Disease and Its Symptoms
In the series about professionals, I now introduce physiotherapy specialist, personal trainer and spinal expert Angi Nimród, who after a severe car accident — having been declared disabled — worked on her own rehabilitation for five years. That experience inspired her to help others as well. She has earned respect in the profession and is a member of the board of the Massage Therapists Association. She mainly treats spinal patients, but because of her reputation athletes also line up with various complaints.
Summer is here! We get into a car, bus, train or plane and visit resorts and sights. Prolonged sitting during travel can be dangerous and favors the development of thrombosis.
The word stress has become something of a "curse word" these days — in most cases you probably think of something negative. Yet the original purpose of stress is self-protection. To quickly resolve a dangerous situation, it activates your body with explosive speed. Because of it you can exert forces and perform movements you otherwise couldn't — which can be very useful in certain situations. However, if you're exposed to chronic stress, your body constantly feels threatened and this constant emergency readiness has negative effects on your system. A range of unexplained and treatment-resistant complaints can be traced back to stress.
If you see a doctor about a complaint, your physician will begin a kind of "investigation." They search for measurable, visible, tangible — that is, "well-defined" — identifiable changes until they find something that seems to confirm their suspicion. After an accident, an X-ray is taken, and if a fracture is visible in the bone, the diagnosis is made. However, a large portion of illnesses do not present such clear-cut signs. You may undergo a multitude of tests and still no abnormality is detectable: the X-ray is normal, lab values are not elevated, and other tests do not show deviations. Often chronic stress is behind such cases — something you rarely think of... and, unfortunately, many doctors don't either.
Peyronie's disease is a disorder affecting the penis. Hard nodules form in the penis, causing an increasing curvature. In some cases it is painful and in advanced stages can make sexual intercourse impossible. Nevertheless, only a small proportion of those affected see a doctor because of embarrassment. If you notice such symptoms, consult a physician – a urologist or andrologist is appropriate. The sooner you start treatment, the greater your chance of stopping its progression or eliminating the complaint. Read the details!
Limb paralysis means weakness, clumsiness, or even complete inability to move one of your body parts. Dressing, washing, eating or drinking can become difficult. In more severe paralysis you may even be unable to care for yourself. This is very frightening, but in most cases the condition can be improved. The likelihood of success and the time needed depend on whether the paralysis is central or peripheral, what caused it, how large an area is affected, how quickly acute care began and how effective that care was. After that, rehabilitation comes next, which you should start as soon as possible under the guidance of a physiotherapist and continue persistently after returning home. Reaching the final outcome can take months, even years! So you must not give up despite a lack of results in the first days. Modern technology—especially biofeedback and electrotherapy devices—can be a huge help. This article also covers those.
If you're being treated for COPD (chronic obstructive bronchitis), it's important to know that the disease is currently not curable. Therefore, treatments aim to reduce or eliminate your symptoms. But they won't do much without you! If you don't take your medications or quit smoking, your symptoms will worsen. Breathlessness can even interfere with your everyday activities. Let's look at what you can and should do!
“Difficult days”, “that time of the month” – even common expressions hint that menstruation can often be quite unpleasant. Every woman experiences this time differently. Some aren’t bothered by these few days at all. Some suffer mild discomfort, and some are tormented by almost unbearable pain, which can lead to missed days from work or school…
Varicose veins (also called venous insufficiency or varicose veins) mean the dilation and winding of the veins, most often on the lower leg. They develop when the valves in the veins do not work properly. In this case the blood cannot efficiently return to the heart and pools in the veins. Under increasing pressure they dilate and become tortuous. At first it is only a cosmetic problem and may be reversible, but it can quickly become permanent and cause symptoms.
Stroke (pronounced: strok) is the collective name for diseases that mean a severe disturbance of the brain's blood supply. Older and folk names include: apoplexy, stroke of paralysis, brain softening, cerebral hemorrhage, brain infarction. The symptoms and consequences can be similar in every case. Stroke always denotes a permanent condition, meaning functions are usually not fully restorable. In fortunate and mild cases the symptoms disappear within 24 hours and the loss of function is temporary. In such cases it is not called a stroke but a transient ischemic attack (medical name: TIA).
Peripheral neuropathy is damage to the peripheral nerve fibers, which causes sensory and balance disturbances and unsteadiness. Its main symptoms are tingling, numbness, burning sensations and a feeling of vibration. Pain often worsens at night, and touching the painful area or even changes in temperature can increase it. Neuropathy is not yet curable. Symptom relief is limited but possible.
Hundreds of thousands of people in our country struggle with difficulties in holding urine. Most patient information sites recommend pads, diapers, medications and surgeries as “solutions”, but these bring no or only minimal improvement. Better results come from strengthening the pelvic floor muscles or relearning how to relax them. Various pelvic floor exercise routines can be effective in half to one year (provided you practice 40–50 minutes daily). With electrical incontinence stimulators the process is significantly faster. A beneficial effect can be felt after just 2–3 weeks of treatment. Within three months stress, urge and mixed incontinence can be completely eliminated or at least significantly improved in almost all cases.
