Chronic Back Pain: Physical Therapy, Unlocking New Potentials

Physical Therapy Can Help with Chronic Back Pain! Don’t Live in Discomfort Any Longer Discover Relief for Your Aches and Pains Today Chronic back pain is a pain that lasts for three months and is longer. This type of pain can occur for a variety of reasons, including spinal arthritis, aging, disc problems, and myofascial pain syndrome. With spinal arthritis, the slow thinning of the cartilage inside the spine can result in pain. With a herniated or bulging disc, compression may occur around your surrounding nerves, resulting in pain. With spinal stenosis, there is a narrowing of the spine, which can lead to nerve pain. With myofascial pain syndrome, you may experience unknown muscle tenderness and pain. Our innovative care strategies at Chesterton Physical Therapy will help you find quick relief. Whatever the cause of your pain, it doesn’t have to be a part of your daily life. What can physical therapy do for my chronic pain? If your back pain is caused by spinal stenosis or a bulging disc, a physical therapist may initiate a targeted movement program to reduce numbness, pain, or weakness. Progressive movement exercises such as McKenzie exercises may be included in your physical therapy program to treat a wide range of causes of back pain. Stabilization exercises to retrain deep muscles may also be included. Your physical therapist will also show you how to use the right spinal and abdominal muscles before starting any exercise to stabilize the spine. Manipulation is another technique for alleviating chronic pain where short and rapid movements are performed over the joint to reduce pain and increase mobility. Physical therapists also use multiple passive modalities to reduce back pain. Heat and cold therapy may be used to increase blood flow, reduce inflammation, and relieve pain. Ultrasound is another common passive modality used by physical therapists that incorporates deep heating sound waves that penetrate soft tissue. Not only does this method relieve back pain, but it also aids in the healing of the affected area. A physical therapist may order a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) unit. This unit helps to overcome the painful signals sent to the brain. It can be used both at home and in the long term. Deep tissue massage is another common therapy for chronic back pain. This manual method increases oxygen and nutrients to the affected areas for healing and also helps reduce muscle spasms and stiffness. According to the NCBI, “In chronic low back without serious pathology, recommended primary conservative physical treatment preferences include exercise, yoga, biofeedback, progressive relaxation, massage, manual therapy, physical therapy and interdisciplinary rehabilitation. A recent literature review with meta-analysis in patients with chronic lower back pain found moderate- to high-quality evidence that McKenzie exercises in physical therapy were superior to other rehabilitation interventions in reducing pain and disability.” What else should I know? As stated by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, “While acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous system to alert you to possible injury and the need to take care of yourself, chronic pain is different. Chronic pain persists. Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months, even years. There may have been an initial mishap — sprained back, serious infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of pain — arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage. Many chronic pain conditions affect older adults. Common chronic pain complaints include headache, low back pain, cancer pain, arthritis pain, neurogenic pain (pain resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves or to the central nervous system itself), psychogenic pain (pain not due to past disease or injury or any visible sign of damage inside or outside the nervous system). A person may have two or more co-existing chronic pain conditions. Such conditions can include chronic fatigue syndrome, endometriosis, fibromyalgia, inflammatory bowel disease, interstitial cystitis, temporomandibular joint dysfunction, and vulvodynia. It is not known whether these disorders share a common cause.” Chronic pain affects every person differently. In many cases, the pain continues long after the body is healed from the injury or surgery. The good news is that physical therapy is not a one-size-fits-all approach to pain relief. Your physical therapist has many tools and techniques at their disposal to help relieve and overcome chronic pain. Chronic pain has a number of symptoms associated with it, apart from the fact that it lasted more than three months. Here are some of the symptoms commonly associated with chronic aches and pain: Decreased activity: Inactivity due to chronic pain can cause your muscles to weaken and shrink. This can have profound physical effects over time, such as impacting your sense of balance. Decreased circulation: Remaining inactive due to chronic pain reduces your circulation, which means your cells are not receiving a healthy amount of blood and oxygen. This can cause tissues to degenerate and leads to feelings of constant fatigue. Avoiding activities: People with chronic pain become fearful of normal activities. The fear of additional pain can cause people to withdraw from normal physical activities that they enjoy. Stiffness: Muscles and joints may feel stiffer when suffering from chronic pain. Increased weight: People with chronic pain may put on too much weight, which can lead to a host of added problems, from diabetes to heart disease. Ready to find relief? If you have back pain, it’s time to take action. Schedule a physical therapy assessment today. Your physical therapist will work with your doctor to develop a personalized treatment plan for your specific condition. With both active and passive treatment methods, you will be on the road to pain reduction or even elimination. At the end of the road, you will be able to move about your daily life with reduced or no pain in your regular activities!

Chronic Pain Controlling Your Life? It’s Time For a Solution

Chronic Pain Controlling Your Life? It’s Time For a Solution Did You Know PT Can Help Even the Most Persistent Pain? Did you know that approximately 80 percent of Americans have experienced (or will experience) chronic back pain? That’s a depressing statistic, especially if you’re already one of those sufferers. Chronic back pain can prevent you from performing the countless daily tasks you need or want to perform. Even when you’re not engaged in activity, your back pain may be keeping you miserable 24/7. But don’t assume that drugs can provide more than temporary relief, or that surgery won’t create more problems than it solves. Instead, go with the healthy, natural way to kiss your back pain goodbye — through physical therapy. What is chronic pain? Chronic back pain refers to pain that lasts more than three months. It is a progressive pain that gradually worsens with time and basic daily activities. Furthermore, the specific cause of back pain may remain unknown. A person simply may not know what caused it or pinpoint a point of origin. However, most people can recover from back pain by understanding its causes, especially those that do not derive from an incident, such as a car accident. Chronic back pain Chronic back pain may arise from two issues, including a sudden, traumatic injury or repetitive stress on the vertebrae. Pain includes sensations, such as a prick, burn, tingle, sting, sharp pain and aches. Acute pain is typically an expected bodily response to a severe injury. However, the repeated use of joints after an inflammatory response may lead to the worsening of symptoms and disease progression, explains the NINDS. In addition, those with poor posture, bulging or herniated discs, arthritis, skeletal irregularities and osteoporosis may suffer from chronic back pain more often than their peers, says the Mayo Clinic. Other facts, such as age, weight, poor lifting practices and even mental health conditions, may increase risk for back pain, and it only takes one injury for a condition to persist into the realm of long-term problems. PT and chronic back pain – how it can help Instead of numbing yourself with drugs or risking major surgery, give physical therapy a chance to relieve your chronic back pain the safe, natural way. Our physical therapist will first take the time to examine your back, analyze your symptoms, evaluate your medical history, and talk to you about your pain management goals. This information enables the physical therapist to devise a comprehensive physical therapy plan just for you. Here are some ways you can benefit from such a plan: Mindfulness practices and other techniques can help you reduce anxiety and other reactions to pain that might make the pain worse, helping you control your pain responses for the better. Our physical therapist can recommend specific lifestyle modifications to help you ease stress on your back and avoid future back problems. Laser therapy, massage therapy, and heat or cold treatments can reduce chronic inflammation and relax painful muscle spasms in your back. Strengthening exercises can give weak back muscles the reinforcement they need to hold your back straighter and with less fatigue. Stretching exercises can help you increase your range of motion, allowing you to do more with less back pain. PT and chronic back pain – how it can help Instead of numbing yourself with drugs or risking major surgery, give physical therapy a chance to relieve your chronic back pain the safe, natural way. Our physical therapist will first take the time to examine your back, analyze your symptoms, evaluate your medical history, and talk to you about your pain management goals. This information enables the physical therapist to devise a comprehensive physical therapy plan just for you. Here are some ways you can benefit from such a plan: Mindfulness practices and other techniques can help you reduce anxiety and other reactions to pain that might make the pain worse, helping you control your pain responses for the better. Our physical therapist can recommend specific lifestyle modifications to help you ease stress on your back and avoid future back problems. Laser therapy, massage therapy, and heat or cold treatments can reduce chronic inflammation and relax painful muscle spasms in your back. Strengthening exercises can give weak back muscles the reinforcement they need to hold your back straighter and with less fatigue. Stretching exercises can help you increase your range of motion, allowing you to do more with less back pain. Considering physical therapy before drugs or surgery Back pain can be either acute or chronic in nature. Acute back pain often occurs as the direct result of torn muscles or other sudden, intense damage. But as agonizing as cute back pain may be, at least you have the comfort of knowing that your pain will probably subside as the injury heals. Chronic back offers no such comfort. By definition, any kind of chronic pain lasts for more than 3 months, either attacking you in bouts or plaguing you with constant discomfort. The underlying cause is often progressive and/or irreversible. Common causes of chronic back pain include: An old back injury that failed to heal properly, leaving you with internal scarring and chronic stiffness A narrowing of the spinal canal known as spinal stenosis Degenerative conditions such as osteoarthritis of the spine Chronic muscle strain from an unbalanced posture or weak back muscles Bulging or herniated discs Drugs can relieve chronic back pain, but only imperfectly. After a few hours of lessened symptoms, you have to take another dosage, and then another. If you’re using opioids to dull your pain, you can end up in a frightening cycle of increased tolerance and addiction. The most extreme form of treatment, spinal surgery, can permanently limit your back’s flexibility. You might even end up with an even more painful problem known as failed back surgery syndrome. Get fast and effective relief today You have the power to master your chronic pain, starting with the decision to treat yourself to physical therapy.Contact