Why does movement help? The remarkable science of Physiotherapy

Many things happen in your body when you exercise. It is not just your muscles that get a workout. Almost every system in your body improves because of exercise. Physiotherapists make the most of these changes. They provide movement-based treatments for a very wide range of conditions. In this article, we discuss how physiotherapy came about, we explain where you might find physiotherapists and what kinds of conditions they help with, and we describe how movement can help our bodies. Recent scientific advances certainly have people moving in a healthy direction!

What does a physiotherapist typically do?

Ask questions

Measure how the patient’s joints and muscles move

Make a diagnosis

Explain what will likely happen with the patient’s condition in the future

Teach the patient about his or her condition

Give treatments that will help the patient now

Give treatments that will help the patient in the future

Give advice on how to live a healthy life

What kind of conditions do physiotherapists treat?

Patients can do physiotherapy in a range of places like hospitals, gyms, or even at home. There are three common types of conditions in which physiotherapists are an important part of the treatment process. First, physiotherapists see people who have musculoskeletal conditions, such as injuries of muscles and joints.

You may have seen a physiotherapist run onto a sporting field during a match to help someone who is injured, or maybe you have heard about someone going to a physiotherapy clinic.

Researchers have discovered the benefits of active treatments involving exercise. Exercise helps the natural healing process of our bodies happen as well as possible. Moving and putting weight on a joint like the knee spreads around the synovial fluid, which is a liquid in joints that provides nutrients and helps joints to move smoothly and absorb forces. For people with musculoskeletal conditions, active treatments strengthen muscles, help with coordination, improve balance, and improve walking and running.

(A) The musculoskeletal system contains muscles and bones. When we run, jump, sit, or play, our muscles get shorter or longer to make our joints (knees, elbows, etc.) move. (B) The cardiorespiratory system contains the heart, blood, and blood vessels. This system makes sure our bodies get the oxygen they need to work properly. (C) The neurological system contains the brain, spinal cord, and nerves. The brain and body send extremely fast messages along the nerves. All these systems are connected and depend on each other. For example, when you go for a walk, all these systems work together with every step you take.

Second, physiotherapists measure and treat people with cardiorespiratory conditions, which are conditions that affect the heart and lungs. Some are conditions that people are born with, like cystic fibrosis. Some are chronic conditions that last a long time, like a disease called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), in which it is difficult to breathe. These conditions may also be short-term, like the flu or a lung infection. Research has shown that active treatments involving movement and exercise make a big difference for people with cardiorespiratory conditions. Active treatments help oxygen to travel through the body, help to clear out excess mucus, and strengthen the heart and lungs.

Third, physiotherapy is of short- and long-term benefit for people with neurological conditions. These are conditions that affect how the nerves and brain connect and control other parts of the body. Neurological conditions might cause the arms or legs to move more slowly or to be a bit jumpier than usual. For people with neurological conditions, active treatments maintain or improve muscle strength, improve coordination, help with balance, and improve walking and running.

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How is movement used as a medicine?

Just like different medicines are used to treat different illnesses, physiotherapy can also differ based on what is going on with each patient. Physiotherapy treatments are typically tailored to each individual. This is important because everyone is different in terms of their expectations, goals, motivation, and what they can do physically..

So, a “one-size-fits-all” approach to physical activity makes no sense at all. Gentle movements in a pool may be ideal for some people with some illnesses. For people in other situations, it may be ideal to do really intense exercise that makes them sweat and breathe much harder. In addition to helping people recover from illness and injury, physiotherapists can also help people to prevent potential issues in the future.

Scientists have found that exercise helps to prevent things like heart attacks, chronic pain, falls, and feelings of sadness and stress. Intense exercise that makes you sweat and breathe much harder during your teen years is very important, because it increases bone strength and can reduce our chances of breaking bones when we are older.

What is Physiotherapy?

People have been exercising for hundreds of years. But physiotherapy only became an official job in the 1800s. People were given massages, physical adjustments, and exercise. Past pandemics and world wars, times when many people were ill or injured, created opportunities for physiotherapy to advance quickly.

More and more research is being done every year, and physiotherapy is now being used in many ways to improve people’s quality of life. We expect that physiotherapy will keep changing in the future. For example, people are more frequently accessing physiotherapy via the internet now, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Physiotherapy aims to improve a person’s ability to do activities. Although they are called physiotherapists, these professionals also care about people’s health in terms of their thinking, their emotions, and their relationships. This is because scientists now know how much all these parts of life are connected.

Conclusion

We know that movement is good for everyone. Scientific studies of physiotherapy have found that, in the long term, active movement-based treatments are better than passive treatments like putting pressure, or something hot, or something cold, or electrical, on the affected body part.

While scientists are still discovering more about the ways that exercise and physiotherapy work to keep us healthy, we know that active treatments are helpful for many conditions. Now you know about many ways that physiotherapies are used to help people. We recognize that exercise is important, but exercise is only part of what physiotherapists do.

Physiotherapists strive to understand and treat the whole person. The science of physiotherapy is complex and a lot of research is still happening. Hopefully this research will benefit this field in the future, so that we can all keep moving in a healthy direction with physiotherapy.