Doctor Praew | Dr Rawipa Khunnarong
a physician specialised in rehabilitation medicine

Rehabilitation medicine and the returning of the quality of life to patients with office syndrome

Dr Rawipa Khunnarong, or Doctor Praew, a physician of rehabilitation medicine, an expert in the field of pain, has spoken of the challenge in treating chronic pain, and of the importance of changing behaviour so that the treatment gives a sustainable result, with the motivation in being a physician being "being of benefit in the life of one person" and making them happier

"When we treat a patient and the patient improves, it is something that we feel is what we have been looking for. It is the answer to everything, why we wanted to come and be a physician of rehabilitation medicine"

– Doctor Praew

Office syndrome, a danger that does not arise only in the office

Doctor Praew gives special interest to pain, particularly the group that has the symptoms of office syndrome, which is a problem met not only in employees, but arises in people of young age as well. Doctor Praew has revealed the main causes of the pain, roughly, from

  1. An incorrect posture of sitting: sitting and working for a long period of time in a posture that is "comfortable" but usually not correct
  2. The behaviour of using technology: being addicted to lying down or sitting playing with a smartphone in an unsuitable posture, which can make pain follow

The degeneration arising from these behaviours, if accumulated in the long term, may make the spine sink down more than normal and lead to a state of the bone pressing on the nerve following on from that

Treatment of the combined kind

Doctor Praew has given the example of the approach to the treatment of pain of rehabilitation medicine, which emphasises restoration in steps, beginning from the lightest method through to the method that is necessary according to the symptoms of the patient. The first step is the use of medicine in order to relieve the preliminary symptoms of pain. After that comes the use of instruments of physiotherapy, which have varied types, in order to reduce the symptoms of pain and the inflammation. These instruments include Shockwave, which helps manage the knots of the muscles that are tight, and High Power Laser, which uses the energy of light waves in changing the level of the molecules, increasing the circulation of the blood, and reducing inflammation deeply. Besides this, needling (Dry Needling) may also be used, which is effective in releasing the knots of the muscles that are stiff and tense, making the patient have improved symptoms of pain quickly

It is not only treatment with medicine or technology that will help the symptoms of the patient improve, but Doctor Praew has also emphasised the importance of the discipline of the patient after the symptoms of pain have reduced, because if the same behaviours are maintained, the result of the treatment will be only temporary and not sustainable, because the physician performs the duty of reducing the symptoms of pain, but after that the patient must have the discipline to stretch and to hold the postures in working and in living daily life correctly

Technology and the returning of the quality of life

At present, modern technology has come in to have an extremely important role in increasing the accuracy in the diagnosis of rehabilitation medicine, with the result that the patient receives treatment that is right at the point and is freed from the symptoms of pain even more quickly, particularly in a case where ordinary stretching cannot release the knots of the muscles that are tight. Technology therefore comes in to fill out the effectiveness in those treatments. This relieving of the symptoms of pain not only has a good effect on the body, but also has an important effect on the mental state of the patient, for chronic pain usually makes the mind worse. The physician being able to treat until the patient is free of pain is therefore like the giving of "a new world" to them, and this very thing is the driving force and the highest happiness that confirms the decision to choose the path of being a physician of rehabilitation medicine

"We can eat, we can sleep; why can we not exercise"

-Doctor Praew

Exercise is really necessary for life. Therefore it is left with everyone to give attention and find the time to exercise in order to prevent symptoms of pain and care for health sustainably