Many people suffer from lower back pain and are unsure of how to find long-term relief. Dealing with this type of pain has an impact on daily life and can take away time you would normally spend relaxing, working, and spending time with your family.
Back pain, in general, can make it difficult to enjoy life. Not to mention that it can make a person feel irritable, depressed, and contribute to a variety of other health issues.
Lower back pain is the leading cause of activity limitation and work absence in the majority of the world, imposing a significant economic burden on individuals, households, communities, industry, and governments.
If you’re experiencing this kind of discomfort, there’s no doubt that you want assistance, and we can help! A licensed physiotherapist will guide you through the appropriate therapy treatments so that you can return to your normal life without pain. To learn more, please contact Newcastle Physiotherapy today!
How can physiotherapy treat lower back pain?
Your physiotherapist will ask you a series of health-related questions about your medical history and lower back pain during your first visit to our office. Giving them this information will enable your physiotherapist to provide you with the best recovery plan possible, allowing you to reap long-term benefits.
Your physiotherapist will also conduct a thorough examination of your body. Your physiotherapist may assess your flexibility, strength, balance, posture, coordination, blood pressure, and heart and breathing rates based on your symptoms. They can also examine and assess your back and surrounding areas for tightness using their hands. They can also assess your mobility visually.
Your physiotherapist can also provide you with special exercises to do at home during your treatment plan to relieve discomfort, prevent re-injury, relieve strain, and speed up your recovery time. They can also prescribe various devices or equipment that may aid in your healing, as well as spend time educating you on the source of your pain and pain relief techniques.
Active and passive therapy treatments
Active physiotherapy differs from passive therapy in that it requires the patient to perform activities rather than treatments that the therapist performs on the patient. These exercises are typically used later in therapy, after your lower back pain has subsided enough to allow you to perform exercises and stretches without discomfort.
Your physiotherapist can recommend a variety of exercises. Targeted stretching, stability exercises, flexibility training, and strength training are all common. Some of these exercises will increase your range of motion, while others will strengthen and restore the muscles around affected areas to provide proper support for those parts of your body.
What should I anticipate from passive physiotherapy?
Lower back pain can be so incapacitating that you can’t function normally. It can obstruct literally everything! As a result, it is critical for a physiotherapist to reduce your pain as much as possible so that you can begin participating in your treatment.
Because they are performed on a patient by a physiotherapist, these techniques and tools are commonly referred to as passive.
- Hydrotherapy
- Dry needling
- Iontophoresis
- Ultrasound
- Heat/ice packs
- Electrical stimulation, such as TENS Units
- Massage
- Manual therapies
Some of these methods (such as hot/cold packs and massage therapy) are used to improve blood flow and restore circulation to the affected area, thereby reducing pain and inflammation.
Physiotherapists also often use electrical stimulation therapy. This is a non-invasive, painless treatment that delivers electrical waves through your nervous system to reduce muscle spasms, and encourage your body to produce pain-relieving hormones.
Physiotherapy also includes hydrotherapy treatment. This kind of treatment involves performing low-intensity movements in water to relieve pressure on muscles. Water allows you to move your joints without discomfort.
What else should I know?
Physiotherapy is a type of treatment used to treat disabilities and injuries. Your physiotherapist can treat all types of pain, including back pain. Physiotherapy speeds up recovery and is an excellent therapeutic option for regaining range of motion and functional mobility. Our physiotherapists are trained and experienced in conservative treatment strategies, such as the rehabilitation of patients suffering from neurological, cardiovascular, and orthopedic conditions.
Even though each patient receives a personalized treatment plan unique to their condition, most physiotherapy programs include two key components: passive physiotherapy and active physiotherapy. Passive physiotherapy reduces the patient’s pain and makes it more manageable. Active physiotherapy requires patients to perform exercises on their own.
To get started, please contact Newcastle Physiotherapy.
If you’re ready to reduce (or even eliminate!) your pain, please contact us to learn more about how physiotherapy can help you live a pain-free life.
