10 Reasons Why Physical Therapy is Beneficial

Physical Therapy Baltimore, MD

Physical therapy helps people of all ages and should be the first choice of treatment for people who have medical conditions, illnesses or injuries that limit their regular ability to move and function. People with chronic pain or restrict mobility can benefit greatly from physical therapy.

A customized physical therapy program can help individuals return to their prior level of functioning and encourage activities and lifestyle changes that can help prevent further injury and improve overall health and well-being. Primary care doctors often refer patients to physical therapy Baltimore, MD recommends at the first sign of a problem since it is considered a conservative approach to managing such problems.

Here are 10 ways physical therapy may benefit you:

1. Manage pain. Chronic pain can be one of the most frustrating conditions to experience, especially if the underlying cause is unknown.  However, physical therapy techniques and therapeutic exercises can help mobilize your joints and soft tissue and restore muscle function, reducing aches or eliminating pain altogether. Therapeutic exercises and manual therapy techniques such as joint and soft tissue mobilization or treatments such as ultrasound, taping or electrical stimulation can help relieve pain and restore muscle and joint function to reduce pain. When patients continue to perform the prescribed physical therapy plan, such therapies can also prevent pain from returning.
2. Prevent injuries. One of the key aspects of physical therapy involves assessing the weak areas in the patient’s body and formulating a PT plan that helps strengthen these vulnerable points. A physical therapist can evaluate and analyze how likely it is that a patient will suffer injury and create an exercise program that targets and strengthens weak muscle groups and joints, thus preventing future injuries in these areas.
3. Help avoid surgery.If physical therapy helps you eliminate pain or heal from an injury, surgery may not be needed.  While surgery is unavoidable in some cases, you may benefit from pre-surgery physical therapy to help reduce complications of surgery. If you are going into a surgery stronger and in better shape, you will recover faster afterwards in many cases. Furthermore, by avoiding surgery, health care costs are greatly reduced.
4. Improve mobility and balance.No matter your age, if you’re having trouble standing, walking or moving, physical therapy can help. Stretching and strengthening exercises help restore your ability to move. Physical therapists can properly develop   therapeutic exercises to restore mobility, making walking and moving around safer and help balance in patients who ae at high risk for falls. By customizing an individual care plan, whatever activity that is important to an individual’s life can be practiced and adapted to ensure maximal performance and safety.
5. Recover from stroke.It is common to lose some degree of function and movement after stroke. Physical therapy can help strengthen the body’s weak areas and improve gait and balance. Physical therapists can also improve stroke patients’ to be more independent around the home, reducing their burden of care for bathing, dressing, and other daily activities.
6. Help prevent dependence in pain medication. Frequently, individuals who undergoes surgery end up having a dependence on their pain medications (mainly opiods) to help them manage their pain issues. Physical therapy is often a great safe alternative choice to address the pain issues from surgery. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognizes this significant issues facing Americans and recommends using physical therapy instead of pain medications like opioids.
7. Recover from or prevent sports injury.Physical therapists understand how different sports can increase your risk for specific types of injuries (for example, stress fractures for runners). They can design appropriate recovery or prevention exercise programs for you to ensure a safe return to your sport, including improving circulation, strengthen muscles and flexibility.
8. Improve your balance and prevent falls. When you begin physical therapy, among other things, you will get screened for fall risk. If you’re at high risk for falls, your physical therapist will provide exercises that safely and carefully challenge your balance as a way to mimic real-life situations. Therapists also help you with exercises to improve coordination and assistive devices to help with safer walking. When the balance problem is caused by a problem in one’s vestibular system, Physical therapists can perform specific maneuvers that can quickly restore proper vestibular functioning, and reduce and eliminate symptoms of dizziness or vertigo.
9. Manage age-related issues. As individuals age, they may develop arthritis or osteoporosis or need a joint replacement. Physical therapists are experts in helping patients recover from joint replacement, and manage arthritic or osteoporotic conditions conservatively.
10. Manage heart and lung disease.Physical therapy can often individuals recovering from heart attack through cardiac and lung rehabilitation if their daily functioning is affected. Stretching and conditioning exercises may increase your blood circulation. Heart patients often undergo lots of shocks. Physical therapy helps in complete body rehabilitation.

According to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), a physical therapist is a trained and licensed medical professional with experience in diagnosing physical abnormalities, restoring physical function and mobility, maintaining physical function, and promoting physical activity and proper function.

If you have questions about how physical therapy may help you or someone you care about, please don’t hesitate to ask your health care provider or contact LeMoine Physical Therapy of Rosedale, Maryland at 410-918-0080 or visit https://lemoinephysicaltherapy.com/  for information.