Today (September 8) is World Physiotherapy Day. The theme for 2025 focuses on the role of physiotherapy and physical activity in healthy ageing, with a particular emphasis on preventing frailty and falls.
Kym Smith, from Margate, explains how the East Kent Hospitals physiotherapy team helped her:
Kym Smith, a 62-year-old grandmother from Margate, was doing some gentle exercise when she felt something crack in her back, followed by excruciating pain.
Kym said: “I had a virus and so had been sitting around more than normal and gained some weight. I thought I’d pull myself together with some gentle exercise but the pain in my back suddenly became unbearable.
“I struggled to turn my neck, I had lost feeling in my lower legs, I could barely peel a potato or hold Robin, my 6-month-old grandson because the pain was so intense.”
Kym had unknowingly suffered a vertebral fracture of the spine.
Kym said: “The pain was so bad I knew it had to be worse than a pulled muscle or something, but I had no idea I could fracture my spine by doing gentle exercise. I have lymphedema which causes chronic swelling, but it wasn’t until this happened that I found out I also have osteopenia, which is why my spine is weaker.”
Kym’s GP gave her strong pain relief and sent her to various clinics for assessment, but the one place she found to help the most was in physiotherapy.
Kym said: “When they suggested acupuncture I was a little bit sceptical, but I would have tried anything to relieve the pain so all I could do was hope that it would help.
“After my first acupuncture session, I found myself able to move again. It was like someone had taken a collar off of my neck so I could turn again. It felt like a miracle.
“It works so well that I’m no longer on strong pain relief such as Morphine or Tramadol. I am still in pain, but it is much more manageable as the acupuncture can keep me going for a couple of weeks until my next session.
“I am so grateful to my physiotherapist Cecelia James who has literally had to pick me up off the floor in pain. I had no idea how much physiotherapy could help me, give me my quality of life back and the chance to hold my grandson again.”
Cecelia James, musculoskeletal physiotherapist said: “Kim has made such an improvement from her first session with us following her acupuncture and daily exercise at home. It’s lovely to see her moving so much more freely and in a lot less pain.
“For me, this is what being a physiotherapist is all about, helping patients to reduce their pain and go back to doing the things they love most.”
It is quackery. This injury normally takes 6-12 weeks to heal naturally, so likely by the time she had appointments for this she was already well on the way to recovery-that is why she no longer needs legal Heroin.
There is also the power of placebo at play & the mild exercises she was given to do/other physio at the hospital. NHS needs to stop wasting money on promoting & performing this kind of ancient Asian nonsense.
Mrs Ben , your researched empirical based medical evidence for your opinion please .
You are dismissing science and spouting apparent injury healing times , without a full medical history , Xray etc review .
You are of course entitled to to your opine , but this is far from quackery
Every serious study ever done on it & every other woo-woo such as Homeopathy, Reflexology etc that rambles on about lining up/balancing imaginary Chakras, Yin & Yang etc. The ones promoting it nearly always come from China & are incredibly dubious.
Not at all, I am telling you what science says the average healing time is-not that hers didn’t take longer or less & that like anybody else healing would be happening the longer time moves on & I doubt she got these appointments especially quickly. We don’t need an X-Ray, the diagnosis that was obtained by scans is not in doubt, she has given details of her medical history.
Indeed, you are also entitled to yours & if you want to believe in it then fine. The reality shows that the same Placebo effect is reached via using toothpicks etc on the skin without piercing it & this is certainly safer than using needles-the ladies footballer Ellen White suffered a punctured lung during a session of quackupuncture & this hastened her retirement.
People have been infected with Hepatitis & some people have died-though nothing like the deaths & paralysis numbers from the Chiropractor quacks, there are also a lot more minor side effects & around one in ten will suffer these.
Sadly the NHS & EKHT in particular seem to be pushing this kind of rubbish-now also pushing Auriculotherapy & Ear Seeds as an Acupressure ‘compliment’ to their Acupuncture sessions. In most areas thankfully it is all mostly something people have to pay to go private for, as most Trusts with limited funds refuse to waste money on such pseudo-science. EKHT rather than spend it on trying to lessen the number of deaths & malpractice suits on their maternity wards, would rather burn money on this kind of rot.
Thanks for sharing your intellect – agree there is quackery , however acupuncture is evidence based treatment.
I had a bad accident many years ago when working off shore in a RIB that capsized! I was seen by any amount of surgeons for spinal injury after I was buried under water in beach shingle! The pain was exstrutiating, and I had some of the best quackery on the NHS including intensive physical therapy whilst being half paralised by a surgeon from the waist down using a method for child birth, Duurh!
After 2 years, I found almost instant relief from an Acupunctrist using burning tapers down my spine! I then spent a week rolling around the floor, in intense agony self medicating on Red wine! Then suddenly it worked, and the pain was gone! I still have some problems with numbness down my left leg, and foot, but the sciatica went, and never returned! Try it!
Yes, set your back on fire with lighted dried Mugwort to cure your back pain! I guess it is from the same method of if you hit your thumb with a hammer then drop a weight on your foot to distract from that pain.
Sadly Moxibustion has like all these ancient Chinese remedies failed every serious study of it, it only ‘works’ in China with very small, non-blinded trials. Most likely it was all that rolling around on the floor for a week blind drunk from your third degree burns that did something. Maybe it realigned something, more likely than somebody setting fire to your back will fix the imaginary Qi.
I generally find Sciatica is remedied/avoided by sitting up straight & using correct bending & lifting techniques. Also hot water bottles applied to the lower back & posterior. A lot safer than somebody rambling about invisible life forces & energies, sticking needles in your skin & setting your body on fire as well!
I had a bad accident many years ago when working off shore in a RIB that capsized! I was seen by any amount of surgeons for spinal injury after I was buried under water in beach shingle! The pain was exstrutiating, and I had some of the best quackery on the NHS including intensive physical therapy whilst being half paralised by a surgeon from the waist down using a method for child birth, Duurh!
After 2 years, I found almost instant relief from an Acupunctrist using burning tapers down my spine! I then spent a week rolling around the floor, in intense agony self medicating on Red wine! Then suddenly it worked, and the pain was gone! I still have some problems with numbness down my left leg, and foot, but the sciatica went, and never returned! Try it! I have never in my life ever mentioned this to anyone!
I should add I had been suffering severe sciatica from the accident for 2 years during which time I had extreme phsiotherapy, including having been half paralised using an epidural by a surgeon! I had also been under the suoervision of two Harley Street Consultant Surgeons, one acting for me, and one acting for the contractor who’s boat I was in that capsized. Eventually they all agreed I should have my spine bolted together, however when I consulted my GP he advised against it, saying after the surgeons had finished with me, its GP’s who will have to pick up the pieces, forever! Not one of the various specialists I was referred to could give me a 100% chance of success! The best I got was 80% and the worse 20%, from a GP who said his wife had had the surgery, and was now confined to a wheelchair for life!
The person who carried out the Acupunctre was in fact a qualified Osteotherapist! I had faith in him because after 2 years of fake NHS spine treatment which caused me nothing but pain, I was prepared to try witchcraft! Yes, the treatment involved small burning tapers down the spine that were pinched out when the pain got too much. I was never burned, and the result was I had intense pain down my left leg for about a week, but it worked! Nothing else I had on the NHS, including being treated by a pain specialist worked, so there!!!
Osteopathy-another quack practice. Yes, personal anecdotes are very nice, but mean very little.