Oftentimes, the most popular treatment for a medical condition is the only one people know of.
But when you explore other options, such as physical therapy, you might be surprised by how effective it can be for a vast majority of conditions that are usually treated by medication or surgery.
Almost every day, a patient of mine tells me that they didn’t come to the clinic earlier because they didn’t even know that their condition is something physical therapy can treat.
If you’re in a similar position, then this article is for you.
Here, we’ll discuss the various painful conditions and problems that physical therapy is good for so you can understand the true scope of PT
What Is Physiotherapy Good For?
Physiotherapy can help you in two main ways – prevention of health issues and rehabilitation after injury or disease.
Here are some additional reasons for seeking physical therapy services:
1. Rehab After Injury
Physical injuries can often result in long-lasting consequences.
For instance, an improperly healed ankle sprain can result in chronic ankle instability and increase the risk of re-injury.
Or an injury to one of the key nerves in your arm, the radial nerve, can result in a condition called wrist drop where you can’t lift (extend) your wrist and fingers up.
Physical therapy after most injuries can help you regain mobility that was lost due to muscular, skeletal, or neurological issues. It can also get you back to performing functional movements so you can do your activities of daily living.
Athletic injuries are one of the biggest domains of musculoskeletal physical therapy. Their rehab is more extensive and intense as compared to non-athletes.
You might not be aware that physical therapy is great for treating migraines or for rehab after cardiac injuries such as a heart attack or coronary artery bypass surgery.
Your lungs, blood vessels, and heart are affected due to such conditions and a cardiopulmonary or cardiovascular physiotherapist can help you improve your cardiac health.
2. Pain Management
Physical therapy can reduce your dependence on medication by giving your alternative ways of managing pain. It helps you with both chronic pain and acute pain conditions.
For example, people who suffer from chronic back pain often find relief with tailored physical therapy treatment programs. Similarly, you can go to a physiotherapist for acute pain such as that after surgery, childbirth, sprain, or strain.
If you have consistent or intermittent pain due to excess activities, such as prolonged standing or long driving, then physiotherapy is good for managing that as well.
3. Avoiding or Delaying Surgery
Physical therapy is good for reducing the need for surgery, in a lot of conditions but not always. It can help you reverse a disk bulge and manage it with a long-term exercise program instead of going under the knife. (Reference)
Or it can delay the need for knee replacement surgery due to knee osteoarthritis by improving your mobility and unloading the joint through muscle strengthening.
Several medical conditions such as rotator cuff tears, low back pain, and meniscus tears can be treated just as efficiently by physical therapy as they are by surgery. You just have to remember to get a second opinion and explore other options to find out if PT is a better or an equally good alternative for your condition.
4. To Get Your Moving Again
Prolonged immobilization due to burns, fractures, surgery, COVID, or even psychological issues such as severe depression can negatively affect your body.
Muscles lose their strength, bones and the heart become weaker, and your stamina decreases when you don’t do enough physical activity for a long time. (Reference)
Physical therapy is excellent to get you fit again through progressive exercises. We take baseline measurements to get an idea of where your body is on the first day and then start with a program that’s just the right level of intensity.
Overloading your body too soon might lead to injury. That’s often what happens when weekend warriors and sedentary people pick up exercising.
A physiotherapist ensures that your exercise dose is ideal for you and that you remain injury free.
5. Managing Disability
Physical therapists are movement experts. We can help you develop new movement patterns after you’ve suffered from a disabling injury, such as an amputation.
Diseases such as a stroke can cause temporary paralysis and you must learn to move again. Neurological physical therapists specialize in teaching you those movements through specialized exercises and various modalities such as TENS.
6. Preventive Health
One of the most important things that physical therapy is good for is preventive health and maintenance. They can help you improve posture, which is especially beneficial for today’s professionals who stay in the same posture all day such as sitting in a chair.
Preventive health is also a great option for people who do physically laborious jobs. A PT can help you protect your body from injuries or quickly bounce back after one.
Physical therapy is good for people who have early onset diseases, such as arthritis or disk degeneration in the spine, which are common amongst the older populations. The exercises that are prescribed for you in such situations are tailored to your level of disease. (Reference)
If you’re thinking that a fitness trainer can help you do all that, then I get it.
The upside of working with a physical therapist is that they can help you get healthy while keeping your health conditions (comorbidities), such as diabetes and hypertension, in mind.
That’s incredibly important because comorbidities, directly and indirectly, affect your physical performance so you have to keep those in mind while exercising.
You can work with a physiotherapist to prevent obesity, osteoporosis, falls (in the elderly), prepare for an active lifestyle, etc.
7. Improve Your Quality of Life
If you have lifelong medical conditions such as cancer, cerebral palsy, and COPD, then you can find physical therapy quite effective in improving your quality of life.
Elderly individuals who have issues with mobility and falls can also go to physical therapy to get a personalized exercise program to help them be more independent.
Patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU) also benefit from physical therapy. We can help keep them mobile and relatively active. Chest physiotherapy is also necessary for such patients.
Different Body Systems That Physiotherapy Helps With
Physical therapy has quite a few domains. Generally, a physiotherapist is trained to work in all of them but some are specialized in one or two areas. These include:
1. Cardiovascular and Cardiopulmonary Diseases
Cardiopulmonary physiotherapy is a specialized domain of physical therapy. Here, a physiotherapist can help you regain your stamina (cardiac endurance), improve your blood circulation and pulmonary function, and reduce the risk of another cardiac event.
We also engage with people at risk for heart attacks and prescribe preventive exercise programs to improve their cardiac performance without needing surgery.
2. Musculoskeletal Conditions
The most commonly known job of a physiotherapist is treating muscle, bone, and joint-related issues.
Middle-aged to older people who have degenerative changes in their bodies, pain due to acute injuries, postural problems, and chronic pain are the biggest patient population in a musculoskeletal physiotherapist’s office.
3. Sports Injuries and Performance
Physiotherapists’ knowledge of physiology and exercise prescription comes in handy to help athletes stay healthy and fit while performing at a much higher level consistently, without injury.
They often work with sport-specific athletic trainers and design programs that are best suited to minimize injuries and enhance sports performance.
4. Neurological Conditions
Treating the physical symptoms of stroke, spina bifida, nerve lesion, carpal tunnel syndrome, etc. fall under the domain of neurological physiotherapists.
They train you to relearn the movements lost due to injury or disease and get you back to being your old self as much as medically possible. The exercise techniques are different here than what’s used for musculoskeletal issues.
5. Pediatric Conditions
Infants, toddlers, and kids with delayed milestones, cerebral palsy, paralysis, balance issues, muscular dystrophy, etc. can work on their physical issues with a pediatric physiotherapist.
6. Burns and Plastics
Kids and adults who’ve suffered burns have to undergo extensive physiotherapy to prepare for surgery and return to activity. Skin issues, lung problems, and mobility troubles are common among them and these are the things physiotherapy is good for.
7. ICU and In-Patient Ward
Patients in the ICU or bed-bound in the hospital wards begin to deteriorate physically due to a lack of movement. They also suffer from bed sores, decreased lung compliance, and muscle loss.
Physiotherapy helps them stay active, even in bed. It keeps them mobile which not only helps them physically but also improves their psychological health. (Reference)
8. Women’s Health
Postpartum weakness, incontinence, uterine prolapse, etc. are women’s health issues that can be treated with physical therapy because they have a musculoskeletal component to them.
The treatments include exercises, strength training, education, activity modification, etc.
9. Skin and wound care
Active and healed wounds, such as those after surgery or burns, are treated by physical therapists. Scar tissue, which accumulates at the site of a skin injury, can be reduced through massage therapy and therapeutic ultrasound.
Moreover, exercising when you have a wound also falls under our domain. Physiotherapists are trained in assessing and dressing wounds and helping your exercise while keeping the wound safe.
10. Geriatrics
The elderly are at a greater risk of falls, muscle loss, osteoporosis, fractures, and loss of movement due to weakness and pain.
Physiotherapists keep them active through low-intensity guided exercises that are performed in a safe environment. The key is to always provide the appropriate load to get the desired results without overdoing it.
The Takeaway
Physiotherapy is good for a lot more than athletic injuries and common musculoskeletal issues. The scope of this field is growing as more advanced techniques are introduced and the clinical practice standards are improved.
Feel free to contact us if you have a medical condition that you think physical therapy can help you with.