3 Reasons To Go To Physical Therapy After Surgery

Whether you’re undergoing a joint replacement, a back surgery, or some other procedure, we’re confident that working with a physical therapist can help you heal up and get back to your active lifestyle as efficiently and safely as possible.

Every year, our physical therapy team meets thousands of individuals recovering from surgery.

Curious about why physical therapy is so important in the post-surgical window?

We’ve got three reasons to pique your interest! Call GoodLife Physical Therapy today to schedule an appointment, and let us help you get back up on your feet after your operation!

Why should I go to physical therapy after surgery?

Here are three great reasons why you need to schedule physical therapy appointments for your post-surgical recovery period!

1. Physical therapy helps to accelerate your recovery.

Our bodies are extremely strong and capable of self-healing. A physical therapist’s non-invasive and drug-free services and procedures can help people improve their self-healing abilities and work with their bodies rather than just masking symptoms.

Your physical therapist team can help you stay on track during your rehabilitation by minimizing discomfort and limiting the risk of problems so that you can restore and maximize your strength, balance, range of motion, endurance, and overall function as quickly as possible.

2. Physical therapy can help you to control and minimize your pain.

A physical therapist can teach you exercises, provide manual interventions like massage, and implement non-invasive modalities that can work together to alleviate your pain and even reduce your reliance on pain-relieving medications, including opioids.

Many of the interventions we provide in physical therapy work directly on the central nervous system to help modulate pain signals being sent to your brain, while others help reduce inflammation, swelling, and stiffness.

Of course, pain is typical and expected following specific procedures, including hip and knee replacements. Taking your pain medication as prescribed can help you participate in your physical therapy more fully. So, it’s essential to talk to your doctor about your pain medication options and not to stop or start taking anything without his or her input.

That said, research shows that physical therapy is a safe alternative or beneficial component to effective pain management in the post-surgical window. So be sure to talk to your doctor about setting up a referral to see a physical therapist, too!

3. Attending regular appointments with a physical therapist can reduce the risk of complications.

Any surgery carries the potential of problems such as postoperative bleeding, infections, range of motion restrictions, and hardware malfunction.

Working with a physical therapist may help reduce the likelihood of experiencing a complication, which reduces stress, saves money, and protects your short-term and long-term health.

Physical therapists are trained to educate you on how to move and function safely in everyday situations. If your surgeon instructs you to follow particular precautions or activity limits for a period of time after your surgery, your physical therapist can teach you how to adhere to these restrictions and progress or adjust them as needed.

Physical therapists can also prescribe and fit adaptive equipment such as walkers and braces to further protect your healing tissues and help you mobilize more safely.

Your physical therapist can also act as a supportive liaison between you and your surgeon and keep them updated with your progress and needs. This way, if any concerns arise, there can be faster communication between all the need-to-know members of your medical team.

Should I see a physical therapist before and after surgery?

Pre-surgical rehabilitation and post-surgical rehabilitation can be used to make any surgical procedure as easy as possible on your body. While pre-surgical rehabilitation is not always required in a treatment plan, it is always recommended to yield the best results. The best results are always achieved through treatments before and after surgery.

So, to answer your question in short: absolutely!

For example, according to an article on shoulder replacement surgery published by the Hofmann Arthritis Institute,

“Formal physical therapy is not required before surgery, but it is advised to get in the best physical shape possible before surgery to lessen the change for complication and shorten your recovery time.”

The same article also states that “The day after surgery, you will begin working with physical therapy to become comfortable using your new shoulder.” This demonstrates how beneficial it is to complete both pre-surgical rehab and post-surgical rehab. Both are meant to make your recovery process as easy and comfortable as possible.

Request an appointment with us today

It’s never too early to start seeing a physical therapist! Contact our physical therapy clinic today to schedule an appointment for your post-surgical rehabilitation. We are also available to help you begin therapy in preparation for an upcoming surgery, all you have to do is pick up the phone and call us today!

Sources:

Is It Time To See A Physical Therapist For That Herniated Disc of Yours?

You can use physical therapy to find relief from herniated disc pain.

Are you dealing with unexplained back pain? The reason for your discomfort could be a herniated disc. Disc herniations are common among our patients with back, arm, and/or leg discomfort at our physical therapy center. A herniated disc can occur anywhere in your spine!

Strange neck pains, back pains, or extremities symptoms can suggest a multitude of issues, including a herniated disc or several herniated discs.

So, what can you do if you’re not sure if you have this problem? What are your options if you have a herniated disc? These questions don’t have to add to your physical pain and confusion!

If you believe your pain and dysfunction are caused by a herniated disc, we encourage you to contact GoodLife Physical Therapy today to schedule an appointment with a physical therapist.

What is a herniated disc?

You might have heard herniated discs referred to as “slipped discs” or “ruptured discs.” Regardless of what they’re called, all of these names describe the same problem!

Your spinal discs are squat discs of tissue that lie between the vertebrae. They are small soft structures whose main jobs are to absorb shock and maximize mobility within the spine. On the outside, these discs are tough and fibrous, but on the inside, they are soft and gel-like.

Their fluid-filled center, called the nucleus pulposus, is encased in an outer structure called the annulus fibrosus. This arrangement makes the disc both tough enough and spongy enough to absorb shocks.

Unfortunately, that toughness has its limits. Sometimes a disc will lose hydration over time, causing the nucleus pulposus to shrink. The disc loses its height, which stresses the spinal joints and may cause the disc to bulge outward.

Eventually, these changes can cause part of the annulus fibrosus to balloon and tear open; this is a herniated disc. Herniated discs can also occur suddenly due to an auto accident, workplace accident, or sports injury that traumatizes the spine

Symptoms of herniated discs

A herniated disc occurs when the tough outer layer of the disc (the annulus fibrosis) ruptures. This allows the inner gel substance (the nucleus pulposus) to leak out. The ruptured disc tissue can trigger an inflammatory response and compress nearby structures, including joint receptors and spinal nerve roots.

Surprisingly, not all ruptured discs produce discomfort (especially because the discs themselves are relatively low in innervation and vascularization). When a herniated disc does create symptoms, the following are common ones:

  • Neck or back pain, stiffness, and muscle spasms at the level of the injured disc
  • Arm or leg pain, numbness, tingling, and weakness (if the herniated disc compresses on an adjacent nerve root that innervates the affected limb)
  • Pain that improves or “centralizes” (moves toward the spine) with spinal extensions, such as when lying down or lying prone
  • Pain that worsens with forward flexion or prolonged sitting—forward flexion may also cause the pain to “peripheralized” or move further away from the spine

A herniated disc is similar to a bulging disc; in the latter condition, the disc tissue may protrude out of place but will not rupture. 

In addition to analyzing your symptoms and performing various tests and measures, a physical therapist can help you determine if you have a herniated disc by assessing your medical history and lifestyle.

We’ll look for risk factors known to be linked to herniated discs, including:

  • Acute trauma, e.g., auto accident or fall
  • Smoking
  • Obesity
  • Male gender
  • Age between 30 and 50
  • Frequent bending, heavy lifting, or twisting
  • Physically demanding occupation

How can physical therapy help with herniated disc pain?

Research shows that physical therapy is effective for treating herniated discs. If your symptoms are affecting your activities of daily life or work, or if your symptoms persist for longer than two weeks, we recommend consulting with a physical therapist.

Physical therapy interventions like spinal traction, corrective exercises, and non-invasive modalities like electrical stimulation or diathermy can heal the injured disc, alleviate pain, and help you avoid recurring issues.

Physical therapy may also be indicated if you’ve been told by a surgeon that you could need spinal surgery to fix the herniation.

Before undergoing a spinal fusion or disc decompression treatment, many surgeons advise their patients to work with physical therapy to increase core strength and spinal health. This can improve surgical outcomes while lowering the risk of post-operative complications.

Surprisingly, studies suggest that even “idiopathic” back pain (pain that has no identified etiology) responds well to physical therapy. In other words, even if you’re not sure if you have a herniated disc, our services can still be beneficial.

Request your first appointment today

Struggling with the pain of a herniated disc can be excruciatingly difficult. Consult with a physical therapist today to get started on the path toward pain relief! Our experienced team can help you understand the source of your symptoms and heal the injured disc so your relief is longer-lasting. contact us Today !

Sources:

Are You Experiencing Chronic Pain? Improving Your Diet Could Help You Out!

Stop feeding your chronic pain!

Do you live with chronic aches and pains? Do they make it difficult for you to enjoy your daily routine? Is it hard for you to do things that you once loved doing with ease?

If your discomfort has been continuously worsening, you may want to reconsider your eating habits! We truly are what we eat.

Inflammatory responses can be triggered by eating too much or the wrong foods, which can lead to muscle, nerve, or joint discomfort.

Although physical therapists are not dietitians, providing dietary recommendations to patients is an important part of their job. Dietary adjustments can make the biggest difference in decreasing or eliminating pain in some chronic diseases.

By adopting a healthy nutritional strategy as part of a holistic physical therapy program, you can begin to make the changes necessary to live a more full, comfortable life.

Call GoodLife Physical Therapy today to learn more about pain management and dietary changes you can make to feel better!

How is my diet linked to my pain?

Certain kinds of foods are known to cause or aggravate inflammatory responses and chronic pain. You may be doing yourself more harm than good if you regularly consume the following kinds of foods:

  • White bread or other highly-processed carbs
  • Alcohol
  • Red meat
  • Foods heavy in processed sugars and/or trans fats (including cookies, donuts, and margarine)
  • Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and other members of the nightshade family
  • Caffeinated foods and drinks

These foods can harm you in a variety of ways. Sugar and aspartame, for example, enhance insulin levels while also increasing pain sensitivity.

Caffeine and tomatoes both increase acidity in the body, which promotes inflammatory discomfort. However, the bottom line for all of these items (and a few more) is the same: an increase in your aches and pains.

Poor dietary and nutritional choices can also increase your pain by increasing your waistline. Excessive quantities of rich, fatty, sugary or starchy foods can cause your weight to balloon, especially if you lead a sedentary lifestyle.

This extra weight can accelerate joint degeneration, aggravating arthritis pain. It can also place undue strain on your muscles as they struggle to support your heavier body. Obesity can even encourage the development of bulging or herniated discs, leading to neurological issues such as sciatica.

Physical therapy and nutritional pain relief

Certain foods have been known to alleviate inflammation, where some foods can aggravate it. In fact, according to Harvard Health Publishing, “A lot of chronic pain is the result of chronic inflammation, and the evidence is quite strong that your diet can contribute to increased systemic inflammation.”

The good news is that the correct foods can help you battle inflammation just as much as the wrong foods can make it worse. Simply switching to a Mediterranean diet can put you on the road to better health and less pain.

Fruits, vegetables, fish, whole grains, and healthy oils like olive oil are all wonderful options with great nutritional content and low inflammatory potential in this diet.

Even the spices you use can make a big difference in how comfortable you are; turmeric, for example, is a powerful natural anti-inflammatory. Your physical therapist can advise you on the best dietary modifications to make to help you manage your pain.

Weight control is another vital aspect of pain management. Your physical therapy plan may include recommendations on how many calories you should consume, what kinds of foods you should eat to avoid getting fat, and any other necessary changes to your eating schedule or patterns.

Increasing your physical activity will help you get the most out of your new nutritional routine. For example, strength training that builds muscle boosts your metabolic rate, helping your body burn calories more easily.

Other physical therapy techniques to ease chronic aches and pains will help you become that much more mobile – enabling you to boost your workout regimen, lose more weight, and take more strain off of your joints and tissues.

What conditions can be improved with a healthy diet?

There are a number of common conditions in America that are directly related to diet and nutrition.

Here are some conditions in which nutritional advice will likely be a part of the patient’s physical therapy regimen:

  • Diabetes. More than 90 percent of patients with diabetes also experience neuropathic pain. Diet and nutrition will play a key role in managing these conditions.
  • Osteoarthritis. Obese patients are more likely to develop arthritis, especially in the knee. Once a person has been diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the knee, managing their weight becomes the most important key to managing the arthritis and pain.
  • Inflammation. American diets tend to have a lot of vegetable oils and other inflammatory foods in them. This can make the pain from inflammation even worse. In many cases, a physical therapist will prescribe a diet with more antioxidants and anti-inflammatory foods to help manage pain.
  • Autoimmune disorders. The combined total of various autoimmune disorder patients (such as Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis) now outnumber cancer patients in America by a wide margin. Autoimmune disorders are frequently linked directly to deficiencies in a patient’s diet.
  • Obesity. Being overweight causes a patient pain, so they become more sedentary. Becoming more sedentary causes them to gain more weight, which leads to more pain.

Request an appointment with us today!

Eating for health can include eating for pain management. Contact our physical therapy center to make this strategy work for you!

Sources:

Avoiding the Opioid Trap — Thanks to Physical Therapy

You have so many things you want or need to do today — but they’ll have to wait until you take your pills. Prescription opioids are powerful medications that can deaden pain for hours at a time. Unfortunately, they can also cause profound new problems in your life, from the risk of an overdose to the stifling grip of addiction. If you’ve been depending on opioids just to make everyday life tolerable, you need to find a safer, healthier, less terrifying alternative. Thankfully, GoodLife Physical Therapy clinic can help you govern your pain without drugs, giving you a chance to break away from your reliance on opioids.

A Sobering Look at the Opioid Epidemic

The opioid epidemic is a very real (and very deadly) problem. It’s believed that some 2 million Americans suffer from an opioid use disorder such as addiction. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of 130 people die from opioid overdoses every day here in the U.S. Since 1999, the number of opioid-related deaths has multiplied sixfold.

Why are opioids so dangerous? These drugs prevent pain by attaching themselves to opioid receptors in the brain. In high enough doses, they can also cause both drowsiness and an intensely pleasurable high. The high itself is enough to establish a psychological dependence on an opioid — but the trouble doesn’t stop there. The brain and body become accustomed to a given opioid dosage, creating a tolerance to the drug. As a result, you end up needing larger and larger doses not just to achieve the same degree of pain relief, but just to prevent agonizing withdrawal symptoms. Eventually, the dosage you require could be a fatal one.

Even if you’re not addicted to opioids, your chronic pain may be forcing you to keep taking them on a regular basis. Sadly, opioid drugs block pain messages temporarily, but they do absolutely nothing to fix the underlying health challenge that’s making you hurt. They might even be permitting you to do more and more damage to your body while you’re not feeling the pain, which ultimately makes your pain problem that much worse.

How a Physical Therapist Can Provide Drug-Free Pain Management

Physical therapy can help you get a handle on your pain so that you don’t need opioids anymore. Of course, you should only discontinue high doses of opioids under professional medical supervision (to prevent a potentially dangerous withdrawal). In the meantime, however, our physical therapist can work with you on treating 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:

  • Exercises can increase your pain-free range of motion, strengthen the muscles that support your body, and increase blood flow to reduce inflammation.
  • Massage therapy can control painful muscle spasms, help the tissues expel inflammatory substances, and direct more blood and oxygen to an injury.
  • Laser therapy can ease pain caused by injuries, arthritis, muscular strain, tendinitis or neuropathy.
  • Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) uses electrical energy to block pain signals to nerves.

Are You Ready to Steer Clear of Opioid Drugs? Contact Our Physical Therapy Center

Physical therapy is a clear, attractive alternative to the dangers of regular opioid use and abuse. If you’re ready to kick that daily opioid habit to the curb, start by asking our physical therapist for a safe, effective pain management plan! Contact GoodLife Physical Therapy today to schedule your appointment and find out how our services can help you.

Source

https://www.hhs.gov/opioids/about-the-epidemic/index.html

https://www.apta.org/PTinMotion/2018/10/Feature/Opioid/

https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/prescription-drug-abuse/expert-answers/what-are-opioids/faq-20381270

https://www.rehabpub.com/2018/02/physical-therapy-can-treat-chronic-pain/

https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/physical-therapy#1

https://www.asahq.org/whensecondscount/pain-management/opioid-treatment/what-are-opioids/