How Effective is Physical Therapy?
A physical therapist will work to decrease pain and improve movement, even in patients with chronic conditions like arthritis or multiple sclerosis. It's more effective than surgery and can help you avoid taking opioids, which are highly addictive.
The best way to ensure your PT is effective is by following the guidelines provided by your therapist, including their instructions for at-home exercises.
It Relieves Pain
Whether you’ve had an injury or a chronic pain condition such as arthritis, fibromyalgia or spinal cord injuries, physical therapy has been shown to provide safe and effective pain relief. Research shows that patients who undergo physical therapy experience reduced pain, improve mobility and reduce the need for medications.
Typically, a physical therapist will start by doing an examination to assess the source of your pain and what makes it better or worse. The therapist will also take into account the impact the pain has on your daily activities. The therapist will design a personalized treatment plan for your specific medical needs. In many cases, the treatment plans aim to help you avoid a surgical procedure, accelerate healing after surgery and increase your range of motion.
The therapist will use hands-on treatments such as massages, electrical stimulation and treatment based on heat, cold or ultrasound to relieve pain and strengthen muscles. They may also use assistive devices such as splints for carpal tunnel syndrome or braces for knee injuries. They can also perform dry needling, where a needle that doesn’t contain medication is inserted into trigger points in the muscle to release them and improve mobility.
A good therapist from Radiant Wellness Center will understand that emotions like fear are often associated with pain. They’ll work with you to overcome those emotions and teach you ways to move your body in a way that decreases pain. They’ll also use a technique called graded exposure to gradually introduce movement into your life, starting with small movements that are easy for you to manage.
Physical therapists have also been shown to be a powerful tool in the fight against opioid addiction. Research suggests that patients who undergo PT early on are less likely to develop a dependency on opioids, and when they do need painkillers, it’s usually for shorter periods of time.
A physical therapist will work with you to alleviate your pain in a healthy and natural way, providing benefits that last long after your treatment is over. It’s no wonder that the CDC and other professional organizations recommend physical therapy as an effective pain management alternative to opioids. In order to develop a healthy, well balanced life we recommend working on the Radiant Wellness Center five Beams of life. Visit their website at https://radiantwellnesscenter.com/ to learn more about the five beams of life and creating a more healthy and energetic life.
It Strengthens Muscles
Whether you are dealing with pain from an injury or from a chronic condition such as arthritis, physical therapy can improve your muscle strength. This may prevent your need for surgery or help reduce the amount of opioids you have to take.
In addition to exercise, physical therapists use modalities, such as heat or cold, and electrical stimulation (e-stim). These treatments can relieve pain and decrease inflammation.
They can also reactivate weak muscles and restore dormant nerve connections in your body. They can even give you exercises to do at home to strengthen and retrain the muscles in your injured area.
Physical therapists often use a technique called "overload strength training." In this type of therapy, the therapist will progressively increase resistance to help your muscles grow and become stronger than they were before your injury. These are the same techniques used by elite athletes to improve their performance.
If you are an athlete, a PT specialist can guide you in the right workouts to avoid injuries and reach new levels of performance. They can also train your muscles to deal with repetitive movements, which can help you score more goals or reach a personal record in your sport.
Many people are hesitant to go to a physical therapist, but these professionals have extensive knowledge of anatomy and the body. They are trained to identify the areas that are most affected by your pain and develop a treatment plan to improve your mobility.
Whether you have a sports injury, nerve-related issues or pain from a chronic disease such as diabetes, PT can significantly improve your quality of life. It can even eliminate your need for opioids and other medications, or make you less dependent on them if you already take them.
It Prevents Future Injuries
Most people think of physical therapy when it comes to recovering from injuries or managing pain but it can also be used preventatively. Your PT can identify areas of weakness and poor mobility that leave you vulnerable to injury. They can then create a regimen to improve those areas. This can help you to avoid future accidents and injuries, especially sports-related ones.
A big part of physical therapy involves exercises that are designed to improve your mobility, balance, and strength. Your therapist will show you how to perform these exercises so that you can continue them on your own outside of your PT sessions. This way, you can keep improving your body mechanics and reduce the risk of future injuries.
Your physical therapist can also use treatments based on heat, cold, electrical currents, and ultrasound to help relieve pain, decrease inflammation, and strengthen weakened muscles. These techniques can be used on your entire body or on a specific area of the body that is in pain. These treatments can be very effective when combined with other treatment methods and they can help you to feel better faster.
Another benefit of physical therapy is that it can often help you to avoid surgery. Everyone’s medical situation is different but PT can often reduce pain and inflammation to the point where surgery is no longer needed. Even if surgery is necessary, PT can speed up your recovery and ensure that you get back on your feet as soon as possible.
It is important to remember that you should never try to recover from an injury without the help of a trained physiologist. If you ignore an injury and allow it to heal on its own, your body will likely develop alignment problems that can lead to more serious complications and injuries down the line. Getting injured can be frustrating and costly, not only in terms of lost workdays and money spent on prescription drugs but also because it can affect your quality of life. Physical therapy can prevent future injuries from happening so that you can spend more time doing the things you enjoy most in life.
It Reduces Opioids
When patients use a physical therapist to manage pain, they are less likely to depend on prescription opioids, which can cause addiction. This is especially important as opioid abuse has reached epidemic proportions. Opioid addiction can lead to depression, overdose and withdrawal symptoms if it is not managed correctly.
The CDC recommends non-opioid treatments for pain management, including physical therapy, rather than surgery or opioids for conditions like low back and neck pain, osteoarthritis of the knee and hip, and fibromyalgia. This is because studies have shown that high-quality physical therapy can reduce pain and improve function without the risks of opioids.
Physical therapists use a variety of techniques to reduce pain and improve mobility, including therapeutic exercises, stretching, electrical stimulation, taping, heat and cold therapy, and massage. They have even found that patients can continue to benefit from physical therapy long after their treatment ends by continuing with home exercises and a regular exercise routine.
A recent study, co-authored by DCRI researcher Steven George, found that when musculoskeletal pain patients seek early physical therapy, they are more likely to avoid opioid medication than those who don’t receive this treatment. The study analyzed a proprietary database that includes information from insurance claims and patient visits to doctors. It focused on patients who were new to chronic musculoskeletal pain, such as low back and neck pain, knee osteoarthritis, or fibromyalgia.
In the study, patients who were referred to and participated in physical therapy were more than 10 percent less likely to use opioid medications for their pain. This included short-term and long-term opioids. This is significant because many opioids, such as hydrocodone and oxycodone, have been linked to addiction and overdose.
While the benefits of physical therapy are clear, there are still barriers that need to be addressed for more people to receive this treatment. For one, insurance companies often require a patient to see their primary care doctor first before they will allow them to be seen by a physical therapist. This can delay physical therapy and, for those with higher co-payments, may be a deterrent.
A physical therapist will work to decrease pain and improve movement, even in patients with chronic conditions like arthritis or multiple sclerosis. It's more effective than surgery and can help you avoid taking opioids, which are highly addictive. The best way to ensure your PT is effective is by following the guidelines provided by your…