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Final post-I would like to share how to continue having pain-free summers through prevention. Many people believe that arthritis is just something that everyone seems to get as they get older. Arthritis is not necessarily something that occurs because joints wear out. Arthritis is a result of abnormal motion in the joint that causes the joint surfaces to rub together and lay down more bone creating something more like bone blisters (see photo).When these incongruent surfaces rub on each other it creates inflammation in that joint which leads to swelling. The end result is pain and more abnormal movement patterns.When I tell patients that arthritis and joint replacements can be avoided, many don’t believe me. The key is discovering these abnormal patterns before they become a pattern in your brain. As a PT the hardest part of my job is changing a patient’s brain, and re-education of normalized movement patterns. Some of these abnormal movement patterns can start when the person is young or from a previous injury that causes them to move differently. This is where PTs come in to identify these abnormal movement patterns before becoming a problem. I have been an advocate for PTs performing musculoskeletal check-ups vs. medical doctors, from the very beginning of my career. Research has shown that joint replacement surgery would decrease if patients saw the PT for musculoskeletal check-ups 1x/year. All other industrialized countries besides the U.S. have this benefit built into their healthcare system...and joint replacements are rare compared to the US.What can you do? First, the minute you feel that something isn’t moving right contact your local PT. Studies have shown that when patients with musculoskeletal injuries see a PT first, the rate of surgery and opioid addiction decreases. Also,patients end up paying less out of pocket and overall healthcare costs are less when compared to the surgical approach. Our hope as a profession is to educate the public about what a PT does. When I think about what do I actually do, the answer is clear to me. I want to provide health and longevity through movement, and prevention is part of this role.#prevention#longevity#Health

A post shared by Anderson & Cattone PT (@andersoncattonept) on Aug 25, 2019 at 10:21am PDT