Chronic Pain Treatment in Champ, MO

Chronic pain treatment in Champ, MO. Anyone who has lived with chronic pain knows how hard it is to express how much it limits you. For some of us, the months or years we’ve dealt with it leads us to lose sight of what it feels like to live a pain-free life. At it’s worse, the pain can keep us from comfortably performing basic activities like carrying in groceries, or the activities we love doing the most, whether that be flying down the field or painting bowls of fruit.

Axes Physical Therapy is a collection of 15 physical and occupational therapy locations committed to helping our Champ, MO patients find meaningful relief through personalized chronic pain treatment plans, built on techniques that have been demonstrated to work. If you’re finally ready to move on from chronic pain, call our location nearest you or schedule an appointment for safe chronic pain treatment.

What Is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is pain that doesn’t go away after 12 weeks, which is generally considered to be the “normal” healing period. The pain can be constant or can come and go, can stay in one spot or radiate through your body, and can be anything from stiffness to agonizing pain.

According to the CDC, in 2019 20.4% of adults nationwide dealt with chronic pain. 7.4% of adults (over a third of those who experienced chronic pain) suffered from “high-impact” chronic pain, which is persistent pain limits work or life activities. Anyone who suffers from frequent pain symptoms will tell you that it causes far more than just physical discomfort. Chronic pain affects quality of life and leads to significant economic costs. It can also cause significant mental health issues and trouble sleeping.

Why Do I Have Chronic Pain?

Pain, generally speaking, occurs when nerves called nociceptors perceive damaged tissue, and send a signal from that body part to your brain. In most cases, pain is caused by a specific incident or illness. “Acute pain” occurs suddenly, usually because of a known, root cause such as falling, dental work, or surgery. The pain lasts for anywhere from a few minutes to months while the injury heals.

By contrast, people can experience chronic pain for several reasons. Sometimes an injury continues to cause pain despite the fact that, structurally, it has healed . In other cases, it’s caused by a medical condition, or happens as our bodies weaken with age. Sometimes, the pain isn’t caused by a specific condition, but rather from things like poor posture, obesity, or overexertion. Common types and causes of chronic pain include:

• Arthritis, bursitis, tendinitis, and other conditions that cause joint pain — The soft tissue in our joints can become damaged or wear down from overuse or overexertion, causing chronic pain in the affected joint.
• A variety of conditions that cause lower back pain — Up to 84% of adults will deal with back pain eventually. Causes can be poor posture or technique, repetitive motions at work, sciatica, or a variety of disc injuries.
• Cancer pain — Tumors can lead to pain when they push up against bones, your spine, or other tissue.
• Fibromyalgia — While an exact cause isn’t yet known, this refers to pain you feel in your muscles all over your body.
• Neurogenic pain and psychogenic pain — In some cases, pain does not occur for a physical reason, but rather it’s caused by the nervous system, or because of psychological stress.

You can check out our tips for easing chronic pain, and while many are effective, many people we see in Champ, MO have felt like they tried all of them and more and still can’t feel better. Often, physical therapy is the strategy that finally gets them relief and returns them to the activities they love.

Why Is Physical Therapy in Champ, MO a Great Option For Chronic Pain Treatment?

There are many possible options for chronic pain treatment in Champ, MO, including prescription or over-the-counter drugs, spinal adjustments by a chiropractor, massage, and consistent exercise. Studies show that making physical therapy a part of your treatment plan can lead to considerable improvement. You can visit any Axes location in the Champ area for a free screening to learn what might be causing your chronic pain. We’ll get to know you and your pain better. Do you experience pain every day? Most days? Does anything make it better or worse? How does your chronic pain affect you in your daily life? After our evaluation, we’ll work in concert with you and your physician to develop a tailor-made treatment plan aimed at returning you to the things you love most.

Physical therapy can relieve pain by increasing your strength, balance, posture, and range of motion. Collectively improving those aspects of optimal mobility eases pain and improves your quality of life by allowing your body to work better, and disrupting any signals to your brain that something may be wrong. Depending on you, the causes of your chronic pain, your age, and the activity level you wish to get back to, your treatment plan in Champ, MO may include:

Guided Exercise

Exercise releases endorphins, your body’s homegrown, feel-good hormone, which not only alleviates pain but helps with related symptoms like stress and depression. A qualified Champ, MO physical therapist will guide through exercises that will safely and effectively improve your mobility. With these exercises, your brain will come to understand that certain movements can be carried out without pain, rebuilding your brain’s trust in the rest of your body. Through guided exercise, we’ll be able to teach you safe exercises you can do on your own.

Manual Therapy and Soft Tissue Mobilization

Manual therapy involves therapeutic touch to encourage your body’s natural healing process and relaxation of the surrounding tissues. Your Champ, MO physical therapist will use their hands to safely move your muscles and joints. Research demonstrates that manual therapy combined with guided exercise is better at treating pain than either treatment method used by itself.

With instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization, physical therapists use specially designed tools, like Astym®, instead of their hands, to smooth out tissue and pinpoint degenerative tissue and soft tissue restrictions.

Dry Needling

Trigger point dry needling is a relatively new tool that more and more Champ, MO physical therapists are incorporating into their treatment plans. It involves using thin, filiform needles to gently create small tears or rips in damaged soft tissue. In doing so, it stimulates the body’s “healing mode” and encourages the flow of blood to the region.

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)

TENS works by placing electrodes over the body part that’s causing you pain. It sends low-level electrical currents to release endorphins and stimulates nerve cells that block the transmission of pain messages.

Patient Education

Understanding the cause of your pain and how to cope with it can have a significant positive effect on your chronic pain treatment in Champ, MO. We’ll teach you appropriate posture and movement techniques, as well as healthy lifestyle tips like how to keep a healthy diet.

Other services we offer in Champ, MO include:

• Beginner Running Program
• Spine Specialist Near Me
• MCL Injury
• Shoulder Pain
• Injury Prevention
• Mobility
• Knee Injury
• Joint Pain
• Sciatica

Call Axes Physical Therapy For Your Chronic Pain Treatment in Champ, MO

At Axes Physical Therapy in Champ, MO, our goals are simple: to achieve positive client outcomes and help people get back to the things they love doing most. Whether you want to be able to hit a breakaway layup like you used to, or just want to get out of bed in the morning without discomfort, speak to a physical therapist in Champ, MO today or schedule an appointment online for lasting chronic pain treatment.