The question that comes in our mind is that how does some of the diseases or disabilities can be treated through physiotherapy and not by taking medications, to answer this question the best replier would be a physiotherapist him/herself because he would be knowing the technicalities and reason behind this question. There is a certain magical thing that physiotherapy does to heal a person as for example some of the disabilities require certain mobility at some specialized angles.
According to physiotherapists, “Some of the people with a mere straight spine come with excruciating pain and complain that their problem had remained static even with taking a lot of medications or painkillers over a long period of time. The solutions regarding these particular disabilities are exercises. First, the spastic or rigid muscles are relaxed by heating then any topical gel is applied to relieve the pain superficially then we stretch the muscles by specialized stretching techniques. The patient feels relieved in the first two days of stretching. Then we move towards strengthening techniques designed especially for the patient keeping in mind his general health, age, gender, and comorbidities”.
Physiotherapists have a detailed study of the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the body and vast study related to therapeutics which makes them trained health professionals. There are various techniques in physiotherapy that are formed by taking into account the anatomy of the body. Each muscle in the body has its own arrangement of muscle fibers, location and blood, and nerve supply. These are the basic things that are kept in mind while exercising because if these things are not mastered or practiced results can be devastating.
Exercises can be divided into two categories, therapeutic and strengthening. Therapeutic refers to those which are done to treat disabilities and strengthening are those which maintains your healthy body. The people in Pakistan have an old school of thought regarding exercising. They feel that exercises are to be done only by the healthy individuals or athletes due to lack of awareness and low literacy rate. The people think that doing household chores like washing, cooking, cleaning is also the exercise that they do on a daily basis. But here they need to understand that what exercises actually are. In simplest words, any workout that makes you relax, physically and mentally, that does not tire you is considered exercise. The second, most important thing is that exercise is not only for the fit, but it is also done to ‘stay fit’.
This is the responsibility of every healthcare professional to guide their patients the right thing even if they are physicians or physiotherapists. If a patient needs medicine to heal, it is the obligation of the physiotherapist to refer him to the physician but if a physician knows that his patient requires physiotherapy then it is his responsibility to refer him to the physiotherapist, without any professional jealousy or grudges.
Physiotherapy helps you keep moving and makes you independent and strong. Keeps your body shaped, toned and active. Physiotherapists are considered to have ‘magic hands’ because they heal you with their hands. The physiotherapy day is celebrated on September 8th.
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