How Physical Therapy Can Help Back Pain?

  • Acute: pain lasting less than three months.
  • Recurrent: acute symptoms that ease up, then come back.
  • Chronic pain lasting longer than three months.

Causes of Back Pain

Possible causes of back pain include:

  1. Ankylosing spondylitis
  2. Endometriosis
  3. Fibromyalgia
  4. Herniated disk
  5. Kidney infection 
  6. Kidney stones 
  7. Muscle strains
  8. Obesity
  9. Osteoarthritis
  10. Osteomyelitis
  11. Osteoporosis
  12. Poor posture
  13. Pregnancy
  14. Sacroiliitis
  15. Sciatica
  16. Scoliosis
  17. Spinal cord tumor
  18. Spinal fractures
  19. Spinal stenosis
  20. Spondylolisthesis
  21. Sprains

How Is It Diagnosed?

Your physical Therapist will perform a complete evaluation and physical exam that contains:

  • A review of your health history.
  • Questions about your specific symptoms.
  • Evaluating the quality and quantity of your movements. 
  • Conduct tests for signs or symptoms that suggest a severe health problem, such as broken bones or cancer.
  • Review of how you use your body at work, at home, during sports, and at leisure.

For most cases of low back pain, imaging tests like X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs are not valuable. It is usually frustrating for patients when imaging tests don't show the actual cause of their lower back pain. Fortunately, low back pain can be enhanced without a visual assessment of its cause.

Physical Therapy for Back Pain

Most physical therapy sessions begin with an initial assessment to test muscle strength, flexibility, and range of motion. Your PT will consider how you move, talk to you to comprehend how your pain limits you, and determine any obligations you may have that could be contributing to the issue. 

They'll then make a unique, customized therapy plan tailored just for you using different techniques, including:

  • Strengthening exercises. Back pain can often be blamed on poor posture or movement patterns when specific muscles must step in and compensate for other forces not correctly used. A PT will show you how to perform exercises to support your spine and the muscles around it. Because the PT observes you the entire time, you can be sure you're doing the movement correctly and won't injure yourself further. 
  • Manual Therapy. A PT can use different strategies, including passive soft tissue mobilizations, joint mobilizations, dry needling, or other techniques to decrease impairments on joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles. 
  • Education and training. A PT can help you retrain your activity patterns or the conclusions you make that would put load incorrectly on your back so that you can control back pain in the future. For example, a PT will look at how you sit, lift objects, and walk, then teach you how to do these things in a safer, more efficient manner to keep yourself healthy and injury-free for the long term. 

6 Benefits of Physical Therapy for back pain

  1. Personalized Care. One of the main benefits of seeking help from a physical therapist is that they will not perform a one-size-fits-all approach. They will consider your body type, age, lifestyle (whether you're typically a sedentary person or an athlete), existing health conditions, and how you respond to different kinds of movement.
  1. Decreased pain. Physical therapy will examine your gait (how you move when you walk/run) and how you get up from sitting and lying down. This allows them to suggest exercises that will diminish the pain directly caused by your movements. The Therapist may also operate electrical stimulation to reform function.
  1. Restored mobility. Physical therapists not only treat pain, but they also examine for the root cause of discomfort. For example, if your lower back is stiff, the Therapist will concentrate on easing that stiffness. If your back muscles are weak, the Therapist may recommend strengthening exercises that will aid in recovering your entire range of motion.
  1. It may eliminate the need for surgery. Surgery should only ever be considered as a last resort, and Physical Therapy is one of the most fierce ways to attempt to resolve back pain conservatively.
  1. Reduces the risk of further injury. Suppose you must do repetitive movements due to your job duties or athletic activity. In that case, your physical Therapist will consider such actions and suggest recovery stretches to avoid future back injury.
  1. Reduces the risk of falls. If you have poor posture or a degenerative disease that increases the likelihood of falling a physical therapist will design a plan to improve your balance and coordination.

Conclusion

Physical Therapy in Brownstown is a pivotal and highly effective intervention for alleviating back pain. Through tailored exercise regimens, manual techniques, and targeted modalities, Physical Therapists adeptly address the root causes of discomfort, promoting both short-term relief and long-term resilience. 

They instill crucial self-care practices by emphasizing patient education and empowerment, ensuring sustained well-being beyond the treatment sessions. The personalized approach of Physical Therapy for back pain enhances overall physical function, significantly improving the quality of life for individuals grappling with back pain.