Managing Arthritis with Alternative Treatments

Brian Boekhout | posted February 15, 2009 |

As a Regional Director of Clinical Services for Aegis Therapies, I am always excited to help our teams improve the quality of the clinical care they provide throughout our facilities. Although it has been many years since it was my job to be a hands-on therapist on a daily basis, I still love finding ways to improve and add to the types of care we provide.

My training to become a physical therapist took place back in the early 1990s at the University of Missouri. One of my professors focused a lot on arthritis and managing all aspects of an individual’s care. Since arthritis is basically inflammation of the joints that causes pain and loss of movement, reducing that inflammation is part of what helps an individual’s symptoms improve.

For physical therapists, managing arthritis through diet or other alternative treatments isn’t necessarily something that would be a primary consideration. Physical therapists tend to focus on strengthening and protecting joints, managing pain and maintaining or improving range of motion.

However, we shouldn’t lose sight of non-traditional interventions. I think back to my professor and the way she used to focus on the whole person, not just their joints. A nutritious diet was important to the patient with arthritis because certain foods are shown to decrease the inflammatory response in the body. Foods rich in antioxidants or omega-3 fatty acids, such as spinach, salmon, walnuts and blueberries have been shown to reduce inflammation.

In the past, I had a patient who had terrible arthritis and need a bilateral hip and knee replacement. Her doctors wouldn’t perform surgery until she lost 50-60 pounds. As part of our wellness program, we worked with her to lose weight. She modified her diet and participated in water aerobics and low-impact strengthening classes. She ended up dropping 65 pounds. Her arthritis had improved so much from her lifestyle change that she no longer needed the surgery!

Though we use many traditional methods to treat arthritis at Aegis Therapies, we are also beginning to incorporate more non-tradition methods. In addition to utilizing Freedom Through Functionality (FTF) and Geriatric Enhanced Modalities (GEM) programs, we also include aquatic exercise, low-impact strength-building and cardiovascular exercise classes. We’ll also be rolling out new programs in 2009, such as tai chi and relaxation programs that may help manage pain in arthritic patients.

When coaching my team, I always remind them of one thing: they have great therapy tools at their fingertips. We should always consider new research and innovative, alternative ways to help our patients. If they don’t explore their patients’ options, they’re doing them an injustice. Our goal is to improve the lives of our patients, and that means considering all the alternatives.