Did You Know Physical Therapy Could Help Provide Natural Pain Relief?
Opioids are the main driver of the widespread drug crisis across America. If you or a loved one has chronic pain, you may feel frustrated and confused about your choices.
At our physical therapy clinic, we stand with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other professional organizations who recommend physical therapy and other alternatives over prescription opioids for the management of chronic pain.
Many people simply don’t realize how effective physical therapy can be in alleviating even the most stubborn symptoms—all without the need for drugs or invasive procedures.
We’re happy to show you exactly how physical therapy can help you feel (and function) your best.
What can I expect from a PT treatment plan?
Physical therapy can help you deal with your pain so you don’t need opioids anymore. Of course, only high doses of opioids should be discontinued under professional medical supervision (to prevent a potentially dangerous withdrawal).
In the meantime, however, our physical therapist can work with you to address the biomechanical problems that caused your pain in the first place.
Here are just a few of the physical therapy modalities that can help you conquer your pain:
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) uses electrical energy to block pain signals to nerves.
- Laser therapy can ease pain caused by injuries, arthritis, muscular strain, tendinitis or neuropathy.
- Massage therapy can control painful muscle spasms, help the tissues expel inflammatory substances, and direct more blood and oxygen to an injury.
- Exercises can increase your pain-free range of motion, strengthen the muscles that support your body, and increase blood flow to reduce inflammation.
Physical therapy may not help you to feel that immediate relief in the same way pain medication would, but it will help you to feel gradual improvements in your experience of the pain so that you can eventually start to live your life free of discomfort.
A physical therapist can also help you discover relief through:
- Weight lifting: As you begin to experience tension relief and decreased swelling in the targeted area, your physical therapist can then guide you through the process of building muscle mass to support a full and healthy recovery.
- Deep stretching: Your physical therapist can guide you through specialized stretching techniques that will target the source of your pain, thereby helping to improve your range of motion and support the development of muscle mass in the area of your pain.
- Hot and cold therapy: The combination of hot and cold therapy can help to reduce swelling and alleviate pain, and when used in combination with other natural strategies can be a great source of relief from chronic pain.
- Targeted massage: Your physical therapist can identify the area that may be causing the pain and utilize massage techniques to reduce tension in that particular area, thereby helping to alleviate pressure in your joints and reduce pain.
5 ways physical therapy can help with the relief you’ve been looking for
- There are a multitude of benefits surrounding PT! When you see a physical therapist for pain relief, you’re not going to just get one type of treatment. You’ll receive multiple services that complement each other and enhance their overall effectiveness. The result? A cost-effective and comprehensive healing journey for you!
- You can live your best life with PT. Unlike many other healthcare providers who are limited on time, physical therapists have a lot of face-to-face interaction with their patients and can take the time to get to know their goals, demands, and preferences. This ensures that patients are engaged in their plans of care, educated about their health condition, and equipped with home exercises, stretches, and other lifestyle modifications needed to optimize results. Physical therapy is an active experience that puts you back in the driver’s seat of your own health.
- PT helps you move comfortably again. Research tells us that exercise is one of the best ways to manage chronic pain. But if a person is in so much pain they can barely get out of bed, how are they supposed to start exercising more? Enter physical therapy. Your physical therapist can manage your condition and other contributing factors (like range of motion limitations, tissue tension, weakness, and incoordination) that make exercise difficult. By helping you get more exercise—and showing you which exercises are best for you, as well as how to do them correctly—a physical therapist also helps you reduce the risk of other chronic diseases.
- PT methods and modalities are non-invasive, drug-free, and safe. Practitioners of physical therapy utilize tools like diathermy, dry needling, electrical stimulation, ultrasound, and other techniques to reduce pain, muscle spasms, inflammation, and more. The risk of side effects with these modalities is minimal to none, and unlike drugs they won’t pose the risk of dependency or withdrawal. They simply enhance your body’s natural self-healing capability (instead of just “masking” the pain). Through extensive training, a physical therapist can ensure these techniques are applied with the correct dosage (intensity, location, type, duration, and frequency) for optimal outcomes.
- PT can promote healing and alleviate pain. A physical therapist is trained in techniques like joint mobilizations and manipulations, massage, myofascial release, Active Release Techniques, and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation. These can trigger physical and physiological changes in the body’s connective tissues, central nervous system, lymphatic system, and more. These techniques have been proven to relieve pain and elicit healing responses that can keep pain from coming back.
Relieve your pain with PT today!
No matter what the cause of your pain is, we invite you to schedule a consultation at our PT clinic today. Don’t hide your pain—heal your pain from the source with physical therapy!
