Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy is a profession based on science and has a holistic approach toward health and well-being, including the patient’s general lifestyle. It restores movement and function in the body when someone is affected by injury, illness, or disability. Moreover, it helps reduce your risk of injury or illness in the future. Physiotherapy is considered one of the allied health professions. A physiotherapy consultation uses an individual’s history and physical examination to diagnose and develop a management plan. The diagnosis also incorporates the individual’s laboratory and imaging studies like X-rays, CT-scan, MRI findings, and electromyograms.

History

Hippocrates (460–385 BCE), the father of medicine, was the first physician to describe the benefits of physiotherapy techniques using gravity to treat certain conditions in his books on joints. There was little official documentation about physiotherapy in the western world until the nineteenth century. Around the time, Per Henrik Ling, regarded as the ‘Father of Swedish Gymnastics’, founded the Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics in 1813 for massage, manipulation, and exercise.

Role of physiotherapists

Physiotherapists implement techniques to treat patients affected by injuries caused by illness, accidents, aging, or disability. Some responsibilities of physiotherapists are as follows:

1. Diagnosing physical problems or conditions
2. Developing treatment programs
3. Conducting therapeutic physical exercise sessions 

This profession helps facilitate recovery and encourage development, thereby enabling a person to stay at work while assisting them to remain independent for as long as possible. The importance of physiotherapists in allowing patients to heal with a set of movements and exercises based on their condition must be understood. Physios use their knowledge and skills to improve various conditions associated with different body systems, such as neurological, neuromusculoskeletal, and respiratory systems. Qualified physiotherapists provide physiotherapy to restore health through physical intervention and rehabilitation. The physiotherapist not only treats the issue or condition but also uses a rounded approach that aims to reduce the risk of the injury happening again.

Why Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy provides therapeutic exercise and treatments to improve or restore mobility and function in the body by targeting the injury’s cause. There are many reasons why physical therapy is essential.

The benefits of physiotherapy include the following:

1. Pain Management:  Physiotherapy can treat pain and heal the source of pain. The advantage of physiotherapy is that you will be independent of medications or painkillers to overcome pain. Based on your medical history and condition, the therapist will put you through specific exercises, such as joint and soft tissue mobilization. These techniques and treatments help restore muscle movement and prevent the pain from reoccurring. The physiotherapist will determine areas of weakness or stiffness that may add stress to the places that hurt. And they will treat those areas with specific exercises to ease pain and help you move better. 

To manage pain, you will do a mix of the following:

• Aerobics training: The low-impact workouts will rev up your heart rate and still take it easy on your joints. For instance, you might walk fast or use a stationary bike to warm up instead of running before you do your strengthening exercises.
• Strengthening exercises: Your physiotherapy regimen may put you on machines, use resistance bands, or enable you to use your body weight, like lunges, squats, and pushups. You may work on your core muscles and other parts of your body.
• Stretching: The exercises will be gentle with warm-ups. The physical therapist may prescribe exercises for you to do at home.

2.  Prevent Surgery: Studies have shown that the benefits of physiotherapycan be equally effective as surgery to achieve pain relief for some lower back conditions. The physiotherapist can develop a treatment plan to relieve severe pain and heal from sustained injuries. So, therapy can replace surgery in many cases. Patients have also benefitted from pre-surgery and post-surgery physical therapy. 
3. Improve mobility: Regardless of age, you may have stiffness or problems while walking or moving parts of your shoulders, joints, arms, or legs. A physiotherapist generally recommends exercise and movement to help you improve function and mobility. The recommendation can include exercises designed to improve strength and movement in a specific part of the body, repeated regularly for a set length, to experience the importance of physiotherapy in daily life.In such cases, your therapist will formulate a plan according to your needs. With specific strengthening and stretching exercises, you can improve your mobility.
4. Recovery from stroke: From 24 hours after a stroke, physiotherapists begin rehabilitation in short, frequent spells, focused on getting out of bed, standing, and walking. The benefits of physiotherapyinclude repetitive task training to help regain movement and relearn everyday activities. Physiotherapists use assistive equipment to enhance stroke rehabilitation. Stroke can impede a patient’s neural and muscular function, affecting the degree of balance and movement. Patients can strengthen the weakened parts of their bodies. Also, they can rectify their posture and balance and improve their movement. Regular treatment can help stroke patients to achieve independent movement and functioning to a great extent.
5. Recovery from sports injury: Playing professional sports puts you at risk of injury. It is inevitable, such as stress fractures in distance runners. Physical therapy benefitswill enable you to control the extent of the injury and prevent it with the help of physical therapy. Hence, you will be able to make a safe return to your sport.
6. Manage health & conditions: Physiotherapyhelps treat women’s health issues such as incontinence, pelvic/ vaginal pain, osteoporosis, rehabilitation following breast surgery, and lymphedema. Women may suffer from certain health conditions regarding pregnancy or post-partum care. With regular physio, women can enjoy the benefits of physiotherapy and manage their conditions effectively.