Since the 1960s, the most common solutions to managing chronic pain have focused on medical consumerism, also known as patient empowerment. This politically charged consumer rights movement, while concerned with the right to be safe, informed, to make choices, and to be heard, also advocates for the right to more pain medication. Over the decades, this practice of self-managed care escalated into ineffective pain management, eventually leading to the 2016 opioid crisis. Since then, doctors have been exploring pain management options with their patients to combat the widespread misuse of drugs for pain management.

As the healthcare system began to reexamine its approach to pain management, healthier options became available. One successful strategy is reducing the level of analgesics to the lowest necessary level and implementing a physical therapy regimen. This combination allows the body’s natural healing to occur unimpeded by the unnecessary use of opioids. Through education, decreasing analgesics and increasing physical therapy gained notoriety.

What Physical Therapists Do

Physical therapists are licensed clinical professionals. They have completed an accredited physical therapist education program, earned a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree, and passed a national licensure examination. They coordinate with other professionals in the health care system, such as physicians, psychologists, and social workers. They are powerful warriors against the war on chronic pain. Their organized arsenal includes three steps. First, they determine the cause and impact of the pain. This includes determining risk factors such as disease history of diabetes and arthritis, cognitive and psychological factors, negative beliefs about one’s condition, and a sedentary lifestyle. Second, they define goals with the patient, and third, they establish an individualized treatment program. The resulting methods are different for each patient. Techniques may include therapeutic exercise, manual therapy, patient education, stress management, sleep management, and pain neuroscience education. The physical therapist develops and administers your plan. It’s personal. They make sure you are progressing and modify your plan as needed.

Chronic pain stemming from low back pain, before and after surgery, hip and knee osteoarthritis, and musculoskeletal conditions has shown significant improvement with management and prevention through restorative therapy, a purposeful examination of not only the symptoms of pain but also the movement patterns contributing to it. This multidisciplinary strategy promotes optimal physical function. It is a powerful tool to combat chronic pain while bypassing the unwanted effects of opioid usage.

Everett Physical Therapist

Physical therapy treatments focused on managing symptoms have had positive effects on fibromyalgia patients. Based on aerobic exercise, muscle strengthening and stretching positively impacted pain intensity, quality of life, stiffness, fatigue, and physical function. In addition, resistance exercises, aquatic exercises, massage, and therapy sessions with electrical currents have demonstrated a reduction in chronic pain associated with fibromyalgia.

Untreated, chronic pain can continue for months or years. Physical therapy provides an effective, non-invasive, non-opioid solution for lifelong pain management. Call our office in Everett to learn more about our physical therapy programs or contact us here.

While many treatments are available, most have several potential side effects. However, stem cell injections can be an excellent treatment option for chronic pain.

What are Stem Cell Injections?

Stem cell injections involve injecting stem cells into an affected area to promote healing. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that can interfuse into specific types of cells. Stem cells are in various human body parts, including bone marrow and adipose tissues.

Physicians harvest the stem cells used in injection therapies from an individual’s body using liposuction or bone marrow aspiration process.

Benefits of Stem Cell Injections

Stem cell injections come with many benefits. For instance, they offer a minimally invasive approach to pain treatment and do not require surgery.

Compared to other pain relief treatments, stem cells are much safer and have fewer side effects. The injections also have less downtime, indicating that patients can resume their everyday activities quickly, helping to reduce anxiety and improve their overall quality of life.

Conditions Treated with Stem Cell Injections

Stem cell injections may be able treat various types of chronic pain, including joint, back, shoulder, and knee pain. They may also effectively treat autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s.

Research has found stem cell injections to cause tissue regeneration, improve pain range of motion, and reduce inflammation.

Quick Results

Stem cell injections may offer a quick and effective way to address chronic pain. Unlike other pain management treatments requiring several doctor visits, stem cell injections may be able offer faster results, potentially showing improvements in pain after just a few sessions, because stem cells prompt the release of growth factors that promote healing.

Reason to Choose Stem Cell Injections for Pain Relief

Apart from the benefits of stem cell injections mentioned earlier, there are other reasons why you may consider this treatment option for pain relief after a car accident.

For starters, stem cell injections are a considered longer-lasting solution. They can offer long-term pain relief, unlike other treatments that require frequent visits to the doctor’s office.

Stem cell injections are an excellent treatment option for pain relief, especially after an accident. With minimal pain, no side effects, and faster healing, stem cell injections are becoming a popular alternative to traditional pain treatments.

You must always consult with your doctor before treatment to determine whether it is the right option. However, stem cell injections could be your long-term solution to pain relief if you have been suffering from chronic pain.

Stem Cell Injections in Everett, WA

Interested in learning more? Visit Dr. Gill in Everett to see if stem cell injections would be a good fit for your pain rehabilitation regimen.

A general doctor can diagnose a tear or a break and a surgeon can mend those breaks and tears. But there are a lot of issues between those extremes. Joint and ligament pain or discomfort is a real issue for many, and a chiropractor might just be the best bet for treatment and long-term maintenance.

What does a chiropractor do?

Chiropractic care can be a little unclear, especially for those who haven’t been through treatment before. Chiropractors have both a limited and wide-reaching scope of their specialty.

Chiropractors focus on a patient’s neuromusculoskeletal health – including bones, nerves, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Back and neck pain is some of the most common complaints brought to chiropractors. This kind of pain often comes from the misalignment of bones and/or tendons and ligaments. Realigning these elements through spinal adjustment can improve the overall function of a body and improve the body’s ability to self-heal.

Additionally, treatment through a chiropractor can also include elements of nutrition and fitness. The kind of treatment and length of treatment depends greatly on the patient. The scope of treatment often includes a health and functional review, an examination, a treatment plan, and monitoring progress.

How do chiropractors help?

The biggest reason people see, and continue seeing, a chiropractor is for pain management. An adjustment from the chiropractor can do much more than lessening that low back pain. Chiropractors are pros when it comes to treating and limiting pain without traditional medications

The truth is, however, that chiropractic treatment has other a chiropractor. The power of a good chiropractor can impact many parts of your life for years to come.

Top Benefits for Seeing a Chiropractor

Chiropractors may treat many root causes of chronic and episodic pain. Based on a number of different studies, chiropractors are one of the leaders in treating both back and neck pain. In fact, people who consistently see a chiropractor report less pain after just six weeks in research published in 2018.

Chronic pain in other parts of the body is just as responsive to chiropractic treatment. Chronic pain is often caused by elements of inflammation and tense muscles. Chiropractors may be able to target these issues to help reduce pain.

Many high-performance athletes use and swear by chiropractors. Regular adjustments can mean better alignment and a higher level of performance. Not everyone is a world-class athlete, but we can all stand to move a little better. Treatment with a chiropractor may also help increase energy levels.

Chiropractors are known for their ability to relieve pain and improve quality of life. People flock to the closest office when back or neck pain rears its head. Even if you aren’t feeling those tell-tell signs of pain or discomfort, it can still be time to visit the local chiropractor.

An Everett Chiropractor Near You

Those who are living in Snohomish County and surrounding areas can feel at ease knowing skilled professionals are available to assist you with pain management, whether that is through chiropractic care or physical therapy at Everett Spine and Rehab. Please call us to schedule your appointment: (425)347-8614.

Massage therapy has been used thousands of years as a healing method. Its origins date back to ancient India where it was used as ayurvedic medicine. Today, people seek massage therapy for a variety of reasons: treating back pain, neck pain, anxiety, strains, headaches, injuries, and even conditions such as fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a disorder that involves widespread pain, tenderness, fatigue, and other symptoms. This condition can interfere with a person’s ability to perform everyday activities. An estimated 5 million American adults have fibromyalgia where the majority of sufferers are women.

In addition to pain and fatigue, people with fibromyalgia may have other symptoms: sleep disturbances, morning stiffness, headaches, painful menstrual periods, numbness or tingling of the extremities, restless legs syndrome and more. Unfortunately, the cause of this disorder is not yet clear and there is no specific test for it. A doctor will rely on a patients symptoms in order to make a diagnosis. As far as treatment goes for managing, there are a few FDA approved drugs as well as alternative therapy.

One such popular, non-invasive treatment is massage. A 2014 systematic review of the effectiveness of massage therapy for fibromyalgia patients. It was concluded that massage therapy with a duration 5 weeks or greater had beneficial immediate effects on improving pain, anxiety and depression in these patients. How does massage therapy actually work?

A trained massage therapist will manipulate the person’s muscles and soft tissue in order to reduce pain. There is more research indicating that massage can also help those with fibromyalgia with:

• decreasing anxiety
• decrease depression
• improve quality of sleep over time
• decrease stiffness
• decrease fatigue
• improve cortisol levels

Source: amtamassage.org

There are various types of massage therapies–deep tissue, Swedish, Sports, hot stone–and you may find yourself having to experiment with several kinds before you find the right one for you. If you are seeking to ease your pain from fibromyalgia via massage therapy, please reach out to us at Everett Spine & Rehab. Our office is in Everett, near Lynnwood and Mill Creek.

Source: National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health