Physio Helps Healing and Recovery

Physiotherapy forms a prominent role in restoring proper movement for anyone who has suffered muscular damage from illness, bad posture or exercise.

While most people visit a physiotherapist when they experience pain due to any of the above, the therapist will tend to take a holistic approach when diagnosing the problem and suggesting treatment.

Back pain is a commonly treated problem for physiotherapists, and while pain may have been provoked by a particular instance of behaviour, such as lifting a heavy object, therapists will seek not only to alleviate the immediate cause of pain, but provide lasting pain relief for this area by examining an individual's posture, and any inherited spinal conditions, along with how they have been lifting objects.

In seeking to alleviate a condition also, there is no one fixed technique for strengthening a bodily area. Instead, they will mix and match a number of therapeutic approaches designed to procure the desired outcome.

These will be based on the specific problem encountered, but will often involve a routine of exercises to be repeated at regular intervals, which bare often matched to other types of exercise involving high or low mobility depending on an individual's problem.

Along with exercise and movement techniques, physio's tend to deploy manual treatments for the benefit of blood circulation, reducing fluid where it has accumulated, and as a relaxation technique. Such techniques like massage has also been shown to be beneficial in pain relief for conditions such as chronic lower back pain.

There are physiotherapists who in additional to manual and movement techniques, specialise in areas such as acupuncture and ultrasound for deep tissue damage.

Ultimately, physiotherapists do not fit easily into one specific category, due to their holistic approach in diagnosis and treatment, but the benefits of physiotherapy have been widely accepted by most General Practitioners particularly for anyone suffering sport injuries or long term chronic conditions whereby pain relief is the only available medication.

Many people are indeed referred in the UK by their GP for physio treatment which is available free on the NHS, but due to waiting times and conditions for referral. Most people in the UK tend to access physios privately, paying out of their own pocket for physio services.

If accessing a physio privately in the UK, try to ensure they are a member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, which serves as the regulatory body in the country, guaranteeing levels of qualifications and professionalism.