5 Tips To Help You Address Your Chronic Back Pain Problem

A physical therapist could help you feel better, faster!

Did you know that approximately 80 percent of Americans have experienced (or will experience) back pain? It’s true! In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 1 in 5 people have chronic pain.

If you experience pain and discomfort on a daily basis, we encourage you to consult with a physical therapist who can work with you to address the symptoms and causes of your pain and help you gain better function.

Do you live with chronic back pain? Here are five of our top tips for handling it, all backed by research and relatively easy to implement!

Request an appointment with one of our skilled physical therapists at GoodLife Physical Therapy in Evergreen Park today, and let us help you find true relief from your back pain.

Why does back pain occur?

“Back pain” is an all-encompassing term used to describe a vast number of conditions that cause pain in the upper or lower back. Sports-related injuries, poor posture, and car accidents are just a few of the many ways that someone can develop back pain.

The most common cause of back pain is from sustaining an injury. This can happen in one of two ways – from an instant, sudden trauma, or from a repetitive-use injury that develops gradually over time.

Approximately one-quarter of U.S. adults reported having low back pain lasting at least one whole day in the past three months, and 7.6% reported at least one episode of severe acute low back pain within a one-year period.

More than two-thirds of back strains are caused by lifting and other exertions, such as pulling and pushing. Most cases of back pain are mechanical—meaning they are NOT caused by serious conditions, such as infection, fracture, or cancer.

Regardless of the reason for your back pain and discomfort, the good news is that there are several ways you can manage your problem!

Tips for managing back pain

1. Practice deep breathing exercises.

Deep breathing is beneficial to your health because it allows you to receive enough oxygen into your tissues to heal them.

The following exercise, known as four-square breathing or box breathing, has been shown to help manage pain. Sit in a comfortable position and follow these steps:

  • Breathe in through your nose for 4 counts.
  • Hold your breath for 4 counts.
  • Breathe out through your mouth for 4 counts.
  • Hold at the bottom of your exhalation for 4 counts, then repeat the cycle for 2 minutes.

Deep breathing also stimulates the area of the neural system that helps you relax, which is an excellent approach to relieve tension and pain.

2. Eat healthy food.

Yes, food is truly medicine! You are what you eat, and according to research, limiting overly processed foods and increasing your intake of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, high-quality protein, and healthy fats will help you feel better.

One explanation for this is that eating a varied diet rich in nutrient-dense meals guarantees that our tissues receive the raw ingredients they require to mend and repair.

Plus, when we minimize or eliminate foods in our diet that tend to promote inflammation, including alcohol and sugar, then pain our pain levels can naturally go down.

3. Study your posture.

Do you constantly slouch in your chair or hunch over your phone? Are you using proper body mechanics when picking up objects—whether it’s a heavy box, a pencil on the ground, or even your child or grandchild?

There are numerous ways we move our bodies on a daily basis that may not appear to be troublesome. However, if we regularly put our bodies through certain forms of strain, we might develop tissue damage and chronic discomfort.

See a physical therapist and have your posture, movement mechanics, and ergonomics evaluated. They can assist you in identifying patterns and behaviors that are causing your pain even if you aren’t aware of them.

4. Get a good night’s rest!

Sleep is necessary for your body’s healing and regeneration processes to run smoothly. It’s also a good technique to deal with stress.

Getting enough sleep can help you experience less discomfort for these reasons.

Is it difficult to fall or remain asleep while you’re in pain? To make it easier, use these sleep hygiene tips:

  • Sleep in a pitch black room with the bedroom temperature set to 65 to 68 degrees.
  • Dim the lights and power down your electronics for at least an hour before bedtime.
  • Go to bed at the same time every night, and wake up at the same time every morning (weekends and holidays included).

5. Exercise daily for at least 30 minutes a day.

It’s helpful to talk to a physical therapist if you have chronic pain before starting an exercise program.

Your physical therapist can provide services that naturally alleviate your chronic pain and maximize your function so exercise is easier and safer for you to do.

Exercise can alleviate pain by increasing blood flow, stimulating the release of hormones and neurotransmitters that provide natural pain relief, and increasing joint strength and stability.

So get active—around 30 minutes of exercise on most or all days of the week.

Request an appointment today!

If you’re sick of dealing with your back pain on your own, know that help is available to you at GoodLife Physical Therapy in Evergreen Park. If you are ready to schedule an appointment, contact our physical therapy clinic today!

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3 Ways Physical Therapy Can Help You Combat Long Term Pain

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 1 in 5 people have chronic pain. In fact, approximately 80 percent of Americans have experienced (or will experience) chronic back pain. Physical therapy can help eliminate chronic pain.

As you can see, chronic pain is incredibly widespread, with over 100 million patients in the United States alone, so you are not alone if you are suffering from it. \

Standard pain drugs have so many drawbacks that you can’t rely on them to adequately relieve your pain, leaving you to wonder whether you’re doomed to live with it.

Fortunately, there is another option to consider. Physical therapy has been demonstrated to help people with chronic pain reduce or perhaps eliminate it.

With the right treatment plan at GoodLife Physical Therapy in Homer Glen you may be able to greatly reduce your discomfort!

Request an appointment at our physical therapy clinic today, and let us help you combat your back pain once and for all!

What is chronic back pain?

Back discomfort that lasts longer than three months is referred to as chronic back pain. It’s a steadily worsening pain that becomes worse with time and fundamental daily activities.

In addition, the exact reason for back discomfort may be unknown. It’s possible that no one knows what produced it or where it came from.

However, most people can recover from back pain by understanding its causes, especially those that do not derive from an incident, such as a car accident.

Where does back pain stem from?

Chronic back pain may arise from two issues, including a sudden, traumatic injury or repetitive stress on the vertebrae.

Age, weight, bad lifting techniques, and even mental health difficulties can all raise the risk of back discomfort, and it only takes one injury for a condition to progress into the realm of long-term issues.

Pain includes sensations, such as a prick, burn, tingle, sting, sharp pain, and aches. Acute pain is typically an expected bodily response to a severe injury.

However, the repeated use of joints after an inflammatory response may lead to the worsening of symptoms and disease progression, explains the NINDS.

According to the Mayo Clinic, people with particularly poor posture, bulging or ruptured discs, arthritis, skeletal abnormalities, and osteoporosis are more likely to experience chronic back pain than their peers.

How can physical therapy help me?

Physical therapy can improve your life in several ways! If you are struggling to do things you once loved doing without experiencing debilitating pain, it’s a good idea to contact GoodLife Physical Therapy to see how we can help you.

1. Increasing your physical strength

Depending on your condition, your physical therapist may teach you some exercises designed to strengthen your muscles and soft tissues.

It may seem strange that getting stronger is recommended by medical science when you are in pain – since exercising may be painful in and of itself, especially at first. But there are good reasons to try and make you stronger.

Often, the cause of chronic pain is pressure on nerves in your joints, whether your spine, knees, hips, elbows, or some other joint.

When you make the muscles around those joints stronger, they are better at providing support – which can take some of the pressure off of your nerves.

2. Electrical therapy and cold/hot therapies

Physical therapists have a variety of tools at their disposal to treat your immediate pain as well.

They can use things like transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), hot and cold therapies to help reduce inflammation and ease some of the pain you are feeling.

These therapies can also help improve your body’s ability to heal.

3. Teaching you how to move safely

Most people are not fully aware of how they move in their day-to-day activities. You could be bending over, lifting, walking, running, sitting, or moving in some other manner that is contributing to your chronic pain.

Learning how to improve the issues with your movements can significantly decrease the pain you experience.

Your first session with your physical therapist will include an exam where they watch the way you perform different activities – like walking – to identify any possible problems.

Once they know where things are going wrong, they can teach you how to improve so that you do not unknowingly increase your chronic pain.

4. Improving your flexibility

Improving your flexibility can also help reduce your pain. When you are suffering from an injury, it is common for your body to compensate in some way to avoid the pain – which can lead to unhealthy movement patterns that you may not even be aware of.

The way your body compensates may help right after the injury, but over time it will lead to wear and tear on other parts of your body. If you feel really tight or locked up in one way or another, you are probably experiencing this type of situation.

Physical therapy can gently relax your body so that you can return to moving in a healthy manner.

Your physical therapist will work with you to ease the tension so that your body can move correctly and increase the strength of the muscles surrounding the joint so that you can maintain the correct movement patterns.

Ready to find relief for your chronic pain?

If you are struggling with chronic pain, we want you to know that we are here to help. Our physical therapy team can design an individualized treatment program to help alleviate your pain and improve your life. Call our clinic today to schedule an appointment, and let us help you return to living your best life possible!

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Non-invasive Treatment for Your Chronic Aches and Pains

Any pain that lasts longer than three months is classified as “chronic.” When people suffer with chronic pain for a long period of time, it can become a downward spiral. They become more inactive and sedentary as a result of the pain, and then their health gets even worse. People with chronic pain will even turn to extreme options like surgery or addictive painkillers to try to find relief from the pain. If you suffer from chronic pain but want a non-invasive, non-addictive option for relief, it’s time to contact our office and talk with a physical therapist.

Information on Chronic Pain

Chronic pain affects every person differently. In many cases, the pain continues long after the body should have healed from an injury or surgery. The good news is that physical therapy is not a one-size-fits-all approach to pain relief. Your physical therapist has many tools and techniques at their disposal to help alleviate and conquer chronic pain. 

Chronic pain has a number of symptoms associated with it, aside from the fact that the pain has lasted longer than three months. Here are some of the associated symptoms of chronic aches and pains:

  • Activity Avoidance: People with chronic pain become fearful of normal activities. The fear of additional pain can cause people to withdraw from normal physical activities that they enjoy.
  • Stiffness: Muscles and joints may feel stiffer when suffering from chronic pain. 
  • Reduced Fitness: Inactivity due to chronic pain can cause your muscles to weaken and shrink. This can have profound physical effects over time, such as impacting your sense of balance.
  • Reduced Circulation: Remaining inactive due to chronic pain reduces your circulation, which means your cells are not receiving a healthy amount of blood and oxygen. This can cause tissues to degenerate and leads to feelings of constant fatigue.
  • Weight Gain and Additional Problems: People with chronic pain may put on too much weight, which can lead to a host of added problems, from diabetes to heart disease.

Physical Therapy for Chronic Aches and Pains

The course of therapy that your physical therapist will recommend will be tailored to meet your specific needs and goals. After an initial consultation and exam, your therapist will get right to work with you on methods to begin overcoming your chronic aches and pains.

This will start with education. Your therapist will explain how how the pain occurs and what can be done to alleviate it. The goal will initially be pain management, so that you can eventually get back to enjoying your normal routine.

Exercise, stretching and flexibility will be a part of your physical therapy. Becoming stronger and more flexible over time will allow you to move around better, with less pain. This will be a slow and gradual process; you won’t be running a marathon just yet. Instead, the exercises will be focused on slow, steady and gradual improvement of your strength and flexibility.

Manual therapy is a specialized type of massage that physical therapists are trained to do. These techniques will be used to mobilize tight joints that are contributing to aches and pains, and manipulating soft tissues for pain relief. This technique can be very therapeutic when dealing with chronic pain.

Finally, posture and body mechanics training will be a big part of your physical therapy. Learning how to use correct posture at home, at work and at rest can help to relieve pain and prevent pain from recurring. All of these treatment modalities will help you return to a normal life without invasive surgery or painkillers.

If you have been suffering from chronic aches and pains, take that first step to overcome your condition today. Call our office to schedule an appointment with a physical therapist.

Living with Aches and Pains? There’s A Chance it Could be From Your Mattress

If Your Mattress is Leaving You Feeling Achy, Physical Therapy Can Help

Do you notice that you often wake up in more pain than you felt when you were going to sleep? If you have been dealing with low back pain that seems to be much worse in the morning, your mattress might be the culprit!

While back pain is a common enough ailment that most people think they’ll just be stuck with it forever, you can find relief! But what is the true cause of your back pain at night? Could it be your favorite sleeping position or is your mattress actually causing your recurring back pain?

Call our physical therapy offices today to schedule a free consultation with our skilled physical therapist and learn more about how you can get relief from your lower back pain naturally.

How do I know if my pain is from my mattress?

According to Spine Health, “Sleeping on the wrong mattress can cause or worsen lower back pain. Lack of support from a mattress reinforces poor sleeping posture, strains muscles and does not help keep the spine in alignment, all of which contribute to low back pain.

Sleep comfort is also sacrificed if a mattress does not match one’s individual preferences. A mattress that provides both comfort and back support helps reduce low back pain, allowing the structures in the spine to really rest and rejuvenate during the night.”

While the Better Sleep Council recommends replacing your mattress every 7 to 10 years, the way you feel in the morning is a better indicator that it’s time to replace your sleep surface.

If your mattress was once comfortable but now seems to be at the root of your aches and pains, it may be time to replace it. Physical changes like injuries, surgery and weight change can also change your body’s position as you sleep, necessitating a faster change in your mattress.

Are you experiencing back pain?

There are 2 main types of back pain. Subacute lower back pain can last between 4 and 12 weeks, while chronic back pain persists for 12 weeks or longer.

So, if you’re sleeping on the wrong mattress, it’s easy to see how what may have been a subacute injury, could easily progress into a chronic pain issue. Lower back pain is one of the most common conditions affecting Americans today.

In fact, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke says close to 80% of adults will experience low back pain at some point in their lives.

Back pain can come on suddenly or gradually and can present as a dull ache or intense, sharp pains. And for many, low back pain can be a chronic condition.

Common causes of back pain

Before choosing to work with a physical therapist to relieve your lower back pain, it’s important to understand the possible causes of the condition and what changes you can make at home, including changing out your old mattress!

Sprains and Strains

Back sprains can pop-up due to overuse injuries, sports-related injuries, awkward twisting, improper lifting and more. A sprain typically occurs when you overstretch or tear one of your ligaments, tendons or muscles.

Common symptoms associated with a back sprain include swelling, tenderness, and recurring muscle spasms. They can usually be treated with targeted physical therapy sessions, at-home exercises, and over-the-counter pain medications.

Injuries

Anytime you are on the receiving end of a forceful impact, there’s a good chance that you could damage your spine with a vertebral fracture, a herniated disc or ruptured disc.

Common causes of this type of injury include auto accidents, falls, and sports injuries. Most people experience back pain immediately following their injury, with common symptoms including numbness, tingling, and burning sensations that can radiate down into the legs.

Improper Alignment

Not all mattresses are created equally and if your delicate back isn’t getting proper support at night, you could experience low back pain.

A good mattress should be supportive of your entire body when you are lying in a neutral position, providing proper spinal alignment.

If it is too firm, it can press against the pressure points in your spine. But if it’s too soft, your pressure points will be unsupported at night, resulting in spinal curvature.

Get started with physical therapy treatments

Our physical therapist is a movement expert who has the skills needed to help relieve low back pain naturally with a combination of hands-on care, prescribed exercises, and patient education.

When you work with an experienced physical therapist, you can enjoy fast pain relief, reduced inflammation, and increased mobility.

Give Goodlife Physical Therapy a call today to learn more about the benefits of physical therapy for low back pain and be sure to schedule a free initial consultation.

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Living With Aches and Pains? Try Changing Your Diet

Did You Know You Could Find Pain Relief with a Simple Diet Change

A physical therapist can help you identify ways to improve your nutrition to help reduce your aches and pains.

If you are what you eat, what are you based on your last meal? If your answer was full of saturated fat and processed sugars, it may be time to listen to what your body is telling you. Fortunately, physical therapy is more than just recovery after surgery.

Lifestyle changes can help tremendously when trying to reach your physical goals. But what kinds of lifestyle changes should you pursue? In addition to regular exercise, including the types of targeted exercises you might receive in physical therapy, you should examine your sleep, your workplace ergonomics – and your nutrition.

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.”

Curious about how your nutrition can help with pain relief? Call our office for more information.

What should I know about nutrition and pain relief?

With so much information about nutrition bombarding us from every side, it’s no wonder we are confused about what to eat for optimal health.

Make no mistake, proper nutrition isn’t about trying a fad to get results, it’s about feeding your body the nutrients it needs to carry you throughout your life.

That is why so many people find themselves gaining and losing the same 20 pounds as they cycle through various nutrition programs.

Fortunately, great nutrition information is easily available in an unlikely source, a physical therapist.

How is nutrition related to pain relief?

Physical therapy goes beyond recovering after surgery. A physical therapist is a specialist in total body movement, including how to give the body what it needs to optimize that movement.

Most pain is caused by inflammation of the joints, muscles or connective tissues throughout the body. As these tissues swell, they compromise the surrounding nerves. The brain processes this information as pain causing the typical aches and pains throughout the body.

Researchers have found that certain foods help fight the inflammatory response that contributes to aches and pains.

Fish high in Omega-3 fatty acids, colorful fruits and vegetables, nuts, and seeds have all been proven to offer relief to people suffering from joint conditions such as arthritis. These foods also boost the immune system, especially in people with autoimmune conditions that may cause pain.

How can physical therapy help with my nutritional changes?

A physical therapist’s extensive knowledge of anatomy and physiology can provide you with vital nutrition information that will help minimize your aches and pains.

If your nutrients aren’t properly balanced, your physical function can be impaired. For example, neglecting to eat carbs before an endurance event will cause your body to burn fat as a substitute for fueling your energy.

Your body may even start burning protein, which can deprive your muscles of the strength they normally have. Comparatively, if you have an overload of calcium intakes, but you’re lacking Vitamin D, the calcium won’t make its way to your bones or tissues.

Even if you are not in physical therapy, a physical therapist is happy to impart this knowledge so you can live a happier, healthier life.

Consulting with a physical therapist can help you understand how much you should be ingesting of each nutrient, and when more or fewer intakes of a certain nutrient may be beneficial.

First, they will assess your current eating habits and identify ways you can reduce your consumption of foods that cause inflammation (sugar, processed foods, foods with additives or preservatives) and fill your diet with foods that will naturally fight inflammation.

A healthy balance of nutrients can help enhance healing, function, and overall comfort. For example, omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamin C both help in reducing inflammation, which promotes faster healing.

Certain amino acids can also aid your body in synthesizing proteins. Eating the right amount of carbohydrates at the right times can help give you the energy you need to improve your physical performance.

Imagine ditching the anti-inflammatory medication simply by changing what you are eating on a regular basis. Even small changes can add up to big improvement in aches and pains.

How can I get started?

Curious whether a physical therapist can help you get your nutrition back on track and fight the aches and pains that are keeping you from living your best life? Call Goodlife Physical Therapy today to schedule a consultation.

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Finally Find Relief for Those Persistent Aches and Pains with These 3 Tips

Looking for Relief? Physical Therapy Can Help

There’s something oddly satisfying about waking up the morning after a hard workout and feeling a dull ache in your muscles.

But when that dull ache migrates to your joints and seems to happen every day, that satisfaction quickly turns to frustration.

The answer is not to take anti-inflammatory medication or simply ignore the aches and pains in your joints, but rather to talk to your physical therapist.

If these three reasons to consider physical therapy for joint pain aren’t enough to convince you, call our office to find out more.

1. Physical therapy can help you find relief the natural way!

It doesn’t matter whether it happens in your muscles or joints, your body’s pain receptors are there to alert you to a potential problem.

Whether it is a lack of fluid in the joint, damage to soft tissues like tendons or ligaments, or muscle strain or fatigue, pain signals are designed to keep you from doing permanent damage to your body. Yet, people have a tendency to treat pain as an inconvenience rather than a problem.

If pain is your first warning sign that there is a problem that needs to be fixed, suddenly getting to the root cause of that pain is a priority.

Fortunately, a physical therapist is a specialist in not only human anatomy, but how the body moves. They can uncover the cause of your pain during diagnostic testing and prescribe a series of therapies to address it.

2. Fear of the knife? Physical therapy can decrease the need for surgery.

Most people associate physical therapy with surgery. While it is a vital part of recovery after nearly every surgical procedure possible, that is not the only role physical therapy can play in healing.

In fact, with very few exceptions, physical therapy can help you resolve most joint pain without ever going under the knife.

In some cases, physical therapy has been proven more effective than surgery at treating certain types of joint pain. Joint pain relief without the anxiety and complications of surgery? Sign us up!

3. Physical therapy can help you move with ease.

There are times when rest is the appropriate course of action for treating acute joint pain, especially if there is an injury involved. However, targeted exercise, recommended by a physical therapist, can help relieve joint pain and stiffness.

Not only does exercise improve your overall health and fitness levels, but it also works to strengthen the muscles around your joints, providing them with more support.

Physical therapy can also help protect your bone density, give you more energy, help you sleep, and help you maintain a healthy weight. What does this have to do with joint pain?

A 2005 study found that losing just one pound can eliminate four pounds of pressure on your knees. Even modest weight loss, 5 to 10 pounds, can relieve as much as 20 to 40 pounds of pressure on your joints. A physical therapist can help you stay safely moving while you recover from aches and pains in your joints.

Find relief with our passive and active therapies!

Once your physical therapist has isolated the underlying cause of your chronic joint pain, we can prescribe techniques to help you start feeling – and moving – more like your old self.

Physical therapy for joint pain may start with passive exercises, in which we move the afflicted joint for you to increase its pain-free range of motion.

Exercises that reduce the amount of weight on the joints can also be extremely helpful. For instance, we may recommend swimming or water walking as a means of exercising the hips and knees without also forcing them to bear your full weight.

Other types of exercises can also help you overcome your joint pain while improving joint function. Strengthening exercises help by reinforcing the muscles and connective tissues that serve the joint. Corrective exercises and neuromuscular re-education can help you maintain a straighter, more symmetrical posture.

Last but not least, physical therapy offers a variety of helpful modalities beyond exercise. We may treat your joint pain with heat, ice, and manual therapies such as massage, just to name a few.

Ready to get started on the path toward relief?

Don’t let aches and pains in your joints keep you from living the life you want.

Call GoodLife Rehab today to schedule your consultation with our physical therapist and find out how physical therapy can help you live a pain-free life.

Chronic Back Pain Can Leave You Feeling Defeated – Physical Therapy Can Help

Are You Living with Chronic Back Pain?

Does your back hurt all the time? Can’t seem to get comfortable or engage in your normal activities?

If so, be sure to give us a call and schedule an appointment with one of our physical therapists.

Our physical therapists can help lessen your pain or alleviate it entirely.

Chronic back pain, defined

Most back pain is short term. It persists from a few days to a few weeks. Chronic back pain is pain that lasts for 12 weeks or more.

The American Physical Therapy Association states that back pain is the most commonly experienced form of pain for Americans. In fact, one in every four Americans has sustained some sort of back pain in the past three months.

Chronic back pain is pain that persists for three months and longer. This type of pain can be due to a variety of reasons, including arthritis of the spine, aging, disc problems and myofascial pain syndrome.

About 20 percent of people who have back pain will have it develop into chronic back pain with persistent symptoms. Chronic back pain ranks number three on the scale for the most burdensome conditions for Americans.

What could be causing my chronic back pain?

Most chronic back pain causes are mechanical in nature. Some of the causes include:

  • Intervertebral disc degeneration
  • Radiculopathy
  • Herniated discs
  • Sprains and strains
  • Traumatic injury
  • Sciatica

Sprains and strains are caused by tears in the muscle, twisting or lifting improperly or overstretching. Disc degeneration occurs when the rubbery discs in the spine lose their integrity and no longer act as a cushion between discs. Herniated discs occur when the discs become compressed and bulge outward.

Radiculopathy is caused by injury, inflammation or compression of the spinal nerve root. It can occur with a herniated disc, too.

Sciatic is a type of radiculopathy due to compression of the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve is a large one and compression to it can cause a burning or shock-like pain that radiates to the leg and feet. It also may cause numbness and weakness in the leg.

Traumatic injuries can occur from falls, car accidents and sports. Damage to the ligaments, muscles and tendons can lead to chronic back pain as the result of a traumatic injury.

How will physical therapy help my chronic back pain?

Physical therapy is often recommended by physicians for people with chronic back pain. The goal of physical therapy is to decrease back pain, increase function and provide education to avoid future recurrences. A physical therapy program typically has two components: passive treatment and active treatment.

Passive treatments consist of ultrasound, ice and heat therapy, TENS units, electric shock, massage and stabilization techniques. Active treatments consist of stretching and targeted exercises.

Physical therapists also give patients with chronic back pain a routine exercise program to do at home. Physical therapy also helps those with chronic back pain avoid depending on pain meds and having surgery. Heat and cold therapy may be used to increase blood flow, reduce inflammation and lessen pain. Ultrasound is a common passive modality that physical therapists utilize. Ultrasound uses sound waves for deep heating that penetrates the soft tissue.

According to the NBCI, “in chronic low back pain, the physical therapy exercise approach remains a first-line treatment and should be routinely used. “

Stabilization exercises may also be included to retrain the deep muscles. Your physical therapist will show you how to use the right spinal and abdominal muscles before beginning any exercises to stabilize the spine. Manipulation is another technique to alleviate chronic back pain. Short and rapid thrusting movements are done over a joint to reduce pain and increase mobility.

Not only does this method alleviate back pain, it enhances healing of the affected area. A transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator (TENS) unit may be ordered by a physical therapist. This unit helps override painful signals sent to the brain.

It can be used at home and on a long-term basis. Deep tissue massage is another common treatment for chronic back pain. This manual method increases oxygen and nutrients to the affected areas for healing and also helps reduce muscle spasms and stiffness.

If you’re suffering from chronic back pain, be sure to contact Goodlife Physical Therapy for a consult and an evaluation.

Ready to find relief?

Our physical therapists will review your medical history, evaluate your function, determine your range of movement and develop a personalized treatment plan that will get you on the path to recovery.

Our goal is to improve your quality of life and help you perform your daily routine.