Samuel C. Martino, DO, an osteopath in Riverview, FL, says that if medication isn’t resolving the problems a patient is having due to inflammation of the airways, such as tightness in the chest and a stiffness in the lungs, those patients may want to consider changing their type of treatment with a holistic approach.

Similar to doctors of medicine, those who practice osteopathic medicine are fully licensed to prescribe medication to their patients, and, if necessary, perform surgery.  Osteopaths take into account the musculoskeletal system of the body and recognize that it plays a part in both healing and illness.  A technique called OMT (osteopathic manipulative medicine) involves the doctor using their hands to manipulate the muscles, joints, and sometimes the body’s internal organs, where they will literally “push” the body towards a state of healing.

Named Physician of the Year for Hillsborough County in 2006, Dr. Martino uses OMT to ease breathing difficulties in patients with chronic asthma, and can calm asthmatic flares.  He tells us that OMT, when used in combination with medicine, can help strengthen the lungs of people who suffer from asthma by loosening up the muscles.  This will free up the ribcage and allow the patient to take a deeper breath.

Riverview osteopath Nektarios S. Demetriou, DO demonstrates how OMT can improve the breathing of an asthmatic patient.  The patient breathes deeply while Dr. Demetriou pushes his fingers underneath the ribcage, which stretches and loosens up the muscles in the areas around the diaphragm.  A number of other movements are made to release tension in the scalene and sternocleidomastoid muscles in the neck, as well as the intercostal muscles between the ribs.  When an asthmatic breathes, either with or without having an actual attack, these muscles are easily overworked which makes them tighten.  Dr. Demetriou tells us “by relaxing the tension of these muscles manually, the patient will be able to fully inflate the lungs and will improve overall respiratory function.”

So while you continue working with our specialists at Family Medical Care of Riverview to choose the best medications for controlling your asthma, you may also consider OMT to help loosen your muscles to take bigger breaths.

If you would like more information about the treatment of asthma, please contact Dr. Martino and Dr. Demetriou at Family Medical Care of Riverview by using this convenient online form or by calling 1-800-979-9080.

Osteoporosis

Right before menopause, your hormone levels begin to decrease.  This happens around the age of 45 years, when the lack of estrogen and other hormones may start to cause bone loss.  If you’re around age 45, it’s time to start thinking about osteoporosis. If your bone density levels are lower than normal, Dr. Dawson may diagnose that condition as as osteoporosis, which means that you may be at higher than normal risks for the breaking of bones and other bone-related injuries.  With the right treatment, such as calcium supplements and excercise, you can keep your bones strong through menopause.

Changes In Diet

Exercise

In order to keep the cartilage and bones strong during menopause, regular exercise is invaluable.  Dr. Dawson tells her patients “you should get outside and exercise as much as you can, which could include activities like walking, gardening, or jogging”.  She recommends that if you already have symptoms of osteoporosis, you may want to avoid high-impact exercise, such as running or biking outside.

As the cartilage begins to wear away between the bones, the pain of arthritis is caused die to the loss of this padding and the muscles around the joint will automatically tighten in order to protect the joint from any further damage.  The way the doctors at Family Medical Care of Riverview treat this pain, is to gently relieve the tightness of those muscles, which makes the pressure on the joint lessened.  The treatment will both relieve the pain and allow for more mobility of the joint.

This type of arthritis treatment will also look at the other parts of the body to make sure that they are working properly to avoid any avoidable stress on the affected joint.  Dr. Demetriou says “Our treatment for arthritis pain as all about fine-tuning the body naturally, which can help people at any age, and with a wide range of issues.”

The problems for adult patients are generally a result of repeated stress that have built up over many years.  The only exception to this would be if the patient experienced some kind of specific injury due to an accident or sporting injury.  There is help for these types of patients also.

What will they do for you at Family Medical Care of Riverview?

Dr. Demetriou will complete a thorough case history and examination. They will then explain in detail:

• How he can help you with natural treatment options.
• What is the source of the pain and where the muscles and joints are located.
• Why you are experiencing pain.
• What kind of treatment is available.
• Give you a step by step treatment plan, including milestones of progress.
• Give you a referral to other doctors if required, such as Radiologists, Pediatricians, or General Practicioners.
• How many sessions they think it will take to relieve the pain and resolve the problem.
• What you can do to speed your recovery.
• The things you must do to avoid prolonging or making the injury worse.
• What you can do to prevent the problem from happening again.

If you would like any more information on the treatment of arthitis pain and would like to schedule an appointment with Dr. Demetriou at Family Medical Care of Riverview, please use this convenient online form by clicking here or call us at (800) 979-9080.

“When a person’s immune system reacts abnormally to a normal and harmless substance, this is an allergic reaction.”, explains Samuel C. Martino, DO. in Riverview, Florida.  “There are many things that people can be allergic to, such as the pollens produced by grasses, trees, weeds, dust mites, pet dander, mold spores, as well as food and medications.”

The allergic reactions that are triggered only in specific times of the year are called “seasonal allergies”, says Dr. Martino.  He continues to say that the type of plants that are blooming in the Spring or Fall will be the triggers for many people who might have allergies to weeds, grass, trees, and ragweed pollen.

“When the weather starts warming up in Florida and the tropical plants begin to bloom, trees and grasses start to release their pollen into the air”, says Dr. Martino.  ”For the people with seasonal allergies that we treat at our practice in Riverview, the pollen reacts with the antibodies in their body, which then causes the release of histamine and other substances, which results in the nasty symptoms that are causing them discomfort.”

Symptoms of seasonal allergies can include:

• Itching of the nose
• Puffy, itchy, watery, and red eyes.
• Nasal congestion
• Continuous sneezing
• Post-nasal drip
• Constant runny nose

“Not everyone will experience all the symptoms of seasonal allergies.” says Dr. Martino, “but we try to help any of those need some relief from the season.”

How can I avoid seasonal allergies this season?

It might be difficult to avoid an allergic reaction to the seasonal release of pollen into the air, but it is not impossible. Here are Dr. Martino‘s seven tips for avoiding pollen exposure.

1. Both in your house and when traveling in the car, keep the windows and doors closed and use the air conditioning.
2. Try not to get too close to grass that is freshly cut, and avoid mowing the lawn, if possible.
3. Pollen is usually released in the morning between 5am and 10am, so limit your activity outside during those times.
4. If you are able to take a vacation, try to do so during the peak of the pollen season where you can avoid it.
5. If you hang your laundry out to dry, it can collect pollen from the air, so try to avoid that.
6. If you have spent alot of time outside, remove your clothing and shower.
7. Increase your intake of Vitamin C to at least 1 gram per day (or 1000 milligrams), which will lower your levels of histamine.

You can have a relatively allergy-free Spring if you follow some of these simple precautions.

If you would like more information about allergies and how you can manage them, please contact our medical staff at Family Medical Care of Riverview by calling 800-979-9080 or click here to use our online form and schedule your appointment today.

The third element, systems practice may very well be the richest area of ​​improvement for most medical practices. One example is Family Medical Care of Riverview, a group in Riverview, FL, without walls, which recently launched an ambitious 13 months diabetes program to improve quality. Soon, the group realized that its meetings for patients, which are essential to providing high quality care for diabetes, has not responded to their full potential. As in many practices, patients arrived for their visit, without having the necessary lab work or other services provided in advance. As a result, doctors do not have complete information for the guidance of the visit, patients gave little thought to what they want to accomplish with regard to their disease. Post-visit, the practice back with the enormous task of monitoring, which included phone calls to make or communicate the results of avoidance tests. In short, the visit was unexpected, and participants were largely prepared.

The solution to this problem for the Family Medical Care of Riverview pilot site was to implement a fairly simple system, called “pre-planning.”

What is preplanning?

Pre-planning involves the creation of systems in place to ensure that staff, doctor and patient are prepared for the visit. “Instead of showing the patient in your calendar and running around trying to get all the information you need, visits are planned in advance, we contacted the patients, and they all have their lab work and testing before reaching his office, “said Samuel C. Martino, DO, medical director of the group.

One of the biggest benefits of pre-planning is to provide medical laboratory results and other current patient data at the time of the visit on which to base their advice and treatment recommendations. Without this information, the physician can focus on diabetes visit incorrectly, for example, by strengthening the control of blood glucose in a patient’s real problem is to control your cholesterol. “With advance planning, the physician has the whole picture, all parts, and can be more focused on specific patient needs, resulting in better interaction,” says a nurse at the Riverview pilot site.

The pre-planning process involves four main steps:

1. Be proactive in finding patients who should undergo diabetes visits. The use of a computerized reminder system, Martino and his nurse colleagues print lists of monthly visits as patients with diabetes. Another practice site used paper “tickler files” kept by each of the nurses to remember when patients require appointments.

2. Encounter patients with clear instructions. The web sites do family care through warning letters, which say they are sick because of an appointment and a list of specific tests to be completed before the visit. (The notice is available for download.) The letter also encourages patients to care for them and do their part in improving their health. If patients do not have appointments, nurses to help them do.

3. Encourage patients to participate in their care. To help patients prepare for visits and to get them thinking about what they hope to achieve, the practice of offering patients an annual survey of diabetes fill the waiting room. A questionnaire to help patients self-assess their success and identify areas that may need help is always beneficial. A reflection on these things before you make the doctor-patient visits more meaningful and productive, says Martino, which ultimately improves the results. “Is this really what it is: Make a healthy patient,” he says.

4. Use standard forms to support the clinical staff. For Family Medical Care of Riverview, one of care centers that follow the “SOAP” format and provide an orderly framework for the visit. The doctor may choose to focus on the visit of the specific needs of a patient, but the form of meeting ensures that the fundamental issues are not neglected.

Start In one experiment

Improving diabetes visits, such as improving the office can make it simpler to break them down into baby steps and small experiments can build a practice. A first step in the practice of Martino was to find a single patient with diabetes who arrived late for an appointment to review the patient, and laboratory work done in advance. Gradually, as the practice has learned what works and what does not pre-planning has been extended to all visits to the diabetes.

But Family Medical Care of Riverview has discovered that pre-planned visits should be done. Physicians will benefit from the information they collection before the time of the appointment. Patients will benefit from the encounter because it helps the doctors become more in touch with their needs. And members of the staff in Riverview, particularly nurses, will benefit from the efficiency and the feeling, so that it works. “With this system, they [the nurses] feel they are getting something done and really makes a difference in patient outcomes,” says Martino. “It requires more work and a lot of time to take care of these patients, but the results are enormous, and that makes the job much more rewarding.”