Eight Conditions That Respond Well to Physical Therapy

If you think that physical therapy is simply another form of exercise, think again. This approach to musculoskeletal health is designed to help you regain your mobility, strength, and quality of life.

At Valiant Life Medical, our team places great emphasis on physical therapy, and we’ve found that it’s an integral component to most successful treatment plans.

To give you an idea of all that we can accomplish through targeted physical therapy, here’s a list of eight conditions that respond very well to this treatment protocol.

1. Arthritis and joint pain

According to the Arthritis Foundation, more than 92 million adults in the United States have doctor-diagnosed arthritis or report arthritis symptoms, namely joint pain and inflammation. If you’re among those who are limited by sore and achy joints, physical therapy can help.

Through physical therapy, we strengthen the surrounding muscles to take the pressure off your joints at the same time as we encourage flexibility and range of motion. In fact, physical therapy is one of the best ways to avoid or delay joint replacement surgery.

2. Chronic pain

Approximately one in five adults in the United States suffers from chronic pain. While there are any number of conditions that can lead to chronic pain, such as the aforementioned arthritis, what most have in common is that they respond well to physical therapy. 

We tailor your physical therapy to your unique pain-management needs, allowing you to rely less on interventional techniques and risky medications.

3. Aging

As you age, your risks for musculoskeletal problems rise. To put some numbers to the problem, each year in the US, three million people over the age of 65 are treated in emergency rooms for fall injuries.

Whether it’s loss of balance, loss of bone mass, or poor support in your soft tissues, we can help navigate and offset these age-related losses through physical therapy.

4. Sports injuries

Whether you’re healing from a sports injury or you’d like to avoid one in the first place, physical therapy is your best option. Our team has extensive experience helping our more active patients stay in the game through targeted physical therapy that promotes healing and strengthens the body to avoid re-injury.

5. Back pain

Back pain is one of the most common complaints among our patients, and we’ve found that physical therapy can be very beneficial. If you have a problem along your spine, we teach you exercises that strengthen the muscles, ligaments, and tendons supporting this foundational structure.

6. Common injuries

Whether you’ve been in a car accident, hurt yourself on the job, or suffered a personal injury, the odds are excellent that physical therapy can help you bounce back. From neck injuries to broken bones, our comprehensive physical therapy services are designed to help you heal and recover as quickly as possible.

7. Strokes and traumatic brain injuries

If you’ve had a stroke and lost muscle strength, coordination, and stability, physical therapy is your best option for regaining your ability to function well. We not only help restore muscle strength, we work on balance, as well as functional issues, so that you can become more independent.

In the same way that physical therapy can help after a stroke, it can play a huge role in recovering from a traumatic brain injury. We work with your neurologist to come up with the best plan for your unique needs, and then we work diligently to get you to your goals.

8. Diabetes

If you have diabetes, you’re at risk for peripheral neuropathy, which is nerve damage, especially in your limbs. To help keep your legs and feet healthy and the nerves functioning optimally, we can turn to physical therapy. 

Again, these eight conditions are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of physical therapy, but they provide you with a good idea about why physical therapy can be so beneficial.

To explore how physical therapy can benefit you, contact our office in Fort Worth, Texas, to set up a consultation.