Relieve Your Pain Without The Risks of Opioids
Are you experiencing chronic pain and are unsure where to turn? Unfortunately, long-term opioid use is not a good strategy for chronic pain management. Aside from the risk of addiction, opioids merely relieve the symptoms of a larger problem.
Physical therapy, on the other hand, has been shown to be a far better option than opioids or other pharmaceutical painkillers. Your physical therapist can provide you with real, measurable improvement in chronic pain.
If you are considering opioids for pain relief but would like to explore other options first, contact Atta Rehab today to schedule an appointment. We can provide you with a natural path out of chronic pain.
Why should I avoid opioids?
Over the last two decades, both opioid prescription rates and opioid overdose deaths have quadrupled. Given these identical statistics, it’s impossible to avoid the obvious conclusion: painkiller addiction has gotten out of hand, and the consequences can be fatal.
This issue is thoroughly examined in a study published by the American Physical Therapy Association titled “Beyond Opioids: How Physical Therapy Can Transform Pain Management and Improve Health.” It distinguishes three major waves of the opioid epidemic:
1. Increases in deaths involving prescription opioids starting in 1999
2. Increases in deaths involving heroin starting in 2010
3. Increases in deaths involving synthetic opioids since 2013”
Aside from the obvious physical dangers, an over-reliance on prescription painkillers can have a negative impact on your health. Withdrawal symptoms can be frightening. And, while you’re still using them, opioids can lead to depression, creating a vicious cycle of self-medicating in order to feel better emotionally and physically.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides the following alarming statistics from opioid overuse in 2011:
“1. Sales of prescription painkillers to pharmacies and providers had increased 300% since 1999
2. In 2010, 12 million people ages 12 and older reported using prescription painkillers “non-medically”
3. More than 40 people were dying each day from overdoses involving prescription opioids”
Fortunately, as the APTA study concludes, physical therapy is a safer alternative to opioid use. If you have been struggling with chronic pain, don’t hesitate to contact our office to discover your path to relief.
Opioids don’t treat the causes of your pain
The opioid epidemic in America has gotten so bad in recent years that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now advising patients to look into alternative pain relief options.
The CDC now recommends that opioids be used only as a “last resort” for the most severe pain cases. Alternative and holistic pain relief methods, such as physical therapy, may be slower than opioids, but they do not carry the high risks of addiction and overdose.
Anyone experiencing pain should understand that opioids will not solve the underlying physical problem that is causing the pain. In fact, opioids can exacerbate the original problem.
Imagine a person is suffering from chronic pain several months after having shoulder surgery. The surgical wound has long since healed, but the pain remains. If that patient relies on opioids to alleviate their pain, they risk reinjuring their shoulder.
Pain is the body’s way of alerting us that something is wrong. Because opioids relieve pain, the patient may be using their shoulder muscles incorrectly, exacerbating the underlying problem.
If that same patient worked with a physical therapist on pain relief, they would have a much better chance of completely eliminating their pain. Their shoulder could be healed with physical therapy, manual therapy, proper exercise, body mechanics, and posture work – all without the use of addictive substances.
PT: the long lasting pain relief solution
Stanford University researchers discovered that starting physical therapy as soon as a person is diagnosed with musculoskeletal pain reduced the need for opioid pain prescriptions by 7 to 16 percent. The duration of painkiller use was reduced by up to 10% among patients who did require opioids for pain relief.
Physical therapy assists patients in treating the source of their pain rather than simply masking it by dulling their symptoms.
If a patient has arthritis or another type of chronic pain, a physical therapist can teach that patient how to move and use key muscle groups in order to keep the pain source from worsening. Another goal of physical therapy will be to strengthen muscle groups that support aching or painful parts of the body, allowing for true healing to occur.
In most cases, opting for physical therapy will not result in immediate pain relief. However, your physical therapist will create a personalized plan that will produce measurable pain relief results. Because the work will be aimed at resolving the source of the pain, you may be able to avoid the use of prescription painkillers or opioids.
Start your path to natural pain relief today!
Do you suffer from chronic pain? Are you tired of letting it drag you down? Contact our office today to schedule your first appointment with a licensed physical therapist and get on the path towards comprehensive and safe relief.
