All posts by Krissy Brown

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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Physical Therapy from the Patient Perspective

By 17 Sep, 2018 Clinical Case of the Week

Physical Therapy from the Patient Perspective

Nick Rinard is not only a colleague whom I hold in high esteem, he is also my physical therapist!  I’d like to share with you 5 things that I found interesting about my experience being a patient at our clinic:

  • The verbal reference scale for pain: It is very difficult to assign a quantitative number to pain level! Pain is such a variable experience, that reducing it to a 2 or a 4 just doesn’t completely describe the character or behavior of the symptom.
  • Assigning a score to functional difficulty: I was stumped when Nick asked me to rate the difficulty of a daily task. I now understand why so many patients struggle to respond concisely to the question.
  • The power of touch: Trusting someone to handle your painful body part can be daunting. However, I found the confidence and surety of Nick’s steady hands to be very reassuring.  I was able to quickly relax and allow him to passively move my ankle and foot.
  • Listen before acting: I had to direct my mind to an attentive listening mode rather than an anticipatory listening mode.  By this, I mean that if I was constantly attempting to guess what Nick’s next instructions would be, I was keeping my mind occupied instead of open.  Being a physical therapist, I had to step away from my usual role of planning the care, and instead actively listen so that I could follow Nick’s lead.
  • Expect greatness: Before seeking help, I had been limping around for two weeks stubbornly trying to ignore my pain. I was skeptical but hopeful that Nick could help me.  I should have expected greatness – by the next day, I was already noticing positive improvements in my gait!

Thank you for your help, Nick!  You are the physical therapist of choice for this physical therapist!

Margo Burette, PT, DPT

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