Medical Vs. Social Concepts

   One of the possible directions I may choose to pursue in Physical Therapy is working with patients who obtain disabilities. I attribute my motivation to this direction to my older brother Aaron. Aaron was born with Aspergers Syndrome and has been fighting the social struggles our society poses to him. Aspergers is defined by Autism Speaks online as, “an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) considered to be on the “high functioning” end of the spectrum. Affected children and adults have difficulty with social interactions and exhibit a restricted range of interests and/or repetitive behaviors.”. Due to his syndrome, Aaron has struggles getting past the barriers our modern society puts up to him.

   

   
     Growing up with Aaron was a great experience, but let me tell you it wasn't all that easy. Growing up side by side to Aaron let me develop social skills I would have never gained with out him. He taught me how to be silly in a world that requires straight faces and a mode of seriousness. Due to this, I believe that I can communicate well with people who are considered to be special needs. 

  

    In one of my classes this spring semester we are being taught how to work with people of special needs. Altering you're concept on what "special needs" truly means can also help you're relations with people who may obtain these so called "needs". The concept that hits home the most to me is The Medical Model of Disability Vs. the Social Model. If you were to look at Aaron, The Medical Model of Disability points to Aaron’s impairment as the problem. The Social Model blames society for putting up social barriers that is impossible for “special” people to do. I find these concepts to be very interesting because after growing up with Aaron, there is no doubt in my mind that the Medical Model had been used on him his whole life. Whether it be Aaron going to special schools rather than public schools, my father yelling at him to do something, or rather it be someone telling him to act a certain way. 

   

   
    In one of my essays in the class I previously mentioned  I wrote, "A prime example of the Medical Model being used on Aaron is, due to it almost being mandatory to be able to drive a car by society, his lack of motor vehicle operating skills. Everyone drives these days. It is pretty much required to have some type of transportation in order to get from home to work or other common grounds. Aaron does not have his license. This is because in most cases of Aspergers, “Motor development may be delayed, leading to clumsiness or uncoordinated motor movements.” (Autism Speaks) Due to Aaron's lack of motor skills he is pointed to as a bad driver who is unfit to receive his driving license. By not giving Aaron his drivers license, not to blame the DMV, society is pretty much disabling the possibility of Aaron getting a job that is more than a few miles from where he resides. Societies mandatory use of motor vehicles is in an essence taking away some of Aaron’s freedoms."

    

   In a later blog post I will inform on how one can effectively work on modes of physical therapy with a patient who obtains some type of disability. For now, consider the writing as some food for thought.

What motivated me to join the Field of Kinesiology

    Growing up with a big focus on athletics led me to a plethora serious injuries; Two reconstructive right shoulder labrum surgeries, a torn left labrum, multiple sprained ankles, a fractured growth plate, and a broken wrist. This led me to many hospital emergency rooms,  physical therapists, athletic trainers, and orthopedic surgeons.
 
    Looking back on my life I can not remember a single day where I had no injuries nagging at me. However, these injuries have led me to understand both the concept of pain and the process of injury recovery.  Due to undergoing countless paths to injury recovery, I gained a huge appreciation for all the medical professionals who had helped me through the years. In fact, it was due to the all the injuries, my appreciation for those medical professionals, and my natural desire to help people that motivated me to pursue a career goal of an occupation  in the medical field. 

   Obtaining a degree in kinesiology will allow me the opportunity to reach my career goal. Whether I will be a specialized doctor, physical therapist, medic, physical trainer, ect... is still unclear. Becoming a professional in the medical field allows me to leave the typical office setting and work in unique environments. 
     
      Obtaining the knowledge I hope to gain through studies and experience will allow me to pursue a dream of mine. The dream being to travel to distant nations in Africa to help out citizens who seek medical attention but are unable to afford it.

On a side not I am concerned that the immense and growing human population may run earth’s natural resources dry. With that being said I hope that I can one day run a practice that is as eco-friendly as possible. Whether it is by helping patients or helping to sustain earth’s ecosystems my goal is to help in any way I can.  

Ethics

   If you had not known what field of profession I tend to attempt to join, my goal is to become a Physical Therapist. After doing some research on the core ethics of the physical therapist profession I feel that I should be able to have make smooth transition into pursuing my hopeful profession.
   This is because most of the core ethics stated in the Code of Ethics for the Physical Therapist by the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) seem to be similar to the ethics I grew up learning.
   For example, Principle  #2 states "Physical therapists shall be trustworthy and compassionate in addressing the rights and needs of patients".  Due to my rather large experience with an extensive amount of physical therapists, I can be the one to say that having an ability to communicate well and to earn the trust of your patients are keys to being a successful physical therapist. Think about it, you're going to be spending a few hours a week with this Physical therapist (PT) a week, you will want to be able to have someone you can talk too or else you will get bored and unmotivated to do the rather repetitive therapy instructed to you by you're PT .

  
   It may not come off like it, but Physical therapy is a business. Therefore the ethics will follow the similar guidelines than any guide of business ethics. "Physical therapists shall fulfill their legal and professional obligations." (APTA) As obvious as this ethic may seem to be, it is a prime ethic code to follow if I want to become a successful PT some day. If I get a patient that doesn't seem to be progressing their injury better, instead of referring them to another professional, I will continue to work, research, and try my hardest to develop a way to help my patient recover. I will never give up on a patient, in the hopes of never losing the patient.


Source: http://www.apta.org/Ethics/Core/

BREAKING NEWS: Osteoporosis

Well I got more bad news for y'all, but it is better to learn about the bad news and learn from it rather than just ignoring the problem. 

  Osteoporosis is defined as a disease in which loss of Bone Marrow Density (BMD) accelerates beyond loss expected with normal aging. This is a very popular disease that does not seem to be getting the attention it deserves. According to my Foundations of Kinesiology class, 10 million Americans suffer from osteoporosis. Osteoporosis makes ones bones weaker and therefore more at risk to bone fractures. Not only that but the disease will also make the healing process of that fracture slower. 

Some Osteoporosis Risk factors include:

• Sex: Females are more likely to develop osteoporosis than males. 

• Age: Risk increases with age. 

• Ethnicity: Caucasians and Asians have the greatest likelihood for developing osteoporosis. 

• Family History: Having a parent or sibling with osteoporosis puts you at greater risk, especially if you also have a family history of fractures 

• Body Type: small body frames tend to have a higher risk because they may have less bone mass to draw from as they age.

• Low calcium intake: Low calcium intake contributes to diminished bone density, early bone loss and an increased risk of fractures. 

• Tobacco: Tobacco use contributes to weak bones. 

• Eating disorders: Higher risk of lower bone density. 

• Alcohol: Excessive alcohol consumption can interfere with the body's ability to absorb calcium. 

• Sedentary lifestyle: Individuals who spend a lot of time sitting have a higher risk of osteoporosis than their more-active counterparts. 
  

   I hope this information will help motivate all of you to try your best to avoid this disease. My best advice would be to attemept to maintain a healthy active life-style which involves many factors including; a healthy diet, reaching recommended physical activity,  and healing injuries properly,  . Also, calcium products may help. If you are not a fan of milk, there are other options to get your calcium supply (ex: vitamins). In a future post soon to come I will provide a more in depth reason for why calcium provides skeletal benfits to our bodies.

For now,

Alec

Textbooks Costs Are Out'a Control, But They Do Help

   If you were to ask me what my biggest pet peeve about college pricing these days is, besides the obvious outrageous difference between the out of state pricing vs. instate pricing, would be the overpricing of textbooks. As a college student it is impossible not to spend extra money on textbooks, because they are "required". The prices have actually gotten so outrageous that I do not always buy the required textbooks anymore. I try to go to each of my class sections for a week or two, then make decision of whether this textbook is actually "required" or just a scam.
   Being that my profession will one day hopefully be in the medical field, I am required to take certain classes including; Anatomy, Chemistry, Physics, ect... I have learned that even though some of these classes text books may not actually be "required" for a solid grade, they do help a ton!

 
    Do not get me wrong, google and wikipedia sources can come up in the clutch. But it is often hard to search the very specific knowledge that I am required to learn on google. For example, I had an exam in my Introduction to Physiology class. One of the study tasks was to learn about the mesentery in the human body. I faced a problem because I must have missed the notes on what mesentery is. I had attempted to learn what it was using google. Google was able to define it in a way that ended up providing me different information than I was supposed to learn, resulting me to miss the answer for what mesentery is on the exam. To satisfy your curiosity on what mesentery is, according too my "required" text book, Fundamentals of Human Physiology, 4th ed., by L. Sherwood, mesentery is located in abdominal cavity and is what attaches our intestines to our bodies while absorbing nutrients into our small intestines.



Sources:

Fundamentals of Human Physiology, 4th ed., by L. Sherwood