Fall 2006

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gbpt iconAnnouncing our new office in Bath

bath locationThanks to the on-going support of local doctors and patients, GBPT will be opening a new satellite office in Bath, ME in January 2007. Our new office is conveniently located in the heart of historic, downtown Bath at 30 Front Street, next to Route 1 and across from Bath Iron Works.

We will be sharing our new office with Perian Moore, certified personal trainer and owner of Inspire ME. She is a well-established fitness professional in the Bath community, utilizing state-of the-art exercise equipment. Our physical therapy services will be enhanced by this full-line of gym equipment, as well as by our aquatic therapy program at the nearby Bath YMCA.

The new office, Greater Brunswick PT—Bath, will continue to offer the same hands-on, compassionate, quality care we are known for at our Brunswick location. Since 1988, GBPT-Brunswick has built a reputation of excellence and positive healthy outcomes for our patients. Many of our referrals come from satisfied patients.

We will also offer massage therapy at the Bath site. The new location, which is directly above Mary Ellenz Restaurant, has ample parking in the Key Bank parking lot as well as the lot bordering the restaurant. It is a bright, open and comfortable space within easy walking distance of BIW and the downtown shopping area.

We look forward to better serving our clients who work or live in Bath and the surrounding areas. To schedule appointments or to find out more about this new office, contact us at 729-1164.

gbpt iconAquatic Therapy at the Bath YMCA

gbptBeginning September 5, 2006, the Bath YMCA became the new home for the Greater Brunswick PT Aquatic Therapy Program. The Bath Y is a wonderful, good-as-new facility that offers an Olympic-sized, six-lane, cold-water swimming pool, a therapeutic, warm-water (88 to 90 degrees F) exercise pool and a large whirlpool. They also have separate locker rooms for women, men, girls, boys and even a “family” changing area and bathroom where family members or others can help get someone ready for a pool adventure.

We love being at the Bath Y! The staff is friendly, helpful and professional and the facility is clean, warm, well-lit and functional. The warm-water pool is also completely handicapped accessible.

We offer aquatic therapy at the Y on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. We have exclusive use of the warm-water pool where we offer hands-on, individualized aquatic therapy for our patients. Our therapists enjoy working right alongside our patients in the pool as we exercise, educate and utilize manual aquatic therapeutic techniques.

Aquatic Therapy is a gentle and pain—free way to rehabilitate back, neck and joint injuries. It is also exceptional for the treatment of arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Myofascial Pain Syndrome and for pre and post-surgeries. There are a few contraindications, such as open wounds, fever or extreme fear of the water. However, almost all diagnoses can benefit from the healing effects of warm water: buoyancy, hydrostatic pressure and viscosity.

Aquatic Therapy is covered by most insurances and can be an important component of your plan of care. Ask your therapist if aquatic therapy is right for you!

gbpt iconLight Body Free Healing Clinic

gbptSummer in Maine is magical, but in Harpswell this year, it was also a good time for healing. On a bright sunny Friday in July, with waves crashing in the background and massage tables spread out across her lawn and porches, Donna Maria Bordeaux launched a pilot program of free manual therapy to those in need. Additional free clinics were offered in August and September.
As the founder and co-owner of Greater Brunswick PT, Donna Maria has long dreamt of offering free therapy clinics as a way of giving back to the community. Light Body Free Healing Clinic was created with pure intentions of manifesting abundant healing care for all. “I wanted to reach out to individuals who might not have the opportunity or finances to receive healing care,” she said.

A team of 10 health care practitioners donated their time, skills and energy to the cause, offering physical therapy, massage therapy, Reiki, reflexology and other energy-based treatments. Those who attended the free clinics were offered as much hands-on care as they wanted and time allowed, often receiving two to three treatments throughout the day. Music, luscious brownies, lemonade and lots of laughter and hugs rounded out the festivities.

It was “glorious” according to Harpswell resident Susan Harowitz. She attended the clinic in September and was so appreciative of the bodywork she received, she wrote a letter of public thanks to Donna Maria. Her comments were published in the October 2006 issue of Harpswell Anchor:

“The day was beautiful, the setting was spectacular, and everything was offered without charge. What a gift of healing and light!”

The 2006 Light Body Free Healing Clinics were so well received, Donna Maria plans to offer them again next summer. For more information, or if you are interested in volunteering, please contact Donna Maria at 729-1164.

gbpt iconHEALTHY BOOKS MAKE GREAT GIFTS!

Sometimes learning about the human body is the best way to understand an injury, a medical diagnosis or the aging process. However, it’s not easy to find text books that are written for public consumption. Recently several new books have come on the market that are well written, easy to read and perfect companions to physical therapist and their patients.

The first is “Age-Defying Fitness: Making the Most of Your Body for the Rest of Your Life” by Marilyn Moffat, DPT, PhD, PT and Carole B. Lewis, DPT, PhD, PT. Drs. Moffat and Lewis are recognized as two of the top physical therapist in the US.

Their collaboration is aimed at the “Baby Boomers,” the oldest of which just turned 60 this year while the youngest is 42. All the models pictured in this book are in this age group. More importantly, the book offers tools for assessing your starting capabilities. It is organized into domains of fitness: posture, strength, balance, flexibility and endurance. In each domain there are tests that readers can perform to see where they are and track their progress.

People often get themselves in trouble when they start an exercise program because they do too much without knowing where they are. This book gives the public a way to understand where they are and how to begin gradually and carefully so that they don’t over do it.

Age—Defying Fitness: Making the Most of Your Body for the Rest of Your Life
ISBN 1-56145-333—1, 304 pages, 20 B&W illustrations, 215 B&W photos, Includes a Thera-Band® resistive exercise band, $19.95

The next book to add to your library is You: The Owner’s Manual by Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz. Designed as a “from the inside out” guide to total body health, this book presents the human body as you have never seen it before. Instead of dry, impenetrable scientific jargon, this myth-breaking guide present simple yet memorable analogies. For example, the spinal structure is described as an Oreo cookie: two hard vertebral bones bracketing a soft disc center than can be squeezed out. It makes learning about organs, bones, and the human immune system fun and interesting.

Other books by Doctors Roizen and Oz include You: On a Diet and You: The Smart Patient. They wrote their weight loss book from the perspective that waist size is more important than weight. They contend that belly fat is so strongly linked to many health risks that it’s best to ditch the scale in favor of a tape measure. For example, this succinct advice on how a newly diagnosed diabetics can lose weight:

“Without a doubt, diabetes can be as damaging to your health as an annoyed anaconda. But if you can hit these goals, you’ll decrease the aging effect of diabetes by 80%, maybe even more. Avoid all white food (we’re talking icing and white bread, not cauliflower). Walk 30 minutes a day, no matter what. Measure your waist around your belly button every Sunday. Aim to lose an inch a month. After 30 days of walking, learn to lift weights and then integrate a training program into your weekly routine. Get a blood-pressure monitor and take it every Sunday. Your goal: 115/75. Avoid all sugars, including all high –fructose corn syrup, especially if it’s one of the first 5 ingredients listed on a label. Have as much fruit (whole, not fruit mixes or canned) and veggies as you want. Eat a half-ounce of nuts (6 walnuts halves, 12 almonds, or 20 peanuts) 8 minutes before each meal followed in 4 minutes by a glass of water.”

Doctors Roizen and Oz are also co—owners of Real Age, a company that offers free medial advice and personalized health screenings. Try their health questionnaire and determine your “REAL” age at their web site www.RealAge.com. It’s free and it’s very eye opening. But be prepared to spend several minutes and to answer everything from how fast you drive to your total cholesterol, HDL and LDL levels and resting heart rate.

gbpt iconFatigue gene isolated

Findings from a recent study reveal that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is caused by genetic mutations that inhibit the body’s ability to respond to stress. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention led the research, the largest CFS study to date. They found that CFS affects nearly one million people in the US, three out of five are women.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (also called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, ME, or post-viral fatigue syndrome) has a mixed bag of symptoms that can vary, although extreme, unrelievable fatigue is the syndrome’s hallmark symptom. Most sufferers are unable to cope with everyday stress whether caused by infection, injury, trauma or any other adverse event. CFS symptoms include low-grade fever, nausea, memory loss, muscle pain, vertigo and the combination of unexplained bone-deep tiredness and sleeplessness. It can be as debilitating as Multiple Sclerosis and AIDS, leaving its victims in bed for weeks, even years.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was first recognized in the mid—1980s with outbreaks of persistent flu-like conditions reported in Lake Tahoe, Nevada and Lyndonville, New York. Baffled physicians thought the culprit might be a bacteria or viral agent carried in the air or water supply. Later the strange illness was dubbed “the yuppie flu” and mistaken for chronic Epstein-Barr virus syndrome also called chronic mononucleosis. Researchers now believe the Epstein-Barr infection is among the many triggers for CFS.

The CDC study was published in the April 2006 issue of Pharmacogenomics. The study used 227 volunteers, both chronic fatigue patients and healthy controls They checked into a Wichita Kansas hospital for two days and underwent comprehensive testing, including psychiatric exams, sleep pattern evaluation, analyses of urine, hormones and blood and DNA assessments of 20,000 genes. Working independently on the findings, two teams found that the DNA code in people with CFS is different in the genes related to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Compared to the healthy subjects, all the CFS volunteers had a “high allostatic load,” the cumulative wear and tear on the body resulting from inadequate biological responses to changes in the everyday environment as well as to emotional and physical stressors.

According to CFIDS Association of America (another name for CFS is chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome) it is not easy to get a correct diagnosis. In a recent newsletter, the CFIDS Association reported that over half of the physicians who took part in its focus groups thought CFS patients were “fakers” and “lazy.” Many doctors do not understand the disease and the American Medical Association does not have an official position on whether CFS is an illness.

Doctors who do believe the disease is real are left to diagnose it by ruling out other illnesses such as anemia, hypothyroidism, depression and pre-diabetes or undiagnosed diabetes. And because there is no mainstream treatment for CFS, doctors can work only on ameliorating the symptoms through a variety of strategies like lifestyle changes, cognitive behavioral therapy, physical therapy and medications such as anti-depressants, painkillers and stimulants.

Naturopathic physicians often treat CFS as an adrenal malady, using a variety of supplements, colonics, detoxifiers, diet changes, lifestyle changes and more. For more information on alternative therapies visit the web site for the Clymer Healing Research Center in Pennsylvania, www.chronicfatigue.com or read Dr. Poesnecker’s book “Chronic Fatigue Unmasked 2000”.

The social and economic impact of CFS is high. According to Dr. Suzanne Vernon of the CDC, at lease a quarter of the people with chronic fatigue are unemployed or receive disability. Thanks to the results of the CDC study, researchers predict that a diagnostic test and treatment for CFS are three to five years away.

gbpt iconMeditation

buddhaFour things we’ve learned about yoga-based meditation from the newly published book A Woman’s Book of Meditation by Hari Kaur Khalsa. (Avery/Penguin Group):

At GBPT, we offer Reiki, Craniosacral Therapy and massage, all of which can lower respiration and heart rate and help induce a meditative state. These are excellent modalities for relieving stress.

Reiki is offered at GBPT as a free service and can be booked for 15 minutes before or after your regular physical therapy appointment. Our top-notch, licensed massage therapists are available on a fee-for-service basis for hour long sessions. For more information or to schedule a stress—relieving and theraputic massage, contact us at 729-1164.

gbpt iconExercises to help with Stress, Attitude, & Concentration

The following exercises are adapted from "Ten Actions You Can Do Today To Start Taking Back Your Life", a publication by Avatar.

For more information on Avatar courses visit www.AvatarEPC.com.

gbpt iconOn Nutrition: EAT YOUR BREAKFAST!

Now more than ever doctors and nutritionists are telling people the most important meal of the day is breakfast. A nutritious, well-balanced morning meal not only sustains your energy levels better than endless cups of coffee, but it also can help:

Choose from this fiber-rich menu:

Choose your cereal wisely. Check the label for fiber, fat and sugar content per serving. For example, many instant oatmeal brands tend to be heavily processed leaving them low in fiber. Choose cereals with at least 3 grams of fiber per serving. Similarly, many cereal, granola and breakfast bars tend to skimp on fiber and instead bulk up on sugar.

Your goal should be to get at least 6 grams of fiber at breakfast. That’s hard to do if you eat eggs, bacon, pastry, donuts or an Egg McMuffin. Cutting back on heavy, fat-filled breakfasts will protect your body from harmful inflammatory processes that can lead to premature aging.

gbpt iconPhysical Therapy Can Help CFS

Until there is a cure, physical therapy can help Chronic Fatigue patients deal with some of their symptoms.

While every patient is unique and their plan of care specifically developed for them, there are many physical therapy techniques that address pain and improve function. Myofascial Release, Adverse Neural Tension, Craniosacral Therapy and soft tissue mobilization can all help stretch, calm and release tight nerves and muscles. These techniques can also improve central nervous system functions, reduce pain and congestion in tissues, and improve function of the whole body.

Aquatic physical therapy, such as gentle stretching and exercising while floating vertically in deep warm water, will also help restore range of motion, improve circulation of blood and lymph and reduce muscle spasms. Simple walking in warm water is also a good way to gently deliver oxygen to muscles without over taxing the body and adding to existing fatigue.

Advanced “integrative” manual therapy techniques are helpful in releasing restrictions which can restrict structures within the abdominal cavity, glandular and nervous systems.

Lymphatic drainage technique can also be of benefit for edema and pain.
And perhaps most importantly, patient education on energy conservation is important for patients to learn how to better care for themselves.

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