Does the prospect of taking painkilling drugs for the rest of your life fill you with concern? If it doesn’t, then it should — especially if the drugs in question are opioids.
Our nation is in the midst of an opioid epidemic. Many chronic pain sufferers who can’t get the relief they need from NSAIDs or steroids feel that they have no choice but to turn to the more powerful opioid drugs.
Unfortunately, opioids can present some major problems, from mind-addling intoxication to addiction and the possibility of a fatal overdose. That’s why you should consider the natural pain-relieving power of physical therapy as a safer, more beneficial alternative.
We put together a list of ways a physical therapist can help to keep your pain at bay. Call our clinic today to set up an appointment and get back to living a more comfortable, pain-free life!
Choosing physical therapy over opioids
When you have chronic pain, severe injury, surgery, or significant trauma, your brain cannot produce enough opioids to keep up with the demand. Prescription medication mimics the chemicals your body naturally produces, relieving pain, but they do not help your body heal.
Physical therapy offers natural, safe, and effective pain relief with 0 risks to you, and this is how.
1. Physical therapy reduces stress on your nerves and muscles.
When your body cannot maintain its natural balance, support, and symmetry, chronic pain conditions occur. This is due to the fact that your spinal column requires adequate support from major muscle groups to maintain a healthy posture and musculoskeletal alignment.
If your muscles become weakened, tight, or damaged, they won’t be up to the job, so they tire easily and develop chronic strain. The resulting postural imbalances can then lead to other painful issues, from herniated discs to pinched nerves.
The good news? Physical therapy can quite literally straighten these problems out! Our physical therapist may prescribe exercises to strengthen your back and neck muscles, lending your spine that much-needed support and easing the strain on those tissues. Improvements in your posture can help take the pressure off of nerves, relieving neurological pain. They might even recommend treatments such as chiropractic adjustment to correct spinal imbalances, thus removing painful stress on your body.
2. Physical therapy makes it easier for you to move your joints.
Strengthening exercises can help take the burden off of your joint’s bones and cartilage by allowing the surrounding muscles and connective tissues to do more of the work. Heat therapy, laser therapy, and massage therapy are also known to help inflamed joints feel and move better.
If you have crippling osteoarthritis in your knees or hips, you might be shocked to hear a physical therapist recommend that you take up walking. But walking can indeed help reduce chronic joint pain and help arthritic joints move more freely.
If you’re not ready for walking, you may benefit from swimming or other aquatic exercises in which the water supports your body.
3. Physical therapy can decrease inflammation.
A moderate exercise routine can prompt the sympathetic nervous system to reign in those inflammatory processes that cause pain and swelling.
Inflammation occurs as part of your immune system’s natural response to disease or injury. To an extent, it’s a healthy response to pain, but your body can experience too much inflammation which can cause pain. Many kinds of chronic pain are inflammatory in nature or origin.
Certain white blood cells and proteins trigger inflammatory processes even as they’re fighting to help protect tissues. However, your body also has a process for suppressing the production of these substances. It’s called sympatho adrenergic activation — and physical therapy exercises can trigger it.
Physical therapy can also help your body to rid itself of accumulated inflammatory substances by boosting your circulation. Massage, heat, cold, and laser therapy all increase blood flow to inflamed tissues. This allows the tissues to expel toxins that cause or worsen your inflammation.
You can say “no” to opioids with the help of physical therapy. Chronic pain can make you curl up in bed and turn to opioids for pain management. It’s important to note that physical therapy can be implemented to treat all types of neuropathic pain and musculoskeletal pain. It can help alleviate pain due to several pain conditions, including:
- Osteoarthritis
- Fibromyalgia
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Neuropathic pain
- Work injuries
- Sports-related injuries
- Headaches and more
Let’s conquer your pain problem once and for all
Opioids and other painkilling drugs have their place in medicine, but you don’t have to rely on them as your only weapons against chronic pain. Ask our physical therapist about how a physical therapy program could hold the natural solutions you need!
