By Dr. Sean M. Wells, DPT, PT, OCS, ATC/L, CSCS, NSCA-CPT CNPT, Cert-DN

The gut biome has been all the rage for the last several years. If you haven't heard about the gut biome, then you either live under a rock or haven't researched about how your body works. The gut biome, often interchangeably called the gut microbiota or flora, are trillions of small bacteria, archaea, and fungi that live in your intestines. We have these critters all over our body (e.g. nose, hands, mouth) but the most reside in our gut. What these small bugs do for us is truly amazing.

Data show the microbiome is capable of protecting our immune system, producing healthy short-chain fatty acids, and could be linked to many disease states like cancer, heart disease, and allergies. Recently I began listening to a great podcast by Dr. Will Bulsiewicz on gut health on the Rich Roll Podcast. Dr B, as he's commonly known as, pronounced easy methods to protecting and nurturing our gut. Some of his top tips:

• Eat a v
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By Dr. Sean M. Wells, DPT, PT, OCS, ATC/L, CSCS, NSCA-CPT CNPT, Cert-DN

Physical therapists (PTs) are stepping up their game and focusing on important in the clients' lives: social determinants of health (SDOH), wellness, alcohol and drug use, sleep, and nutrition. As we venture into a newer world of PT practice, clinicians need to be armed with useful tools and resources to help them along the way. Let's outline some of our team's favorite nutrition apps that have helped us help many clients.

Nutrition Guide for Clinicians

Published by the well-known Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), the Nutrition Guide for Clinicians is a simple app that all Doctors of Physical Therapy (DPT) should have installed on their phones. The app allows a clinician to easily look up a condition or diagnosis, and then scroll through easily summarized data on simple nutrition tips that can contribute or treat the disease. Authors of the app list copious studies in their references for PT...

By: Dr. Sean M. Wells, DPT, PT, OCS, ATC/L, CSCS, CNPT, NSCA-CPT, Cert DN

Many people kickback and enjoy a cold beer or nice glass of wine with a meal or just to relax. But does alcohol consumption pose a risk to our health and physical therapy patients? The answer can be difficult to find amongst the literature, especially due to industry influence. Let's take a look at the guidelines, some upcoming revisions to alcohol intake recommendations, and what all this means to PTs and physical therapy outcomes.

Old Guidelines

Alcohol intake guidance varies depending on where you live. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Dietary Guidelines demonstrates that females should consume no more than 1 drink per day, while males can have 2 drinks per day. Most of this guidance is rooted in the fact that males usually have larger mass, and therefore, can physiologically "handle" more booze. Obviously all drinks are not created equal, so if  a person takes the US guid...

It's exciting to see our team has been active in the community and online. Dr. Wells was featured in the online blog, Eat This Not That, over the past few years. Here are few excellent articles focused on nutrition, physical therapy, weight loss, and health.

By Dr. Sean M. Wells, DPT, PT, OCS, ATC/L, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, CNPT, Cert-DN

Weight Loss and Physical Therapy

Traditional physical therapy (PT) does an amazing job at treating dysfunction, pain, and problems. Preventative care and wellness, such as weight loss, was once taboo and often ignored by many physical therapists. However, today's Doctors of Physical Therapy (DPTs) are truly embracing more holistic treatments like nutrition, mindfulness, and sleep habits. Having physical therapy patients lose weight can help reduce inflammation, prevent health issues, and may improve PT outcomes. But what about stopping the weight gain in the first place? Weight gain prevention is vitally important, as it is much more difficult to lose the weight than it is to gain it. Given such interest in these topics, our team found it relevant to consider a recent study looking at weight gain and arthritis -- let's make the case for more PTs to start talking about patients preventing weight.

Arthritis and W...

Nutrition and Physical Therapy Bundled Course Offering!

Our team is excited to offer you all 3 of our courses now bundled into 1 easy purchase.  Save 20% off (Valued at $60) with this new offer! 

Why buy the bundle?

Work toward earning your CNPT® credential with one, easy discounted payment. 

Normally, our 3 Courses bought seperately cost $297. Save now and get all 3 courses for just $239. 

What is included?

Our three courses include the following board-approved online continuing education courses:

• COURSE 1 - Introduction to Nutrition for PTs (IN)

  Need the basics to help guide your patients to making good, healthy choices that will improve their quality of life and outcomes? The Introduction to Nutrition is your course for Physical Therapy specific nutrition.

• COURSE 2 - Nutrition Assessment and Prescription for PTs (NAP)

  Being able to assess a patient's diet and make concrete recommendations can make or break the difference in a person's life. This course covers paper

  ...

The Oath

As many PTs and healthcare providers know and affirm: first, do no harm. Taken from one of the most widely known Greek Medical Texts, this oath commits doctors and healthcare providers to offering their best in care. The more modern version of this oath expounds:

"I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant: I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow."

Many physical therapists (PTs) have taken a similar oath. In DPT schools around the country, many student PTs (SPT) swear an oath to provide their best care prior to going into internship or clinicals. Upon entering the profession and joining the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), we as PTs swear by the APTA code of ethics, which outlines: "Above all, do no harm." The APTA code of ethics also asks PTs to provide our best ability and judgement, among other requirements.

By Dr. Sean M. Wells, DPT, PT, OCS, ATC/L, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, CNPT, Cert-DN

There's always a blog or hot article on your newsfeed talking about a "miracle" nutrient or special vitamin. While many of these articles are complete clickbait or mere fluff to get you to buy their supplements, this article has some science and experience behind it. Now that we have that settled, I want to explore the one nutrient that I think has the biggest impact on clients with arthritis: fiber. 

Arthritis comes in several forms but the 2 most common types are osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We as physical therapists (PTs) often help clients with both of these diseases. From exercises, manual therapy, modalities, dry needling, and education -- our roles as PTs is to help our clients move better and reduce their pain. So, how does all this physical therapy talk for OA and RA fit in with fiber? 

Fiber is uniquely a plant-based product that is essentially indigestible to human guts. Fiber c...

Join Dr. Wells and Dr E, from the Modern Manual Therapy - Eclectic Approach and The Manual Therapist, in a free one hour online seminar covering nutrition and physical therapy. We will be discussing how nutrition added to your normal PT treatments can boost your outcomes, how PTs can easily implement nutrition tips today, and some of the legal considerations of how/what physical therapists and PTAs can offer nutrition. 

The seminar will be held on July 29th at 8pm, and will be available afterwards for download. Sign up soon as seats area almost capped!

Sign up here: https://bit.ly/38fTQEP

#physicaltherapy #nutrition #continuingeducation #DPT #physio

Many physical therapists (PTs) treat patients with chronic pain. Chronic pain can come in many forms. From autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or fibromyalgia, to centralized pain phenomenons like allodynia and hyperalgesia, chronic pain can cause marked disability, loss of functioning, and lacking participation in life.

Integrative Pain Management

Physical therapy (PT) can offer significant benefits to many patients with chronic pain using traditional PT methods. Exercise, stretching, manual therapy, stress reduction, pain science, mindfulness, and activity modifications are all mainstay PT treatments for people with chronic pain. PTs are now starting to see the evidence for how nutrition can also help patients with chronic pain; and as more physios include nutrition in their practices, their outcomes are improving quite dramatically.

Nutrition can help reduce the chronic pain in patients with fibromyalgia. In well-done Finnish study looking at a raw vegan diet versu...