Chronic Pain Treatment in Innsbrook, MO

Chronic pain treatment in Innsbrook, MO. Anyone who has suffered from chronic pain knows how hard it is to express the effects it has on your daily life. For some of us, the months or years we’ve dealt with it causes us to forget how good we used to feel. At it’s worse, the pain can keep us from comfortably completing daily tasks like carrying in groceries, or the things we love most, whether that be dominating your local flag football league or playing with your children.

Axes Physical Therapy is a group of 15 physical therapy treatment centers devoted to helping our Innsbrook, MO patients find lasting relief through personalized chronic pain treatment plans, based on techniques that have been demonstrated to work. To get back to the activities you love most, reach out to our location most convenient for you you or schedule an appointment for successful chronic pain treatment.

What Is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is pain that lasts for longer than 3-6 months, which is how long it typically takes pain to go away after an injury, surgery, or illness. The pain can be constant or can come and go, can be localized or radiate through your body, and can change in severity from aching to burning pain.

According to the CDC, in 2019 20.4% of American adults 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. Chronic pain doesn’t just hurt you physically. Chronic pain reduces quality of life and leads to higher medical expenses. It can also cause significant mental health issues and trouble sleeping.

Why Do People Experience Chronic Pain?

Pain, generally speaking, occurs when nerves called nociceptors detect damaged tissue, and send a signal through your spinal cord up to your brain. Often, pain is caused by a specific incident or illness. “Acute pain” occurs at once, usually because of a discernible, root cause such as falling, dental work, or surgery. The pain lasts for anywhere from a moment to several weeks.

By contrast, the causes of chronic pain aren’t always easily known. In some cases there may be an injury that hurts even after it’s healed . In other cases, it’s caused by a medical condition, or occurs 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 and other diseases that cause joint pain — The cartilage, tendons, and ligaments in our joints can become irritated or wear down from overuse or overexertion, causing joint pain.
• A variety of conditions that cause lower back pain — Up to 84% of adults suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. Causes can be poor posture or technique, wear and tear at work, sciatica, or disc injuries that affect the nerves in the spinal column.
• Cancer pain — Tumors can cause pain when they grow and touch other parts inside your body.
• Fibromyalgia — While an exact cause isn’t yet known, this refers to widespread muscle pain and tenderness.
• Neurogenic pain and psychogenic pain — Sometimes, pain does not occur for a physical reason, but because there is an issue in the nervous system, or because of psychological stress.

There are many pointers for relieving chronic pain, and while many can lead to greater comfort, many of our Innsbrook, MO patients have felt like they tried all of them and more and still can’t feel better. Often, physical therapy becomes their path toward lasting pain relief and getting back to the things that are most important to them.

How Do Physical Therapists in Innsbrook, MO Help With Chronic Pain Treatment?

There are many possible options for chronic pain treatment in Innsbrook, MO, including prescription or over-the-counter drugs, chiropractic care, massage, and consistent exercise. Research demonstrates that making physical therapy a part of your treatment plan can lead to significant improvement. You can visit any of our 15 locations for a free screening to learn what might be causing your chronic pain. We’ll get to know you and your pain better. How often do you have pain? Does anything make it better or worse? How is limiting you in your daily life? After your screening, we’ll form a team with you and your physician to come up with a tailor-made treatment plan aimed at getting you back a comfortable daily life.

Physical therapy can relieve pain by increasing your strength, balance, posture, and range of motion. Helping you achieve the best possible mobility eases pain and improves your quality of life by allowing your body to work better, and disrupting certain nerves from sending pain messages to your brain. Depending on you, the causes of your chronic pain, how old you are, and your desired activity level, your treatment plan in Innsbrook, MO may include:

Guided Exercise

Exercise boosts your body’s production of endorphins, your body’s natural, feel-good hormone, which not only reduces pain but eases any depression, stress, and/or anxiety related to your pain. A licensed Innsbrook, MO physical therapist can help you perform exercises aimed at improving your mobility without causing more pain or injury. With guided exercise, your brain will come to understand that certain movements can be performed without pain, rebuilding your brain’s trust in the rest of your body. We’ll also show you light exercises you can do outside of our sessions.

Manual Therapy and Soft Tissue Mobilization

Manual therapy incorporates therapeutic touch to encourage your body’s natural healing process and relaxation of muscles and joints. Your Innsbrook, MO physical therapist will use their hands to gently put pressure on soft tissue. Research demonstrates that manual therapy and guided exercise together are better at treating pain than either technique used alone.

Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization is similar to manual therapy, except that instead of their hands, physical therapists use specialized tools like Graston®.

Dry Needling

Trigger point dry needling is a relatively new technique that more and more Innsbrook, MO physical therapists are incorporating into their treatment plans. It involves using thin, filiform needles to penetrate irritated muscles, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. This eases pain as it stimulates the body’s “healing mode” and stimulates the flow of nutrients to the region.

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)

TENS works by placing electrodes where the pain is located. It delivers low-voltage currents, which releases endorphins and awakens nerve cells that block the transmission of pain messages.

Patient Education

Understanding why you’re experiencing pain and how to deal with it in your daily life can have a considerable positive effect on your chronic pain treatment in Innsbrook, MO. We’ll teach you the best way to sit, stand, and move, in addition to healthy lifestyle suggestions like how to keep a healthy diet.

Other conditions we treat in Innsbrook, MO include:

• Hand Pain Physical Therapy
• Foot & Ankle Pain Treatment
• Hip Pain Treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
• Stroke Rehabilitation
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy
• Workers Comp' Physical Therapy
• Migraine Relief
• Sprain and Strain Treatment
• Geriatric Physical Therapy

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

At Axes Physical Therapy in Innsbrook, MO, our goals are clear: to deliver positive client outcomes and help our patients return to to the things they love doing most. Whether you miss being able to hit a breakaway layup like you used to, or just want to carry the groceries in without discomfort, speak to a physical therapist in Innsbrook, MO today or request an appointment online for meaningful chronic pain treatment.