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by Martin Kelvin
If you are experiencing pain in any part of your body such as your back, neck or shoulder etc., then consulting a physical therapist at the initial stage can bring a world of difference in your condition. Don’t wait for your symptoms to worsen to consult a doctor, as that can create further problems for you. Irrespective of the underlying cause of your pain, you can get tremendous benefits by seeking early physical therapy treatments.
For example, if you talk particularly about back pain, which can occur due to several factors such as muscle strains, ligament sprains, ruptured disks, skeletal injuries, spinal tumor, poor posture, and arthritis etc., it can be treated effectively with physical therapy.
Seeking early physical therapy reduces one’s chances of taking surgical treatment, which not only helps in saving money but also allows a person to get back to their routine activities immediately.
Conditions like back pain and sciatica create enormous discomfort to patients by putting a lot of strain on the spine.
Advantages of seeking early physical therapy for back pain
It Improves Posture
If in case, poor posture is the primary cause of your back pain, seeking early physical therapy services can improve your quality of life to a great extent. Conditions like poor posture, which results in several musculoskeletal conditions can be easily treated with physical therapy. Yes, once your consult a licensed physical therapist, they will tailor a treatment plan to meet your requirements after carrying out an ergonomic evaluation to analyze your body dimensions and its ability to function.
Based on the ergonomic evaluation, they will include right techniques to improve your posture. They basically use techniques like postural retraining to improve your posture, which eventually helps in mitigating the pain.
In addition to that, your physical therapist will also ask you to use an ergonomic chair at your workplace, if you spend hours at your desk. They may also ask you to change your mattress if in case it’s causing problems for you. On top of that, they may also teach you ideal right sleep positions. For example, if you have the habit of sleeping on your stomach, then you have to place a comfortable pillow under it. People who sleep on their back should place a pillow under their knees. Similarly, people who sleep on their side, have to place a pillow between their legs to get a good night’s sleep.
It Reduces The Pain Caused By Diseases
Back pain can also result from conditions like arthritis and even, in that case, physical therapy can prove to be very important. Conditions like arthritis can derail a person’s life completely by restricting their movements. Arthritis is a term that’s used for describing different types of joint diseases, which have a tremendous impact on mobility.
Spinal osteoarthritis remains one of the major reasons for back pain in people aged 50 and above. However, the pain caused by this condition can be mitigated effectively by using physical therapy techniques.
It Heals Injuries
Physical therapy is very helpful in reducing back pain that stems from sprains, strains and other types of injuries. When you consult a physical therapist to heal the pain that occurs due to injuries, they first try to identify its exact location. Once the exact location of the pain is identified, they then incorporate relevant techniques in your treatment plan for quick recovery.
For example, they will include a right manual therapy technique n your treatment plan to heal your pain and restore your function. There are different forms of manual therapy such as soft tissue massage, joint mobilization, and neuromuscular techniques. And when it comes to healing injuries they generally use soft tissue massage. It’s a technique that helps in strengthening injured muscles, ligaments and tendons.
Soft tissue massage helps in reducing pain and swelling and improves circulation. Improved circulation plays an instrumental role in supplying necessary nutrients to the injured muscles, tendons and ligaments, which eventually accelerates the healing process.
According to, BodyGears Physical Therapy, “Soft tissue mobilization, or massage, focuses on muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Often if a patient hasn’t had a chance to use a set of muscles due to illness, or has been injured in that area, the tissues can become scarred, and robbed of the precious fluids that promote flexibility.”
It Has No Side Effects
The best part of consulting a physical therapist is that the treatment offered by them has absolutely no side-effects on your body. Yes, they offer drug-free and non-surgical treatments to relieve your pain and improve healing. In many cases, when people take medicines or injections to relieve their pain, they end up facing their side-effects, which further ruins their condition.
However, physical therapy is a type of treatment approach wherein a therapist try to heal a condition by strengthening the physical fitness of the patient in question. Mostly, the treatment plans created by them include therapy and exercises. Since exercise helps in strengthening muscle flexibility of a person, it naturally helps in reducing the risk of pain and injuries.
It means, even if you feel you are fine, you can consult a physical therapist to strengthen your muscle flexibility and endurance power. Therapeutic exercises incorporated by physical therapists in your treatment plan actually helps in improving your overall fitness, apart healing injuries and subsiding pain.
Addressing Root Cause Offers Permanent Solution
The most interesting part of consulting a physical therapist is that the treatment offered by them helps in addressing the root cause of the problem. It means, they do not offer any temporary solution to your problem.
So, if you want to live a pain-free life seek early physical therapy.