Well the results are in. Staying active improves the quality of your life and prevents disease. Really? Is that really the truth? Yep, it sure is, at least according to the latest in medical research. The opinion of the healthcare community is if you stay active in a safe and efficient way, we will see you less. As residents of New Jersey gracefully age, most have accepted the fact that they have to keep moving to keep moving. Many of these people have made exercise and staying active a top priority in their daily lives. Some problems can arise when trying to obtain or maintain this healthy lifestyle. If addressed by a skilled and trained physical therapist these problems can be just a bump in the road.                                           

For Shelli Goldstein, a retired 67 year old South Jersey native, her love is Yoga. But there was a problem; Shelli suffered from significant arthritis in her left knee that was limiting how much time she could commit to her lifelong passion. “I was in a considerable amount of pain that was not only interfering with my Yoga practice but was also preventing me from getting around on a daily basis,” reports Goldstein.     

“I knew I had to do something but I didn’t want it to involve too many medications and definitely wanted to avoid surgery,” states Goldstein. Shelli was in the same position as millions of Americans her age that suffer from degenerative joint disease (aka arthritis). Hearing of Shelli’s problem, a friend suggested she visit Physical Therapist John Marmarou in Cherry Hill. John specializes in safely transforming rehabilitation programs into exercise routines for individuals suffering from arthritis. “When I met Shelli she was in a considerable amount of pain. She had an arthritic left knee that was getting worse. I knew we had our work cut out for us.”

“As a Physical Therapist my first priority is to identify and address the underlying issue with a customized rehabilitation program,” states Marmarou. So the two decided on the best plan of care to address Shelli’s knee pain and got to work. “I noticed a significant reduction in my knee pain after only 4 sessions, I was feeling stronger, walking better and really felt like I was going to get back to comfortably practicing Yoga”, says Goldstein.                    

Arthritis is a chronic process most common in weight bearing joints. As the muscle around the involved joint atrophies the degeneration accelerates. But if the neuromuscular system around the involved joint can be retrained to perform its protective role, (i.e. hypertrophy of muscle) a significant reduction in symptoms experienced from arthritis will occur.                        

“Shelli was great, she committed to the program and almost immediately her muscles came back online and she started to see results with little vested time,” states Marmarou. After a 12 week layoff from Yoga, Shelli was once again hanging out with her Yoga buddies after only three weeks of Physical Therapy under John’s care. After three additional weeks her program was transformed into an independent exercise routine.    

“I believe John had a vested interest in my well being and improving my overall level of activity. By educating me through the whole process I was able to take his teaching into my own gym and continue to make gains,” explains Goldstein.                                  

“Physical Therapists such as myself do not believe in treating specific impairments. This is an older way of thinking and does not create a stronger and healthier community. If you address the person as a whole and educate them through the process good things will happen,” reports Marmarou.