Hi friends,

Do you have a nagging pain that you haven’t been able to get rid of?

“I slept wrong and now my neck is stuck.” I hear this every week from my patients, but is sleeping a traumatic event for the body?

What is more than likely the cause is improper movement or postures repeated over many months and years. Yet if you don’t address the cause, the pain won’t go away. This is why it’s so important to get treatment for musculoskeletal pain from a good physical therapist instead of trying to problem-solve it on your own.

The cause of musculoskeletal pain is typically multifactorial and isn’t always straightforward. The physical body is only part of the equation, but we can’t forget to address psychological and social support factors.

One thing to keep in mind when you do experience pain is to get treatment quickly because when it comes to treating chronic pain, the medical field is still perplexed at how to address the changes made in the brain and body. The solution to ridding the pain at this point is difficult and often takes a long time to recover.

Also, if you don’t address the injury or pain soon after it starts, you may feed more into the improper movement patterns and worsen things.

If you are suffering from an injury or pain currently, schedule an appointment with a physical therapist if you live in a direct access state. Otherwise, you can seek care from your primary care physician and ask for a referral to physical therapy.

Often the costs associated with physical therapy are much less and also less invasive than surgical treatment.

Until next week,

Kevin