used. By judiciously used we mean the avoidance of any method which would in the least interfere with proper vertebral adjustment or its results or which might carelessly cause subluxation. ”

“ Good chest and lung development, a strong heart, well-developed and firm muscles are the tripod on which rests physical endurance and resistance to disease. And this was just where the entire class was found to be gravely subnormal.
Physical training consists primarily of heart training; in increasing the breathing capacity; in strengthening and developing the heart and other muscles of the body. As [Pg 22] the muscles become stronger the body is held more erect, and this favors, as we have seen, all of its functions. ”

“ Where spinal curvature has actually taken place, especial exercises must be taken under the supervision of a physician and instructor. Gymnastic exercises must be supplemented by outdoor games and sports.
The Heart’s Need of Exercise.—The first essential for the maintenance of health, capacity for work, and power of resistance of disease is a normally developed and strong heart. First, there must be secured a vigorous circulation of the blood, and the two greatest helps to this are exercise and deep breathing. In the sedentary posture the heart works at a disadvantage. ”

“ Physical exercise has similar effects upon the system as hydrotherapy, massage and manipulative treatment. It stirs up the morbid accumulations in the tissues, stimulates the arterial and venous circulation, expands the lungs to their fullest capacity, thereby increasing the intake of oxygen, and most effectively promotes the elimination of waste and morbid materials through skin, kidneys, bowels and the respiratory tract. ”

“ Osteopathy attempts to specialize the mechanical principle in dealing with all kinds of curable diseases, acute as well as chronic, graduating pressure, tension, vibration, and all the mechanical forms of physical stimulation, in their application to muscles, bones, blood-vessels, nerves, and organs of the body, so as to gain therapeutic effects. ”

“ We must train the patient gradually but steadily to the giving up of all luxurious habits. He must adopt early hours, and pursue a system of graduated muscular exercises; and it will often happen that, after perseverance in this system, the patient will be enabled to take an amount of exercise with pleasure and advantage which at first was totally impossible owing to the difficulty of breathing which followed exertion. The treatment by muscular exercise is obviously more proper in younger persons than in those advanced in life. ”

“ Osteopathy, chiropractic, naprapathy, neurotherapy and spondylotherapy, as we have learned, are various systems of maipulative treatment which have been devised mainly to correct spinal and other bony lesions, shrinkage and contracture of muscles, ligaments and other connective tissues.
Important as these methods are in the treatment of acute and chronic diseases, by themselves they are not all-sufficient because they deal only with the mechanical causes of disease, not with the chemical, thermal or with the mental and psychical. ”

“ The various modern systems of spinal manipulation, namely, osteopathy, chiropractic, naprapathy, neuropathy, spondylotherapy and our own neurotherapy, are all of distinctly American origin.
During the last quarter century millions of Americans through personal experience have become staunch adherents to one or more of these systems of treatment. ”

“ So, as a means of diagnosis zone therapy has an immense value. Its curative effects, however, are most valuable and significant. Many of the gravest nerve conditions—conditions which failed to respond to the most skilled medical treatment obtainable anywhere—have been completely and permanently cured by the application of the proper pressures—properly made. ”

“ The too dominant idea of "gymnastics" should not make us lose sight of the vast therapeutic importance of the nervous reactions associated with muscular movements, and of the systematic culture and training of the involuntary neuromuscular apparatus, which certainly depends in large degree on the activity of the skeletal muscles, but is often best elicited by massage, passive movements, hydrotherapy, and hygiene; all these involve exercise in a fundamental sense, and are of great therapeutic utility, even in febrile states, where exercise of the skeletal muscles is absolutely contraindicated. ”

“ In the light of our vast experience at the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute, we feel that we cannot too strongly urge the employment of a suitable apparatus for supporting the hip-joint, giving it perfect rest, and enabling the patient to exercise and get the outdoor air. As much of the pain in this disease is due to the pressure of the head of the femur, or thigh-bone, in the acetabulum, or socket, steadily-applied mechanical extension, to relieve the inflamed and sensitive joint of the pressure, is of the greatest importance. ”

“ Hence the only muscular work that can be prescribed to them, at first at least, is that effected by passive movements and massage, by which a whole series of muscular, tendinous, and cutaneous stimuli are transmitted by the sensory nerves to the cells of the centres ... these stimuli gently arouse the motor centres, and even the mental image of the movement aids in the same result, that is, in preserving the functional activity of the centres without tiring the patient. Besides, passive exercise and massage promote the peripheral circulation. ”