From prevention, to treatment and recovery, physiotherapy is known to be provide a range of health benefits, but many of us don’t know the full extent of range of conditions it can help to alleviate. If you’re curious to know about some of the different ways physiotherapy could be beneficial, here are a few conditions that can be improved through physiotherapy that you may not have known about.
1) Chronic neck pain
In a clinical trial conducted in Denmark which involved 119 patients who had suffered from chronic neck pain for at least 3 months, it was found that a physiotherapy treatment regime demonstrated a meaningful improvement in all key study parameters.
While the study didn’t identify any more significant difference between the benefits of physiotherapy and the other treatments included in the study (which were intensive training of the cervical musculature and chiropractic treatment), physiotherapy did demonstrate meaningful improvements which were maintained at both 4-month and 12-month follow-up assessments.
2) Lymphedema
In an Australian study, early physiotherapy intervention was found to minimise lymphedema (abnormal swelling that can develop in the arm, hand, breast or torso) following breast cancer surgery.
The study which involved 65 women who were randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group, found the incidence rate of lymphedema was significantly lower among the treatment group with a 21 per cent incidence rate, compared to a 30 per cent incidence among the control group.
3) Tension headache
In a 2003 controlled study involving 50 patients which investigated the therapeutic effect of physiotherapy as a preventative treatment of tension-type headache, it was found that a standardized physiotherapy programme has a good therapeutic effect for patients who suffered from either episodic frequent tension-type headaches or chronic tension-type headaches.
4) Functional recovery following stroke
A 2003 study conducted at the Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou that investigated whether additional early physiotherapy following stroke improved functional recovery in patients, showed that the approach could be viable.
Participants were assigned to receive either 45 minutes of physiotherapy treatment, five days a week for a duration of four weeks starting from the first week following the stroke, or no professional rehabilitation therapy. Of the participants remaining at the conclusion of the study, the patients that received the early physiotherapy treatment made relatively better functional recovery at 30 days than those who did not.
5) Osteoarthritis
A clinical trial in the Netherlands which looked at the effectiveness of exercise therapy in patients with osteoarthritis of the hip or knee found it to be an effective treatment.
All of the 201 patients included in the study received treatment from their General Practitioner (including education and medication if required), however those assigned to the experimental group also received exercise therapy from a physiotherapist. After 12 weeks, it was identified that exercise therapy was effective in reducing pain (with medium effect) and disability (with small effect).
With most private health insurers now including physiotherapy services with even their most basic extras cover policies, it’s a smart move to take out extras cover so you know you’re covered if you ever find yourself suffering from one of these conditions.
