How Does Physical Therapy Help with Pain Relief?
What causes pain? Why am I experiencing pain? Why does some pain persist longer? And how can physical therapy help with pain relief?
If you have ever asked yourself one or more of these questions, this blog hopes to provide some answers. First, let’s define pain and better understand why we experience it.
What Is Pain?
Pain is an early warning sign that is essential to helping us minimize contact with damaging or noxious stimuli. It is a normal human experience.
Have you ever stepped on a sharp object or touched a hot surface? What happens when this occurs?
Special nerves, called nociceptors, send information toward our brains to warn of potential damage. Our immediate response is to take our hand off the hot surface or our foot off the sharp object. This is a withdrawal reflex that occurs after our nervous system receives the information, helping protect us from further harm.
The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.
What Is the Most Common Type of Pain?
One common type of pain is called nociceptive pain (naa·ki·sep·tuhv). This type of pain plays a role in sending warning signals to protect the body from further injury in response to noxious stimuli or mechanical stress.
These pain receptors, called nociceptors, exist throughout areas of the body, including the skin, muscles, and joints.
Does Pain Always Mean Injury?
Not necessarily. Pain can sometimes persist even without an ongoing injury. This does not always mean there is damage happening in your body.
Think about pain like an alarm system designed to keep us safe from harm. With chronic or persistent pain, pain signals can continue even after the body’s tissues have healed.
The nervous system sends information back and forth between your body and your brain. When you have an injury, your nerves can become more sensitive to protect you. With chronic pain, those nerves may remain in this “sensitive” mode.
Your body thinks there is a threat and sounds the alarm. When that alarm goes off, your brain continues to process the information as pain.
This is one reason chronic pain can be complicated. You can learn more about chronic pain and how physical therapists can help through the American Physical Therapy Association.
Why Does Pain Persist?
The exact reason pain continues is not always known, and many different factors can influence how we experience pain.
These factors can include:
- Environment
- Stress
- Sleep
- Nutrition
- Physical activity levels
- Age
- Sex
- Previous trauma
- Cultural background
- Genetic factors
- Socioeconomic factors
For example, ongoing stress can affect how the nervous system and body respond to discomfort. Learn more about the connection between chronic stress and physical pain and how physical therapy may help.
Lifestyle habits can also play a role. Our article on habits and chronic pain explains how movement, nutrition, and stress can influence how your body feels.
Three Helpful Tips for Managing Pain
While every person’s pain is different, several healthy habits may help support your body and nervous system.
1. Exercise
Exercise, including low- to moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, can help release endorphins that make you feel good. Endorphins are hormones associated with feelings of well-being.
Regular movement can also help improve strength, mobility, endurance, and overall physical function.
For people experiencing chronic pain, the type and amount of exercise should be appropriate for their individual condition. A physical therapist can help determine which activities are safe and beneficial for you.
2. Sleep
Research has shown that sleep has a significant effect on everyday life and overall health. Getting adequate, quality sleep allows the body to recover and can support the healing process.
Sleep can also influence how your body experiences pain. If you are consistently sleeping poorly, pain may feel more intense or become more difficult to manage.
3. Nutrition
Nutrition can also play a role in overall health and pain management.
Low dietary intake of certain micronutrients, including vitamins B1, B3, B6, B12 and D, magnesium, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids, has been associated with inflammatory pain.
Adequate nutrition also helps support the normal function of the nervous, immune, and endocrine systems.
How Does Physical Therapy Help with Pain Relief?
Physical therapy can help with pain relief by addressing the movement, strength, flexibility, and functional limitations that may be contributing to or affected by your pain.
Physical therapists provide an individualized treatment plan based on how pain is interfering with your daily life.
They can also provide safe and appropriate activity modifications to help you continue performing daily activities while managing your symptoms.
Physical therapy for pain relief may include:
- Therapeutic exercise
- Strengthening exercises
- Flexibility and mobility exercises
- Hands-on treatment
- Movement and posture education
- Activity modification
- Education about pain and the nervous system
- Strategies to gradually return to activities you enjoy
Your physical therapist will prescribe exercises based on your specific needs to improve strength and flexibility while decreasing impairments.
Physical therapy can be used for many different injuries and conditions, including back and neck pain, shoulder injuries, knee pain, arthritis, sprains, strains, chronic pain, and more. See more of the conditions we treat at AzOPT.
Can Physical Therapy Help with Chronic Pain?
Yes, physical therapy can be an important part of chronic pain management.
Rather than focusing only on where you hurt, a physical therapist can evaluate how you move, what activities increase your symptoms, your strength and mobility, and how pain is affecting your everyday life.
Treatment can then be gradually adjusted to help you:
- Move more comfortably
- Build strength
- Improve mobility
- Increase activity tolerance
- Better understand your pain
- Return to activities that matter to you
Physical therapy should be individualized to you. If you are worried that physical therapy will make your symptoms worse, read more about whether physical therapy should hurt.
Find Physical Therapy for Pain Relief in Arizona
If pain is preventing you from working, exercising, sleeping, or doing the activities you enjoy, you do not have to simply wait for it to go away.
AzOPT physical therapists provide individualized, one-on-one care to help patients reduce pain, improve movement, and return to the activities that matter to them.
We have convenient physical therapy locations throughout Arizona ready to serve you.
Request a physical therapy appointment today and take the first step toward moving and feeling better.
References
Woolf CJ. What is this thing called pain? J Clin Invest. 2010;120(11):3742-3744. doi:10.1172/JCI45178.
Bonezzi C, Fornasari D, Cricelli C, Magni A, Ventriglia G. Not All Pain is Created Equal: Basic Definitions and Diagnostic Work-Up. Pain Ther. 2020;9(Suppl 1):1-15. doi:10.1007/s40122-020-00217-w.
Chen JS, Kandle PF, Murray IV, et al. Physiology, Pain. [Updated 2023 Jul 24]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing. Available from: NCBI Bookshelf.
Geneen LJ, Moore RA, Clarke C, Martin D, Colvin LA, Smith BH. Physical activity and exercise for chronic pain in adults: an overview of Cochrane Reviews. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;4(4):CD011279. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD011279.pub3.
Louw A. Why Do I Hurt?: A Patient Book about the Neuroscience of Pain. Orthopedic Physical Therapy Products; 2013.
