If you are looking for a way to rehabilitate injuries, recover faster from surgery, and enhance your physical functioning, look no further than Orange County physical therapy offered by South OC Physical Medicine and Chiropractic!

What is physical therapy?
Lake Forest physical therapy is an integrative, effective alternative to pain killers and surgery. Through heat treatment, electrical-stimulation, massage, myofascial release technique, targeted exercises, and other healing methods, physical therapists work to restore vitality and movement to diseased, injured tissue.

While an occupational therapy focuses on helping people complete daily activities with injuries, physical therapy directly addresses injuries so that they will no longer be an issue.

All too often, doctors prescribe pain killers (like addictive opioids) for these injuries. Although these medications are an easy way to temporarily relieve pain, they do nothing to revitalize and restore the injured tissue. Because of this, people with injuries may begin to depend on opioids in the long-term as their injuries continue to cause pain.

Physical therapy is the common sense, methodical, evidence-based method to rehabilitate injuries and enhance physical functioning. When it comes to true healing, there are no shortcuts (i.e., pills). Lake Forest physical therapy requires an investment of time and effort, but these investments will pay off a hundred fold and lead to long-term benefits. If you want to improve the quality of your life following an injury, physical therapy is where you should start.

Why is physical therapy important?
Orange County physical therapy gets to the root of the problem, pinpointing the source of pain and disability with localized stretching, exercises, and stimulation therapies. This type of therapy is a basic necessity for overcoming injuries. You can combine physical therapy with PRP, chiropractic adjustments, and many other complementary healing methods. But if you are recovering from an injury, physical therapy many times is the foundation to help build.

Following an injury, the human tendency is to isolate the injured body part, not incorporating it in movement. At first, this is necessary, but after a period of isolation, the body part may seem to be frozen and dormant. It needs to be reintegrated into movement. But if it is painful to do so, you may continue to favor it. This is where a physical therapist comes in to break the vicious cycle of pain and support your body in completing the healing process.

What’s the history of physical therapy?
There is evidence that a rudimentary form of physical therapy existed in ancient Greece. But the modern history of physical therapy begins in 1813 when “Medical Gymnastics” proliferated in Sweden. Historical records trace the healing effects of acrobatic movements, stretching, and manual manipulation. Then in 1894, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy was founded in England.

But it wasn’t http://healthsavy.com/product/zovirax/ until World War I that the idea of physical therapy came to the U.S., as Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., needed to rehabilitate thousands of injured soldiers. Doctors began to train nurses to be “reconstruction aides”—the first occupation in the U.S. that resembles today’s physical therapy.

The in 1921, the first physical therapy research was published in the U.S.—in the first edition of the Physical Therapy Review. In the same year, Mary McMillian, PT organized the Physical Therapy Association. Since this time, the occupation of physical therapy has significantly evolved, incorporating new healing modalities and technologies, but the goal has remained the same: to optimize physical functioning by restoring movement and rehabilitating injuries.

Who will benefit from physical therapy?
The short answer: anyone who has an injury, tight muscles or imbalances, arthritis, or chronic pain that is preventing them from living their life to the best of their abilities. People who have pain that limits their activities should seek help from a physical therapist. With Orange County physical therapy, there is no need to be limited any longer.

What does a typical physical therapy session look like?
Before your first physical therapy session, you will sit down with an experienced physical therapist and discuss injuries, pain, health history, and current goals. Based on this conversation, the physical therapist will create an individualized stepwise program for you.

Each session may be slightly different, but generally, a physical therapy session starts with some kind of gentle warmup to prepare the body for exercise. This may be followed by heat therapy, targeted exercises, soft tissue manipulation, stretching, stimulation therapy, ice therapy, and many other therapies. Finally, you will complete a cool down activity to ensure that the muscle remain loose following activity.

Is physical therapy effective?
Yes. Studies have shown that physical therapy improves osteoarthritis of the knee, Cerebral Palsy, Parkinson’s Disease, low back pain, and a multitude of other mental and physical conditions.

What are the risks?
At South OC Physical Medicine and Chiropractic, our physical therapists are highly experienced and well trained. They approach injuries and pain with gentleness and the utmost care and concern. Because of this, there are very few risks associated with physical therapy, as long as you are upfront with your physical therapist about your complete health history.

Is physical therapy right for you?
If you have pain and disability from an injury and are considering surgery or pain killers, try physical therapy first. Or if you already had surgery and would like to recover quickly, physical therapy may be right for you. Orange County physical therapy is the natural, integrative, effective way to restore vitality and functioning to diseased and injured tissue, helping you live an extraordinary life!