Common Conditions.
Heart Disease
Did you know?
Bad news: Heart disease is still common.
Good News: Modern treatment is very successful.
But wouldn’t you love to reduce your risk of ever going through it all again?
If you or a loved one have had a heart attack or required a stent or angioplasty, you will know that it is important to exercise. Exercise can help improve your muscle mass, reduce your blood pressure, moderate cholesterol and help you deal with the stress that often comes after a heart event.
Most people do a 6 week supervised cardiac rehabilitation. Many are not quite sure what comes next or just need some guidance.
So, how do you do it? How hard can you train? When can you increase? Are there any exercises that you should not do?
At MP Sports Physicians we can answer all these questions, but not on this page.
Your specific requirements are unique to you. Your medical history, your body weight and structure, your medication and your previous experience will all impact on how you can exercise.
Let us help you. Make an appointment for yourself or your loved one so that we can navigate this together.
Diabetes
Have you been diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes? Do you know someone that has?
We can help!
Proven benefits of exercise in diabetes
- Better sugar control
- Reduced insulin resistance (less medication needed)
- Reduction in blood pressure by 10- 15 points
- Improved body weight control
- Reduction in eye, nerve and foot complications
The tricky part is knowing how to do it safely and effectively.
All our doctors are highly trained in prescribing exercise programs taking into account the unique requirements of diabetes. We understand what diabetes can do to your body and we know what you can do safely.
Book an appointment with one of our specialists so you can take the first step back on the road to feeling well again.
Neck Pain
Does this sound familiar?
A long day at work and by the time you get home, your neck and shoulders are burning and your eyelids feel heavy. You may have a headache and you feel rotten. Weekends are only a temporary respite.
Or maybe you had to turn suddenly and felt something go in your neck.
Physio and massage have helped a bit, but the underlying pain remains. You are frustrated and the pain is starting to get you down.
Our expert team at MP Sports Physicians can step in right here. Our unique training allows us to diagnose the structures causing your neck pain and suggest treatment options that can alleviate your pain and get your old bounce back.
The first step is to make that diagnosis. We can then direct your management right to the issues.
With options of medication, exercises, postural adaptations and sometimes injections, we always aspire to get you back to your best.
Contact our expert team to get you headache free today!
If you call outside of office hours, please leave a message and we will call you back in the morning.
EIB
EIB (exercise induced bronchoconstriction or exercise induced asthma) may affect up to 50% of the Australian population.
While this may not be noticeable to the recreational or occasional athlete, it may be a severe performance limiting issue in elite athletes.
There are now sensitive standardised airway tests that can be performed to detect this condition where the older tests may not.
Appropriate preventative medical management not only reduces your risk of an asthma attack, it can improve performance and training gains.
Anti-Inflammatory Drugs
In many cases, pain is caused by inflammation. Anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) block the cascade of chemical reactions that cause inflammation. In this way, they reduce pain and swelling.
There are many NSAIDs available. The ‘traditional’ or ‘non-selective’ NSAIDs include Aspirin (Disprin), Ibuprofen (Nurofen, Brufen) and Diclofenac (Voltaren). ‘Selective’ or ‘COX-2’ agents include Celecoxib (Celebrex).
All of these medicines can be of use to treat injury or joint pain where inflammation is present. They are of particular use where there is inflammation in a nearby joint (causing redness, swelling and pain) that may affect muscle function. Some people may respond better to one medicine than another, but no one medicine is stronger than another.
There are common side-effects to these medicines:
1. Burning stomach pain.
Some NSAIDs can damage the protective lining of the stomach. This affects about 10% of people who take NSAIDs, and can be dangerous in older people who are on cortisone tablets or have heart disease. If you vomit up coffee ground material, this is serious and you should see a doctor the same day.
2.Fluid accumulation.
You may notice swollen ankles – this is more common in older people. NSAIDs reduce blood flow to the kidneys. In people who are dehydrated (e.g. athletes on hot days) this can cause acute kidney failure, so keep up your fluid intake, especially in hot weather.
3. Changes in Breathing
In rare cases, people with asthma who take NSAIDs may notice wheezy breathing. This is serious and should be reported to your doctor.
Pregnant women should not take NSAIDs, as they can affect the blood circulation in the unborn child.
The selective (COX-2) agents were developed to cause less burning stomach pain but may not be suitable for all people. They require a prescription from a doctor.
You should always take anti-inflammatory medicines with food to minimise the risk of gut upset.
Some of the non-selective NSAIDs are available without a prescription (Nurofen, Voltaren Rapid). It is usually safe to take these tablets for a few days, but if pain or swelling is continuing then you should see a doctor in case you need some other form of treatment.
Sore Tendons
NEW TREATMENTS FOR SORE TENDONS
Painful tendons are some of the most common problems we see at MP Sports Physicians. This includes elbows (“tennis” and “golfer’s” elbow), shoulders (rotator cuff tendons), Achilles tendons, knees (patellar tendons, or “jumper’s knee”), hips (often called “bursitis”), hamstrings and others at the wrist, hand, foot and ankle. In medical terms, tendon pain is called “tendinopathy”.
The major part of treating a sore tendon is to develop a regular and well-structured program of exercises to strengthen the tendon. Pain relief and methods of preventing excessive load to the tendon is also important, and we can help to work out a suitable plan for you.
When your tendon is not responding to these measures, then it becomes necessary to consider other treatments that may improve your pain so that you can recommence the exercise program. Our understanding of tendon tissue and healing has been a developing science, with major advances in the last 10 years. We now have a number of possible treatments that have been shown to work through good clinical studies.
To decide exactly which treatment is right for your tendon sometimes requires some investigation, often with an ultrasound scan. This can show the structure of the tendon, and differences in structure can help us choose which treatment is most likely to help you. We can perform an ultrasound scan of your tendon at the time of consultation at all three of our clinics, which means that we can plan your treatment sooner.
Some of the treatment options for tendinopathy may involve injection into or around the tendon. This is often best done under direct vision with the ultrasound machine. Again this is a technique that we can perform in the clinic in many cases.
Our aim is to get your tendon to improve with training, and to help guide you back towards the things you would like to be able to do.
Sporting Injuries
The team at MP Sports Physicians are your first port of call for sorting out your sports related injuries.
All our doctors have worked with national and international level athletes in sports including volleyball, gymnastics, football, soccer, rowing, athletics, netball and motocross to name but a few.
This positions us uniquely to understand the demands of your sport and just what it will take to get you back out there.
Australian Sports Physicians have training in diagnosis of musculoskeletal injury considered to be of the highest standard internationally. Many Australian Sports Physicians are “poached” by overseas teams and institutes.
We are hanging on to our doctors. Their excellence in management of all sports related injuries, their experience will all levels of competition and their understanding of your need to “get back out there” means that your injuries will be managed efficiently and you will be back doing what you love just as soon as you safely can.
If you are suffering with a sporting injury, please contact our expert team and we will arrange an appointment for you.
Not all tendons are created equal
Most commonly we see Achilles tendon, patellar tendon, gluteal tendon and common extensor origin (tennis elbow) symptoms, but any tendon may be affected.
There have been many advances in the last few years in terms of our understanding of tendon pathology and it’s treatment, but there is still much more to learn.
We no longer use the term tendonitis as no inflammatory change has been seen in these tendons. Tendinopathy and paratendonitis are terms that you may hear.
We have many new treatment options for these conditions to help improve pain and healing, but the bottom line is that tendons require strengthening for good long term outcomes. So even though we can give you a huge leap forward, you are still likely to have to put in some work for the longer term.