Have you ever tried to make and sustain a lifestyle or behaviour change? How easy was it? Someone once explained to me that some things in life are simple, but that doesn’t equate to them being easy. For example, if you want to lose weight, it’s simple – exercise more and eat less, but if [read the full story…]
Osteoarthritis of the knee is a common condition and typically presents with painful and restricted function and sometimes varus (bow legs) and valgus (knock knees) deformity of the knee. Once the condition and pain worsens knee joint replacement surgery is a treatment option. Patients typically improve in terms of pain and function but there is [read the full story…]
A previous blog by one of our industrious Musculoskeletal Elves looked at how osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip or knee affected work participation. This got me thinking about the converse situation – can work be a predisposing factor for the development of OA? We Elves are involved in quite a lot of heavy lifting, particularly around Christmas [read the full story…]
I was catching up with a colleague at a conference last week and was very interested to hear that she is involved in a project about Health Literacy and musculoskeletal conditions. Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make [read the full story…]
Osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip or knee joints is a very common condition amongst the elderly; however, what is often forgotten is that its onset is often while people are still in paid employment, which may lead to perceived difficulties in performing work tasks. We Elves are very hard-working individuals, so I asked myself, in [read the full story…]
In this series of blogs with a London 2012 Olympic flavour we have discussed the evidence on the main running related injuries, neuromuscular warm up strategies and tape for patellofemoral pain syndrome. I’m going to London to watch the women’s Olympic football semi finals at Wembley Stadium this week. I hope that I will be [read the full story…]
Welcome to the Musculoskeletal Elf! This is the first of many regular articles that we plan to publish on this website; highlighting reliable musculoskeletal research and guidance for health and social care professionals. Our first few blogs will have relevance to the London 2012 summer Olympic Games and Paralympic Games taking place just now. Well done [read the full story…]
The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) as with many of the other joints, can be affected by osteoarthritis (OA). This is characterized by progressive destruction of the internal surfaces of the joint which can result in debilitating pain and joint noises. Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis affecting the TMJ. The aim of this [read the full story…]
Read this important new research if you work in mental health or public health and have an interest in the relationship between mental disorders and adversity in childhood and chronic physical conditions in later adult life. The cross sectional study was conducted by researchers in New Zealand who set out to investigate whether childhood adversities [read the full story…]
Osteoarthritis (OA) of the temporomandibular joint is found in about 5-16% of those referred with temporomandibular disorders (TMD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of oral glucosamine sulphate, compared with placebo, on pain and function in patients diagnosed with osteoarthritis in the temporomandibular joints. Patients with the research diagnostic criteria for [read the full story…]
