More people are opting for physical therapy to treat back pain
By Dr. Adam Cramer, PT, DPT; MyoFit Clinic
If chronic back pain is seriously impacting your quality of life, you are not alone.
Low back pain remains the most common cause of lost work days. It is non-discriminating, affecting men and women equally, and is relentless when it hits, stopping us in our tracks and making even basic movements excruciating.
Instead of rushing out for pain medications or getting on a waiting list for surgery, more and more people with chronic low back pain are seeing a doctor of physical therapy first. In the state of Ohio, you do not need a physician’s referral or prescription to have your physical therapy services covered. It’s your choice to see any doctor of physical therapy you want and physicians cannot direct you toward a particular provider.
Study Indicates Benefits of Physical Therapy
A study published in 2018 in the journal Health Services Research concluded that trying physical therapy first can help curb reliance on opioid painkillers.
Researchers analyzed more than 150,000 commercial health insurance claims filed between 2009 and 2013 in six states.
They found that patients who saw a physical therapist for low back pain before trying other treatments had an 89 percent lower probability of eventually needing an opioid prescription, a 28 percent lower probability of having any advanced imaging services, and a 15 percent lower probability of making one or more emergency room visits to a hospital.
How MyoFit Treats Back Pain
Our goals are straightforward when patients arrive at MyoFit Clinic suffering from low back pain. We take steps to decrease the pain, then we work to increase their range of motion through moist heat, massage and light stretching.
Trigger point dry needling is a treatment that involves inserting needles into myofascial trigger points within muscles and soft tissue. It is especially effective in patients who have been suffering from chronic and acute low back pain. And a range of exercises also treat pain by strengthening the spine, back and core muscles.
Dr. Adam M. Cramer, PT, DPT, is a licensed physical therapist and the owner of MyoFit Clinics. For more information, visit MyoFitClinic.com. Clinics are located in Middlefield, 440-632-1007 and Chardon, 440-286-1007.