Regaining life after stroke: Dr. Mary Kneiser and post-stroke rehabilitation

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It is the utmost need of stroke survivors to get back on their feet and it’s the main duty of physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists like Mary Kneiser to help them fulfil this need.

Stroke is usually described as a ‘massive shock to the system.’ It is estimated that almost one-third of people who suffered from a stroke are left with physical and cognitive disabilities.

The effects of stroke vary according to its type, severity, and location. Regardless of what type of stroke a patient experienced, brain damage commonly occurs along with it, leading to the impairment of body functions. Though rehabilitation cannot totally eliminate the effects of brain damage, a recovery plan formed by a hospital’s stroke unit can significantly help people reach the best possible outcome. The road to recovery starts with a rehabilitation plan that’s tailored to the person’s needs.

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Dr. Mary Kneiser believes that the success of rehabilitation lies on the amount of time and effort rendered. A hospital’s stroke unit usually consists of therapists, including physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, and occupational therapists. A stroke unit can also tap into the expertise of dieticians, clinical psychologists, and advocacy groups in order to ensure that patients are getting the support to help them achieve the best long-term recovery.

According to Carole Pound of the stroke charity UK Connect, “stroke care is about giving the person who has had a stroke more choice and control and not necessarily independence.” He goes on to say, “Some people may never regain their independence, but it's important that they feel in control of their recovery.”

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Dr. Mary Kneiser: Debunking fibromyalgia myths

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More than 6 million Americans suffer from fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by widespread muscle and joint pain and fatigue. Physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists, like Dr. Mary Kneiser, note that fibromyalgia is the most common musculoskeletal condition after osteoarthritis. Nonetheless, it is often misdiagnosed and misunderstood.

Below are some myths about fibromyalgia and the truth behind them.

Fibromyalgia affects only women and older adults.
Fibromyalgia strikes both sexes and people of all ages. Although it occurs in about 1 in 30 women, it also afflicts men, 1 in 200. Meanwhile, the risk of developing fibromyalgia increases as one gets older.

Fibromyalgia is caused by depression.
Fibromyalgia is not caused by depression. Anxiety and depression are among the symptoms associated with fibromyalgia.

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Among the conditions treated by physiatrists, like Dr. Mary Kneiser, include spinal cord injury and musculoskeletal pain syndromes like fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia is not real.
Fibromyalgia is an illness recognized by healthcare professionals. Back in the 1800s, physicians wrote about “muscular rheumatism,” a condition characterized by fatigue, stiffness, aches, pains, and sleep disturbances. The current term was coined in 1976. Fibromyalgia is one of the most common types of chronic widespread pain.

Fibromyalgia is fatal.
Fibromyalgia is not life-threatening, but living with chronic widespread pain can be tough. With proper treatment, people with fibromyalgia can see symptoms improve.

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There is hope for people suffering from fibromyalgia. Rehabilitation specialists, like Dr. Mary Kneiser, can help those in pain. Visit www.abilityassessments.com for additional details.

Dr. Mary Kneiser: On backpacks and back pains

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Back pains are usually experienced by adults. This is no surprise, given that their bones and muscles lack the flexibility present in younger ones’. But for Dr. Mary Kneiser and other physiatrists, this idea is becoming less true because many children and teenagers nowadays also suffer from back pains. One of the reasons for this is their student lifestyle, which most of the time requires them to wear backpacks.

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Backpacks are efficient for busy and enthusiastic students who frequently carry a number of books and educational materials around. But if not used properly, backpacks pose health risks to passionate students who are eager to learn. For one, if these are overloaded, they end up straining the students’ backs, necks, and shoulders.

From babble.com

The back continuously adjusts to any load applied to it. For this reason, as Dr. Mary Kneiser and other experts in the physical medicine and rehabilitation field believe, heavy backpacks cause the natural curves in the middle and lower back to distort, leading to muscle strain and irritation of spine joints.

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Likewise, when students tend to carry their backpacks over only one shoulder, muscles start to become overworked as they try to compensate for the uneven weight.

With this, parents should guide their children on how to properly use their backpacks. School officials should also consider toning down the amount of materials they require students to bring every day. They should take in mind that they are responsible not only for the students’ mental and intellectual state but also for their physical condition.

Learn more about Dr. Mary Kneiser by visiting www.abilityassessments.com.

Dr. Mary Kneiser: Managing stress fractures in athletes

Dr. Mary Kneiser is a board-certified physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist.

Summer is extra special this year with the staging of the London Olympics. With more than 10,500 athletes competing in 26 events, the spotlight is on the sportsmen and women who will be competing for their country’s pride.

But amid all the pomp and glory surrounding the Olympics, there is another facet of such sporting event, which is literally painful for athletes. Rehabilitation specialists call this stress fracture.

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Stress fractures are overuse injuries of the bone. These fractures, which may be nascent or complete, result from repetitive subthreshold loading that, over time, exceeds the bone's intrinsic ability to repair itself. Physiatrists, like Dr. Mary Kneiser, explain that stress fractures commonly occur in sedentary people who suddenly undertake a burst of exercise with their bones not used to the tasks. In athletes, stress fractures happen to those who do extraordinary quantities of high-impact exercise, such as professional and amateur distance runners who run high weekly mileage.

Symptoms and treatment

Stress fractures usually have few symptoms. A stress fracture could present as a generalized area of pain and tenderness associated with weight bearing. When running, a stress fracture in the leg or foot will cause severe pain at the beginning of the run, moderate pain in the middle of the run, and severe pain in the end of the run.

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Rehabilitation experts such as Mary Kneiser note that the foundation of treatment for symptomatic stress injury is activity modification. For most stress fractures, the period of relative rest may be expected to last from 4-12 weeks. Factors influencing the duration of the activity restriction include the anatomic site of the stress injury and the extent of the stress injury.

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When getting back on your feet following a stress fracture, you must balance the need to return to sport with the need for safe healing. Rehabilitation specialists, like Dr. Mary Kneiser ,can help you do so. For more information about Dr. Kneiser, visit www.abilityassessments.com.

Dr. Mary Kneiser: Exercise for stroke recovery

Dr. Mary Kneiser is a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist based in Michigan. Among her most common patients are those who suffered from stroke and have difficulty in moving and speaking.

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Stroke occurs when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, preventing the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain. When the brain fails to obtain blood and oxygen, it starts to die, making the patient at high risk for brain damage. Symptoms of stroke include having difficulty in speaking and walking, sudden vision changes, and severe headache.

Treatment for stroke depends on its type. However, recovery from stroke, no matter what type it is, requires living a healthier lifestyle which includes being physically active. For rehabilitation specialists, like Dr. Mary Kneiser, exercise helps stroke patients in regaining the ability to move affected parts of the body such as the arms and legs. Exercise also helps in building strength and endurance, and in eliminating some of the risk factors for stroke, such as excess weight and high cholesterol levels.

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Before patients can start exercising, they should first consult with their doctor to formulate a proper exercise plan that suits their current condition. In exercising, it is recommended to include aerobic exercises and resistance and strength training to improve coordination and balance, and to decrease muscle atrophy.

Though many people think that exercising after a stroke is difficult, it actually helps the body recover more quickly and provides long-term benefits that can prevent another stroke from happening.

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To learn more about Dr. Mary Kneiser and her specialties in medicine, visit www.abilityassessments.com.

Mary Kneiser and iliotibial band friction syndrome

Iliotibial band friction syndrome has long been acknowledged as one of the most common lower extremities injuries in long distance runners. Physical medicine and rehabilitation experts, such as Mary Kneiser helps in developing rehabilitation regimens for athletes who have iliotibial band friction syndrome or “runner’s knee.”

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The condition is caused by repetitive movement of the Iliotibial band, a thick band of fibers running from the hip region to the outer thigh region. When a runner performs continuous unbalanced exercises or activities, such as running only on one side of an uphill road or running in one direction on track, this causes the pelvis to tilt to one side, putting stress on the iliotibial band on the knee. Factors that may lead to incurring iliotibial band syndrome injuries include:

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• Overuse syndrome
• Sudden and abrupt physical activities, and increase in training intensity
• Overtraining
• Ill-timed return from injuries
• Faulty biomechanics or movement
• Training flaws

Mary Kneiser and other physiatrists state that there are non-surgical alternatives for treating or alleviating the symptoms of this condition. These include:

• Alteration of warm-up regimens
• Using exercise machines that produce less stress on the iliotibial band
• Using addition heel lifts to compensate for leg length discrepancies
• Cessation or limitation of certain activities

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To avoid incurring this type of injury, runners should carefully choose their running shoes, and take time to properly stretch the leg muscles prior to engaging in long distance runs. It is also advised to rectify any training errors to negate possibilities of either exacerbating the injury, or to avoid incurring it.

For more information about Mary Kneiser, log on to www.abilityassessments.com.

Mary Kneiser and muscular dystrophy

Muscular dystrophy is a hereditary illness, and it causes progressive debilitation and degeneration of a patient’s muscular and skeletal system. Though there is still no cure for this condition, Mary Kneiser and other physiatrists provide patients with various treatments to improve their quality of life.

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Muscular dystrophy is a condition that weakens the muscles of the body that help it move. People who are afflicted with MD have flawed genetic information, restricting the body from producing the dystrophin, the needed for a healthy muscular system. Over time, the patient’s body is debilitated to a degree that it loses the ability to accomplish simple tasks like walking or even sitting up straight. Among the more common types of MD include:

• Duchenne muscular dystrophy 
• Becker muscular dystrophy 
• Limb-girdle dystrophy 
• Facioscapulohumeral dystrophy
• Myotonic muscular dystrophy 

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Physiatrists such as Dr. Mary Kneiser have determined that muscular pathology or dystrophy is a gender-locked disease, meaning that people who are most likely to develop the illness are males. Many females, though carrying the genetic abnormality, remain unaffected, and are unlikely to develop the disease. Their children, however, may develop the disease. Females who carry the genetic defect have a 50 percent chance of passing the disease to their offspring.

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Though there is no cure for MD, specialists such as Dr. Kneiser recommend several modes of prognosis aimed at keeping the patient independent of machine aids and to prevent any complications that may arise from the patient’s weakening muscles. Among these treatments are:

• Assisted ventilation 
• Medications 
• Physical therapy
• Nutritional changes and supplementing 
• Occupational therapy 
• Corrective surgery  

Mary Kneiser conducts her practice at Ability Assessments, PC. For more information, visit www.abilityassessments.com.