Reading comprehension for students of physiotherapy

Inne placówki
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Exercise 1

Read the following text about treatments for arthritis and do the exercises below.
Physiotherapy treatment has a large part to play in the overall management of arthritis. The physiotherapist, as a member of your management team, is trained to understand and treat the physical aspects of the human body. Physiotherapy for people with arthritis is aimed at:
• reducing pain
• improving movement
• strengthening muscle power
• assisting a person to be independent and functioning as well as is possible.
The range of therapies which may be used include pain relief methods and treatments to relieve pain and stiffness.
• thermal (heat treatments)
These treatments produce heat within your body tissues. The application can be directed towards superficial or deeper parts of the body. The most common types of treatment used are infra-red radiation (heat lamps), wax baths and hot packs for superficial treatments, and microwave diathermy and shortwave diathermy for deep heating treatment.
• Electrical treatments (electrotherapy)
These treatments produce electrical stimulation of your body tissues. They may be extremely useful in the treatment of both acute and chronic arthritis, where pain, swelling and muscle spasms are present.
• Physical treatments
These treatments include the use of ultrasonic sound waves, ice therapy and traction.
• Exercise
A balanced programme of rest and exercise, and careful attention to joint posture is an important part of pain management, joint protection and maintenance of your joint function. Controlled exercise helps lessen pain and stiffness and improves the strength of muscles and ligaments, so helping to stabilise joints. This is essential in all aspects of self care and particularly important before and after joint surgery.
• Manual therapy
Mobilisation and manipulation techniques are passive movements applied to a joint or soft tissue by the therapist in a specific manner to help restore full movement to a joint that is painful and restricted. With increased understanding of the structure and movement of the spine and peripheral joints, the usefulness of manipulation in the treatment of arthritis has become much clearer. Manual therapy is often useful in the chronic forms of arthritis and is often successful when other methods such as heat and exercises have given little or no relief.
• Hydrotherapy
Hydrotherapy or pool therapy is a very useful means of exercising arthritic joints using the buoyancy of water to assist or resist movement. The warmth of the water increases the circulation and helps reduce muscle spasms, producing more effective movement. Joint mobility, muscle strength and general fitness can be improved with hydrotherapy.
• Occupational therapy
The occupational therapist provides services to people with arthritis whose abilities to cope with activities of daily living are threatened or impaired. The primary aim of occupational therapy is to help you develop the skills and capacity to be able to master the tasks essential to you at home, work or leisure. The therapist can provide advice on how to make life simpler and conserve energy as well as protecting your joints.

Exercise 2

Find a word of phrase in the text which, in context, is similar in meaning to the following definitions
A. lack in suppleness or flexibility
B. damaged, less strong, or not as good as before
C. limited in your movements or in what you are able to do
D. the power of water to exert an upward force on a body placed in it
E. having a sudden onset, sharp rise, and short course
F. the act of making a state or situation continue
G. reduce
H. to learn a skill so well that you have no difficulty with it
I. considering or including everything
J. affecting only the surface of your skin

Exercise 3

The following clusters of words are not collocations. Make necessary changes .
1. Relieve illness
2. Swollen aim
3. Reduce muscles
4. Primary tension
5. Soft spasms
6. Treat tissue

Exercise 4

Mark the following statements as true T or false F.
1. The practical purpose of the thermal therapy is aimed only at the inner parts of the body.
2. Electrotherapy is used in both short-term and long- term arthritis .
3. The colder the water, the better blood circulation.
4. A very intensive programme of exercises reduces pain and stabilizes joints.