Physical therapy, sometimes called physiotherapy, is a treatment and prevention for issues of pain, mobility, musculoskeletal disorders, and neurological disorders that effect movement and muscle function.
What that mess of five dollar words means, is that physical therapy is a medical practice that helps people who have difficulty moving, or lots of pain, feel and move better.
Who needs physical therapy?
Physical therapy can benefit almost everyone, whether or not they have a medical condition. That said, physical therapy is especially helpful for people dealing with specific issues, these include:
Arthritis
Osteoporosis
Sports injuries
Stroke
Fractures
Back and neck need
Spinal conditions
Amputations
Cerebral palsy
Parkinson’s disease
ALS
Multiple Sclerosis
and much more.
In general, anyone suffering from reduced physical capability, whatever the cause, should talk with their doctor about whether or not physical therapy may be right for them.
What happens in physical therapy?
The first time a patient meets with a physical therapist a lot of time is spent going over the patient’s history, medical condition, living condition and anything else the therapist might need to know (and sometimes they need to know a lot.)
After that, the therapist and patient work together to set goals for the therapy. These goals determine what kind of treatment the patient receives. Some common goals are pain reduction, pain management, increased mobility, and improved balance – this last is especially important for older patients suffering osteoporosis, because better balance means they are less likely to fall and injure themselves.
The physical therapy treatment plan will include both work that will be done in treatment sessions with the therapist, and exercises to do at home. Keeping up the home exercises is crucial to effective therapy. In fact, in some ways most of physical therapy is done by the patient at home.
This is because unless the patient is at an inpatient facility meeting their therapist every day, the amount of time a patient has to work on their therapy at home dwarfs the time the physical therapist has.
Some things a physical therapist might suggest for at home work include changes in everyday activities, like the way a person stands when they do the dishes, or how they bend when they pick something up off the floor. Other times they will assign exercises to be done everyday, or several times a day.
How effective is physical therapy?
With so much of the work being done by the patient on their own, it really is a matter of you get back what you put in. Also, the effectiveness varies with the medical condition being treated. For example it is highly effective in treating osteoarthritis and neck pain, but for a stroke, it is very effective right after the stroke, and quickly becomes much less effective.
