Chronic pain can be long-lasting and life-changing, leading patients to try many courses of treatment to solve the issues behind it and relieve themselves of pain. Physical therapy can be a valuable tool in your arsenal to help regain muscular strength and restore quality of life. If you haven't tried physical therapy yet and wonder if it might be able to help you, here are some of the signs that PT can be effective for you.

Limited Effectiveness of Medication

According to the ACA, some 80% of people experience back pain at some point in time. A swollen or pulled muscle typically gets better within a few days with help from standard over-the-counter drugs like anti-inflammatories. If your pain is not helped by taking aspirin or ibuprofen, resting, and alternating heat and ice on the affected area, this is a sign that something more serious is afoot. If you have a serious back injury like a slipped disk or soft tissue damage, you'll need help to resolve the resulting pain. Working with a basis of knowledge of the body's kinetic chain, including muscles and bones, a physical therapist can find the cause of the problem and devise a plan to treat it. This plan may include multiple treatment approaches to help relieve your pain, including stretching, gentle exercise, weight lifting to build muscle, yoga to increase flexibility, and massage.

Repetitive Use Irritates the Problem

Muscle and joint pain can become worse if you work a physical job that causes you to do the same repetitive actions day after day. Issues like carpal tunnel syndrome can be persistent if you spend most of your day typing, and makes it easy to reaggravate the injury after taking rest days. When this action is necessary to complete your work, you can end up experiencing constant pain. PT can show you stretches or exercises to help warm up the muscles, or new ways to move your body to complete the same action without aggravating your injury. By doing these exercises, you can decrease the pain level in your daily activities and increase the effectiveness of treatment.

Balance and Motor Control Issues

Issues with the brain, muscle, and nerve systems can lead to problems with balance and motor control. These problems can crop up after illness like a stroke that leads to nerve damage, an accident that limits motor function, or even as a side effect of certain cancer treatments. If you find yourself stumbling, falling over, feeling dizzy, or having trouble with simple motor function tasks, a physical therapist can help resolve these problems. By exercising and strengthening the core muscles, you can build stability within the body and increase your balance, eventually learning how to walk with confidence again.

Recent Injury

An injury that causes trauma to a key part of the body, like a car accident, sports-related trauma, or a fall, can be harder to recover from as you get older and the body takes longer to heal. Soft tissue damage can be hard to identify in the initial period after the accident because the adrenaline, shock, and excitement that flood your system will naturally mask some of the pain until later on. It can take a few days for you to feel the full extent of the injury. Simple everyday activities can re-injure the area and set your recovery back. PT can help rehab the injured bone or muscle, making recovery time shorter and reducing the chances of re-aggravating the injury.

Newly Diagnosed Illness

Health issues can crop up at any point, leading you to make lifestyle changes to address these problems. In addition to medication and diet changes, a physical therapist can be a valuable part of a treatment plan to help you fight a serious illness. Some of the medical conditions that physical therapy can help treat include arthritis, fibromyalgia, sciatica, and neurological illnesses like Parkinson's disease.

These signs can be indications that you need the expert help of a physical therapist to overcome the physical issues you are having and get rid of your pain. Let the caring team here at Onofray Physical Therapy help you recover from your injury or disability and get you back on your feet.