Physical Therapy Treats Chronic Pain- How?

There are millions of people experiencing pain every day. Research states that nearly 20.4% of adults experience chronic pain, and 7.5% of them are severely affected such that the pain interferes with their regular activities. Physical therapy is the best and most effective treatment to reduce chronic pain by focusing on a specific part of the body that is causing the pain. People have started realizing the importance of a professional pain management centre which has led to the rise of more and more centres in big cities like Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Let us discuss how physical therapy benefits pain management in this article.

Pain Management Centre Administers Physical Therapy to Manage Pain. How?

Millions of people in the world take opioid medications for pain and become addicted to them. Statistics state that nearly 21-29% of the patients are misusing opioids prescribed for their chronic pain. Though opioid medicines are helpful and effective when not misused, they do not provide a permanent solution to the problem. Drugs are always seen to mask the pain instead of treating the cause. Physical therapy mostly makes use of manual therapy to treat injuries and conditions causing pain. A well-established pain management centre in Chennai uses a variety of physical therapy methods instead of drugs to treat patients. Pain maybe due to disease or injury, and a physical therapist uses special exercises or equipment to improve the patient's quality of life. The purpose of any physical therapy is:

• Strengthens tendons, ligaments and muscles
• Improves the range of motion
• Reduces the pain
• Restores the balance
• Address problems like scar tissue
• Improves general functioning

A physical therapist is different from a doctor because they provide personalized supplementary treatments to reduce pain. A doctor will direct a patient to pain management when the patient is suffering from:

• Neck pain
• Lower back pain
• Shoulder pain
• Foot or ankle dysfunction
• Tendonitis
• Bursitis
• Lumbar stabilization
• Post-surgical rehabilitation
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Herniated discs
• Muscle Strains
• Rotator cuff injuries
• Fractures
• Sciatica pain
• Arthritis
• Overuse injuries
• Nerve injuries
• Leg pain
• Sports injuries
• Fibromyalgia
• Parkinson's disease
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Golfer/Tennis elbow

Types of Physical Therapy Provided by a Licensed Pain Management centre

The different types of physical therapy used to manage pain by a popular pain management centre are passive and active pain management techniques. Treatments under passive pain management provide immediate pain relief for patients, making them stay still throughout the entire procedure. In contrast, active pain management techniques require the patient to participate throughout the treatment schedule actively but may take longer. Research states that both types of pain management therapies are equally effective and, when combined to treat a patient, shows tremendous success in treating conditions like neck pain, arthritis and lower back pain.

Also Read: Ways to Treat Chronic Pain With Biofeedback Technique

Passive Pain Management

A few of the common passive therapies to treat pain include:

1. Applying heat or cold packs to the area of muscle spasms or inflammation.
2. TENS, also known as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator, uses electrical stimulation to reduce pain sensation. It overrides the pain signals to the brain, and the electrical pulses are directed to the sensory nerves beneath the skin.
3. The Iontophoresis method places steroids under the skin with an electrical current on it. The steroid is forced to reduce pain and inflammation with the current.
4. Laser therapy allows laser photons to penetrate the skin to reduce the pain and speed up the healing of tissue.
5. Ultrasound is a very popular passive therapy provided by any pain management centre. It uses sound waves produced by a machine applied onto the skin after applying a layer of cold gel to penetrate the body's soft tissues.
6. Massage therapy helps to relax the muscles and tissues in the body.

Active Pain Management

Active pain management allows patients to participate in the treatment under the assistance and guidance of physical therapists.

1. Range-of-motion exercises are ideal for people who have a stroke or staying in bed for a long time due to a severe injury. Physical therapists from a reputed pain management centre in Chennai help patients to move the limb to a greater range of motion beyond the point of pain. Doing so makes patients gain great body flexibility.
2. Dynamic lumbar stabilization is a treatment for relieving neck and back pain. It includes stretching to reduce muscle tension and improve the range of motion. The exercises include knee to chest stretching and back flexion stretching.
3. McKenzie's approach helps patients extend the spine to reduce pain with the assistance of physical therapists. The therapy helps to centralize pain so that the patient tolerates it easily.
4. Aquatic exercise relieves the pressure from the spine with the help of the buoyancy of water. The patients work their neck, shoulder, and back muscles to lessen their pain.
5. General and targeted conditioning includes stretching, endurance, strengthening and aerobic exercises. General conditioning is best to treat patients with fibromyalgia, whereas targeted conditioning focuses on the lower back, joints, neck and other inflamed areas in the body. There is a wide range of treatment options under this category that can match every need of patients.

Tools or Equipment Used for Physical Therapy

Pain management centre has physical therapy equipment for treating patients, and they include:

• Ankle weights
• Recumbent bicycles
• Weighted handballs
• Title tables
• Resistance bands
• Treadmills
• Exercise balls
• Treatment tables
• Exercise bikes
• Pilates reformer
• Suspension training with TRX
• Pneumatic resistance with Kaiser functional trainer
• Muscle testing instruments
• Range of motion measurement instruments

The Bottom-line
Physical therapists have a wide range of treatment options, and doctors recommend reaching out to physical therapies when patients experience chronic pain. They guide patients to exercise at home to gain better results. Physical therapy is highly recommended to treat the pain that is accompanied by loss of function or mobility because of injuries or stroke. JOGO offers the best digital therapeutics solution by combining active and passive physical therapies to treat any chronic pain.