Physiotherapists in Ellesmere Port treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Hip Arthritis

The hip is one of the largest body joints, a ball and socket joint which is very deep and very stable. Large and powerful ligaments hold the joint together and large and powerful muscles, the buttocks, power the joint so we can walk, run and climb stairs. The joint surfaces are covered by articular cartilage, a coating of firm and slippery material which allows the loaded joints to move almost as easily as when they are not unloaded. Keeping our joints mobile and using them regularly maintains the health of the articular cartilage in our joints, making exercise important for long term joint health and independence.

Arthritic changes may occur after injury or overuse or the tendency for the cartilage to degenerate at a higher rate than expected can be genetically determined. The cartilage may soften and develop fissures and in severe cases it may wear completely away, allowing bone on bone contact in the joint. Hip, groin or thigh pain in common, with the development of a limp a common event. The muscles of the joint can weaken as the pain and the person's gait worsens and walking aids become necessary. Exercise, weight loss, painkillers and eventually hip replacement are the commonest treatments.

Allodynia . An Abnormal Pain

Most of the pain we feel is .normal. in terms of being similar to what other people feel in similar situations of injury and damage. We get a standard pain after being injured which is the result of the tissue injury and the changes which automatically occur within the central nervous system in response to the incoming pain barrages. Our pains are proportionally related to the amount of unpleasant input we suffer and we only respond with pain to what we expect would be a painful stimulus. This is referred to as nociceptive pain and is the normal kind we suffer from in the way we expect to suffer in certain cases.

Allodynia is a painful response to a normally non-painful stimulus, such as touching, wind passing over a part of the body or the pressure of the water from a shower. Normally the result of a nerve injury but also occurring in pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia, allodynia is an abnormal pain response due to changes within the central nervous system. A heightened, amplified pain response is generated inside the spinal cord or brain, giving the sufferer a high level of very unpleasant pain in response to a trivial stimulus.