Discover Safe and Effective Relief with Physical Therapy

Are you one of the millions of people living with chronic pain? As stated by Choose PT, “Chronic pain is a condition that occurs when the brain concludes there is a threat to a person’s well-being based on the many signals it receives from the body.”

Whether you’re recovering from serious surgery, dealing with the physical effects of an accident, or struggling with a long-term medical condition, pain can prevent you from enjoying all the daily activities you love.

If this sounds like you, you may be considering more surgeries or strong pain-fighting drugs. However, physical therapy has many different treatment options to manage pain effectively and safely. Physical therapy offers a number of safe and non-invasive methods that can reduce or even eliminate your pain.

Contact our office today to find out how physical therapy can help you live a pain-free, active life.

Ultrasound

A physical therapist may use ultrasound to provide safe, effective pain-relief. Ultrasound is a method that delivers deep heat into the body’s soft tissues. There are several specific benefits of using this method.

The first is that it can increase circulation to tissues such as ligaments, muscles, and tendons. This can ultimately increase healing and decrease pain. Just increasing the temperature in body tissues can help decrease pain. Ultrasound can be used in physical therapy to treat the following injuries:

Bursitis
Tendonitis
Frozen Shoulder
Muscle Strains

Laser Therapy

Advancing technology using lasers can now provide pain relief in a safe and non-invasive manner. A single wavelength of light is generated with a low-level laser. There isn’t any vibration, sound, or even heat emitted with this type of treatment.

It normally takes more than one treatment for a patient to notice significant results, but laser therapy can reduce pain without any side-effects. There are several important facts about laser therapy you should know.

Laser therapy treatments can be customized for each individual.
Most treatments only last ten minutes or less.
It can be used for both chronic and acute conditions.

Exercise and Stretching

If you’re experiencing pain, the last thing you might feel like doing is working out and stretching. However, the right type of exercise and stretching can actually help to loosen muscles, reduce stiffness, and reduce inflammation.Exercise can even release endorphins, which are the natural painkillers of the body.

Your physical therapist can create an exercise and stretching routine that suits your personal fitness goals, in addition to helping relieve painful muscles and joints. Tight muscles can cause pain or worsen other painful conditions. Learning how to stretch in a safe and correct way can relieve stress and pain.

Ice and Heat Therapy

Both ice and heat therapy can work to provide relief for pain. A trained physical therapist will know which type, heat or cold, will work best for the type of pain you’re experiencing. Heat and ice work in different ways to help reduce painful conditions.

Heat increases blood flow and more quickly brings nutrients to various parts of the body. Cold, however, reduces blood flow and brings down inflammation and swelling. The following are a few ways physical therapy uses heat to ease pain:

Heat therapy is used for treating and reducing pain for muscle spasms.
Heating pads, wraps, and gel packs can be used to relieve chronic pain in the neck and lower back.
Heat therapy is often used for older or recurring injuries. It can reduce pain when a person is experiencing arthritis or stiff joints.

There are also specific benefits for using ice therapy, also called cryotherapy, in physical therapy treatment:

Ice therapy is recommended for new injuries to immediately reduce swelling.
Ice therapy is often used for many types of muscle strains.
Icing can reduce pain in injuries such as ligament sprains in the ankles or knees.

Manual Therapy

Manual therapy is physical therapy delivered by the hands instead of using a machine or a special device. These techniques are more than just a massage.

After a physical therapist goes over a complete evaluation of your medical history and any current conditions you may have, a physical therapy program that includes manual therapy can be created specifically for your individual needs.

There are several manual techniques that a physical therapist may use to treat the soft tissues in the body. A few of these include the following:

Thrust Techniques – Using this method, a physical therapist will apply quick and repetitive pressure to a particular joint. These rapid movements in the correct place on the body can restore natural movement.
Muscle Energy Techniques – This type of physical therapy method involves repositioning joints that are considered dysfunctional and then treating the muscles around that particular area.
Strain and Counterstrain – This is a physical therapy technique that is used to pinpoint tender points throughout the body. Once these are located, the physical therapist will position your body to shorten and relax the muscles involved. The primary purpose of this is to reduce muscle spasms.
Soft Tissue Mobilization – Using mobilization techniques, a physical therapist would focus on the muscles and how they’re attached to various joints. This technique is used specifically for restoring movement and improving range of motion.
Soft Tissue Massage – Massage done by a skilled physical therapist can loosen tight muscles, ease pressure around sore joints, and help eliminate a variety of painful conditions.

Ready to get started?

Your physical therapist may use any of the aforementioned methods or combinations to effectively treat the root cause of your pain. Physical therapy may provide a wide range of conditions with effective, non-invasive treatment.

Whether you’re living with fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, accident injuries, or chronic headaches, physical therapy may provide the answer you’re looking for. Contact Empower Alaska to find out how a physical therapist can help you eliminate pain and achieve your health and wellness goals!