Physical therapists’ focus is on helping your body function normally. Age, bad posture, injuries, receiving surgery, or diseases can decrease your body’s ability to move about. Using physical therapy can help your body work at a higher level of efficiency once again.

Arthritis is one such disease that can limit body function, cause pain, and stop a person from doing everyday tasks that they were used to doing with ease.

We’re taking a look at how physical therapy can help individuals who have arthritis manage the disease and reclaim function in their bodies.

Maintaining Motion in Joints

Arthritis or osteoarthritis mostly targets the joints in your body, causing them to stiffen up and cause pain with movement. The joints in our body are what make movement possible for us. Without properly functioning joints, we wouldn’t even be able to raise a finger.

Physical therapy treats this through mobility exercises that target the joints in your body and improve your ability to move back and forth. The treatment works on reducing inflammations around the joints and slowly increasing the angles to move the joints. For some, it may not be possible to recover movement fully, but even a slight improvement in bending angles increases joint function exponentially.

Strengthening Muscles

Osteoarthritis diminishes the cartilage in between connecting bones at the joint. The cartilage helps keep the bones from rubbing against each other and helps keep movement fluid in the body. Without it, the bones rub against each other, and even small amounts of movement can cause immense pain.

A way to counteract this with physical therapy is to strengthen the muscles around the joints where cartilage may have been depleted. Stronger muscles can help support the joints and rely less on the cartilage for movement.

Improve Balance

Another problem that stems from the previous two problems combining is that osteoarthritis can affect a person’s balance. This can be caused by the weakened joints not supporting the body, weak muscles, or decreased body mobility. Adding balance components to exercises can help those suffering from this disease to reduce risks of falling down.

Getting physical therapy can help ease the pain and discomfort of arthritis. If you are looking for a physical therapist in Thomson, GA, consider contacting our team at the Helping Hands Physical Therapy Center and scheduling an appointment for an initial checkup.

Bone density loss is a common problem amongst women who have gone through menopause. This causes weakened bones that aren’t able to bear weight in the same manner.

Women who have this may find it difficult or painful to move around or become bedridden due to weak bones. We look into the causes, the link with menopause, and possible solutions to this problem through physical therapy.

What Causes Bone Loss?

The disease called osteoporosis, which literally means porous bones, leads to a loss of density in bones, makes them more fragile, and increases the chances of you breaking bones. The disease slowly reduces the mass in your bones and lowers their weight-bearing capabilities. The disease can be hard to detect until someone breaks a bone due to it.

While the exact reason osteoporosis occurs in some people and not in others can be difficult to pinpoint. There are a number of factors that can go into it, which range from your diet, hereditary diseases, age, and health habits.

What is the Link Between Osteoporosis and Menopause?

One of the bigger reasons women are more likely to suffer from osteoporosis is due to the lowered amount of estrogen in the body during perimenopause and menopause. The lowered level of estrogen is also one of the factors that can lead to the disease beginning.

Another reason that the disease is often found in women who have gone through menopause is the natural reduction of calcium in our bodies in the second half of our lives. The human body recovers bone matter faster than it loses it until the age of 30 to 35. After that point, a slow descent is seen in your bone mass. With a simultaneous drop in estrogen level and a couple of decades of bone loss, post-menopausal women are very likely to suffer from the disease.

How Can a Physical Therapist Help?

Osteoporosis, however, is not a lost cause. There are ways to treat it, especially through non-invasive techniques like physical therapy. Just as the exact symptoms of osteoporosis may differ in people, a physical therapist will create an individual treatment plan for joint and bone-strengthening exercises to help reduce the loss of bone density and even build it back up.

If you are looking for physical therapy and treatments for women of menopausal age, consider contacting our team of physical therapists in Thompson, GA, at our Helping Hands Physical Therapy Center. We’ve developed special treatments and therapy services for older women to help them stay healthy and functioning.

Even though being pregnant is truly a magical and exciting time, there’s no denying that it can seriously take a toll on women’s bodies, mental and physical well-being.

Your body goes through a multitude of changes and emotions as you get closer to the delivery and become a mother. It’s normal to experience pains and aches during this stage of your life, but there’s nothing a little physical therapy can’t help with.

In this blog, we’ll help you understand the benefits of utilizing physical therapy before and after your pregnancy.

Benefits during pregnancy

According to the American Pregnancy Association, around 70% of pregnant women experience back pains during their childbearing years. Changes in hormones, weight gains, poor posture, and obviously the additional weight all add to this growing issue.

A physical therapist will understand your condition and its causes and create a treatment plan to reduce your back pain, help with posture, strength and suggest lightweight exercises and workout routines to keep you in shape.

With additional pain, daily activities and functions also become a tedious chore. You’re no longer able to function as you did prior to your pregnancy, and visiting a physiotherapist will help alleviate some of this stress.

Benefits before and after delivery

As you prepare for the upcoming big day, your physical therapists guide you with labor and delivery positions specific to your needs and dysfunctions. Additionally, they also assist you with finding relaxing positions that may increase a sense of comfort and control during the birthing stage.

Your pelvic floor contracts during delivery, and these relaxation positions will help minimize your pain and help during the recovery period.

After your delivery, you’ll need to learn how to contract your pelvic floor for fast healing, relieve any congestion and alleviate your tailbone or back pains. Recovering also means making your way back to simple exercises that will reduce the risk of fecal and urinal incontinence for several years to come.

Now that you have a child taking proper care of your physical and mental well-being is exceptionally crucial for your child too. Visiting a physical therapy clinic before, during, and after your pregnancy will make the magical time a lot less stressful and pain-free as you learn about exercises and positions to help your case.

Where can you find a physical therapist?

Are you looking for a reliable and qualified physical therapist to guide you through prenatal or postpartum care? Check out our Women’s Health program.

At Healing Hands, we cater to women and their physical needs with our personalized treatment plans and services. We utilize soft tissue mobilization, therapeutic massage, cold laser therapy, direct muscle stimulation, and cupping massage to address a multitude of issues.

For more information, reach out to us!