Chronic Pain can be a beneficial messenger, alerting you to the fact that something in your body needs to be fixed, but it can also be a vexing inconvenience that degrades your quality of life.
To make matters worse, many pain issues are the result of long-standing underlying diseases that often originate in a different portion of the body than the one displaying symptoms.
Medication may temporarily hide your pain, but it will not fix a chronic underlying functioning issue. Take advantage of the drug-free solutions available at our physical therapy clinic for a more significant pain cure.
The benefits of physical therapy over opioids
As stated by the APTA website, “The White House has announced that APTA is among the organizations that have joined a public-private partnership to combat opioid usage and prescription drug abuse, and that the association will reach out to the public and its members to deliver the message that pain can be effectively managed through conservative, non-drug approaches.
Physical therapists can help individuals manage pain, and greater use of physical therapy could make a real impact on the tragic levels of drug abuse in this country—abuse that often begins with a prescription for pain medication.”
If you are living with pain, you don’t need to turn to the pain-relieving effects of drugs. Physical therapy can help you find that same relief, at a long-term level. Are you ready to find relief from your pain? Our team of physical therapists can help.
Treating chronic pain the natural way with physical therapy
Our physical therapists can succeed where painkilling drugs fail. Once we understand the actual origin point of your pain, we can prescribe a physical therapy regimen aimed at correcting (or at least reducing) that functional abnormality.
Our physical therapists may start by addressing your immediate discomfort with passive physical therapy techniques. These natural treatment techniques can include any combination of:
- Heat or cold applications to reduce swelling and inflammation
- Ultrasound therapy, in which sound waves enhance blood flow and relax tight muscle fibers
- Deep tissue massage to break an adhesions grip on your internal tissues
- Electrical muscle stimulation, which uses tiny amounts of current to stimulate your body’s natural painkillers (endorphins)
Once you’re responding to passive physical therapy, we can introduce active physical therapy. Our physical therapists can prescribe exercises that address both localized pain and referred pain problems.
Gentle stretching exercises from our physical therapists, for example, can release tight, aching muscles and increase mobility in arthritic joints, while core training activities that improve balance can help reduce chronic strain and neurological symptoms.
How successful is physical therapy as a natural, drug-free pain reliever? According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), non-pharmaceutical pain management is preferable to medications such as opioids, and may even be more effective at reducing pain.
How does a PT treat chronic pain at its source?
The cause of acute pain may be clear enough, especially if it accompanies an auto accident injury, work injury, infection, operation, or another event. As the affected part of your body heals, the pain generally fades away.
But this is not necessarily the case with some forms of pain. Chronic pain may linger for months or years with no obvious cause in sight. This pain may be due to:
- Chronic overuse injuries such as tendinitis, plantar fasciitis, or carpal tunnel syndrome
- Areas of internal scar tissue buildup that restrict neighboring muscles and connective tissues (adhesions)
- Muscle weakness, knots, or spasms related to poor posture or an unbalanced body
- Degenerative joint conditions such as osteoarthritis, which produce chronic pain and inflammation
- Chronic pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia, which may affect both nerves and muscles
- Extended disuse after a lengthy recovery period (such as frozen shoulder after many weeks with your arm in a sling)
Modern medicine tends to turn to drugs early and often in an effort to alleviate pain problems. Unfortunately, this approach may turn out to be nothing more than a stopgap.
The medications may temporarily relieve pain, but the underlying disease that is causing it remains unaddressed. Your long-term pain issues will continue to exist as long as that problem exists.
This may compel you to take more and more medication, which can be dangerous, especially for people with addictive personalities or those who are currently on other medications.
Call our clinic today for safe rehabilitation services
Our physical therapists are ready to help you stop your pain at its source, with no need for drugs. Call our physical therapy office today to schedule your appointment!