Chronic Pain Treatment in St. Peters, MO

Chronic pain treatment in St. Peters, MO. Anyone who has lived with 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 lose sight of what it feels like to live a pain-free life. At it’s worse, the pain can keep us from comfortably completing daily tasks like walking up the stairs, or the things we love most, whether that be flying down the court or painting bowls of fruit.

Axes Physical Therapy is a collection of provider-owned physical and occupational therapy locations committed to helping our St. Peters, MO patients achieve positive outcomes through customized and evidence-backed chronic pain treatment. If you’re finally ready to move on from chronic pain, reach out to the location nearest you or contact us online for safe chronic pain treatment.

What Is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is pain that lasts for longer than 3-6 months, 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 dull soreness to burning pain.

According to the CDC, in 2019 20.4% of U.S. adults had chronic pain. 7.4% of adults (over a third of those with chronic pain) suffered from “high-impact” chronic pain, defined as pain that, on “most days” or “every day,” affects how somebody can work or perform other activities. Chronic pain doesn’t just hurt you physically. Chronic pain affects 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, in general, occurs when nerves called nociceptors detect damaged tissue, and send a signal through your spinal cord up to your brain. Often, pain is due to a specific incident or illness. “Acute pain” occurs at once, usually because of a discernible, underlying cause such as an injury, dental work, or surgery. It can last 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 after the tissue is repaired . In other cases, it’s caused by a medical condition, or happens as our bodies wear down as we 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 cartilage, tendons, and ligaments in our joints can become inflamed or wear down over time or due to an injury, causing joint pain.
• Numerous different conditions that cause low back pain — Up to 84% of adults will deal with back pain eventually. Causes can be poor posture or technique, repetitive motions at a job that requires physical exertion, sciatica, or a variety of disc injuries.
• Cancer pain — Tumors can cause pain when they push up against other parts inside your body.
• Fibromyalgia — While experts are still trying to understand the exact cause of fibromyalgia, 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 because there is dysfunction in the nervous system, or because of depression, anxiety, and/or stress.

There are many suggestions for managing chronic pain, and while many are effective, many people we see in St. Peters, MO have felt like they tried all of them and more and still can’t find relief. Often, physical therapy is the treatment that finally gets them relief and returns them to a pain-free daily life.

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

Chronic pain can be treated through a variety of means in St. Peters, MO, including medication, spinal adjustments by a chiropractor, massage therapy, 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 come to any of our 15 locations for a free screening to better understand why you might be suffering from chronic pain. We’ll get to know you and your pain better. How often do you have pain? What makes it worse? What makes it better? How does your chronic pain affect you in your daily life? After our evaluation, we’ll work in concert with you and your doctor to come up with a customized treatment plan aimed at getting you back a comfortable daily life.

Physical therapy can relieve pain by stretching and strengthening your body. Helping you achieve optimal mobility relieves pain and improves your quality of life by making your body function better, and breaking up certain body parts 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 St. Peters, MO may include:

Guided Exercise

Exercise releases endorphins, your body’s homegrown, feel-good hormone, which not only eases pain but eases related symptoms like stress and depression. A qualified St. Peters, MO physical therapist can 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 carried out without pain, restoring 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 muscles and joints. Your St. Peters, MO physical therapist will use their hands to gently manipulate soft tissue. Research demonstrates that manual therapy combined with guided exercise is better at treating pain than either technique used alone.

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

Dry Needling

Trigger point dry needling is a relatively new tool that is becoming more popular among St. Peters, MO physical therapist. It involves using thin, filiform needles to gently create small tears or rips in inflamed muscles, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. In doing so, 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 over the body part that’s causing you pain. It delivers low-voltage currents, which releases endorphins and awakens nerve cells that prevent your brain from receiving pain signals.

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 St. Peters, MO. We’ll help you learn the best way to sit, stand, and move, as well as healthy lifestyle suggestions like diet recommendations.

Other services we offer in St. Peters, MO include:

• 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
• Injury Rehabilitation

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

At Axes Physical Therapy in St. Peters, MO, we do what we do for simple reasons: to deliver positive client experiences and help people return to to their best life. Whether you miss being able to hit a breakaway layup like you used to, or just want to get out of bed in the morning pain-free, speak to a physical therapist in St. Peters, MO today or make an appointment online for lasting chronic pain treatment.