Traction Pain Relief & Wellness

One of the most common things that I see as a physical therapist in private practice is patients that were let down by the traditional medical system. In this post, I want to explain why surgery should never be the first option for pain. My patients say they’ve had injections and medications, some have even had surgery, and they don’t want more. I've had patients come to me and tell me that they have been offered surgery before ever being offered conservative care. This makes me the most frustrated. But more than frustrated it makes me sad for the people who don't know any different. People who don't know they have options. To me, conservative care is education, hands on exercise, etc. Conservative care is not injections, medications and especially not surgery. One of the problems is that in the medical community, conservative care means medication (frequently in the form of opioids). In my world, it means modifying your exercise, massage, yoga, even chiropractic ...

Are your hamstrings tight and they just feel like no matter what you do they won’t lengthen? You’ve tried stretching over and over and it doesn’t make any difference? They loosen up just to tighten back up again after stretching? If this is you, more than likely here is why: The brain and spinal cord are ultimately in control of all of our muscles. They tell them when to fire, relax, and for how long. Even though you may not realize it, your hamstrings may be told by your brain not to relax even though you want them to. It may not be that they are short, but rather your brain doesn’t trust the body enough to allow the hamstrings to relax and lengthen. Often times this is a sign of an instability in another area of the body. This phenomenon happens in multiple areas of the body.  Try this:  Are you able to stand on one leg with your arms to your side resting quietly and the legs not touching one another for 10 seconds with no movement? Can you do it with your eyes ...