Is Chronic Pain Holding You Back? Physiotherapy Can Help You Live Life Comfortably
Do you suffer from a chronic illness or disease that makes it difficult for you to live a normal life? You are not alone in your search for relief if this is the case.
Pain doesn’t always disappear on its own. For some underlying conditions, pain can linger for days, weeks or even months. Pain that lasts three months or longer is considered chronic, and it can get in the way of your everyday routine.
At Newcastle Physiotherapy and Sports Rehab, our advanced methods of treatment can help you find relief as quickly as possible. We’ll devise a treatment plan to address your chronic pain in the most effective way possible, without the use of unnecessary drugs.
What is chronic pain?
Acute pain is characterized as pain that disappears within a few hours, days, or weeks, on its own. For example, a slight ankle sprain is termed acute because the pain normally goes away within a few days.
Chronic pain is discomfort that lasts for three to six months or more. Chronic pain can occur for a variety of causes, and the most responsible way to address it is to seek medical help.
Both acute and chronic pain can both harm your quality of life by limiting your mobility, increasing your reliance on prescription drugs, or even causing anxiety and depression. All of this, however, can be avoided with the help of physiotherapy.
What is causing my chronic pain?
Most cases of chronic pain stem from a neurophysiological origin. Chronic injury, illness, anxiety, and feeling depressed are intertwined in a complicated web, which leads your neurological system to always be on high alert. Chronic pain can appear in the form of back pain, joint pain, nerve pain, or headaches.
It most commonly occurs due to one of the following causes:
Surgical Procedures
Surgical treatment can be necessary to correct a structural problem, however, after surgery, you may find yourself having to compensate for the discomfort you feel in your movements.
Often, surgical operations are inevitable. Although they might be important to relieve some problems you face, the duration of rehabilitation may be just as painful.
Weeks, months, or even years of compensatory movement often cause additional pain after surgery if the movement is not corrected. Physiotherapy offers post-surgical rehabilitation services that can help speed up recovery time, relieve pain, and reduce the risk of chronic pain in the future.
Pre-rehab, or “pre-hab,” as it has been called, is also a rehabilitation choice that has been shown to improve the outcome of surgery.
Prehab includes seeing a physiotherapist before you ever have a surgical operation. It can boost the recovery outcome and accelerate the recovery process as a whole.
Disease
Certain diseases can lead to chronic pain, including arthritis, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, shingles, neuropathy as a result of diabetes, and more. These all can result in chronic pain, which can be alleviated or eliminated in some cases through physiotherapy treatments.
Overuse Injuries
Overuse injuries are prevalent and can affect any area of the body that is used frequently in daily activities. The way you stand, walk, work, and exercise, for example, will have an impact on your body. Overuse incidents occur when correct strategies are not followed.
This can cause persistent pain by causing damage to your joints and muscles. For example, if you do heavy lifting at work several times a day using ineffective approaches, you may get persistent back discomfort.
Physiotherapy can help you learn how to maneuver your body correctly in your daily life to prevent overuse of injuries.
Accidents
Any accident can lead to chronic pain, whether it occurs in an automobile, workplace, or even in your own home. According to OSHA statistics from 2016, roughly 2.9 out of every 100 workers are injured at work.
In addition, according to a survey published in the journal Pain, 21% of people involved in motor vehicle accidents develop widespread chronic pain in the weeks following the event.
Chronic pain does not go away on its own, but seeking the help of a physiotherapist can alleviate it.
How can a physiotherapist help my chronic pain?
One of the main goals of physiotherapy is pain relief, and discovering the root cause of the pain to treat it, rather than mask symptoms with medication.
Our physiotherapists are highly-trained movement experts who diagnose physical problems and treat underlying structural causes surrounding those problems. We perform physical evaluations with each of our patients, analyze weak areas of the body, focus on places with limited range of motion, and look for any imbalances in gait or standing. All of this helps to identify the underlying causes of your chronic pain.
Once the evaluation is complete, your physiotherapist will create a treatment plan unique to your specific needs. This may include specialized, soothing manual therapy techniques to help restore soft tissue and joint movement, pain-relieving modalities, and gentle targeted exercises to improve your strength. Your treatment plan will incorporate in-clinic treatments, as well as an at-home program to ensure that you are remaining healthy and active at all times.
Do you want to find out more about therapy for chronic pain?
Are you ready to reclaim your life? If so, make an appointment with Newcastle Physiotherapy and Sports Rehab right away. We can assist you in overcoming chronic pain so that you can resume living your life comfortably!