All posts by Krissy Brown

Build credibility with yourself

By 19 Oct, 2018 Clinical Case of the Week, Physical Therapy Tips

Here are 5 easy ways to help build credibility with yourself and to insure you follow through with all good intentions.

  • Make an appointment with yourself – Schedule time on your calendar each day, even if it is just 20 minutes, to do your home exercise program. Honor this time the same way you would honor any other medical appointment.
  • Reward yourself when you follow through – Improving your health is its own reward, but you may need other tangible incentives to keep you motivated on your course. Make a barter system with yourself – “For every 10 minutes I spend on this treadmill, I will get 10 minutes of guilt-free Netflix veg time.”
  • Get friends and family on board – One of my patients found the best way to correct his posture was to recruit his children, “It’s open season, kids – anytime you can catch me slouching, call me on it and I will give you a dollar.”
  • Keep it visible – Put those running shoes in a high visibility area of your home so that you have a visual reminder to gear up and get outside for a jog. Are you using a thera-band for your exercise routine? Don’t hide it – hang it in plain sight so that you are prompted to put it to good use!
  • Teach what you’ve learned – If you have mastered a new exercise or healthy recipe, share it! Pay it forward and reap the benefit of better understanding through teaching. You know you have truly mastered a technique when you can teach it effectively to someone else.

So let me know – what do you do to encourage yourself to follow through with your commitments to yourself?  Have you tried any of these suggestions before?  Do you have new ideas you’d like to share with us? Let’s support each other in making the end of 2018 and 2019 a year of abundant good health!

 

Margo Burette DPT

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It’s Fall, Y’all!

By 04 Oct, 2018 Exercise

 

This is a beautiful time of year in Portland, Oregon.  The trees are becoming more colorful, the air is freshening, and the fall season has officially arrived! On the subject of fall, let’s talk about reducing your risks for having a fall at home!

The first step for fall prevention is to identify whether you have any difficulties with balance. This online assessment tool is a great place to start: http://findingbalancealberta.ca/risk/

If your results show that you are at risk of a fall, or if you suspect your balance has been declining, give us a call and the team at Nick Rinard Physical Therapy may help you have a fall-free fall season!

Margo Burette, PT, DPT

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Health Myth or Fact: Can you catch a cold from being cold?

By 19 Sep, 2018 Medical Advisory

As cold weather arrives, do you notice more people sniffling and sneezing? Let’s look at a common health myth that is appropriate for our fall season: The common cold is caused by being cold. Your mom may have told you, “Put on a sweater or you will catch your death of a cold!” Most folks now realize that the cold is caught from a virus, not from ambient temperature.  The cold viruses, or rhinoviruses, are passed through physical contact or proximity to infected people.  Infected people can share their germs through coughing and sneezing.

 

So, science disproves that old myth that temperature creates illness.  Those miserable sore throats, runny noses, and headaches are caused by the viruses themselves.

 

Mom may not have been entirely off base with her association, though! Cold viruses enter the human body through the nose.  This is where our snot comes to the rescue, bundling up the viruses into an easily swallowed package that can be dropped into the caustic cauldron of the stomach where acid quickly degrades it.  However, when we breathe cold air through our noses, the cooler temperature slows down the movement of the mucus.  Since the snot cannot race to your rescue, the virus is more likely to enter the body through the mucus membranes and make you sick.

 

Also, cold viruses cannot survive high temperatures.  Cold weather is the preferred climate for rhinoviruses, and they can flourish in autumn temperatures for a longer time.  This improved survival rate increases the probability that a cold virus will be successfully passed from individual to individual.

 

So this myth is partially true – cold weather can increased your susceptibility to catching a cold from a virus by impairing your natural mucus defenses and boosting the survival rate of the virus.

 

Margo Burette, PT, DPT

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