Chronic Pain Treatment in St. Charles, MO

Chronic pain treatment in St. Charles, MO. Anyone who has lived with chronic pain knows how hard it is to express the effects it has on your daily life. Sometimes, it goes on so long that we forget how good we used to feel. At it’s worse, the pain can keep us from comfortably completing basic activities like walking up the stairs, or the activities we love most, whether that be sprinting down the field or working in the garden.

Axes Physical Therapy is a group of 15 physical and occupational therapy centers committed to helping our St. Charles, MO patients find lasting relief through custom-tailored chronic pain treatment plans, based on techniques that have been proven to work. To get back to the activities you love most, reach out to the location most convenient for you you or schedule an appointment for safe chronic pain treatment.

What Type of Pain is Considered “Chronic”?

Chronic pain is pain that lasts for longer than three months, which is generally considered to be the “normal” healing period. The pain can occur every day or every few days, can be localized or radiate through your body, and can change in severity from dull soreness to burning pain.

Based on research from the CDC, in 2019 one out of five U.S. adults dealt with chronic pain. 7.4% of adults (over a third of those who experienced chronic pain) had “high-impact” chronic pain, which is persistent pain limits work or life activities. Anyone who suffers from pain frequently 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 I Have Chronic Pain?

Pain, generally speaking, is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong. In most cases, pain is due to a specific incident or medical condition. “Acute pain” occurs immediately, usually because of a discernible, underlying cause such as burns, cuts, broken bones, dental work, or surgery. The pain lasts for anywhere from a few minutes 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 an illness, or degenerative disease. Sometimes, there is no discernible cause for someone’s chronic pain. Common types and causes of chronic pain include:

• Arthritis and other conditions that cause joint pain — The soft tissue in our joints can become inflamed or wear down over time or due to an injury, causing chronic pain in the affected joint.
• A variety of conditions that cause lower back pain — Almost 9 out of 10 adults suffer from back pain eventually. Causes can be poor posture or technique, repetitive motions at a job that requires physical exertion, sciatica, or disc injuries that affect the nerves in the spinal column.
• Cancer pain — Tumors can lead to 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 depression, anxiety, and/or stress.

You can read our tips for managing chronic pain, and while many can help you be more active in your daily life, many people we see in St. Charles, MO tell us that they have tried all of them and more and still can’t find relief. Often, physical therapy is the strategy that finally gets them relief and returns them to a pain-free daily life.

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

There are many possible options for chronic pain treatment in St. Charles, MO, including medication, spinal adjustments by a chiropractor, yoga, and consistent exercise. Research demonstrates that making physical therapy a part of your treatment plan is incredibly effective for relieving chronic pain. You are welcome to visit any of our 15 locations for a free screening to better understand why you might be suffering from chronic pain. We’ll ask you questions to better understand how we can help you. Do you experience pain every day? Most days? When does it come on? When does it get better? How does your chronic pain affect you in your daily life? From there, we’ll form a team with you and your physician to design a customized treatment plan aimed at returning you to the things you love most.

Physical therapy helps by increasing your strength, balance, posture, and flexibility. Collectively improving those aspects of optimal mobility relieves pain and improves your quality of life by allowing your body to function better, and disrupting certain nerves from sending pain messages to your brain. 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 St. Charles, MO may include:

Guided Exercise

Exercise releases endorphins, your body’s natural, feel-good hormone, which not only alleviates pain but eases related symptoms like stress and depression. A qualified St. Charles, MO physical therapist will lead you through exercises that will safely and effectively improve your mobility. 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 involves therapeutic touch to promote healing and relaxation of muscles and joints. Your St. Charles, MO physical therapist will use their hands to safely move soft tissue. Studies have shown that manual therapy combined with guided exercise is more effective than either treatment method used by itself.

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

Dry Needling

Trigger point dry needling is a relatively new technique that increasingly more St. Charles, MO physical therapists are incorporating into their treatment plans. It involves using thin, filiform needles to gently create small tears or rips in inflamed muscles, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. This eases pain as it stimulates the body’s “healing mode” and stimulates the nutrient-rich blood flow to the affected body part.

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)

TENS works by placing electrodes on the skin near where you are experiencing pain. It sends low-voltage electrical currents to release endorphins and awakens nerve cells that stop your brain from receiving pain messages.

Patient Education

Understanding why you’re experiencing pain and how to deal with it in your daily life can have a significant positive effect on your chronic pain treatment in St. Charles, MO. We’ll teach you appropriate posture and movement practices, as well as healthy lifestyle tips like how to keep a healthy diet.

Other services we offer in St. Charles, 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 St. Charles, MO

At Axes Physical Therapy in St. Charles, MO, our objectives are clear: to deliver positive patient experiences and help our patients 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 carry the groceries in without discomfort, speak to a physical therapist in St. Charles, MO today or schedule an appointment online for meaningful chronic pain treatment.