Has a cycling injury left you in pain? The concept of being injured, let alone in pain from cycling, a fitness sport, that keeps you healthy and brings you happiness, is outrageous, right?
Cycling like any other fitness sport can one day make you feel exhilarated and the struggling to pedal pain-free. Cycling injuries are expected especially if you’re a diehard cyclist.
An injury caused by cycling is not one to be sweated. Common cycling injuries, are treatable as long as the injury is properly diagnosed and treated by a professional pain specialist.
Cyclists overuse injuries can cause patellar tendinitis or patellofemoral pain syndrome, which will either cause pain just below the knee or a generalized discomfort around the kneecap.May 3, 2016
The history of Physiatry ( physicians specializing in physical medicine; residencies or fellowships in PM&R) dates back to 1946 in the World Wars era. Injured soldiers returning from active duty traumatic injuries such as spinal cord injuries, amputation, fractures, etc…
The Physiatry specialty was developed to enable doctors to identify their patients’ physical impairments and functional disabilities and then rehabilitate them back to improved functional independence, restoring them to healthy, productive lifestyles. Today, physiatry is used to treat patients suffering spinal cord injury, fractures, and chronic pain from work injuries, car accidents, and sports injuries.
How do we find PMR physiatrists who are board certified by the American Academy of Physical Medicine (AAPMR) and Rehabilitation and the American Academy of Pain Management (AAPM&R). Well these specialty doctors are located throughout the United States. You just need to know what to look for. New York & New Jersey pain specialists practicing acute and chronic pain management acn be searched by accessing painandinjury.com. Pain and Injury Doctors Musculoskeletal Resources (MSR) provides doctors specializing in sports medicine, physical therapy and rehabilitation, neck and back pain relief, carpal tunnel syndrome, work and auto-related injuries including disability assessment.
For more information on physiatry, visit www.painandinjury.com to begin living a pain free life. Physiatry, offers non-surgical treatments for pain. Physiatry is broken down into three major areas of medical care: diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries and pain syndromes, electrodiagnostic medicine, and rehabilitation of patients with severe impairments. Physical therapy requires educating patients on how to utilizing proper exercises designed to improve posture, coordination, and stamina to avoid injury, as well as prescription medication management and interventional injections (Injections—also called nerve blocks—work to provide temporary pain relief) for chronic pain syndromes.
Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation – Physiatry . Find Pain Specialists in New York & New Jersey
CHRONIC PAIN IS REAL. YOUR NOT ALONE!
“My visit to the pain doctor today was disappointing. He said he could do the steroid block on my neck where the disk and the Spine was narrowing at c6-c7 but he couldn’t promise it would take away the pain. Frustrated, I cried. It’s hard for doctors to understand how someone can be in pain for 30 years. They don’t get it. I’ve been on hydrocodone for 15 years. He told me the best thing to do is to get off them bc he wasn’t prescribing pain meds. I Have severe fibromyalgia and CFS also. What good is a pain doctor that doesn’t prescribe pain meds? Now what are my choices ? Surgery is not an option unless the disks ruptures. What do I do? Who do I see?” Tina
As in Tina’s case, chronic pain is defined as a pain that has lasted more than three months.
DIAGNOSING PAIN
X-rays, MRIs, or CT scans, diagnostic injections or blocks are used by pain specialists in order to identify what’s causing an individuals pain. Interventional injections and blocks can be diagnostic and therapeutic at the same time. Doctors will use an EMG, to obtain information about the muscles and nerves in the body when diagnosing carpal tunnel syndrome, a pinched nerve, radiculopathy, sciatica, neuropathies, and muscle diseases.
MSR Resources serving the east coast (NY/NJ) provides information on pain specialists that offer many procedures, that including epidural injections, facet blocks, Botox, trigger point injections, and electrodiagnostic testing. Their mission is to treat patients with trigger point injections, pinpointing muscular pain. If this don’t in treating pain, the next step would be to assess whether or not the pain is coming from a joint by performing diagnostic and therapeutic facet block injections. If the patients report pain relief then procedures like epidural injections would be considered suggesting disc or nerve related problems.
THE EXAM – WHAT TO EXPECT
New patient consultations begin with reviewing the patients medical history and an examination. Dr. Michael Monfett, MD – Pain Specialist in New York will discuss the patient’s concern’s, diagnose the pain then suggest a treatment plan for that specific patient.
Brooklyn pain specialist Dr. David Delman specializes in treating traumatic injuries caused by car accidents or work-related injuries, is no stranger to performing independent medical evaluations? Dr. Delman one of New York’s top pain doctors provides patients with a work status evaluation.
Patients will find New York pain specialists like Dr. Stella P. Mansukhani, MD. in Washington Heights, NY pleasant by nature, compassionate along with a caring staff that recognizes the importance of making ensuring patients are comfortable, and relaxed. Dr. Mansukhani is the kind of physician who treats her patients with sensitivity, educating them on the available treatments that will allow a healthier pain free life. #painfreelife
Resources
Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation – A review of rehabilitative principles, modalities, and equipment needs in pain management https://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/treatments/rehabilitation/physical-medicine-rehabilitation
Work-related pain and injury and barriers to workers’ compensation. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15727981
History of the Specialty http://www.aapmr.org/about-physiatry/history-of-the-specialty
Most athletes, dancers, will in their careers will face both physical, emotional strains, and possible injury, in their chosen professions.
Take acclaimed ballerina Wendy Whelan who in 2013 underwent reconstructive surgery. Whelan, who was 46 at the time, feareing that she would never dance again. But after months of injury rehabilitation and physical therapy, she returned briefly to the company she had danced with for more than three decades.
Whelan took her final bow with the New York City Ballet in October 2014. Now, nearly three years after leaving ballet, Whelan continues to perform contemporary dance. She says she feels liberated in her new life: “I’ve been strapped in — physically strapped in to pointe shoes, strapped into a leotard and tights, my hair’s been strapped up — for my whole entire life. … I was terrified to be unconstricted, and now I don’t know another way I’d rather be.”
Wendy Whelan danced with the New York City Ballet for three decades. Read about her injury to recovery.
The documentary Restless Creature chronicles Whelan’s injury to recovery and final performance with her company.
Interview Highlights
On the hip injury that hastened her retirement from ballet
It came out of nowhere, literally came out of nowhere. I slipped, ironically, on Sept. 11, 2012, and I knew something had happened. It was the smallest slip, but I felt it deep in the back of my hip hamstring area. And I thought … I pulled my hamstring; I didn’t imagine it would be a tear.
Hamstring injuries are very common in athletes. Acute hamstring strains can occur with high-speed running or with excessive hamstring lengthening. … The article focuses on diagnosis, treatment and return to play considerations for acute hamstring strains and proximal hamstring tendinopathy in the athlete.
I couldn’t do certain dances that season. I did some. I didn’t do the ones that I was really well known for and wanted to do. And I waited a few months, didn’t stretch it, still danced at a certain level, and within three months I couldn’t close fifth position. Fifth position, if you don’t know ballet, is the base of ballet. It’s the most basic position that everything moves from, and I literally couldn’t do that. So that was a big shock.
I tried everything. I tried acupuncture. I was going to therapy. I tried massage, everything you can imagine — I had injections, MRIs. And then the MRI came back and said there was inflammation in my hip, so I had my hip drained. The doctor also did an ultrasound and he said, “I see a complex labral tear.” … It was there forever; I just didn’t know it until it was discovered, and it had gotten to a place where it was needing to be fixed. … Eight months later I was on the operating table getting reconstructive surgery.
On choosing to document the end of her ballet career
Wendy Whelan tells of her decision to document the end of her ballet career as being complicated, confusing, exposing her vulnerability. But as filming began Wendy was all on board with the project. She came to like the footage, the directors, filmmakers, especially the cameraman. He had done dance films before, and knew exactly how to move in the studio, following Wendy closely..
The documentation of Wendy’s story turned into a supportive thing, pushing her to bare herself, to open her story up with confidence and creativity.
On showing pain on camera
“My leg wouldn’t accept the weight without a buckle, so dancing was a really big question. That was really hard for me to show, and I actually took a break from the filming at that moment. I needed to get some epidurals in my back and I just was like, “I just need some space.” … I had the cameras leave, because that was just too much for me to show that I couldn’t walk.” states, Wendy Whelan.
Wendy Whelan documents her journey of injury to recovery. Like many athletes who suffer an injury she was faced with “the what now” decision. Wendy was able to go from ballet to contemporary dance.
I felt slowly like … I am now me, and you’re seeing me, the goofy Wendy. I’m not trying to be who you all thought I was for so long. I’m just this girl. I jumped like a little kid a little bit, and I had bad posture and I was walking like a normal person in my bows and I’m like, yep, I’m just a human being and I’ve been this the whole time, but I haven’t been able to show it. Listen to the full interview here.
Like most athletes, most dance careers can last up to 20 years. Some people, as seen with Wendy Whelan, continue dancing until their early 40s or later, and some people have to retire earlier than age 34 because of an injury.
An serious injury can end an athletes or dancer’s career. Because of the risk involved, it is important to work for a company that has worker’s compensation insurance.
Have you been living with chronic pain? Well repeat after me its a New Year, it’s a new me, pain free! It’s 2018, a New Year, and time for a change if you’ve been suffering from chronic pain. Time to set some healthy lifestyle goals with a little help from your local pain specialists.
Follow these simple steps to start a healthier happier pain free life.
Step 1: Start Walking / Exercise
Get circulating. Walking and exercise is said to reduce inflammation, strengthen muscles, and provide healing by sending oxygen-rich blood to the painful area. Follow these steps Workout, rest, recover, repeat.
Step 2: When it’s time to sleep – go to sleep
Do you watch TV or are you on your phone before going to bed? Shut off that TV. Put those electronics away. Start counting sheep. You don’t need distractions. Turn off the lights and go to sleep. Studies have shown that sleep plays a critical role in immune function, metabolism, memory, learning, and other vital functions.
Step 3: If you smoke – STOP
Studies have shown that smokers experience pain more frequently than non-smokers.
Quitting smoking can help most of the major parts of your body: from your brain to your DNA.
Quitting smoking can re-wire your brain and help break the cycle of addiction. …
Lungs. Stop lung damage. …
Blood and the Immune System. Normal white blood cell count.
Step 4: Sit at work often – stand up often
Sitting is the new smoking. Studies show that sitting for long periods of time can cause chronic back pain and neck pain. So stand up and walk. Standing and walking (extension) can minimize the available space along your spine and crowd exiting nerve roots.
Have you been living with chronic pain? Well repeat after me its a New Year, it’s a new me, pain free!
Joint pain in the winter should be of no surprise really. Studies show that the cold out there is frightful especially to joints causing aches and pains. The freezing temperatures in the winter causes our muscle tissues to expand and possibly put pressure on our joints causing irritation, stiffness and swelling, which can aggravate our nerves resulting in pain.
Cold Weather and Joint Pain, Predictable
Why do my joints hurt when it’s cold?
Why does my body ache in cold weather?
Why do joints hurt when weather changes?
Why do people with arthritis ache when it rains?
Individuals suffering joint pain will immediately assume they’re experiencing some sort of injury. Not necessarily. Runners for instance will experience joint pain when running during the winter season. Cold weather has been know to cause joint aches and pains.
“Pain in the knees, for example is a common complaint among athletes and weekend warrior patients, especially in cold winter seasons,” say’s Dr. Michael Monfett, MD a New York City pain specialist. “Joint pain occurs in the the knees, hips, and ankles. We see this complaint often among marathon runners who exercise outside in the cold.” add Dr. Monfett.
Avoiding those aches and pain would require certain measures to be taken before that run.
Properly warming up before working out.
Wearing appropriate clothing before going to be outside.
After a workout properly cool down.
Stretch after a workout.
Following these simple procedures will help with winter joint pain. If the joint pain worsens talk to a pain specialist / physical therapist to make sure you’re not injured.
“Joint pain doesn’t necessarily suggest an injury, but if the pain worsens, that may suggest injury,” says Says Dr. Monfett. “Remember that pain is your body’s warning system, and you need to listen to it,” Says Dr. Monfett. “Consistent joint pain could be the beginning signs of arthritis, and it is best to address it earlier on.” And of course, having joint pain or stiffness year-round—not just when the temps are low—is also a warning sign. “This could mean a structural problem in the knee cap or joint,” adds Dr. Monfett, and should be addressed by an expert.
A 2014 study of people with osteoarthritis (OA) published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders asked participants if and how weather influenced their pain. Of the 712 people who answered the survey, 469 (67%) said they were weather sensitive. It turns out that weather-sensitive people with OA experience more joint pain overall than their non-weather-sensitive counterparts.
A 2011 article published in European Journal of Pain found similar results in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The researchers looked at nine previously published studies of people with RA and concluded “pain in some individuals is more affected by the weather than in others, and that patients react in different ways to the weather.”
Joint pain can anytime throughout the year, but in the cold season of winter you may find it harder to cope with.
Patients with arthritis, neck pain or other types of musculoskeletal issues tend to report most weather-related pain. “Weather doesn’t seem to have as much effect on nerve pain, like complex regional pain syndrome or neuropathy. On top of that, cold weather can make it worse, causing muscles, ligaments and joints to get stiffer and more painful.
It’s better to be safe than sorry. If your pain persists past the cold season you may need to see your local sports medicine pain management physician.
