The Role of Physiotherapy in Health and Wellness

When speaking about health and wellness, the role of physiotherapy isn’t always highlighted. While physiotherapy may seem like a reactive measure for injuries and other pain states, it is also an important and helpful method of looking after your general health and wellness.

Understanding how your physiotherapist can assist you in general wellness matters can improve your standard of living. Physiotherapy extends beyond pain management, improving mobility, and reducing the discomfort of chronic conditions, as it also focuses on prevention.

What Is Wellness?

Wellness refers to living in a certain manner that enables the experience of consistent and positive growth in various aspects of life. Wellness incorporates a holistic approach to the physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological, social, and intellectual elements of human life.

It is important to focus on all the aspects of wellness to improve your quality of life. Physiotherapy can assist in the physical aspects of wellness to improve your overall health and standard of living.

Whether you are feeling specific symptoms or you just want to improve your level of wellness, your physiotherapist can help.

Physical Behaviours Physiotherapists Will Address

Physiotherapists can assist you in understanding and dealing with an array of issues that may not require immediate medical care, but can severely impact your standard of living. These areas include the following.

Educate and Promote

Physiotherapists have a strong role to educate patients on harmful habits and unhealthy lifestyle factors. This includes educating patients on things like sedentary behaviour, incorrect physical activity habits, weight management, and more.

Physiotherapists will then promote a healthier way of living by suggesting behavioural changes along with tips on how to implement healthy behaviours.

Physical Activity

Physiotherapists often work with aspects of physical activity that extend beyond how to manage sports injuries. While your health care provider will assist you in the management of all types of sports injuries they move beyond simply treating the injury.

When it comes to injuries, physiotherapy works to treat the injury as well as rehabilitate the patient. Aiding you to reach full recovery so you can go back to playing the sport you love.

Even in the absence of injury, physiotherapy works to improve athletes’ performance, helping you function at your highest level. This is also true for non-athletes and those who can only undergo moderate exercise because of chronic conditions. Wherever your highest level is, your physiotherapist will help you reach it.

Elderly patients will benefit from physiotherapy to improve aspects such as balance, mobility, coordination, and light exercise.

Physical activity is important for reducing and preventing depression, anxiety, and stress. Being active is also important for your general health and wellbeing, and your physiotherapist can help you achieve your fitness goals.

Weight Management

Weight management is an important aspect of improving your overall health and wellness. Being both under or over-weight can negatively impact your health, predispose you to disease and chronic illness, and decrease your standard of living.

Physiotherapy can help you assess whether you are within a healthy weight range or not by calculating your BMI and assessing your eating habits.

In cases where you are not in a healthy weight range or even if your eating habits are merely unhealthy, physiotherapy will help. You can gain important information on how to eat better as well as how to implement the correct exercise regime that is suited to your body and your needs.

Smoking Cessation

Smoking is a habit that negatively affects your general health and wellbeing, leading to a high risk of chronic illness. Quitting smoking can be a difficult task that is hard to do alone.

Your physiotherapist can assist with an initial consultation session to find out the degree of your smoking habit and your goals to quit smoking.

They will then offer physical activity and exercises that work to release endorphins and other positive hormones that will curb the desire to smoke. These exercises work to curb cravings and reduce the discomfort of withdrawal symptoms.

Stress Management

Stress not only affects your mental well-being but can also result in physical pain, often caused by tense muscles. Physiotherapy works to alleviate tension in your muscles and improve your mobility. Your physiotherapist will also offer exercises to do at home to prevent further tension.

During your sessions, you will also be offered breathing techniques done in the sessions as well as at home to reduce your stress levels. These techniques work to regulate your oxygen levels and improve your blood circulation. 

You will also be advised on exercise options and routines that work to reduce your overall stress as a long-term solution.

Sleep Management

Insomnia and other sleep disorders can severely impact your day-to-day life and cause a reduction in concentration, mood, and productivity. Correcting your sleep patterns will improve your energy during the day and improve your mood and focus.

Physiotherapy will help with sleep management by reducing stress if it is a cause of your sleep problems and offering breathing exercises to help you sleep better. You will also receive exercise routines focused on improving your quality of sleep.

Types of Therapies Done By Physiotherapists

Physiotherapists treat and prevent the above conditions through different types of therapies. These therapies include but are not limited to the following.

Hands-on Therapies

Hands-on therapies encompass the work that is done during your physiotherapy appointments such as massage, dry needling, joint mobilisation, and myofascial release. These therapies work to improve relaxation because they release hormones and improve blood flow in the body. 

Exercise Therapy

Exercise therapy is a form of active therapy that is seen as a long-term solution to all types of problems including injuries, sleep problems, weight management, and smoking cessation. Your physiotherapist will ask you to do certain exercises during your session as well as give you a list of exercises to continue daily at home.

Breathing and Relaxation Training

During your sessions, depending on your reason for seeing a physiotherapist, you may undergo breathing and relaxation training. This form of physiotherapy works to teach you how to relax your body and mind through breathing and physical exercise. The techniques you learn here should be used at home as a long-term solution.

Final Thoughts

Physiotherapy is more than just a solution for physical injuries and extends to a holistic approach to health and wellness. If you feel that you need to improve certain areas of your wellbeing, contact your physiotherapist today for a consultation.