Healthy Living

Everything You Need To Know About Physical Therapy

Everything You Need To Know About Physical Therapy

Physical therapy has been implemented since antiquity. Don’t panic though, if you are among those in the dark about the treatment therapy. Here is a summary of everything you need to know about physical therapy:

(i) Your home exercise program is very vital.  You can always consult your physical therapist for a home program that best suits you. A good way to avoid another appointment with your therapist for the same problem is making sure that you follow your home program after being discharged.

 

(ii) The phrase “no pain no gain” does not apply in all cases. On the other hand there are a few tests that prove the saying true like after getting a knee replacement or having a frozen shoulder. Therapy should mostly be free of pain. In order to have a steady recovery, you need to keep away from positions that could worsen your condition.

 

(iii) Therapy massages are very different from the type of massages you get at the spa. Spa massages are meant to relax you, whereas the massages from your therapist are often concentrated on the affected muscle areas. They are performed to loosen, tone, and improve tissue function of a certain muscle, since it may be the root cause of joint pain or inflammation.

 

(iv) Expect your physical therapist to always find a way to make sure you can do a particular type of exercise even if you tell them you can’t. If they also find out that a certain exercise is too easy for you to carry out they will take it up another notch.

 

(v) Physical therapy requires that the therapist and the patient work as a team to achieve the desired results. It would be wrong to think that your therapist alone can fix your affected body part without having to put some extra effort into it yourself. Success comes when the patient and therapist work together in coming up with a recovery plan that meets the patient’s individual needs.

 

(vi) Many States have patients with direct access to their physical therapist without the for recommendations from doctors. This is the result of physical therapy as a career becoming more popular by the day.

 

(vii) Physical therapists require an advanced degree. In the past a bachelor’s degree  was all that was needed to be a physical therapist. But things have changed and graduate programs offer a 3-year DPT (Doctorate of Physical Therapy) degree. This means that the knowledge of medicine and the view of the practice has broadened over the years.

 

(viii) Physical Therapy can be a remedy for vertigo. Positional vertigo is the most commonly diagnosed. Victims tend to experience dizziness for a moment when they change position or move their head. This is brought about by a condition in the vestibular system and it can easily be treated.

 

(ix) There are different types of physical therapy out there; neurologic rehabilitation, wound care, lymphedema management, pulmonary rehab, cardiovascular, post-operative care, acute and orthopedic care.

 

(x) Physical therapists can be found in hospitals, private practices, out-patient clinics, nursing homes, home health agencies and schools.