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

Hand Injuries

Hand injuries are very important as the hand is such a vital functional part of human anatomy, with an injury to the hand causing a significant degree of disability in the short term and potentially over the long term. The hand is exposed to a very large number of risks in normal and work life, from burns to cuts to crushing, which can cause a wide variation in injuries from soft tissue damage, tendon transection or rupture to fractures of any of the bones of the hand. In many cases several types of injury will coexist in the damaged hand.

Because our hands are the medium by which we interact with much of the world they are often placed in situations which render them vulnerable to injury. They are a combination of a large number of small bones and joints with complex ligamentous, tendinous and muscular components optimised to perform the multiple skilled manual functions we require. All the complex functioning of the hand results from the successful interplay of all the anatomical components working in very tight spaces. Any disruption of a part of the hand typically has knock on effects for the whole unit.

Period Pain could be helped by Acupuncture

A recent study conducted in South Korea has provided some evidence than acupuncture may be useful as a treatment for period pain. Previous studies have found differently, with real and sham acupuncture having very similar effects. Period pain can be a significant problem in some women with a large variety of unpleasant symptoms including pain and nausea, sometimes lasting for many days of each cycle and thereby being disabling to some extent. A review considered 27 studies of acupuncture in period pain, with a variety of techniques used from traditional to western to sham acupuncture.

The studies showed that acupuncture was more effective than drug treatments in relieving severe period pains, despite the fact that many of the studies had flaws and therefore could not be completely relied upon for a scientific conclusion. However they did feel there was promising evidence that acupuncture could be of use in this condition. In the UK the body charged with evaluating evidence for treatments, NICE, has supported acupuncture for low back pain against criticism that acupuncture is not yet a valid treatment for anything. As acupuncture does seem to have important cultural aspects this may indicate that the individual.s belief structure is important for a good outcome.