Health & nutrition insights.

Those living with a chronic condition can have pain varying from three months up to several years, and chronic pain is one of the primary reasons people seek out physical therapy. Physical therapy can help manage chronic pain in several different ways. Examples of chronic pain include herniated disc, arthritis, nerve damage, fibromyalgia, and fractures or sprains and strains that never healed properly.

What is chronic pain

Chronic pain occurs when the brain concludes there is a threat to one’s well-being based on signals it receives from the body, and pain lasts longer than what is considered normal tissue healing time. It’s pain that often has no initial injury or tissue damage, and for people with chronic pain, the nervous system continues to send pain signals to the brain even after tissues have healed.

Treating Chronic Pain With Physical Therapy

Physical therapy can help manage chronic pain because physical therapist will work to determine why certain tissues feel stiff or weak. An individual plan including exercises, passive therapies, and education will be set up to alleviate pain, reduce stress to the painful areas, and improve your mobility.

Exercises

Firstly, exercises are meant to increase muscle strength and endurance, assist with joint stability, and improve mobility and your ability to move with daily tasks. Exercise with chronic pain ultimately helps retrain your brain and thoughts. Sample exercises include:

• Low impact aerobics – Research such as THIS suggests that walking, swimming, or a bike is beneficial for conditions such as chronic pain and fibromyalgia.
• Strength – exercises with weights or bands that focus on the area of pain. Your core muscles will likely be involved.
• Stretching – Static stretching is best performed as a cool down. Check out our blog, Six Stretches Physical Therapists Wishes You Would Do, for helpful physical therapy stretches.

Passive Therapy

Who doesn’t like soft tissue work? Secondly, manual therapies such as these can be beneficial for pain management:

• Massage and Mobilizations – touch can stimulate healing. Soft tissue mobilization increases blood flow, promotes relaxation, treats trigger points and adhesions, and reduces muscle tension.
• Augmented tissue work and dry-needling – Another way to address adhesions and trigger points.
• Strategies for rolling over, walking, lifting, sitting, and running without pain.

 

Therapeutic Modalities

Thirdly, modalities refers to the administration of light, mechanical, thermal, and electromagnetic energies for therapeutic purposes. They are often used by physical therapists, and some can even be purchased and used conveniently at your home. Modalities are used in addition to other physical therapy interventions (manual therapies, therapeutic exercises, etc). Certainly, Research suggests they should not be used as a stand alone treatment method. These are commonly used modalities:

• Heat and Ice
• Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) / Iontophoresis
• Ultrasound / Phonophoresis
• Laser Therapy
• Mechanical Traction
• Biofeedback

 

Have you been living with chronic pain for months or years? Our physical therapist, Kimi, at AYB can address the root of your pain and help improve your daily life!