Managing Pain Physical Therapists and Exercise Physiologists Can Help

By La Plata Physical Therapy, Inc.

La Plata Physical Therapy, Inc.

. http://www.laplatapt.com/

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Managing Pain Physical Therapists and Exercise Physiologists Can Help

Movement in the form of supervised therapeutic exercise sessions is often recommended by physicians, but not acted upon as often as it should be. We often accept medications and surgeries as the first plan of care, but what if we also tried to incorporate therapeutic movement, exercise and modalities?

Supervised movement/exercise and physical therapy modalities are the safest forms of pain management for the body. Our bodies are very smart. There is a keen ability to communicate how we need to manage our pain when we can allow the body to accept the awareness of different sensations that arise. Upon allowing the body to accept these sensations, we are then able to provide ourselves with a better understanding of “What exactly am I feeling?”

At this point we will have an increase in natural endorphins and pain relievers made by the body, awareness of how the pain may change, and what the pains are trying to communicate to us. Some unpleasant sensations during exercises, strengthening or stretching, may be communicating many different messages. For example, these sensations could communicate that you need more or less stretching, to rest and restore whether mentally or physically, to improve strength, increase focus on specific action or movement, try hands on therapeutic techniques, to improve endurance, to possibly slow down, and even to breathe more.

When working through these messages and sensations when in the company of a physical therapist, the following modalities may be used ultrasound, E-stim/TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation), light therapy, paraffin wax, iontophoresis, traction and aquatics (pool exercise with jets and treadmill).