The musculoskeletal system provides your body’s stability, motion, support, and shape. It comprises skeleton bones, tendons, muscles, cartilage, joints, and other connective tissues. Consequently, the musculoskeletal system is often prone to certain conditions and disorders due to aging, injury, or repetitive motions. As per the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, over 120 million Americans have musculoskeletal conditions. Because you have a musculoskeletal problem, your doctor can recommend physical therapy, Charleston. Physical therapy is a common treatment option that can help provide relief against acute or chronic musculoskeletal pain without surgery.
Apart from the debilitating pain, musculoskeletal disorders can also limit your mobility and agility and even cause disability.
For that reason, going for early diagnosis and treatment of the underlying condition affecting your musculoskeletal system can save you from difficult and costly treatment and various complications.
If you go to a physical therapist, there are different physical therapies to restore your mobility and resolve your pain non-surgically. Subsequently, below are the therapies at the disposal of your physical therapist.
Electrical stimulation
Also called neuromuscular electrical stimulation, electrical muscle stimulation is a physical therapy procedure that involves emitting electrical signals to your nerves. That causes the contraction and strengthening of painful muscles.
Electrical stimulation of the musculoskeletal system also assists in blocking the transmission of pain signals from the injured area to your brain and improving blood circulation.
Your physical therapist may need to gradually increase the intensity of electrical muscle stimulation to your maximum tolerable extent.
The treatment sessions last about 30 minutes. Your doctor will determine the number of sessions you require weekly or monthly.
Chiropractic care
According to the American Chiropractic Association, over 33 million Americans seek chiropractic care annually.
Chiropractic care or adjustment is a procedure that involves the use of hands or an instrument to apply pressure that manipulates joints and the spine. It relies on the ability of the body to heal and recover itself if subjected to controlled pressure that aligns and relaxes its structures.
Chiropractic adjustment can help relieve back and neck pain, sprains, strains, arthritic pain, or work and sports injuries.
Hot and cold therapy
If you have acute pain and inflammation, your physical therapist will require that you apply ice packs to the affected part of your body. You can also benefit from an ice massage, an ice bath, or a coolant spray.
On the other hand, if you have painful and stiff muscles, use heating pads. Alternatively, you can benefit from full body treatment by taking a hot bath or a sauna session.
However, heat therapy might be unsuitable if you have certain health conditions, such as skin inflammation or diabetes.
Light therapy
Exposing the painful part of your musculoskeletal system to light therapy can help reduce inflammation, relax muscles, and promote the healing of damaged tissues and nerves.
Light therapy activates the body’s healing and recovery mechanism, disrupting pain signals or messengers traveling to the brain.
Your doctor can incorporate these physical therapies with other non-invasive treatments.
Contact The Rehab Docs today to schedule a consultation with a physical therapy specialist and learn more about the potential benefits of the therapies provided.
