Physical Therapy? Why you should consider it…

Physical Therapy (PT), like other healthcare professions, helps people reduce pain, restore function and movement, and improve quality of life and living without the use of unnecessary medications or procedures. The efficacy of PT is high, as in several cases, it is comparable or elicits better results than surgical procedures. PT is quite broad and is not simply rehabilitation and can be done as an adjunct to other allied or alternative medicinal paths. SO, why should you choose PT? Here are a few reasons:

- Conservative care often times leads to similar if not better outcomes than surgery.

- Surgery should be a last resort.

- PTs do not diagnose based solely on an diagnostic image, as it may be a small piece of the overall presentation.

- Most PTs are doctors and are experts in the musculoskeletal system. Others have their masters degree, with years of experience.

- PTs advocate for exercise and healthful motion, which is important for improving not only mental but physical health as well.

- PTs will not make you patients for life where you are fully dependent on us to get better, but will give you many tools to take charge of your symptoms, putting the patient in the driver’s seat of their own care and being a partner to the patient throughout their journey.

- PT takes time so we are not into the mindset of quick fixes or the microwave mentality. Similar to Ayurveda which takes time by honing in on the root of the problem and correcting it at its source, not uselessly masking symptoms, this is the function of PT, to clinically diagnose the source of one’s patient/condition and come up with an effective plan of care to make one’s symptoms reduced or gone completely.

- PTs will take time to educate you about your pain in a palatable way. Not too much big medical jargon that makes it sound like the patient is damaged beyond repair.

- PTs empower and encourage their patients.

- PT may be just a piece of the puzzle...they want to see patients get better, advocate for their patients, even if they have to see a team of healthcare providers.

- PTs are not going to tell you you are misaligned/mal-aligned, unless it is extremely evident AND contributing to your symptoms.

- PT focuses on evidence-based practice. It's like pramāṇa…we need to support our statements, otherwise it's speculative.