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Whether you’re recovering from an injury or you’re dealing with a chronic or lifelong musculoskeletal issue, physical therapy can play an incredibly valuable role.
As orthopaedic specialists, the team here at Western Orthopaedics views physical therapy (PT) as an integral component of our ability to improve your quality of life in the face of injury or disease.
So, if you think physical therapy is just an add-on or optional piece of your treatment puzzle, think again.
To underscore this point, we present five amazing benefits of physical therapy here.
Whatever your orthopaedic condition, from damaged ligaments and tendons to spine issues, participating in physical therapy can help you heal and recover more quickly.
First, through PT, we help you strengthen the tissues surrounding the damaged area, providing critical support so you can regain function more quickly.
This work also helps to keep resources flowing to the site of the damage, bringing critical healing agents that help repair the damage more quickly.
To illustrate this point, we want to highlight a study of 220 sciatica patients. Researchers found that patients who were treated with PT as the primary care, versus those treated in the group who received usual care, fared far better in terms of disability, in the short and long term.
While regaining function is important, we know that relief from the pain is also a top priority. Through PT exercises, we can reduce the inflammation that leads to the discomfort, allowing you to move without pain. This also allows you to reduce pain medications that aren’t doing anything to resolve the underlying problem.
Helping you to function without pain as soon as possible is a top priority of PT, but so is preventing damage down the road. With PT, we strengthen your body in a way that supports the weaker areas so you can avoid reinjury.
For example, if you’re having knee problems, we not only work on your quads, hamstrings, and calves to help support your knees, but also your core muscles so that you’re steadier on your knees moving forward.
If you’re struggling with an issue that you know you’re stuck with, such as arthritis, which affects 1 in 4 adults in the United States, PT is a great way to slow the progression of the disease. Through PT, we focus on strengthening, as well as range-of-motion and flexibility exercises that keep your joints as healthy as possible.
If you have musculoskeletal damage, such as a partial ligament tear or arthritis, surgery is an option to repair the damage or replace the joint. If you want to try and address the issue nonsurgically, PT is the place to start. Many of our patients are able to avoid surgery by devoting themselves to a good PT plan.
If you want to explore for yourself how PT can play an integral role in your musculoskeletal health, please contact our office in Denver, Colorado, at 303-253-7373 to schedule an appointment with a PT specialist.
