All You Need To Know About Physiotherapy

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Rachit: – The therapy helped my loss of mobility, and was quite helpful in reducing body pain, boosting muscle strength, improving flexibility, and reducing overall stiffness.

Physiotherapy and how it helps in the recovery of rare medical conditions

Are you suffering from a health complaint, and are probably wondering whether physiotherapy will work as a suitable solution for you? Then go through this blog and find out the answer to your questions.

What is physiotherapy?

Physiotherapy is the study of the science of movement and learning how to pinpoint an injury’s root cause. Physiotherapists help to restore, maintain and make the most of a patient’s mobility, and function. Physiotherapy can provide instant pain relief as the movements and stretches can reduce the level of pressure on the spine, discs, and muscles Physiotherapy helps through physical rehabilitation, injury prevention, and fitness. It can be used either exclusively or in conjunction with other treatment techniques to treat many issues. Physiotherapy commonly involves exercises, manual therapies, and electrotherapy techniques.

What to Look for in a Physiotherapist

Finding the right physiotherapist is necessary and ensuring that the physiotherapist is well qualified, the person should have the necessary education to truly understand the patient and his body and his needs.It’s essential to engage a physiotherapist who will be able to provide you with the care and service that you deserve.

A bachelor’s or master’s degree in physiotherapy is essential. Beyond qualifications, the therapist should have experience also. It’s good to have a degree, but experience allows physiotherapists to get to know their role and build their skills.

How physiotherapy is helpful to chronic and rare diseases in patients?

• The physiotherapist carries assessment of posture, strength, flexibility, and balance to identify the source of the problems. Gets to the root of an injury, to overcome the problems and avoid escalating damage. A thorough assessment is taken to gain a deeper understanding of the body and what has caused the damage to occur.
• The injury might have occurred during a specific situation, like jogging but it doesn’t necessarily explain the true source of the problems. This could be caused due to a gradually increasing chronic issue or a weakness in the body that has been previously undiagnosed. After a clear image of the full situation, the right exercises and management tips should be easy.
• Physiotherapy helps in managing pain. Discomfort or pain can severely harm and affect daily activities Effective pain management through physiotherapy sessions will help. Physiotherapy provides pain relief as joints and muscles regain strength and mobility. The ability to complete exercises and stretches aims to reduce the pain and can have a significant impact throughout the recovery process.
• The physiotherapist corrects the postural issues and the number of injuries that occur as a result of poor postures. Physiotherapy helps to correct these problems by straightening the back and aligning the hips and shoulders, this can reduce the strain on muscles and joints throughout the body.
• The therapist uses rehabilitation plans to treat the patient. Bodies’ natural capabilities like to heal itself weaken as we get older. Therefore, it is often necessary to undergo physiotherapy to prevent injuries causing long-term negativity.
• Physiotherapy includes daily strengthening and motion exercises, static stretches, and low-impact activities. The therapist helps in making the necessary changes and modifications as the body heals and gets closer to full strength and function.
• The treatment process is a gradual one that could take weeks or months depending on the type and severity of the injury.
• Physiotherapy actively helps to prevent future injuries and is the true key to sustained success. Restoring strength and mobility reduces the threat of repeated problems, especially when they are supported by ongoing exercises and stretches.
• Physiotherapy is a key factor in restoring physical health and keeping it at optimum levels.

For which health condition is physiotherapy particularly helpful?

Physiotherapy is an increasingly common type of treatment that can be used to treat an extensive range of conditions. Physiotherapists focus on both prevention and rehabilitation. Treatment is directed to problems caused by injury, disease, or disability. Some examples of the conditions treated by physiotherapy are:

• Neck and back pain.
• Problems in the bones, muscles, joints, and ligaments, like arthritis, sprains, and strains.
• Upper and lower limb pain.
• Women-related conditions like stress incontinence, post-delivery weight gain, etc.
• Neurological conditions like stroke, spinal cord injury, etc.
• Loss of mobility.
• Conditions like Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, etc.
• Fatigue, pain, swelling, stiffness, loss of muscle strength, etc.
• Paediatric conditions like cerebral palsy, autism, etc.
• Postural problems.
• Age-related condition.

How does physiotherapy work?

Each physiotherapy treatment session is unique because it depends on the patient’s health issues and needs. A visit to a physiotherapist generally includes:

• The physiotherapist learns about the patient’s medical history;
• Assesses and diagnoses the patient’s condition and needs.
• Helps the patient set and reach physical goals.
• Creates a treatment plan that accounts for the patient’s health, lifestyle, and activities;
• Prescribes a course of exercises and necessary devices.

What care does a patient need to take while taking physiotherapy sessions? Are there any diet restrictions, or posture constraints?

• During the treatment session, the physiotherapist encourages you to play an active role and gain a deeper understanding of your body. This teaches you to manage pain and discomfort, while also helping you to spot signs of damage and incorrect movements.
• The patient should be appropriately dressed. During the session exercises, and movements are recommended, therefore proper clothes should be worn, and avoid wearing ill-fitting or tight clothes, which can cause a hindrance during the process.
• The patient should communicate with the therapist about the experience severe of pain during or after the session.  This helps the therapist to modify the sessions accordingly.
• The patient should cooperate with the therapist and follow up with the exercise regime. Even if the physiotherapy sessions are over, it is important to maintain a correct posture while doing the exercises and also make changes in the lifestyle to ensure that the condition does not bounce back. The use of physiotherapy helps gain quick relief, deeper insight, and long-term benefits through rehab or corrective procedures, gaining increased strength and mobility is a truly life-changing reward.
• Intake of water should be increased, as water is as essential as diet and exercise for any healing. to keep the body hydrated before, during, and after sessions. Patients can even drink soups and coconut water to stay hydrated but avoid drinking soft drinks, coffee, or tea.
• Eating a balanced diet is very important, a body recovers not just through exercise but from a healthy and balanced diet. For physiotherapy to work, the right food should be eaten, containing 60% carbohydrates, 30% proteins, and 10% fats for quick healing.

Few examples of patients who benefited from physiotherapy

Ankita is a 50-year-old woman who had a car accident. Her car was stationary while she was waiting to make a left turn when she was hit from behind by another car. At that time, she felt shocked and shaken and noticed mild aching in her neck. However, over the next 2 months, she developed severe pain in her neck and head with constant dizziness and headache when she moved her head suddenly. An MRI scan showed no nerve damage or fractures in her neck and further physiotherapy was recommended.

Ankita received physiotherapy that involved manual therapy treatment and gentle exercises to carry out at home. Manual therapy involved the mobilization of the neck joints and also soft tissue treatment which helped to provide pain relief and improved her neck movements with exercises. After 3 sessions, she felt approximately 40% improvement, and the constant headache that she had been experiencing reduced. After 6 weeks of treatment, she felt 70% better and was getting occasional dizziness if she had a very busy and active day or moved very suddenly. After receiving physiotherapy treatment Ankita improved her stamina, conditioning, and general fitness and found that she was getting less pain. Over time she got 90% resolution of her symptoms.

Shlok is a 40-year-old badminton player had suddenly developed severe shoulder pain when serving and doing overhead smash shots. When first assessedShlok was not able to do everyday activities that required him to lift his arm above the level of his shoulder. He was occasionally waking up in the night because of the pain usually when he rolled onto the painful shoulder. After undergoing a physical examination, the strength of the rotator cuff was checked to determine if there was a tear, one part of the rotator cuff was tested as slightly weak and very painful. This meant that there was a small tear in one of the tendons.

Eventually, Shlok underwent physiotherapy treatment for shoulder pain reduction and gentle exercises to strengthen the part of the rotator cuff that was not injured. Within three weeks of carrying out the initial exercises, Shlok reported that her shoulder pain had reduced by 50% and she was no longer waking up at night. He now had little pain in everyday life. The next stage was strengthening the remaining part of the tendon. Followed by specific exercises to strengthen the injured tendon.Shlok carried out these exercises daily over the subsequent 6 weeks improving to the point that he could carry out light overhead activities without any pain.

Shlok’s main aim was to get back to playing badminton and was dying to get back on the court. The next phase of physiotherapy was to get him back to fully competitive badminton.

The next phase was strengthening exercises in the most difficult and strenuous ways, in all the key positions that a badminton player puts the shoulder in like overhead and end-of-range strengthening. Therefore, speed and ballistic movements in increasingly awkward and difficult positions were given. After approximately three months of rehabilitation, Shlok was ready to play a fully competitive game of badminton.

Health problems are likely to cause negative impacts daily, and this is likely to take its toll on the mindset and happiness levels over time, which the physiotherapist understands and thus provides valuable support.

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CB Physiotherapy, one of the India’s fastest growing Delivery Network for Physiotherapy & Chiropractors services.