You Don’t Have To Turn To Medication For Relief
It is fairly common for people who suffer with arthritis pain to resort to expensive surgery, steroid injections, and prescription medications to cope with their pain. Sometimes, these treatments can actually benefit patients with severe arthritis. More often than not, the better route to go involves physical therapy and natural treatments.
Arthritis does not discriminate either, and although it tends to be found often in elderly patients, it can affect anyone at any age. According to a study on JAMA, “[rheumatoid] arthritis (RA) occurs in about 5 per 1000 people and can lead to severe joint damage and disability.” Arthritis is also one of the top causes for disability in America. If left untreated by a professional, patients suffering with arthritis can experience extremely painful symptoms for long periods of time.
If you want to learn more about how physical therapy can benefit you and decrease your arthritis pain, give our office a call today.
What Is Manual Therapy?
Manual therapy is the part of physical therapy that involves hands-on treatment. This kind of treatment both pampers arthritis patients and eases their discomfort. Pain relief treatment in manual therapy often forms a large portion of a physical therapy session for someone with arthritis. Heating pads, ice packs, massage, and even certain kinds of machines all play a crucial role in relieving aching joints.
As mentioned above, your physical therapist may alternate between heating pads and ice packs to naturally relieve your pain. They might also use ultrasound machines to send soothing heat waves deeper into your painful joints. Targeted massage techniques also boost circulation and creates a warming sensation for areas affected by arthritis.
How Can You Build Your Range of Motion?
Stiff joints are no fun for anyone, but for people struggling with arthritis, a stiff joint equates to a painful joint. If a patient with arthritis attempts to push their affected joint out of its range of motion, they will inevitably experience many uncomfortable sensations.
These painful twinges can be downright agony to deal with on a daily basis, which is why it is important to increase flexibility and range of motion. This can be achieved through physical therapy. Range of motion treatment usually involves flexibility and strength exercises, which gradually allow your joints to become more limber and strengthen supporting muscles.
How Isolating Painful Joints Can Help
It is true that sometimes the best remedy for arthritic joints is to get some bed rest. However, it’s very impractical for many of us to take long bouts of rest in bed or at home away from work. There’s also the fact that not getting enough exercise or activity into your daily routine can worsen the condition by weakening your muscles.
Thankfully, there is a solution to this! Your physical therapist will know how to isolate a painful joint by bracing it. Bracing provides natural pain relief for patients with arthritis. Treatment may include wrist splints or neck collars, depending on the central location of your pain. No matter where your pain might be, there is a specialized treatment option for that joint!
How You Can Avoid The Pain
When living with arthritis, it is important to understand that if you don’t want to feel the pain you’ve always experienced, you will have to learn new ways to move around. It is not always easy to know what movements or actions bring on your painful twinges though — sometimes just standing up too quickly can cause arthritis in your knee joints to tense and twist in an unexpected way. This is why learning new ways to move is helpful; it can aid you with avoiding these unwelcome symptoms.
Your physical therapist can teach you which motions lead to discomfort, and show you how to avoid them and further protect your joints. These joint protection techniques can be as simple as carrying a purse with a particular kind of strap to take pressure off your wrists.
Another example is getting out of your car or into the shower in a different way. Your physical therapist will make sure you have a solid understanding of what is and is not OK to do at home as far as keeping your joints unaffected.
Physical therapists don’t just focus on the big stuff though! If you have arthritic fingers, your physical therapist can show you how to carry objects with your palms instead of grasping them with your fingers. Physical therapy can also give you access to new gadgets and technology that make daily tasks much less challenging for you as well.
Learn More Today, Call Our Office
If you want to find new ways to combat your arthritis, contact our office today to learn more. A physical therapist on our team can do a thorough assessment of you, and get you back on track to where you want to be: pain free.
