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Physical Therapy for Arthritis

Physical Therapy for Arthritis

Article Featured on Arthritis.org

May is National Arthritis Month and Rose City Physical Therapy would like to spread the word about joint health, prevention, and treatment. Arthritis is one of the most widespread health conditions in the United States affecting one in four adults – over 54 million men and women. We’ve selected a few articles that highlight the important relationship between arthritis and your diet – including which diets can reduce arthritis inflammation, what foods to avoid, and how physical therapy can reduce joint inflammation.

A physical therapist (PT) can help you get moving safely and effectively. Physical therapists are licensed professionals with graduate degrees and clinical experience who examine, diagnose and treat or help prevent conditions that limit the body’s ability to move and function in daily life, according to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA).

Physical therapy focuses on the body’s ability to engage in movement. Movement can be anything from getting in and out of chairs to climbing stairs, walking in your neighborhood, playing a sport or doing recreational activities.

Goals of physical therapy in arthritis include improving the mobility and restoring the use of affected joints, increasing strength to support the joints, and maintaining fitness and the ability to perform daily activities.

What Can a Physical Therapist Do for You?

  • Develop an individualized plan of exercises to improve flexibility, strength, coordination and balance to achieve optimal physical function.
  • Teach you proper posture and body mechanics for common daily activities to relieve pain and improve function.
  • Show you how to properly use assistive devices such as walkers and canes.
  • Recommend different treatment options, such as braces and splints to support joints, shoe inserts to relieve stress on the lower extremities, and hot and cold therapy to ease joint pain and stiffness.
  • Suggest modifications to your environment, such as ergonomic chairs or a cushioned mat in your kitchen, to relieve pain and improve function.

What Does a Physical Therapy Session Look Like?

The goal of a physical therapy session is to teach you how to do things in your treatment plan – such as performing certain exercises, or learn to adapt functional activities – for yourself. The visits are often short and focus on identifying problems with your physical function and giving strategies for care that you can do at home.

The key to a successful outcome is learning the exercises from a physical therapist and practicing them at home over the long term. Improvement is gradual – the body gets stronger and more adept slowly over time – so consistent practice is essential.

When visiting the PT, think clearly about what your complaint is and what you would like to be able to do after physical therapy. Your goal can be getting in and out of your car without pain, raising up on your toes or raising your arms to reach items in your kitchen cabinets, taking a walk or performing your job without pain in the hips, knees and feet. Your PT can then work with you to develop a plan that is right for you to achieve your goals.

In most cases, you don’t need to see the PT every week. Periodic visits every few months are sufficient to update your program if necessary. When you experience a change in your health – such as a flare in your arthritis that causes you to fall behind in your exercise program or involvement of a different joint that affects another area of function – you can return to the physical therapist to update your exercise program and treatment strategy.

How to Find a Physical Therapist?

If you are interested in seeing a PT, ask your doctor for a recommendation. You may not need a doctor’s referral to see a PT, but check with your insurance to make sure it will be covered. Your insurance may also limit the number of sessions for a particular problem, so make sure you know this information before you see a PT.

If you’d like to know more about reducing arthritis inflammation, and how physical therapy can reduce joint pain from arthritis, contact Rose City Physical Therapy today.

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Sciatica & Physical Therapy: How Rose City Can Help Reduce Your Sciatica Pain

Sciatica and Physical Therapy

Rose City Physical Therapy specializes in orthopedic and sports injury physical therapy. Please visit our staff page to learn more about our Board-Certified Orthopedic Specialists. Our highly-trained physical therapists have decades of experience in orthopedic physical therapy and will work with you to design individualized treatment programs to help reduce your pain, regain normal movement, and get back to your regular activities. Contact us to schedule an appointment today!

Article Featured on MoveFowardPT, Reviewed by Karl Kolbeck, PT

As many as 40% of people will experience sciatica during their lifetime, according to Harvard Medical School, and the condition becomes more frequent as one ages. Although sciatica is among the more common causes of pain, it is also often incorrectly categorized and misunderstood.

What is sciatica? What are its common triggers? What are the signs and symptoms? How is it diagnosed? Can it be prevented? How is it best addressed and treated?

Lumbar radiculopathy (also known as sciatica or radiculitis) is a condition that occurs when a nerve in your low back is injured, pinched, or compressed, causing pain or other symptoms that can extend from the low back to the hip, leg, or foot. Sciatica can be caused by sudden trauma or by long-term stress affecting structures in the back. It most often affects people aged 30 to 50 years.

How Does it Feel?

Sciatica can cause pain, muscle tightness and weakness, or other symptoms. The pain usually starts in your lower back, and can travel to your hip, leg, or foot. The location of the pain can vary depending on which nerve in your back is affected and how much it is irritated. Greater irritation causes the pain to spread farther. Spreading pain usually affects one leg, but may affect both legs. Pain and other symptoms can be constant or come and go, and your pain may vary in intensity.

If a nerve or nerve root (the nerve branches deep in your back at the spine level) is severely pinched or compressed it can cause severe pain, muscle weakness, or extreme movement problems. Surgery may be recommended in more severe cases. On rare occasions, nerve compression can cause bladder control or bowel function problems, in which case immediate surgery is recommended.

Rose City Physical Therapy can determine the details of your condition and discuss what a successful treatment plan consist of, and whether consultation with a surgeon is necessary. Our physical therapists will work with your physician or surgeon to determine your best treatment.

Signs and Symptoms

Sciatica can cause a variety of symptoms and signs. The type and location of your symptoms will depend on the amount of pressure being placed on the affected nerve(s). Symptoms and signs may include:

  • Pain and/or pressure in the back, hip, leg, and/or foot/feet
  • Pain that can be throbbing, aching, shooting, sharp, dull, or burning
  • Limitation in or inability to bend or rotate the back
  • Numbness or tingling in the back, hip, leg, or feet
  • Leg weakness
  • Increased pain when coughing, sneezing, reaching, or sitting
  • Inability to stand up straight; being “stuck” in a position such as stooped forward
  • Pain with sitting and difficulty getting up from a chair
  • Inability to remain in one position for a long period of time, such as sitting or standing, due to pain
  • Pain that is worse in the morning
  • Limping when walking

The pain or other symptoms can occur in one or both limbs. Your pain may present in different locations at different times, and can change depending on your activity or body positioning. For example, pain can lessen or worsen when walking versus sitting, or lying down versus standing up.

How Is It Diagnosed?

Rose City Physical Therapy will conduct a thorough evaluation including a review of your health history. Your therapist will ask you detailed questions about your injury, such as:

  • Do you have loss of control of your bladder or bowel? CAUTION: Contact a medical professional immediately if you experience this condition.
  • How and when did the pain start?
  • At what time of day is it worse?
  • What type of discomfort do you feel, and where do you feel it?
  • What are you unable to do right now in your daily life due to the pain?

Your physical therapist will perform a variety of tests to identify potential complications and assess the severity of your symptoms. These tests are designed to check for symptoms and clinical signs including:

  • Difficulty moving
  • Muscle weakness or tightness
  • Changes in skin sensation (numbness)
  • Changes in reflexes
  • Joint stiffness
  • Changes in posture
  • Difficulty walking or balancing

If your physical therapist finds any of the above problems, physical therapy treatment may begin right away. Our goal at Rose City Physical Therapy is to help get you on the road to recovery and back to your normal activities as quickly and safely as possible.

If testing indicates any concerns, your physical therapist will consult your physician or surgeon regarding the need for special diagnostic testing, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Our board-certified physical therapists at Rose City Physical Therapy will work closely with your physicians and other health care providers to ensure you receive an accurate diagnosis, treatment, and the care you need.

How Can a Physical Therapist Help?

In all but the most extreme cases of sciatica, conservative care (such as physical therapy) often produces better, faster, and more cost effective results than surgery or pain medication (such as opioid medication).

Your physical therapist will work with you to design a specific treatment program that will speed up your recovery, including exercises and treatments that you can do at home. Physical therapy will help you return to your normal lifestyle and activities. The time it takes to heal your condition may vary, but improvement can be achieved in 4 to 8 weeks when a proper posture, pain reduction, stretching, and strengthening program is implemented.

During the first 24 to 48 hours following your diagnosis of sciatica, your physical therapist may advise you to:

  • Protect the area by avoiding activity that causes worsening symptoms, such as heavy lifting, sitting, bending and twisting, or standing.
  • Avoid too much bed rest.
  • Stay active around the house, and go on short walks several times per day. Movement will decrease your pain and stiffness, and help you feel better.
  • Apply ice packs to the affected area for 15 to 20 minutes every 2 hours.
  • Sit in supportive, firm chairs. Prolonged resting in soft couches or easy chairs may make your pain worse.
  • Consult with a physician for further services, such as medication or diagnostic tests.

Your physical therapist will educate you about specific exercises designed for patients with sciatica. For example, water exercises can be a great way to stay physically active when other forms of exercise are painful. It’s important to note that some traditional exercises, such as those that involve twisting, bending, or weight lifting may aggravate your sciatica if not conducted with the proper form. We will design an individualized exercise program to reduce your leg pain and meet your specific needs.

Rose City Physical Therapy will work with you to:

Reduce pain and other symptoms. We will help you understand how to avoid or modify the activities that caused the injury, so healing can begin. Your therapist may use different types of treatments and technologies to control and reduce your symptoms. Your treatment, based on your condition, may include specific motion exercises, mechanical
traction, and electrotherapy such as Interferential Current or Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS).

Improve motion. We will choose specific activities and treatments to help restore normal movement. These might begin with “passive” motions that your physical therapist performs for you to move your spine, and progress to active exercises and stretches that you do yourself. You can perform these motions at home and in your workplace to help hasten healing and pain relief.

Improve flexibility. We will determine if any of the involved muscles are tight, start helping you to stretch them, and teach you how to stretch them at home.

Improve strength. If your physical therapist finds any weak or injured muscles, they will teach you the correct exercises to steadily restore your strength and agility. “Core strengthening” exercises are commonly used to restore the strength and coordination of muscles around your back, hips, abdomen, and pelvis.

Improve endurance. Restoring muscular endurance is important after an injury. Your physical therapist with work with you to will develop a program of activities to help regain the endurance you had before the injury, and improve it.

Improve posture. Your physical therapist will teach you how to improve your posture so that pressure is reduced in the injured area, and healing can begin and progress as rapidly as possible.

Learn a home program. Your physical therapist will teach you strengthening, stretching, and pain reduction exercises to perform at home. These exercises will be specific for your needs; if you do them as prescribed by your physical therapist, you can speed your recovery.

Return to activities. We will discuss your activity levels with you and use them to set your work, sport, and home-life recovery goals. Your treatment program will help you reach your goals in the safest, fastest, and most effective way possible. For spine and leg pain from sciatica, your physical therapist may teach you correct ways to lift objects (called “body mechanics”) that will help protect your spine from aggravating symptoms.

Once your pain is under control or gone, it will be important for you to continue your new posture and movement habits to keep your back healthy and pain free.

To learn more about how physical therapists treat sciatica, listen to this informative episode of Move Forward Radio. In this episode, physical therapist and researcher Mark Bishop discusses the basics of sciatica. An expert on the condition, he also addresses how physical therapists treat the condition.

Surgery

In some cases, surgery is necessary to prevent further damage. If you undergo surgery for your sciatica, your physical therapist will work closely with you and your surgeon to help you regain motion and strength more quickly than you could on your own, and help you get back to your normal lifestyle as quickly as possible.

What Kind of Physical Therapist Do I Need?

All physical therapists are prepared through education and experience to treat people who have low back and leg pain as a result of sciatica. You want to consider:

  • A physical therapist who is experienced in treating people with orthopedic, or musculoskeletal, problems.
  • A physical therapist who is a board-certified clinical specialist or who completed a residency or fellowship in orthopedic physical therapy. This therapist has advanced knowledge, experience, and skills that may apply to your condition.
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Avoid Addictive Opioids. Choose Physical Therapy for Safe Pain Management.

No one wants to live in pain. But no one should put their health at risk in an effort to be pain free. Doctor-prescribed opioids are appropriate in some cases, but they just mask the pain—and opioid risks include depression, overdose, and addiction, plus withdrawal symptoms when stopping use.

That’s why the CDC recommends safer alternatives like physical therapy to manage pain. The physical therapists at Rose City Physical Therapy treat pain through therapeutic exercise and functional movement, manual therapy (hands-on care), and patient education—and by increasing physical activity you can also reduce your risk of other chronic diseases.

Pain is personal, but treating pain takes teamwork. When it comes to your health, you have a choice. Choose more movement and better health. Choose Rose City Physical Therapy!

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), sales of prescription opioids have quadrupled in the United States, even though “there has not been an overall change in the amount of pain that Americans report.”

In response to a growing opioid epidemic, the CDC released opioid prescription guidelines in March 2016. The guidelines recognize that prescription opioids are appropriate in certain cases, including cancer treatment, palliative care, and end-of-life care, and also in certain acute care situations, if properly dosed.

But for other pain management, the CDC recommends nonopioid approaches including physical therapy.

Patients should choose physical therapy when …

  • … The risks of opioid use outweigh the rewards.
    Potential side effects of opioids include depression, overdose, and addiction, plus withdrawal symptoms when stopping opioid use. Because of these risks, “experts agreed that opioids should not be considered firstline or routine therapy for chronic pain,” the CDC guidelines state. Even in cases when evidence on the long-term benefits of non-opioid therapies is limited, “risks are much lower” with non-opioid treatment plans.
  • … Patients want to do more than mask the pain.
    Opioids reduce the sensation of pain by interrupting pain signals to the brain. Physical therapists treat pain through movement while partnering with patients to improve or maintain their mobility and quality of life.
  • … Pain or function problems are related to low back pain, hip or knee osteoarthritis.
    The CDC cites “high-quality evidence” supporting exercise as part of a physical therapy treatment plan for those familiar conditions.
  • … Opioids are prescribed for pain. 
    Even in situations when opioids are prescribed, the CDC recommends that patients should receive “the lowest effective dosage,” and opioids “should be combined” with nonopioid therapies, such as physical therapy.
  • … Pain lasts 90 days.
    At this point, the pain is considered “chronic,” and the risks for continued opioid use increase. An estimated 116 million Americans have chronic pain each year. The CDC guidelines note that nonopioid therapies are “preferred” for chronic pain and that “clinicians should consider opioid therapy only if expected benefits for both pain and function are anticipated to outweigh risks to the patient.”

Before you agree to a prescription for opioids, consult with a physical therapist to discuss options for nonopioid treatment.

“Given the substantial evidence gaps on opioids, uncertain benefits of long-term use and potential for serious harm, patient education and discussion before starting opioid therapy are critical so that patient preferences and values can be understood and used to inform clinical decisions,” the CDC states.

Physical therapists can play a valuable role in the patient education process, including setting realistic expectations for recovery with or without opioids. Contact Rose City Physical Therapy to learn more about non-opioid pain management.

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What Does Physical Therapy Mean To You?

Physical Therapy

Ask ten people what physical therapy is to them you will get ten different answers. Ask ten people what physical therapy did – or didn’t do – for them and you’ll get ten different answers. Why is this?

Read more
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