08 Mar What is Physical Therapy?
Physical therapy (PT) came about in the late 19th century in Britain and soon after in America by the requests of surgeons. After the outbreak of World War I, physical therapists, known as “reconstruction aides” began assisting wounded soldiers.
Today, physical therapy has a broad scope of practice which includes but not limited to: babies with physical disabilities, an athlete who cannot perform due to an injury, a friend that fell and fractured a bone, a mom that has severe osteoarthritis, a man that suffered a stroke, a worker that has chronic back pain, a person that falls secondary to vertigo. I could go on and on. Oh yeah, even wound care.
In the simplest fashion, physical therapy is a field in which the main focus is restoring an individual’s function whether they are a 2 days old or 100 years old. The field is very unique in that every patient’s function or goal is different. With one individual, a goal may be to bend over to put on shoes. Another goal may be to alleviate back pain to allow an individual to stand long enough to cook a meal. Another goal may be to restore motion and strength to allow a baseball player to play the game he loves. So physical therapy can be useful in many situations and circumstances.
A common myth is that physical therapy will hurt! Despite the word on the street, physical therapy is there to improve your quality of life. If pain keeps you from performing daily activities, our goal as physical therapists is to minimize the pain or symptoms and allow you to return to performing those activities.
If you have any questions about physical therapy or how PT can benefit you or a family member/friend, don’t hesitate to give us a call at (662) 282-4949.
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