Muscles, Joints, Bone and Nerves
Pain from and injuries to your muscles, bones and joints (also called musculoskeletal system) is never fun. It may be your back playing up, nerve pain down your leg or arm, neck pain, chest pain, pain when lifting your shoulder, laying on your side, or maybe your hips and knees are not as flexible anymore. Maybe this happened overnight, or it has been longer-standing, and you don’t know where to begin anymore. Or maybe you just want some guidance as to what you need to do to fix this yourself.
At Stratford health Hub, our clinicians make time to really understand what these issues are all about. Is there a particular origin to these issues, are there any other contributing factors to this pain or movement problem, how long has it really been going on; how has your body adapted and how do you ‘treat’ your body during the day. All of this is important in understanding the drivers of this pain and making a start to work towards a longer-term solution. And once we understand this, our treatment may begin.
At Stratford Health hub, our clinicians can help you with that.
- Joyce Matthijssen, our physiotherapist uses a particular approach called Mulligan’s therapy to look at your movements and pain. Often people will find her after trying other treatments that didn’t fully resolve their symptoms. Others will come because they want a hands-on technique that feels gentle, but makes a noticeable difference, sometimes immediately in pain, mobility or function.
For some the treatment can be really simple and may only be manual therapy, massage therapy and/or dry needling with some targeted exercises at home. For others it may be more about how they stand, sit or move in daily life. Maybe certain compensatory movement patterns have developed and we need to work on that too. - Joel Simmons is our exercise physiologist and can help you if there is a loss of strength, power or fitness. Perhaps the exercises that you are already doing, may not be the right ones at this point in time and we need to make a few changes initially, before we can get you back to that. Joel can help you to make a plan and guide you through all of this.
- Jennifer Earl, our Dietician, will be able to tell you if your diet may be affecting your musculoskeletal health. Certain foods can trigger or calm inflammation in the body, and a healthy gut microbiome can help regulate immune response and inflammation. We know that adequate protein, vitamins and minerals are essential for muscle and bone recovery. For some, excess weight around the abdomen can add to inflammation and this needs to be addressed.
Our team of therapists will work together with and for you, to enable you to make a big difference to your symptoms.