Physical Therapy Can Help You Find Natural, Safe Pain Relief.
If you’ve been losing more and more of your mobility and productivity due to chronic joint inflammation, you may be disappointed by the short-term pain-relieving effects of painkilling drugs. They work for a little while, but do nothing to truly get rid of the pain and discomfort you’re in. You may also be alarmed by the potential dangers of such drugs.
Stiffness and discomfort don’t have to be a part of our daily lives — and yet many people assume that they’re doomed to suffer from arthritis pain. Fortunately, you have a safer, more effective path toward arthritis pain management: physical therapy.
Types of arthritis physical therapy can help with
Arthritis is a term that refers to a group of debilitating joint injuries. It can manifest as excruciating gout in a toe joint in some people, or it can manifest as a bacterial joint infection in others. The majority of arthritis sufferers, on the other hand, have one of two painful conditions:
- Rheumatoid arthritis – An auto-immune disorder or deficiency causes this form of arthritis. The same defense processes that usually destroy disease germs attempt to strike your joints, treating them as the enemy. Which causes excruciating inflammation that comes and goes, resulting in joint swelling and deformity.
- Osteoarthritis – This is the most prevalent form of arthritis, and it is normally the result of a period of joint activity combined with any modifications that occur as people age.
Healthy joints have a coating of cartilage that serves as a shock absorber and anti-friction factor, as well as a lubricating fluid to keep the bone ends running smoothly. The supply of lubricating fluid, on the other hand, will dry up over time, causing the cartilage to become weaker and more aged until it eventually breaks down entirely.
This causes discomfort, swelling, and inflammation in the joint, which normally gets worse as you try to walk or place weight on it.
How can physical therapy ease my arthritis pain?
If you want an arthritis pain management plan that improves your health without presenting you with the dangers of prescription medication, turn to physical therapy.
Our physical therapist can examine your joints to see how advanced your arthritis has become and how it may be affecting your stance, gait, or mobility. You’ll then receive a customized pain management plan that may include:
- Physiotherapy techniques – You may benefit from massage therapy, cold/heat therapy, or laser therapy.
- Lifestyle guidance – Your physical therapist can recommend specific changes to your everyday ergonomics or lifestyle that will ease your pain.
- Exercise – Exercise can aid arthritis sufferers by boosting circulation, easing inflammation, strengthening joint tissues, and increasing range of motion. It can help you improve your balance if that’s become a problem for you.
- Corrective devices – Your physical therapist can recommend specialized insoles and train you in the use of devices such as walkers or canes.
Why are opioids so dangerous?
Many arthritis patients resort to medicine in the hopes of alleviating their symptoms. NSAIDs, steroids, and (in the more extreme cases) prescription medications will also provide temporary relief. These medications can’t solve the physical conditions that are causing the symptoms; they can only mask them.
Both opioid prescription rates and deaths from opioid overdoses have quadrupled in the last two decades. Given these identical statistics, one can’t escape the obvious conclusion: Reliance on painkillers has gotten out of hand, and the consequences can be literally fatal.
In a study published by the American Physical Therapy Association, titled “Beyond Opioids: How Physical Therapy Can Transform Pain Management and Improve Health,” this issue is exhaustively analyzed. It identifies three important waves of the opioid epidemic:
- Increases in deaths involving prescription opioids starting in 1999
- Increases in deaths involving heroin starting in 2010
- Increases in deaths involving synthetic opioids since 2013”
Beyond extreme physical risk, over-reliance on prescription painkillers can have other detrimental effects on your health.
What’s more, painkilling and anti-inflammatory drugs can pose significant risks if they’re used constantly. NSAIDs can damage the internal organs, while steroids may contribute to everything from cataracts to osteoporosis. Opioids can be extremely dangerous, not only because of their addictive properties but also because overdoses can (and often do) prove fatal.
Withdrawal symptoms can be harrowing. And while you’re still using them, opioids can lead to depression, which sets up a vicious cycle of self-medicating in order to feel better emotionally as well as physically.
Stop using prescription medications as a crutch; call us today.
Don’t just numb your arthritis pain – manage it the smart, safe, and effective way. Contact our physical therapy clinic today. Your physical therapist will be a trained, licensed professional who can target the true source of pain in your body and help you to find long-lasting, holistic relief. What are you waiting for? Contact our clinic today to get on the healthiest path towards feeling your best!
