Chronic Pain Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Bacci & Glinn Physical Therapy

Chronic Pain Expert in Hanford

FOR LONG-LASTING PAIN, SPECIALIZED TRUERELIEF TREATMENT AND PHYSICAL THERAPY IS A FAR BETTER OPTION THAN MEDICATIONS

If you are seeking the specialty advice and treatment of a chronic pain specialist in Hanford, you’re at the right website.

For long standing pain, specialized treatment like TrueRelief or class 4 laser therapy, combined with the expert care of one of our chronic pain specialist physical therapists is a far better option than most medications.

Even though it may seem like nothing more than a serious distraction & inconvenience, pain is actually the body’s way of informing you that something is wrong and needs your attention. In most cases, this “pain signal” goes away either on its own or after addressing it—like putting ice on a sprained ankle. But for some people, the pain signal continues long after the problem has been resolved, which is called “chronic pain” when it lasts for more than three months. Chronic pain is often a troublesome issue to resolve, but a new electrotherapy called TrueRelief plus personalized physical therapy is an effective option that will target its source rather than just mask it (like most pain medications).

When you injure yourself, pain-detecting sensors become activated in that area. These sensors then send a message in the form of an electrical signal to the brain, which processes the signal and sends out a message that something is wrong. After most injuries, this signal stops after the cause of pain is resolved, meaning the injured area has healed. But with chronic pain, these nerve signals continue sending messages that you are in pain even though there is no longer any damage to your body. It’s not entirely clear why this occurs, but the general belief is that the nervous system accidentally communicates the presence of pain because it has repeatedly sent these pain signals for a long period of time.

Chronic pain is usually far more difficult to treat than typical injuries since the problem is more related to the nervous system than a physical issue. Many patients are being prescribed pain medications like opioids to address their condition, but there are far more risks than benefits associated with this approach. Opioids are highly addictive and often lead to abuse, overdose, and possibly even death. They are also only meant to decrease the perception or sensation of pain and are not intended to actually address the factor responsible for it.

Physical therapy, on the other hand, works with patients to help them better understand their condition and how their thought process can affect the way they feel. They also provide a number of techniques and tips to overcome chronic pain through specific movements and positive habitual changes. A physical therapy program for chronic pain will usually consist of the following components:

Education on how chronic pain works and the importance of physical activity
Strengthening exercises
Flexibility exercises
Hands-on (manual) therapy techniques
Posture and body mechanics awareness

The effectiveness of physical therapy and exercise on chronic pain has been highlighted in a number of studies, including a large-scale review published in 2017, which concludes with the following statement on physical activity for fibromyalgia:

The available evidence suggests physical activity and exercise is an intervention with few adverse events that may improve pain severity and physical function, and consequent quality of life

Living with chronic pain can feel as if there’s a constant barrier preventing you from doing the things you love normally, but it does not have to be this way. If you’re dealing with chronic pain, contact your local physical therapy clinic and get started on a positive path to recovery that does not include pain medications.

If you would like to learn more about how we can help, you can contact us at:

Our Hanford Physical Therapy Office: (559) 582-1027

Our Visalia Physical Therapy Office: (559) 733-2478

Laser Therapy For Chronic Pain … Over Opioids

Laser therapy is a new and promising alternative to opioids for chronic pain

Chronic pain is defined as any type of pain that lasts for more than three months. About 30% of Americans are currently affected by chronic pain of some sort, causing many of these individuals to be impaired or disabled in their everyday lives.

For a long while, the most common method for managing chronic pain was with pain-relieving medications. Doctors would often tell patients to start with over-the-counter drugs like ibuprofen (Advil) and acetaminophen (Tylenol), and if those didn’t relieve pain, many would go on to be prescribed opioids. But this approach to chronic pain has proven to be misguided and ineffective for a number of reasons, including the fact that opioids don’t actually “fix” pain, and only serve as a temporary solution to a permanent problem for these patients. Opioids are also extremely addictive and associated with a significant amount of abuse, overuse, and overdose-related deaths that are rocking the country in the midst of an ongoing epidemic.

In response, medical professionals are trying to change this trend and recommend effective alternatives treatments to their patients instead of opioids. There are number of alternatives out there for chronic pain, but physical therapy is consistently recognized as one of the best available options, and it’s supported by medical literature as a beneficial method for relieving pain. A physical therapy treatment program can include a wide variety of strategies and interventions, and in some cases it’s paired with laser therapy, a newer, emerging treatment showing some promise for chronic pain patients.

The term “laser” is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Lasers are devices that are created artificially to emit light through a process called optical amplification. They produce a monochromatic (one color) light of a single wavelength in a very tight, narrow beam, that be used for numerous different applications.

Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) is a non-invasive treatment that makes use of these beams of light for the purpose of alleviating pain related an injury or condition. LLLT uses a red infrared light and focuses it on areas that are damaged from injury or chronic painful conditions. When this laser is targeted upon a painful region of the body, particular changes take place within the cells in a process called photobiomodulation. When used properly and appropriately, the expected result of this process is less pain.

As the popularity of LLLT grows, it’s now starting to be used in physical therapy treatment plans for patients with conditions that can benefit from it, such as chronic pain. Patients with chronic pain that are candidates for LLLT are likely to experience shorter treatment times, reduced swelling from bruising and inflammation, and increased circulation to damaged cells while their pain is safely alleviated.

LLLT has also been the focus of growing amounts of evidence to better understand its effectiveness, much of which has been supportive. In one review, researchers evaluated some of the relevant research on LLLT for various conditions and found the following:

Studies have demonstrated that LLLT may have positive effects on symptoms associated with chronic pain.

The review also identified other studies that showed “LLLT caused an immediate decrease in pain for acute neck pain and up to 22 weeks in chronic neck pain patients,” and also a powerful, double blinded placebo control study that reported “a decrease in pain and increase in function in patients with knee pain.”

Patients dealing with chronic pain are therefore encouraged to see a physical therapist and ask them if laser therapy is right for their condition while avoiding opioids at any cost.

Physical therapy is often the best solution for long-lasting pain that is difficult to treat

No matter how hard we try, pain is unavoidable. It may be uncomfortable, but pain is actually pretty helpful. It’s the body’s way letting us know that something is wrong and that it needs attention. Most of the time, this “pain signal” eventually goes away either on its own or after tending to it (like putting ice on a sprained ankle). But for some people, the pain signal continues long after the problem has been resolved. When it lasts for three months or more, the term “chronic pain” is used, which is usually a troublesome issue to fix.

Your Nerves are Sensors – Pain is an Output from the Brain

Unfortunately, the reasons behind why chronic pain occurs are not well understood. For some individuals, pain from conditions like headaches/migraines, arthritis, back pain, infections or nerve damage is the original source of pain. But even more confusing are cases in which there was no known injury or condition responsible, and yet the patient continues to experience similar chronic pain symptoms.

Chronic Pain Can be Effectively Treated with Natural Physical Therapy Care

Unlike injuries in which there is a specific cause of pain and disability, chronic pain is often far more difficult to treat, since the problem is more related to the nervous system than any physical issue. On the bright side, recent research is helping experts better understand the mechanisms behind chronic pain and what treatments are effective for addressing it. Physical therapists often see patients with chronic pain and are equipped to treat them with a variety of interventions that have been found to be helpful. Some of these include:

Education on how the brain and nervous system are causing the pain
Strengthening and flexibility exercises
Hands-on (manual) therapy techniques
Posture and body mechanics awareness

A recent study investigated the use of routine physical therapy and the addition of a technique commonly used by therapists called cervical mobilization for chronic neck pain. They found both to be beneficial, which can be seen in the study’s conclusion:

The results suggest that a combination of cervical mobilization with routine physical therapy is more effective for reducing pain and disability and improving neck muscle endurance and neck flexibility in patients with chronic mechanical neck pain compared to routine physiotherapy alone

So for those of you who have been dealing with any type of chronic pain and are frustrated with your progress, the best decision you can make is to see a physical therapist for a personalized, comprehensive treatment program that’s right for you. For more information, click here to contact us.

Identifying Low Back Pain Causes…an Exercise in Futility for Most

Identifying the cause of your low back pain is usually difficult, but physical therapy is a universal solution to address most cases

When it comes to low back pain, there is an abundance of alarming statistics available that can help put the massive size of the problem in perspective. Here are a few key examples:

Low back pain is currently the number one cause of disability in the world
Every year, about 37% of the world’s population will experience low back pain
At any given point in time, about 540 million people are affected by low back pain globally
The amount of years of disability caused by low back pain since 1990 has increased by 54%

No One is Really Immune to Lower Back Pain

Research has also suggested that very few people are completely immune to the impact of low back pain. The number of individuals affected by it is actually highest in high-income countries, but rates are rapidly increasing in low- and middle-income countries throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East as well. And although low back pain is more common in women and older individuals than in other groups, it can affect just about anyone of any age. In fact, one study showed that 40% of 9-18-year olds throughout the world report having had low back pain.

But despite the incredibly high number of people with low back pain and all that’s known about it, this next fact may surprise you more than anything else: in the vast majority of patients, the actual cause of the pain cannot be identified. In some patients, problems like spine fractures, inflammation disorders, infection and cancer may be responsible, but for everyone else, the cause is not known, and they are classified as having “nonspecific low back pain.”

Additional Factors that Impact the Perception of Back Pain

For these individuals, there are several factors that might play a part in the development of their low back pain. These include:

Psychological factors like depression and anxiety,
Social factors like income and education levels, and
Inherited genetic factors.

People with chronic conditions like:

Asthma,
Headaches,
Diabetes,
Smokers, and
Individuals with Previous Episodes of Back Pain…

…are also more likely to experience low back pain than those who are in good health.

This may sound overwhelming and perhaps even dampen your spirits if you’re currently dealing with low back pain, but as physical therapists, we’d like you to know that the cause of your pain is not as important as you may think. Many people get hung up on the specific diagnosis of their pain and go on to have tests to determine the source of their problem. But as you can see, getting an accurate diagnosis is rare, and these tests may lead to unnecessary treatments like surgery for some.

Don’t Focus on the Cause of Lower Back Pain When It Can Rarely be Determined

Rather than focusing too much time on the diagnosis, physical therapy concentrates on addressing the problem starting with your very first session. Throughout movement-based therapies and exercises individualized according to your abilities and goals, we will work with you on a one-on-one basis and target your pain from many angles. We believe that movement is a key ingredient for reducing low back pain, and this is why we promote a more active lifestyle along with your treatment program from the get-go.

Current research is continuing to support physical therapy as an effective means to alleviate back pain, no matter the cause. In one recent study that reviewed current guidelines on the best treatments for low back pain, researchers recommended the following:

For many patients with nonspecific low back pain, simple first line care (advice, reassurance and self-management) and a review at 1-2 weeks is all that is required. If patients need second line care, non-pharmacological treatments like physical therapy should be tried before pharmacological therapies.

So if you’re dealing with low back pain, don’t waste your time worrying about what might be causing it. Instead, take action and see your physical therapist now for an evaluation and treatment plan that will address your issues and get you back to moving pain-free once again.

Take-home Messages:

The cause of lower back pain can rarely be determined.
99% of lower back pain does NOT require surgery.
YOUR BACK IS STRONG, RESILIENT, FLEXIBLE, AND STABLE
The faster you start physical therapy, the better your outcome in almost all cases.

What are you waiting for? The clinical research is clear and our expert clinicians here in Visalia and Hanford are ready to help.

MRI for Lower Back Pain in Visalia – Why You Might Want to Avoid It

Seeing a Physical Therapist First and Avoiding an MRI for Work-Related Lower Back Pain Will Often Lead to Better Outcomes

Of all regions of the body, the spine is associated with a much higher amount of pain than anywhere else. In fact, low back pain ranks second only behind the common cold for reasons to visit a doctor. Up to 80% of the general population will experience at least one episode of low back pain in their lives, so if your back is bothering you right now, you’re far from alone. If you’ve experienced a work-related injury, and are looking want an MRI for lower back pain in Visalia, read on. We think you will find this information valuable.

Lower Back Pain is a Common Work-Related Injury

For the majority of individuals with a history of low back pain, it’s easy to attest to the fact that the pain usually makes it more difficult to complete everyday tasks that you normally complete without even thinking about. It’s for this reason—and particularly when the pain is more intense—that low back pain is also one of the leading reasons that people miss work due to disability.

Low back pain can develop over time in a gradual manner or it may come about suddenly. For some, this leads to symptoms on a nearly constant basis, while for others, symptoms only arise every so often. Symptoms vary in each individual, but typically include the following: pain, tenderness and/or stiffness in the lower back, difficulty bending, lifting or twisting, weak or tired legs, difficulty sitting or standing for extended periods, and pain that spreads to the buttocks or legs.

False Positives with MRI’s are Common…Don’t Get Labelled as Having a Problem When It Doesn’t Exist

When an episode of low back pain first strikes, it’s categorized as acute, which is what most individuals experience. Of those who experience a work-related back injury, many decide to seek out treatment for this pain… many go straight to their doctor for an evaluation and advice on what to do next. Unfortunately, this decision can prove to have some consequences that you might not expect. Some doctors will order additional tests like an MRI to better visualize what may be affecting your spine. But often times, the results from these tests will not help to improve the quality of treatment, and can instead lead to risky interventions like surgery.

To illustrate what may happen if you see a doctor first, one study investigated the effect of having an MRI on patients with work-related low back pain. Some of their key findings included:

A high percentage of people studied THAT WERE PAIN FREE, had a positive MRI
Reference here
Having an MRI was associated with a worse outcome in all patients who had one
Patients who had an MRI spent between $12,948-$13,816 more on medical costs than those who did not
Click here for the Reference

Costs are generally higher in patients who have an MRI because not only is the test itself expensive, but these patients are also more likely to be instructed to have treatments like surgery based on their results, which comes with its own set of risks. But there’s a much easier way of avoiding all of these costs in the first place: see a physical therapist first.

MRI Results Alone, Do Not Indicate the Cause of Lower Back Pain

In most cases, a physical therapist won’t send you to have an MRI for low back pain unless they think it’s completely necessary, which is rare. Instead of wasting time, needlessly suffering, waiting for results and being told to have potentially risky treatments first, you should try conservative, natural care first. Our physical therapist will start treatment during your first visit and immediately work towards addressing your problem and alleviating your pain. So for any low back pain that’s hindering your enjoyment of life, see one of our physical therapists for the fastest and safest path to a full recovery of your abilities.

Call Us to Learn More. Click here to visit our contact page.

Visalia Headache Specialist Near Me

Overcome your frustrating headaches with the help of a Visalia headache specialists … one of our expert trained physical therapists here at Bacci & Glinn Physical Therapy.

Frequent headaches can sure throw a wrench in your spokes, and most of us know how they can interfere with our ability to function normally. But for the 45 million Americans with chronic headaches, this inconvenience doesn’t just come and go every so often. Instead, headaches are a regular occurrence that can strike them any time.

Over 100 different types of headaches have been classified, but they are all generally categorized as either primary or secondary. A primary headache simply means the headache itself is the disorder, while secondary headaches result from other conditions like a neck strain, TMJ muscle disorder, stroke, infection or head injury.

Most headaches are caused by a combination of factors, and different triggers can set off headaches in different people. Some of the more common causes of primary headaches include stress, anxiety, lack of physical activity, bad sleeping habits, certain medications, poor diet and bad posture. In every case, it’s important to determine the type of headache first before attempting to treat it.

Headaches Often Respond Favorably to Physical Therapist Directed Treatment

No single treatment exists that’s capable of eliminating all headaches, but all types are treatable. While many people reach for pain-relieving medications like ibuprofen or acetaminophen when a headache hits, these drugs don’t offer a long-term solution to the problem and may not even work for some individuals. Physical therapy, on the other hand, is designed to identify the problem that’s causing the headache and then address it with a variety of interventions.

A physical therapy treatment program for chronic headaches will usually include some of the following components:

Soft tissue mobilization: rhythmic soft-tissue stretching of the neck and upper back muscles
LightForce™ laser therapy: the 15 Watt therapeutic laser facilitates pain relief
Neck mobilization: manual technique to gently move joints of the neck
Strengthening exercises: to increase strength of the muscles that stabilize the upper back and neck
Stretching exercises: to increase range of motion to tight muscles in the neck, chest, and upper back
Posture education: making slight modifications to the home or office to improve overall spinal posture, reduce stress and increase body awareness

Clinically Proven Headache Treatment for Visalia Residents

Research has shown that physical therapy can be effective for helping patients with headaches to improve, like this recent study, which concludes:

Compared with usual care, participants receiving physiotherapy reported significant reductions in headache frequency immediately after treatment (mean difference -1.6 days, 95% confidence interval [CI] -2.5 to -0.6), at 6-month follow-up (-1.7 days, 95% CI -2.6 to -0.8), and at 9-month follow-up (-2.4 days, 95% CI -3.2 to -1.5), and significant improvements in all secondary outcomes immediately posttreatment and at 6- and 9-month follow-ups, (p<.05 for all). No adverse events were reported.

CONCLUSIONS:Physiotherapy treatment provided benefits over usual care for seniors with recurrent headache associated with neck pain and dysfunction. Reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27497890

Headaches may be nuisance to your daily life, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Contact our physical therapy team for a complete evaluation of your condition and a personalized treatment program that will address your issues and reduce the occurrence of these bothersome episodes. Click here to for contact information that’s right on our home page.

Fibromyalgia Treatment Visalia

If you did a search for fibromyalgia treatment Visalia, chances are, our experienced clinicians can help.

Fibromyalgia is one of the most common of all pain-causing syndromes in the country. Almost 5 million Americans are affected by fibromyalgia, and between 80-90% of those who have it are women and residents in the Central Valley are not alone.

Individuals with fibromyalgia typically experience various problems getting through their daily activities, but a physical therapy treatment program can address just about all aspects of this condition and significantly improve patients’ lifestyles.

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome, meaning that most individuals who get it have it for a while. Symptoms usually start to develop in women between ages 30-50, but cases occur at younger ages and in men as well. The cause of fibromyalgia is unknown, but it’s thought to be due to changes in how the nervous system processes pain. In some people it may be triggered by trauma, surgery, infection, arthritis or major emotional stress, while it develops gradually over time in others.

Not just an individual condition, fibromyalgia is actually a complex syndrome with many components. For this reason, it can include many different signs and symptoms, such as widespread pain, tender points throughout the body, muscle stiffness, fatigue, depression/anxiety, thinking or memory problems, and numbness/tingling sensations. These symptoms can really get in the way of functioning normally in daily life and may also lead to reduced physical activity. Over time, this can decrease overall fitness levels and result in other health-related problems, too.

Although there is no cure for fibromyalgia, physical therapy can significantly help patients by easing symptoms and improving their quality of life. A typical physical therapy program for fibromyalgia will consist of the following:

Aerobic exercise recommendations (brisk walking, bicycling, swimming, etc.)
Stretching and strengthening exercises
Class 4, cold laser
Ice and/or heat therapy to reduce pain levels
Hands-on therapy techniques applied to painful areas (manual therapy)
Water-based, or aquatic exercise

To illustrate how physical therapy and physical activity can help, a powerful recent study provided the following remarks:

When compared with control, moderate-quality evidence indicates that aerobic exercise probably improves HRQL (Health Related Quality of Life) and all-cause withdrawal, and low-quality evidence suggests that aerobic exercise may slightly decrease pain intensity, may slightly improve physical function, and may lead to little difference in fatigue and stiffness. Three of the reported outcomes reached clinical significance (HRQL, physical function, and pain).

Reference: Aerobic exercise training for adults with fibromyalgia.

Important: fibromyalgia patients generally need special pacing and graded treatment programs. In our experience, this combined with therapeutic education and short-term use of modalities like the cold laser, can result in significant improvements.

So if you’re dealing with chronic pain and you did a search for fibromyalgia treatment Visalia to find an experienced clinician, we strongly recommend that you see one of our physical therapists for a comprehensive evaluation and personalized treatment program designed specifically with your goals and abilities in mind.

To learn more about our two locations, click here to visit our contact page.

Chronic Pain Treatment in Visalia

Chronic pain can make getting through daily life a chore, but physical therapy can help and Bacci & Glinn provides is well equipped to provide chronic pain treatment in Visalia.

Pain is a part of life. Whether it’s a crick in your neck from sleeping wrong, getting your finger caught in the car door or rolling your ankle on a tree root, everyone has had their share of painful experiences.

Pain is the body’s way of telling us that something is wrong and that you should do something to address it. In most cases, this will happen on its own after some time has passed or with some form of treatment, and after the injury has healed, the pain goes away. For some people, however, pain continues long after healing. When it lasts for three months or more, the condition is called chronic pain, which can become a complicated and frustrating problem to deal with.

When you experience an injury, sensors that detect pain become turned on in that injured area. These pain sensors then send a message in the form of an electrical signal to the brain, which processes this signal and sends out a message that you are hurting. Usually, this signal stops sending messages when the cause of pain is resolved (which means the injured area has healed.) But with chronic pain, these nerve signals continue to send messages that you are in pain even though there is no longer any injury.

It’s not always clear why chronic pain occurs, and in some cases it may develop without any known injury. For some people, pain from conditions like headaches/migraines, arthritis, back pain, infections or nerve damage is the original source of the pain signals that continue in the long term. Chronic pain symptoms may include a dull ache or feelings of throbbing, burning, stinging, soreness or stiffness.

Don’t Let Chronic Pain Control Your Life

Chronic pain can prove to be a real nuisance that gets in the way of many aspects of daily life, but fortunately, physical therapy can help. Physical therapists see patients with all types of chronic pain problems frequently, and are equipped to treat them with a variety of effective interventions, such as:

Natural treatments, no medications
Education on how the brain and nervous system are causing the pain
Strengthening and flexibility exercises
Hands-on therapy techniques
Posture and body mechanics awareness
Laser therapy if needed

Research has shown that physical therapy can be beneficial for patients with chronic pain, and the CDC released guidelines last year that encouraged the use of physical therapy over opioids to address chronic pain:

The contextual evidence review found that many nonpharmacologic therapies, including physical therapy, weight loss for knee osteoarthritis, psychological therapies such as CBT, and certain interventional procedures can ameliorate chronic pain.

So if you’ve been dealing with chronic pain for a long while that won’t seem to improve, seeing a physical therapist is the best decision you can make. Through education and evidence-based treatments, your physical therapy treatment program can certainly put you on the right path to recovery.