One of the most effective unconventional methods to improve your bodily health is physical therapy. A person of every age and gender can opt for physical therapy if they need to overcome their medical condition, injury, or illness and restore their ability to properly move and function without any trouble.
A professional physical therapy performed by a trained, experienced, and certified physical therapist revolves around different customized programs for each patient, depending upon the problem the patient is facing. It helps individuals return to their normal routine and restore their range of motion.
Apart from that, physical therapy also encourages healthy lifestyle through advising patients on involvement in physical activities.
The list doesn’t end here. There are a lot of reasons why physical therapy can be the way for you to go if you are experiencing any minor or major bodily discomfort. Here are 9 of them.
Table of Contents
1. To Reduce Chronic Pain
It can come as a surprise how much of the population suffers from chronic pain, mostly in the back. A pain becomes chronic if it is causing recurring discomfort in three to six months. If chronic pain is not medically attended to at the first opportunity, it worsens over time.
What is a minor pain in the first year can turn into a cause of disability in the second year. Therefore, it is vital to opt for a treatment method as soon as possible.
And what is a better treatment program than physical therapy!
Physical therapy significantly helps in the reduction of chronic pain disease. Therapists create targeted programs to help people overcome their chronic pain by strengthening their muscles. Swollen muscle tissues and lymphoma can also be cured with the help of physical therapy.
2. To Reduce Inflammation
Even minor bodily injuries can result in inflammation in the injured area of the body. The area starts to itch badly with burning sensation, which can result in redness and swelling around the area.
Physical therapy treats your injuries in a way that your muscles and tendons relax themselves down to their original position–because the injury can really mess things up. As a result, the inflammation decreases and pain gets less and less.
3. To Avoid Medications
Medicines are definitely the first-considered option whenever we are talking about bodily pains, but what we don’t consider is that medicines usually have side effects, some stronger than others.
You cannot treat a physical injury with over-the-counter painkillers, and prescribed ones are even worse when it comes to negative side effects. However, you can easily avoid them if you opt for physical therapy.
No matter how long or short the course of therapy is, it would never require you to take medicine.
4. To Avoid Surgery
When a physical injury gets bad, doctors give you the easy way out: surgery, so you don’t have to comply with weeks-long treatment of medications, rests, and whatnot. Same goes for chronic pain treatment.
What surgeons usually don’t tell you is that your post-surgery will still have pain–the one contracted because of surgery and stitches. To decrease the intensity of that pain, they will give you hardcore painkillers and sleeping pills to avoid staying awake from discomfort. There is a lot of accounting to do for side effects. Not to mention, the anesthesia they are to give you before surgery is likely to contain a hardcore numbing drug.
You can skip all of those complications if you go for physical therapy. It might take some time and effort–it’s a slow but effective process–but it can do wonders for your body.
5. To Avoid Injections
When you want a quick way out of your pain, doctors will give you the injection to kill your pain and discomfort. Frequent episodes of pain means frequent injections.
Where we won’t recommend you to put back to back needles in your body even if you want to, some people have fear of injections themselves so they prefer some other method of treatment.
In either case, physical therapy remains the injection-free, drug-free, and surgery-free option.
6. Bone Nourishment
Healthy physical movement does not only strengthen your muscles, it also improves your bone quality, keeping them strong and healthy.
In physical therapy, you do all the right kinds of movements with the help of the trained instructor. As a result, it not only nourishes your ligaments and tendons but bones as well.
Better bone structure would add to the flexibility and movability of the body. It would also make you stronger and prevent your joints from wearing out quickly with age.
7. To Recover Mentally and Emotionally
If you have contracted a major physical injury, it can easily become the cause of stress and tension. You probably have to take leave from the job, you can’t function normally, you always have to stay in bed, you need help doing stuff, and thoughts like these can really build up to depression.
While physical therapy would help you recover physically in the most efficient way possible, it would also release chemicals in your body that keep you happy and calm. As a result, you will simultaneously recover emotionally and mentally.
8. To Recover from a Stroke
A stroke can commonly cause your body to lose some degree of its functions. It becomes hard to stand up and sit down without the hold, you can’t walk or stand for too long, and most importantly, your body loses its balance and strength.
Physical therapy works on the areas of the body that are weakened after the stroke. These areas are treated to improve and provide balance and gait. The customized physical therapy program targeted towards the recovery from a stroke can also improve patients’ range of motion and mobility.
In the first few sessions, patients would be able to move around in bed or sofa and become more independent in doing their tasks around the house, such as bathing, toileting, dressing up, and going for a glass of water.
Gradually, the position will improve and the stroke patient would recover completely without ever going for injections or medications.
9. To Manage Diabetes and Vascular Diseases
Diabetes and vascular conditions are fairly common. And these are the kinds of complications that require constant care and management. They don’t ever usually go away, so you are only left with an option to care for them the best.
Physical therapists usually have a diabetes and vascular conditions management plan that revolves around introducing patients with new exercises that can help control their blood sugar effectively.
Moreover, many diabetes patients often feel sensation in their arms and legs that creates bodily imbalance. Physical therapists work towards educating the patients about what exactly they are going through and provide help with proper limb care to avoid problems in the long haul.
Furthermore, diabetic patients are prone to contract injuries because of their already weak bodily strength. Physical therapy improves their balance and gait and allows them to rebuild their reflexes to prevent themselves from harmful minor or major injuries.
Conclusion
Physical therapy might be the unconventional option that a lot of people usually don’t go for at first, those who do always report positively and healthily.
Just get an appointment, and in the very first session, you will start seeing the positive results in your body.
