Expert Lists Benefits Of Human Movement

The Chief Physiotherapist at the Abuja National Hospital, Mr Charles Gado says movement is necessary for humans and other animals to live healthy lives and avoid muscle atrophy.

He said without movement, bone density would reduce while the muscles would deteriorate.

The chief physiotherapist made this known in an interview with newsmen in Abuja recently.

Muscle atrophy is the wasting away of the muscle. In most people, muscle atrophy is caused by not using the muscles enough.

People with sedentary jobs, medical conditions that limit their movement, or decreased activity levels can lose muscle tone and develop atrophy.

This type of atrophy can be reversed with exercise and better nutrition.

“The muscular system in conjunction with the skeletal system and the nervous system is very important for movement and none of these systems can function properly without the other.”

Gado said that prolonged bed rest was detrimental to the body because it could reduce movement and lead to muscle atrophy.

“In short, what you see when you have a prolonged rest on bed is what we call muscle atrophy. The muscles gradually starts losing its bulk and that is what muscle atrophy is.

“Once it loses its bulk, it loses its strength, it loses its normal physiology; you see a patient that is agile, strong and active suddenly becoming very weak and cannot do any activity.

“So even for a healthy human being once you are restrained on bed for a long period, you actually lose your strength. You become weak; in fact it goes a long way to even affect the skeletal system because it makes the skeletal system to become less dense and more prone to breakage.”

The physiotherapist said prolonged bed rest could not be defined as a specific time for atrophy to occur because the deterioration differed from person to person.

“It can take a week, a few months or longer depending on the body type, age and gender of the patient in question.

“Apart from bed rest, the patient’s health and nutritional input prior to the particular bed rest are other factors that determine the rate of muscular deterioration.”

According to Gado, when a patient is advised to go on bed rest it does not mean that the patient should not do anything, which is the general misconception.

He said bed rest was often recommended to enable certain structure tissues of the body to rest in order to promote healing.

He said that while the tissues were resting, other body parts should remain active.

“There are certain things that can be done. One is for us to start increasing our physical activity, even before you are asked to go on bed rest.

“Two, the truth is bed rest for certain ailments, is going out of fashion. For example if you have severe back pain or severe neck pain, you’re asked to go on bed rest or if you are heavily pregnant they ask you to go on bed rest.

“Nobody does that (anymore) because they know that it is detrimental to the person’s musculature or the muscular skeletal system. So certain minimal prescribed activities are required that you can do even on the bed.”

Gado said there were exercises that people could do while on bed rest.