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

Falls and Healthy Bones

Falling in adults is an important matter with involvement of around 30% of people over sixty-five years old and half of those over eighty-five years. There are significant risks to falling for elderly people, with many much older people dying and or suffering loss of mobility or other problems. Ninety percent of hip fractures are caused by falling and this comes with a very high cost both personally and financially. Only twenty percent of people who fracture their hip recover well enough to attain their previous level of functional abilities which includes walking. There may be many reasons for a person falling and the evidence for the many interventions proposed being effective is not very good.

Physiotherapists prescribe exercise programmes as part of their main arsenal of skills, with good evidence that well designed programmes which include training balance and strength can be effective at reducing falls in the community. Patient access to assessment and treatment by a physiotherapist is however variable in the UK, with hip fracture patients likely to receive this (due to admission to hospital) but patients with non-hip fractures are much less likely to receive this even when admitted. Physios have a much greater role in this matter which they have not taken up.

Lumbar Posture and Muscles

The abdominal and back muscles are affected in three main ways by changes in the posture of the spine: how long the muscles are; what angle they pull against the spine; how powerful they can be due to their changing leverage. Muscle length is important is the application of power and they develop most tension when they are stretches to about 10% above their normal resting length. If the muscle is shortened by contraction then the available strength of contraction is reduced. The fibrous elements in a muscle have their tension increased a lot by stretching, storing energy which can be released as part of enhanced contraction.

In normal standing the back muscles are shortened slightly so they develop more power when the spine is flexed, i.e. bent over to some degree. This means it may be best to bend the back somewhat to lift a heavy weight as this allows increased muscle power to be generated. Stretching of the passive fibrous structures and back muscles whilst lifting can be coupled with a lack of high tension forces on the ligaments and discs by flexing the spine at the time to most of its range.