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

Alzheimer's Disease

Physical therapists (PTs) play a crucial role in helping patients and caregivers in the management of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Alzheimer's disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that slowly destroys a person's memory, personality, and physical functioning. Currently there is no none cure, so often PTs are left with help patients try to maintain as much physical and cognitive functioning as they can. The costs associated with managing patients with AD are projected to be over $2 Trillion dollars by 2030 -- yes, trillions!

Promising News

While there's much doom and gloom there is also hope: diet and the gut biome. A major, and first of its kind, study out of Edith Cowan University has established a genetic link between AD and several gut-related disorders. In the Nature Communications Biology Paper, the authors analysed large sets of genetic data from AD and several gut-disorder studies – each...

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

Physical therapists (PTs) are direct care providers who help people across many settings and with various pathologies and functional losses. From cardiac issues, metabolic dysfunction, cancer, neurological deficits, and musculoskeletal disorders, PTs can help a variety of patients get stronger, move with more confidence, and feel better. One key tool that can help with PT's treatments is nutrition.

Nutrition is in the scope of practice of Doctors of PT (DPTs), according to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). Nutrition is linked with inflammation, recovery, pain, psychological well being, and quality of life. Plus, most of our clients are taking supplements or simply want to get better, faster with any approach possible -- as such, PTs need more quality dietary info.

One of the best evidenced-based resources for nutrition is Examine.com. Examine offers copious research, great summaries, and even pl...

Top 3 Nutrition Resources for PTs

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

Physical therapists (PTs) are unique healthcare providers. They are doctorally prepared, trained for direct and primary care, and work in a multitude of settings. Recently the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) released a new House of Delegate motion stating PTs ought to be more involved with nutrition care and should be trained and educated in nutrition further. Obviously the direct choice for nutrition care would be with a registered dietitian or nutritionist. But what if a PT has the training and legal right to provide nutrition care -- what resources does that PT have to provide optimal nutrition guidance? We will explore the top 3 nutrition resources for the PT!

NutritionFacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger established https://nutritionfacts.org/ with the intent of sharing evidenced-based nutrition knowledge for everyone -- for free! The lifestyle medicine physician has gone to gr...