What is Multiple Sclerosis?
What is Multiple Sclerosis (MS)? Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease where the automatic immune system attacks the central nervous system because it thinks it’s a foreign substance. The Central Nervous System (CNS), brain and spinal cord, is the system of nerve tissues. Nerve tissue controls voluntary (walking) or involuntary (breathing) activities for vertebrates, like you and I. What happens in the body? When the immune system attacks the spinal cord it damages the outer layer (myelin sheath) of the nerves and causes inflammation in small patches (plaques or lesions). These eventually become scar tissue (sclerosis). All these changes in the CNS can be seen on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Breaking down The myelin sheath protects and insulates nerve axons so that nerve impulses do not ‘leak out’. So if this outer layer is damaged it can cause chaos with the messages that travel along the nerve. The damage can; …
Read MoreWhat causes Multiple Sclerosis?
Causes Multiple Sclerosis If you research this question using Dr. Google You’ll find the most common answer remains ‘the exact cause of MS is unknown’, however, scientists believe that there are four factors that play a role in development of the disease: immunologic; immune system attacking the body genetic; 2>5% of MS Patients environmental; lack of sunshine causing lack of vitamin D viral; past history of illnesses Other risk factors? In addition to the list above there are other risk factors for developing MS; Sex: Women are two to three times more likely to develop MS than men are. Age: According to the Mayo Clinic, MS usually strikes between the ages of 20 and 40. What can make MS symptoms worse? Stress Smoking Heat Infections Medication Lack of sleep What is MS? Read More As a reader of my Blogs, you are here to find scientific, honest truth, and education about a certain …
Read MoreInjuries and their Tissue Mechanics 1/12
A Journey on injuries Tissue Mechanics Join me on a journey exploring injuries, here is your ‘open-ended ticket’ and I invite all disciplines involved in Health and Fitness to join in with intelligent discussions here – troll’s (cyber bullies) will not be tolerated and will be removed from drjoabbott.com. Over the next 12 weeks We shall be exploring the Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) world of injuries: What are injuries? How do injuries happen? What are the most common injuries? What happens when an injury occurs? What can we do to help? What advice should we be giving to a Patient/Client who has injured themselves? What rehabilitative tools should we be using/advising? Why do some people never improve post injury? Why do some injuries initiate a domino effect when going through rehab? When do we know we have optimised the rehab programme? And many more questions that I hear on a …
Read MoreInjuries and their Tissue Mechanics 2/12 (Warning: Prosected Images)
Personal Trainer to Clinical Anatomist When I worked at a Personal Trainer, with a successful client base, I quickly learnt that my anatomy education had been bias towards understanding the principles of anatomy through classic anatomy ‘book’ and it’s application to exercise rehabilitation. I personally believed there was a ‘missing link’ in my anatomy knowledge. In 2010 I begun my Clinical Anatomy Qualification at Keele University, Staffordshire. I spent three years dissecting and exploring our human form and documented the anatomy in the books we read was only present in 56% of the population – the rest have a variety of forms. For my final exam I chose to dissect the path of the sciatic nerve (SN); observe its anatomical relationship with the piriformis muscle (PM) and to measure; the diameter of the SN as it exits the greater sciatic foramen, the motor branches (MB’s), motor entry points (MEP’s) innervating the …
Read MoreThe Sciatic Nerve, it’s Anatomy, that will make you understand it’s Pain 3/12
What goes wrong? Compromising the sciatic nerve and its components by particular treatments, surgical interventions or injuries, limit day-to-day activities by affecting the lower extremity’s function. Musculoskeletal complications such as gait pattern deviations may occur i.e. drop foot, weak dorsi flexion and eversion, toe extensor difficulty, twisting ankle, tripping, sensory impairment to touch over the distal aspect of the leg and dorsum of the foot (Katirji & Wilbourn 1994, Vardi 2004, Viera et al. 2007, An et al. 2010) are signs of a compromised sciatic nerve, sciatica. Typical manifestations of trauma to the sciatic nerve include; idiopathic palsy; postural habits; rapid weight loss; intrinsic or extrinsic nerve tumours; potential sciatic cross-over paths of propagation of intraneural cysts or extra neural compression by synovial cyst; soft tissue trauma; osseous mass or large fabella (LeGeyt & Ambrose 1998, Loredo et al. 1998, Spinner et al. 2003, Dellon 2005, Pokorny 2006, Spinner et …
Read MoreBehind the Scenes of a Patient with Sciatica 4/12
Bigger Picture Stuff Full Patient/Client History is nothing to be taken likely when exploring sciatica – it is a quarter (see image below) of your initial exploratory investigations in to why the person is sitting in front of you seeking your help and support. Besides, have you ever met a Patient/Client (P/C) who doesn’t want to tell you about their woe’s? About the things that are bothering them? What causes their pain? What they are no longer able to do? What their goals are? And why they sought out your help? Taking good P/C history is the beginning of your journey together. This drives the ability to; set specific goals for you both: maximising outcomes in minimum time; and ensure you explore/define/question parts of their history allowing you to triangulate (a powerful technique that facilitates validation of data through cross verification from two or more sources) your theory (hypothesis). This …
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Kat & Penny
“PARs Defect (fracture of spine) 2006 was a summer of playing lots of tennis tournaments, many matches back-to-back. Kat’s serve was poor as her...
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