Chronic Pain Treatment in Lake St. Louis, MO

Chronic pain treatment in Lake St. Louis, MO. Anyone who has lived with chronic pain knows how hard it is to express the effects it has on your daily life. Sometimes, the months or years we’ve dealt with it leads us to lose sight of how good we’re capable of feeling. At it’s worse, the pain can keep us from comfortably completing basic tasks like doing household chores, or the things we love most, whether that be sprinting down the court or working in the garden.

Axes Physical Therapy is a collection of provider-owned physical and occupational therapy locations devoted to helping our Lake St. Louis, MO patients find meaningful relief through customized chronic pain treatment plans, based on techniques that have been demonstrated to work. To get back to a pain-free daily life, call our location most convenient for you you or request an appointment for successful chronic pain treatment.

What Type of Pain is Considered “Chronic”?

Chronic pain is pain that lasts for longer than 3-6 months, which is how long it takes most people and conditions to heal. The pain can be constant or can come and go, can stay in one spot or radiate through your body, and can change in severity from aching to agonizing pain.

According to the CDC, in 2019 almost a quarter of American adults suffered from chronic pain. 7.4% of adults (over a third of those with 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 reduces quality of life and leads to significant economic costs. It can also cause significant mental health issues and insomnia.

Why Do People Experience Chronic Pain?

Pain, in general, occurs when nerves called nociceptors perceive damaged tissue, and send a signal from that body part to your brain. Often, pain is due to an injury, an infection, or other medical condition. “Acute pain” occurs at once, usually because of a known, underlying cause such as burns, cuts, broken bones, dental work, or surgery. It can last for anywhere from a moment to several weeks.

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 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, bursitis, tendinitis, and other conditions that cause joint pain — The soft tissue in our joints can become irritated or wear down over time or due to an injury, causing chronic pain in the affected joint.
• A variety of conditions that lead to low back pain — Almost 9 out of 10 adults will deal with back pain at some point in their lives. Causes can be poor posture or technique, repetitive motions at a physically demanding job, sciatica, or a variety of disc injuries.
• Cancer pain — Tumors can cause pain when they bother bones, your spine, or other tissue.
• Fibromyalgia — While an exact cause isn’t yet known, this refers to widespread muscle pain and tenderness.
• Neurogenic pain and psychogenic pain — In some cases, there is no underlying musculoskeletal cause, but rather it’s caused by the nervous system, or because of psychological stress.

You can read our tips for relieving chronic pain, and while many can help you be more active in your daily life, many people we see in Lake St. Louis, MO tell us that they have tried all of them and more and still can’t feel better. Often, physical therapy becomes their path toward meaningful pain relief and getting back to a pain-free daily life.

How Do Physical Therapists in Lake St. Louis, MO Help With Chronic Pain Treatment?

Chronic pain can be treated through a variety of modalities in Lake St. Louis, MO, including medication, chiropractic adjustments, yoga, and regular exercise. Research demonstrates that including physical therapy into your treatment plan can lead to considerable improvement. You are welcome to come to any Axes location in the Lake St. Louis area for a free screening to better understand 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? When does it come on? When does it get better? How is limiting you in your daily life? From there, we’ll form a team with you and your doctor to develop a tailor-made course of treatment aimed at getting you back a pain-free daily life.

Physical therapy can relieve pain by stretching and strengthening your body. Collectively improving those aspects of the best possible movement health eases pain and improves your quality of life by making your body work better, and breaking up any signals to your brain that something may be wrong. Depending on you, the nature of your chronic pain, how old you are, and your desired activity level, your treatment plan in Lake St. Louis, MO may include:

Guided Exercise

Exercise increases endorphins, your body’s homegrown, feel-good hormone, which not only alleviates pain but helps with any depression, stress, and/or anxiety caused by your pain. A professional Lake St. Louis, MO physical therapist can help you perform exercises that will safely and effectively improve your mobility. With guided exercise, we can re-train your brain to accept certain movements and positions 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 promote healing and relaxation of the surrounding tissues. Your Lake St. Louis, MO physical therapist will use their hands to safely manipulate your muscles and joints. Research demonstrates that manual therapy and guided exercise together are more effective than either treatment method used alone.

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

Dry Needling

Trigger point dry needling is a relatively new treatment method that is becoming more popular among Lake St. Louis, MO physical therapist. It involves using thin, filiform needles to gently create small tears or rips in irritated muscles and connective tissue. In doing so, it encourages the body to start to heal itself and encourages the flow of nutrients to the region.

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)

TENS works by placing electrodes where the pain is located. It sends low-voltage electrical currents to release endorphins and awakens nerve cells that stop your brain from receiving pain signals.

Patient Education

Understanding why you’re experiencing pain and how to cope with it can do wonders for your chronic pain treatment in Lake St. Louis, MO. We’ll teach you the best way to sit, stand, and move, as well as healthy lifestyle suggestions like diet recommendations.

Other services we offer in Lake St. Louis, MO include:

• Workers Comp' Physical Therapy
• Sprain and Strain Treatment
• Geriatric Physical Therapy
• Injury Rehabilitation
• Pain Management Services
• TMJ Treatment
• Herniated Disc Treatment
• Rotator Cuff Tear Treatment
• Running Injury

Call Axes Physical Therapy For Your Chronic Pain Treatment in Lake St. Louis, MO

At Axes Physical Therapy in Lake St. Louis, MO, we do what we do for simple reasons: to deliver positive patient outcomes and help our patients get back 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 pain-free, speak to a physical therapist in Lake St. Louis, MO today or request an appointment online for lasting chronic pain treatment.