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February 26, 2008 09:26 am
Back to the basics: Doc tells all about being a physiatrist
While Nathan Prahlow has been called a physiologist, psychiatrist, and even a physical therapist, he’s none of the above. He is a physiatrist, a physician who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation, in the Clarian West Medical Center Back and Neck Center, which opened in April of last year.
By Jamie Hergott
CNHI News Service
AVON , Ind. — While Nathan Prahlow has been called a physiologist, psychiatrist, and even a physical therapist, he’s none of the above. He is a physiatrist, a physician who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation, in the Clarian West Medical Center Back and Neck Center, which opened in April of last year.
“In the 1940s, this specialty was just coming into being,” Prahlow said.
He explained that at the time there were groups of doctors interested in rehabilitation medicine while treating spinal cord injuries, stroke victims, amputees, etc. to function better in society.
There was another group of doctors who were experimenting with physical medicine by trying things like heat sources, ice, electrical currents; basically any physical object or property that might alter people’s muscles, joints, or skin.
Both groups tried to develop their own specialties.
“The powers that be said that these two groups have the same goals,” Prahlow said. “So they stuck them together. It became Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.”
Physiatrists treat a range of patients and ailments, from sports injuries to lifting injuries to car accident patients, and focus on helping to restore function to patients.
Prahlow describes his specialty as practicing musculoskeletal medicine, or non-surgical sports medicine. He and fellow doctors treat sprains, strains, neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, arm pain, and leg pain. They use medicines, physical therapy, medical equipment, body mechanics, and injections to help people without resorting to surgery if it’s possible.
“If we can get people better without surgery, I’m all for it,” Prahlow said. “But sometimes we can’t avoid it.”
Prahlow says back pain happens for a number of reasons including improper lifting, “weekend warrior athletes” (out of shape during the week, overdoing workouts and sports on the weekends), car accidents, and poor conditioning and flexibility.
“It’s important to have a strong core,” Prahlow said. “To be good, strong, and flexible around the pelvis, back and abdomen is important. Six-packs are actually a really good thing.”
On the rehabilitation side, which Prahlow is not involved in, doctors manage inpatients who are not ready to go home after an injury or after a lengthy hospital stay. They may endure physical or occupational therapy.
“Their goal is to get those patients as independent as possible,” Prahlow said.
Typical scapegoats for back pain, such as high-heels and bad mattresses, aren’t always the cause for back pain, Prahlow says, and cases like those can only be judged on a case by case basis.
Prahlow encourages those with back pain to at least get checked and not to fear treatment.
“If it’s just pain, it will gradually get worse and will be that much more difficult to treat,” he said. “Sometimes the pain is caused by fractures and rarely caused by tumors, but getting seen potentially catches those. It’s much better to know what’s going on.”
Prahlow is the co-medical director for the Clarian West Back and Neck Center as well as an assistant professor of clinical PM & R at the IU School of Medicine.
For more information or for a consultation, call 217-BACK.
Jamie Hergott writes for the Hendricks County Flyer in Avon, Ind.
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