“Recent conceptual frameworks of disability highlight the important role of the environment in the disablement process; that is, people are believed to interact with their environments to produce disabilities” (IOM, 1997; Teel et al., 1997). Person-Environment Interaction Nobody is intrinsically disabled. And many people who are “fully-abled” in the technology saturated environment of the United […]
My Hands on Skyline The first time my pinky stopped working was on a bike ride down Skyline drive in California. The combination of cold rain and wind removed the heat from my ungloved hands faster than my blood could replace it. We pulled over to stop because I was having difficulty operating the brakes, […]
Earlier on our trip Jessica and I spent a week on a “cruise” up the river to Pucallpa from Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon, on a three story river boat (think Mark Twain Mississipi but made entirely of steel and without the paddle wheel). The galleys of the river boat were crammed with 250 passengers, […]
So far on this trip in Ecuador and Peru, the exercise surface has been the determining factor in our workouts (or absence therof). Sure I could lie down in pile of fresh manure and go through the Sahrmann lower abs progression, or attempt a plyometric workout barefoot on a woodpile but the consequences of these […]
While on a riverboat from Iquitos to Pucallpa in Peru I noticed a man rythmically waving a branch with leaves against the bare shoulder of another man. I could tell the action was curative in intent but figured it must rely heavily on the placebo affect. After all, how could just brushing a leaf on […]
Very few people in the United States carry heavy things on a regular basis. Sure some of us may go to the gym and lift heavy things a few times but we are not carrying 220lb around all day as part of our job. Industry in the US is highly concerned with safety. Lifting a […]
First I want to apologize for any typographical errors. The internet connection is so slow here in Aguatyia, Peru that selecting a word and modifying it takes well over 6 seconds. The keyboard is so filled with dust that keys often fail to respond or fail to recoil after being pressed. As physical therapists we […]
Jessica and I spent a week chugging up the Ucayali on a riverboat. We shared the voyage with a few hundred locals all jammed in with us on the same deck. No walls, no hallways, just hammocks packed together so close they were touching. People sleeping on the floor under the hammocks, and parrots and […]
On a ten day canoe trip in the Amazons (down the Napo river from Nuevo Rocafuerte, Ecuador to Masan, Peru) I met countless locals in dugout canoes and was struck by their horrible posture. Horrible, that is for the men, many of whom were so flexed in the spine as to appear like armadillos from […]
One occupational risk factor for back and neck pain is working on an awkward and mentally demanding manual task while sitting. Dentists are confronted with this challenge daily, and unfortunately often suffer as a result. Such a challenge is not new to mankind though and has been around long before root canal procedures and ipads. […]
Posture Movement Pain 