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Blog

From the desk of Dr. Dan Witte, PT, DPT, OCS

Witte Physical Therapy, Louisville & PlattsmouthBlog
By Dr. Dan Witte Therapy

Are You Safe to be Outside?

March 10, 2020 – March is patient safety month so let’s take some time to explore many different aspects of safety. This week we are going to focus on how to be safe in your community environment.

Many of us, especially as we get wiser in our years, have issues or concerns as we go out for our daily tasks. These issues can include navigate curbs, going through a crowd, the length of the walk to and thru the store, driving in traffic, among other items.

How do we navigate through these obstacles? Is it ok to feel like we should be avoiding these things for our safety? These are great questions that we are going to answer.

First, navigating through these obstacles is very much attainable. Using a suitable assistive device can help us navigate curbs and work in a crowd. Staying close to objects for stability can also help. Getting a shopping cart to help us make the walk into and thru the store can make that trip not seem too long. Avoid busier traffic times may also help.

We should never feel like we need to stay in and avoid what we want to do in order to be safe. There are always ways to make these activities and others that make us feel unsafe a better situation for us. These include things that we can help you address in physical therapy. Call us at 402-234-3333 in Louisville and at 402-298-4747 in Plattsmouth.

Your Witte Physical Therapy team #homegrown #backtolife

By Dr. Dan Witte Therapy

How Safe is Your Home?

March 3, 2020 – March is patient safety month so let’s take some time to explore many different aspects of safety. This week we are going to focus on how to be safe in your home.

Image result for patient falls

First we must identify what safety hazards can be found in your home. These items are very commonly found in many of our houses and they are not often thought of as safety hazards.

  1. Rugs: The bumps and uneven surfaces can catch our feet
  2. Pets: These can become tripping hazards as they run around our feet or jump up on us
  3. Darkness: Poorly lit walkways, especially if we wake up at night, can cause issues with our balance and safety
  4. Cords: Any exposed cords can be tripped on
  5. Stairs: Any stairs that are too steep or too narrow can be difficult to navigate
  6. Low Stools or Chairs: Toilet seats, kitchen chairs, or bar stools can be difficult to sit down on with control and to stand up from with good balance and strength

Making simple changes to these items or eliminating those items that we can (of course we wouldn’t eliminate our pets) can be a big step forward in preventing a fall and causing further medical issues such as a hospitalization or a stay in a nursing home.

If you are worried about these issues or falling in general please call us in Louisville at 402-234-3333 or in Plattsmouth at 402-298-4747.

Your Witte Physical Therapy team #homegrown #backtolife

By Dr. Dan Witte Therapy

What is Vital about your Vital Signs?

February 25, 2020 – When we all visit our physician, we also get our vital signs taken. They like to see what our pulse, blood pressure, and oxygen levels are. What is considered a healthy range for these numbers?

Body Temperature

  1. Normal range is 97.8 to 99 degrees
  2. If measured under the arm the amount is usually about 0.5 degrees lower than by your mouth
  3. Can be measured on your forehead or ear with the correct thermometer

Pulse Rate

  1. Normal range is 60-100 beats per minute for most adults
  2. Healthy and active adults can have pulse rates below 60 beats per minute and still be healthy and without any problems
  3. Pulse can be taken with monitors or by using your index and middle finger and finding your pulse on the palm side of your wrist just below your thumb and wrist crease

Respiration Rate

  1. Normal range is 12-16 breaths per minute for most adults

Blood Pressure

  1. Normal is usually between 100 and 120 mmHg on the top number and 60 to 80 mmHg on the bottom number
  2. The top number measures the pressure of the blood in the artery when the heart is pumping, and the bottom number measures the pressure of the blood when the heart is filling

Understanding these simple numbers can help you screen yourself at home for any early signs of potential problems. A thermometer and a simple electronic blood pressure cuff can be purchased inexpensively and can be great life saving tools for you to keep around your house. If you ever have any questions or concerns about what you are measuring, you can contact us at 402-234-3333 in Louisville or 402-298-4747 in Plattsmouth for guidance.

Your Witte Physical Therapy Team #homegrown #backtolife

By Dr. Dan Witte Therapy

How to Feed your Hungry Heart!

February 18, 2020 – How does that cheeseburger and side salad affect your heart health? Can you have that fruit smoothie and not have to worry about your heart? We probably don’t think too often about our diet and how it affects our heart health, but since February is Heart Month it is important to understand how hard we can work our heart physically and through the food we eat.

Foods that we should eat include:

  1. Cooking in extra virgin olive oil and not other vegetable oil
  2. Eating more berries for our fruit intake
  3. Making sure we are eating enough nuts per day, but not too many
  4. Green leafy vegetables are the best vegetables
  5. More plant-based proteins than animal based protein

Image result for images of heart healthy foods

Foods that we should limit or avoid include

  1. High dose antioxidant supplements
  2. Juicing of fruit or vegetables with pulp removal
  3. Foods containing gluten
  4. Eggs
  5. Southern diets (fried foods and processed meats)

Planning out what you are going to eat ahead of time will make following these changes easier. We can try to exercise our heart better (see previous blog posts), but if we don’t eat right then we are only going to see partial results. This works in the opposite way as well, eating right and sitting on the couch won’t get us the results we want. Our heart health is very important to a long a health life.

For further guidelines or questions please contact us at 402-234-3333 in Louisville or 402-298-4747 in Plattsmouth.

Your Witte Physical Therapy team #homegrown #backtolife

By Dr. Dan Witte Exercises

What is Aerobic Exercise?

February 11, 2020 – What do you think of when you think aerobic exercise? Walking, biking, swimming, golfing? The truth is that all of these are great examples of aerobic activity and these are just the tip of the iceberg.

Image result for aerobic exercise

(image obtained from study.com)

Some people find it much easier to participate in aerobic activities in the summer months. We generally get more sun and because of that we are usually in a better mood and thus more active. It is easier to go for a walk or a jog outside, to head to the local pool or lake for a swim, to go to our great State Parks and do some hiking or rowing. But what about this time of year?

In the winter most of our days are spent inside trying to get exercise. This is hard to do as we are usually stuck inside working and then don’t want to go outside in the sloppy and cold winter weather, making it hard to get a good workout in. At the gym we can get on the treadmill, exercise bike, stair climber, rowing machine, or elliptical to get our heart rate up. But sometimes, getting around some other people makes that workout seem better. Taking a kick boxing or dancing class can get our blood pumping. Working on circuit training or doing other aerobic classes can also help.

Once you find an activity that you enjoy then we need to understand how well it works on our heart. In our blog last week we presented ways to measure how hard you and your heart are working. Typically moderate intensity aerobic activities could include walking, biking, golfing without a cart, or dancing. Vigorous activities including running, soccer, basketball, cross country skiing, or swimming.

For further guidelines or questions please contact us at 402-234-3333 in Louisville or 402-298-4747 in Plattsmouth.

Your Witte Physical Therapy team #homegrown #backtolife

By Dr. Dan Witte Exercises

How Hard Are You Working?

February 4, 2020 – When we are working out there are certain measures we should be at. These include what our heart rate is at and for how long, how we feel on rep 1 versus rep 10, and how long we do certain activities. For aerobic activities we can look at two measures, RPE and Target Heart Rate.

RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion. It is measured on a scale of 0-10 and is used as a subjective measure to determine how hard you are working while doing certain activities. For exercise the ideal number is between a 4 and 6. A 0 is equal to sitting on the couch and a 10 equates to pushing a car up a hill.

Image result for rpe scale"

Target Heart Rate is the heart rate you should be at when working out to achieve proper aerobic stress. It is calculated by figuring out your maximum heart rate. Take 220 minus your age and that is your maximum heart rate. Ideally you should be at 50% for a beginner and up to 85% for an experienced aerobic trainer. For example, a 36-year-old man who works out 3 days per week would have a maximum heart rate of 184. Therefore, his target heart rate should be about 70% of his maximum heart rate or 129 bpm.

Image result for target heart rate"

Following these simple guidelines will help make sure that every minute that you put into your workout is maximizing your potential to reach your ideal aerobic and cardiac health levels. By doing this you are decreasing your risk of heart disease which is a leading cause of complicated health conditions and death in the United States. Please contact us at 402-234-3333 in Louisville or 402-298-4747 in Plattsmouth if you have any further questions.

Your Witte Physical Therapy Team #homegrown #backtolife

By Dr. Dan Witte Exercises

General Neck Exercises

January 28, 2020 – If you have taken the time to read our previous blogs for the month of January you have seen a common theme, postural issues causing neck problems. Now that you have read this previous information, lets take the next step. What can you do about it?

At home you can start with some basic daily exercises to help with your postural awareness and to decrease strain on your neck. These include general neck range of motion exercises. We call these yes, no, maybes. Making the motion with your head of these simple movements (without shrugging your shoulders) can help keep your neck moving normally. Also, adding in some basic neck stretching for your upper trap and levator muscle groups will help keep these relaxed. Finally, doing some simple shoulder blade squeezes will remind us to sit up straight and keep those muscles strong.

Image result for upper trap stretch picture

Of course, doing these simple things will reduce your chance of developing neck and postural pain or headaches, but it can’t eliminate the risk. If doing these simple things doesn’t work for you then contact us at 402-234-3333 in Louisville or 402-298-4747 in Plattsmouth.

Your team at Witte Physical Therapy #homegrown #backtolife

By Dr. Dan Witte Therapy

Headaches!

January 21, 2020 – We have all had headaches at some point in our life. These headaches can be very hit and miss, related to a cold, or even worse be a migraine. Migraines can be the most frustrating types of headaches as they tend to be more consistent and stronger and tend to not respond to basic over the counter treatments.

Image result for headache pictures

Migraines can cause us to see different objects, lose sight temporarily in an eye, feel like we are having a stroke, feeling like we are having a burning sensation around our eyes, or be caused by an issue with our neck. Physical therapy can help with some of these issues, but the most common headache problem we treat are those that are caused by a neck issue.

As we have discussed in our last two blogs, posture is very important. If we have inadequate posture it can put extra strain on our cervical spine, causing our cervical paraspinals and upper trap muscles to become tight, and increase tension through our TMJ that can cause headaches in our temples or ones that radiate from the back of our head.

Physical therapy can help treat the above symptoms with a variety of manual therapy techniques, exercises, and modalities to decrease muscle tone, improve segmental mobility, improve ROM, and work on postural strength and awareness. For more information call us at 402-234-3333 in Louisville or 402-298-4747 in Plattsmouth.

Your team at Witte Physical Therapy #homegrown #backtolife

By Dr. Dan Witte Spine

Why is my neck hurting so much?

January 14, 2020 – If your teenagers and pre-teens are like those at my house, then we are constantly asking them to get off their phones or tablets. These devices are too addictive and can cause too many issues for our eyes and posture.

If you read our post last week we talked about posture at our desk, but what about our kids? Having proper posture with searching Facebook on your phone or watching Youtube on your tablet is nearly impossible.

To help to prevent and minimize possible pains caused by poor posture using these devices we must try to remember a few tips. First, try to limit our time on these devices to no more than 15 minutes at a time. Second, we should hold the device as close to chin level as we can. If we are constantly looking down in our lap as we are watching these devices it puts too much strain on our neck and its muscles. Lastly, make sure the brightness of the screen is appropriate for your eyes and the setting you are using it in.

Making these simple changes can help you to promote better postural strength and awareness and decrease your likelihood of having pain for these reasons. For more information call us at 402-234-3333 in Louisville or 402-298-4747 in Plattsmouth.

Your team at Witte Physical Therapy #homegrown #backtolife

By Dr. Dan Witte Spine

Desk Posture

January 7, 2020 – What a flattering picture of me at my desk! Truth is, this is how I normally look when I am not seeing patients. Sitting at my desk, working on my computer, oblivious to my posture. More and more we find ourselves working on our computers at our desks. This is becoming more necessary as the world evolves and we become more reliant on computers to do our work. But this comes at a cost.

One of the biggest issues we treat in physical therapy is neck and upper back pain. This most often is found in our patients that spend a lot of time at their desk or on their computers. The fact is that the computers and desks are not made to fit us, but they are made to fit the look of the space they are in.

Proper desk posture includes relaxed shoulders, elbows and knees at 90 degrees, wrists at neutral, and feet resting comfortably and flat on the floor. The top of the computer screen should be at eye level with our head in neutral, not looking down position. This often requires an extended computer stand or a standing desk to have our head and eyes in the proper position.

Most of the devices and adaptations needed for these simple changes can be bought online. These changes have the potential to save you big bucks in future healthcare costs. For more information on these changes, ergonomics, or how we can help improve your postural awareness and strength call us at 402-234-3333 in Louisville or 402-298-4747 in Plattsmouth. You can also email dan@wittephysicaltherapy.com and request more information

Your team at Witte Physical Therapy #homegrown #backtolife