injury Archives - Medvoucher

December 12, 20190

Technology to Reduce Back Pain and Help You Sleep

When you have back pain, falling and staying asleep can seem impossible. Lack of sleep can cause a number of complications in your life, and can negatively affect your mental and physical health. What’s more, lack of sleep can actually make your back pain worse, dropping you into a seemingly endless cycle of sleeplessness and pain. Fortunately, technology offers some useful solutions to help you break the cycle and get a good night’s rest.

Yoga and Stretching

Back pain is easily caused and exacerbated by daily activities. Whether you are doing a great deal of lifting or sitting at your office computer, a typical workday can take a toll on your back’s health. If you find that your back is tight and painful at the end of the day, focus on stretching. Doing some stretches with yoga is an excellent tool to ease back pain throughout the day.

To get a better night of sleep, be sure to do a nightly yoga or stretching routine to relax your muscles before bed. Apps such as Down Dog and Daily Yoga offer a wide range of poses for different needs, so you can loosen and relax your back before you lie down. There are poses for students at any level, and you can set and track goals to increase your skill level. For more support, you can access worldwide yoga communities with questions, to help you focus your practice where you need it most.

Yoga for Insomnia takes your evening routine a step further with soothing and relaxing yoga poses geared specifically toward quieting your mind and body before sleep, to reduce insomnia and help you find a more restful sleep. This app focuses on Hatha style yoga and breathing techniques that can help reduce tension and stress.

Meditation and Relaxation

In addition to stretching your muscles to reduce pain and spasms, mindful meditation and breathing exercises help you to relieve tension at the end of the day, making it easier to fall into a peaceful slumber. According to the Cleveland Clinic, meditation can also help to relieve back pain by redirecting your thoughts from the pain itself to focus solely on your breathing. There are numerous apps and guided meditations that you can access online to help you master your meditation and deep breathing techniques.

For example, the Headspace app is one of the most popular meditation apps on the market today. The developers of Headspace pride themselves on conducting clinical research on their techniques, to ensure that users have access to scientifically validated relaxation techniques. Their guided meditation has proven to reduce stress through the use of meditation to increase mindfulness and focus.

Restful Sleep

Once you have completed your stretching and meditation, you can drift off to sleep with the assistance of sleep apps like the Slumber or Quell Relief. These apps offer a range of guided meditations, soothing music and soundscapes, and even relaxing bedtime stories to ease you into a peaceful night of uninterrupted sleep.

For apps that run through the night, it is important to ensure that you have sufficient data on your smartphone plan, so you can be sure that your sleep apps do not lead to overage charges. Be sure to look into wireless phone plans that offer unlimited data, which you can find at a monthly rate that fits your budget.

For persistent back pain sufferers, there are many treatment options they can try aside from medications. With these up-to-date apps for sleep, meditation, and yoga, you are sure to find tools to reduce your back pain and guarantee a good night’s sleep.

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This post was submitted by Cheryl Conklin @ wellnesscentral.info.

Medical Imaging

June 26, 20180

A Beginners Guide to Understanding CT Scans

You have probably heard of a CT scan, CAT scan, MRI, and X-Ray, but you may have no clue what the difference between the four are. All these different types of imaging can be easily confused. We wanted to help clarify this, so we created a beginners guide to understanding a CT Scan.

What is a CT scan?

First things first, what does CT even stand for? The answer is Computerized Tomography. A CT scan is a process used to create diagnostic images of any part of your body. It does this through combining a series of x-rays that are from different angles.

How does a CT scan work?

For a CT scan you normally lay flat on your back on a table. Then you are pushed slowly through a hole in the machine. While you’re being pushed through, x-rays rotate all around you in order to capture images at different angles. All of these angles are then put together by a computer so a doctor can look at either the 2-D image or the 3-D image that is created when all the images are compiled. It is important to be as still as possible during the scan, and sometimes you may even be asked to hold your breath by the doctors. One thing that the technicians may be do to ensure you stay still and in the correct position is fasten you to the table with straps. The reason for this is that if the resulting images come out blurry or unclear in any way, the scan most likely will need to be repeated.

Is a CT scan and a CAT scan the same thing?

These two can be confusing because their names are so close. The reason their names are so close is because they are the same thing! A CAT scan is just another name for a CT scan!

What do doctors use a CT scan for?

Although a CT scan gives off a small amount of radiation, doctors have concluded that the benefits that it gives outweigh the small risk that comes from the radiation. Doctors are able to use CT scans to help diagnose muscle and bone disorders, find the location of a tumor, infection or blood clot, guide various procedures, detect and monitor certain conditions, monitor the effectiveness of treatments, and detect internal injuries or bleeding. This is why a lot of times if an accident victim comes into the hospital they will do a CT scan. It can give them a lot of information in a short amount of time.

Do you have to take a contrast?

A contrast is something your doctor may have you drink or put in your system with an IV in order to better appear on the images. The contrast you’d be given block out x-rays and appears white on the images, better highlighting what the doctors are looking for. That being said, it is not necessary for every CT scan, it just depends on the doctor and what they are looking for.

What can a CT scan show?

A CT scan can show bone and joint issues such as tumors or fractures. It can also show if you have cancer, heart disease, emphysema, or liver masses. CT scans can also show any internal bleeding or other internal injuries that may have resulted from a car accident.

What do you do during the scan and how long should it take?

During a CT scan, you normally lie flat on your back on a table, trying to be as still as you can. Since the table passes through the machine, it is a relatively quick process. Normally a CT scan can be completely finished within 30 minutes as long as the images come out clear.

What should you disclose to your doctor before your CT scan?

Due to the radiation given off during the scan, let you doctor know any of the following. If you are pregnant you should not get a CT scan unless it is absolutely necessary as it can cause damage to the baby. If a child is the one needing the scan, ask your doctor about setting the radiation so it is not as powerful, as children are not as resistant to the radiation given off as adults are. Also, let your doctor know if you have diabetes and are take Metformin, or if you have any sort of kidney issues.

How is a CT scan different from a normal X-Ray?

When it comes down to it, a CT scan is much more detailed in the images it produces when compared to a normal x-ray. Whereas a regular x-ray really just shows bone damages, a CT scan also shows organs, and shows more detail in the vertebrae of the spine.

Sources:

https://www.webmd.com/cancer/what-is-a-ct-scan#3

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/ct-scan/about/pac-20393675

https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=bodyct

https://uamshealth.com/medicalservices/radiology/ctscanfrequentlyaskedquestions/

http://www.sworthogroup.com/general-orthopedic-faq/25-what-is-the-difference-between-x-rays-mri-and-ct-scan

Mental Health

June 26, 20180

Recovering Mentally From an Injury

When you get injured, there are two parts of recovering- physical, and mental. A lot of times, people forget they need to recover mentally from the ways their injury affected their mental state– and that healing goes far beyond just physical.

Why is it important to mentally recover from an injury?

Failing to properly recover mentally from your physical injury can have lasting effects. When you are physically recovered you may be afraid of re-injury, or may have post-traumatic stress when exercising from when you were initially injured. A few other effects it may have is insomnia, anger, and changes in appetite. When you exercise, endorphins get released in your brain and it gives you a bit of a high. If you are injured and aren’t getting the same amount of exercise, you can easily become irritable, depressed, and have changes in appetite where you either stop eating, or eat very unhealthy foods, oftentimes leading to unexpected weight gain, and in extreme cases, eating disorders.

How can you mentally recover from injury?

Once you suffer an injury, you are normally limited in what types of activities you can do. There are a number of ways to stay positive, and mentally recover from your injury while you are physically healing.

1. Practice gratitude. While coping with an injury is hard, it gives you some time to think about what has it allowed you to do you weren’t able to do before? Such as get a break from work, read a good book, catch up on a show, or watch movies you have been meaning to watch.

2. Change your perspective. Put the time and energy that you would normally use to workout to recover, and remember that just because you are resting does not mean you are not being productive. Resting allows you to heal, which is productive.

3. Keep a journal. If you find yourself worried about injury or re-injury when you get aches and pains, keep a diary of them, and then log the result of how they turned out. Did it go away? How long did it take? What did you do to get it to heal? This strategy can work to give you more confidence in your body that you are unlikely to have a serious injury from exercising.

4. Start goal-setting. Set new, smaller goals for yourself. If you set yourself smaller goals when it comes to your recovery you will be happy when you put the work in and begin meeting your goals.

5. Focus on the things you can control. Control your diet. Drink more water and eat healthier foods to help compensate for not exercising as much. Depending on the injury you can find alternatives ways to exercise as well. If you have an arm injury, try and do more leg work such as body weight squats.If you injure your leg, try and work your arms. Doing these couple things still allows you to get some sort of exercise or to not lose all of the work you did by gaining weight, and that keeps your mentality positive.

6. Find a hobby. Redirect your energy into something else you enjoy such as cooking, work, or anything that you enjoy that can keep you occupied.

7. Meditate. If you find yourself stressing about not being able to recover as fast as you want, take the time to meditate. Sitting still and concentrating on breathing calms the nervous system and reduces stress.

8. Stick to the rehab program. Doing more rehab than recommended does not make you heal faster, and doing less than recommended slows your recovery, or you do not fully recover.

9. Do not isolate yourself. Try and stick to your normal social routine as much as possible. If you are still regularly communicating and socializing with family and friends you will not feel as down about being injured.

10. Stay positive. Remember that you will get better and not continue to be injured. If you do the recommended recovery and do not rush yourself to heal, eventually you will no longer be injured and can go back to all your normal activities.

Sources:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2184916/how-mentally-come-back-injury

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/what-physical-injury-taught-me-about-my-mental-health-ncna811166

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201512/psychological-rehab-after-sports-injury

omenshealthmag.com/fitness/a19940231/mentally-heal-from-injury/

http://www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/mind-body-and-sport-how-being-injured-affects-mental-health