By Corina Tan
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A life on pain medication is no fun, and many people dislike the idea of side effects in the long run. Some chronic cases involving arthritis, joint and muscle pain, may require surgery which is both daunting and scary. However, there is a way to avoid long term dependence on pain medication and possibly even surgery.
Physiotherapy is a familiar term but a lot of people don’t really know or understand the multitude of benefits it can bring. Most people however are aware of its role in recovery from accidents, sports injuries and stroke rehabilitation. While the repetitive exercises may seem quite dull to some, it has the ability to treat a variety of other conditions and diseases too.
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Knee Pain
Physiotherapists can often remove the source of knee pain by identifying the cause of muscle tightness. Manipulation of the muscles, tendons and tissues, releases pressure and enables the muscles surrounding the knee area to relax and soften. Injuries caused by overuse is a good example of how physiotherapy sessions allow time for knees to rest and recover while building the strength of damaged ligaments and muscles.
Back Pain
Poor posture, muscle strain, arthritis, as well as weight gain can cause severe pain in the back. The common principles of managing back pain are weight management to reduce stress on the joints, muscle strengthening to improve mobility, reduction of recurrence and attempting to repattern the muscles. A series of dynamic low-impact exercises help to retrain all the muscles in the back to work together and encourages improved muscle coordination.
Pelvic Floor Disorders
This common issue is manifested in several conditions such as urinary or bowel incontinence, abdominal and groin pain, as well as painful intercourse. Pelvic muscles can tighten, shorten and fall during childbirth and abdominal surgery. Physiotherapists use a technique called the ‘trigger point release’ directly on the affected pelvic floor muscle that relieves spasms. Integrated core strengthening exercises and relaxation techniques similar to Pilates also help.
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Chronic Pain
Inflamed joints, arthritis, compression fractures, muscle strain, sprain, nerve damage and soft tissue inflammation, all contribute to chronic pain. Some people also have widespread pain which doctors classify as Fibromyalgia. Depending on the cause of the pain, physiotherapy can ease chronic pain by strengthening muscles, improving contractile and non-contractile tissue repair, increasing mobility, flexibility, stability, function, range of motion, and inducing relaxation, thereby reducing and sometimes eliminating chronic pain altogether.
Asthma
Besides joints and muscles, physiotherapy addresses conditions in the autonomic nervous system – the involuntary muscles and nerves that control organs. Cardiovascular physiotherapists use breathing control exercises that aim to normalise breathing patterns by stabilising the respiratory rate and increasing expiratory flow. Breathing retraining therapy includes taking smaller breathes, deep breathing, breathing through the nose, as well as decreasing breaths taken and expiratory flow through pursed-lip breathing. In the physiotherapy management of asthma, the aim is to develop a more efficient pattern of respiration, thus reducing breathlessness.
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For physiotherapy to truly be successful, the patient needs the commitment and drive to keep at it, not just by attending the scheduled sessions but also by performing home exercises as recommended. Physiotherapy can lose its effectiveness when a patient’s impatience to see results immediately, discourages them from following a consistent pattern of therapy that ensures long-term results. It takes time and effort to correct and retrain muscles that have long-established bad habits and postures, but keeping to the exercises could prevent a recurrence of the pain or injury. Whenever tempted to skip exercises, it would be good to remember that physiotherapy could be just what you need to prevent pain medication co-dependency and riskier, more invasive interventions.
