Heather Lane's Blog Page

31May 2022 by Patrick Donovan

Baseline Measures of Health | Heather Lane PT – Physical Therapist in Denver, CO

Health content

What's your baseline activity level? Are you getting 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week? How about the two days of multiple segment strength training? A quarter of adults and eight percent of older adults achieve the recommended dose of exercise per week. Well, if not, you're not alone. Only a quarter of adults and eight percent of older adults achieve the recommended dose of exercise per week. Today we are going to hone in not just on overall fitness or activity level, but the importance of baseline measures. We're going to look at one test: the 30-second sit-to-stand test. Sit to Stand Test This test captures important information on: Lower body strength, Static balance, Quad endurance, Spinal posture, Hip strength, And joint motion. This test is commonly used…

18May 2022 by Patrick Donovan

Building Physical Resilience Part 2

Health content

"Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce back." - Vivian Komori I've always referred to this when talking to our patients. We want to be able to bounce right back to where we started when we have a negative stressor. These negative events and setbacks in our life are inevitable, but we want to pop back up. I encourage you all to think differently ahead of your potential next setback. With aging, these setbacks get even harder to bounce back from. When people with less resiliency have a setback, they don't quite bounce back right to where they started. Whether they're in the hospital for a night, or something negative happened emotionally in their lives, it's hard to bounce back.…

25Apr 2022 by Patrick Donovan

How to Build Physical Resilience

Health content

Physical resilience is our ability to bounce back following a negative health stressor. Whether it's stress-related or a physical injury, building a reservoir of resilience allows room for setbacks in life. Health stressors come in many different shapes and sizes. They could be the emotional toll of taking care of your spouse, they could be an acute injury or even cancer treatment. These setbacks are unavoidable and often unpredictable. So how do we physically bounce back from events we can't even prepare for? We become a rubber band. The strongest most, flexible rubber band we can. A rubber band encapsulates our collective strength flexibility endurance and overall fitness the more we can pull our bodies safely in each direction, the less likely we are to encounter a pulled hamstring, back…

18Apr 2022 by Patrick Donovan

Gait Speed as the Sixth Vital Sign

ankle, foot, Health content

Hello everyone Dr. Donovan here and today, we will be talking about travel speed as the sixth vital sign. The 5 commonly accepted vital signs are: Blood pressure, Heart rate, Oxygen saturation, Respiration, And temperature. One of the biggest things I have observed in my work is that any adult's walking or hiking behaviors are a marker of their health. You can also find greater control over your mental health and environmental control by improving your travel speed, and measuring the speed of movement according to the predicted health condition. There is something to be gained by improving your gait speed for everyone. For example, if you have a single gait speed, which is another name for walking speed, you can potentially increase it for an overall positive impact. There…

04Apr 2022 by Patrick Donovan

The Lifespan of Health

Health content, Prevention

We all have been raised by hearing the most famous proverb, "Health is Wealth". This proverb indicates that nothing is more important than good health, but as we grow up, a significant deterioration can be noticed in our health. The branch of physical health and sciences did amazing wonders in the sciences and paved new ways for people to enjoy a long healthy life as much as possible. Physical therapy is also a part of this phenomenon that is leading wonders to people's lives. This branch of wonders constitutes therapists who provide services to individuals and make efforts to restore, develop and maintain the utmost movement and functional ability for the whole Span of life as the active movement is an integral component of good health. Physical Therapy brings an…

09Nov 2021 by Brigitte B

5 Movements to Help Manage Parkinson’s Disease

Health content

Most people know that exercise helps aging adults stay healthy. With the right workout routine, you can manage your pain and keep your body functioning the way it should. But did you know exercise can also improve some disease symptoms? Research shows that activity is very important for people with Parkinson's Disease. Some movements can help manage symptoms and slow progression of the disease (1). To get the most out of a workout routine, work with a licensed physical therapist. After evaluating your symptoms, they can make an exercise plan that is right for you. Let's look at some of the movements that can help patients with Parkinson's Disease. Of course, this article doesn't replace a doctor's visit. Before starting a new exercise routine, talk to a trained health professional. …

09Nov 2021 by Brigitte B

Caring for Mom or Dad? Read These Tips for Help

Health content

As a child, your parents always took care of you. It never occurred to you at that point in your life that one day, you might need to do the same for them. It can be a difficult transition, but we make it easier by discussing below how your role in the family changes as your parents age and how you can give your parents the best care possible without sacrificing your own self-care. How Your Family Caregiving Role Evolves Family caregiving stages often progress as follows: Awareness stage: You take your parents to doctor appointments, do small errands, check in, and communicate concerns regarding your parent’s condition and treatment with their healthcare provider. Unfolding responsibility stage: You closely monitor your mom or dad’s symptoms and medications, take control of…

13Aug 2021 by Brigitte B

Here’s Why Your Fear of Falling Makes Things Worse

Health content

Many seniors are scared of falling and take multiple precautions to avoid a slip. With as many as 29 million falls and 7 million injuries happening every year in adults 65 and older, seniors are right to be concerned. But there’s a point where the fear of falling actually increases your risk of taking a tumble. Below we discuss how and why, and what you can do to assess your fall risk from home. How Fear and Risk of Falling Relate Studies show that when we’re scared or anxious about falling and hurting ourselves, we overcompensate through a “stiffening strategy.” That’s when we reduce our range of motion by stiffening our bodies and change our posture to keep from losing our balance. While these movements might help if you’re standing…

10Aug 2021 by Brigitte B

Breaking the Breaking Cycle: Treatment and Prevention of Osteoporosis

Health content

Osteoporosis is a bone density disease that can cause a thinning and weakening of the bones. This disease most commonly affects women of advanced age, typically onsetting in the first few years of menopause. While it is most common in women, it can also affect men and even children in rare cases. The most common symptom of Osteoporosis is bone breaks due to the deterioration of the bone. These breaks are characterized by their severity in relation to the situation that caused the break. Unprompted breaks without proper impact or a break caused by very minimal contact may be due to the low bone density of Osteoporosis. Hip breaks alone account for more than 300,000 hospitalizations yearly. Risk Factors Other than gender, there are many factors that contribute to…

05Aug 2021 by Brigitte B

How to Improve Your Hand Arthritis Without Surgery

Health content

It seems like the older we get, the harder it is to perform precision movements like buttoning shirts or grip tasks like picking up a fork or opening a jar. Health conditions, such as hand arthritis, accelerate the hand’s aging through joint damage. This makes it even harder to complete mundane tasks with our fingers. But we can stop and even reverse the effects of hand arthritis with physical therapy. Here’s what to know about the condition and the exact exercises you can do to improve your pain and dexterity without surgery. Hand Osteoarthritis vs. Hand Rheumatoid Arthritis We hear a lot about arthritis in the hands, hips, and knees, but did you know there are two primary types of arthritis? Osteoarthritis (OA) is by far the most common, with…