Physical Therapy: Today It Hurts, Tomorrow It Works

Going through life can be a rollercoaster of emotions, and you are bound to get hurt at one point or another. If it is sports related or not, injuries can have a variety of impacts on someone’s life. Physical therapy can help athletes overcome and prevent injuries, while encouraging the athlete to work harder, allowing them to pursue their dreams and having no pain to stop them. Physical therapy mainly focus’ on the prevention and treatment of injury, and prohibiting life threatening injuries, which allows an alternative to surgery and can also save money. Physical therapy is underrated, but one of the most influential medical fields because they prevent, treat, and rehabilitate athletic and non athletic related injuries allowing individuals to get back to supporting their families.

 Education, the most important part of becoming a physical therapist, making sure you treat a patient correctly and in the best way possible. Quoting Dr. Kyle Tanamachi, “becoming a physical therapist involves seven years of schooling,” allowing physical therapists to learn the best techniques for helping an injured individual. To become a physical therapist you must go to physical therapy school and obtain a doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) and work long volunteer hours. As you can see, there are many steps to becoming a physical therapists, and all the years of dedication and hard work into trying to help others is inspiring. Dr. Ryan Kauffman, a hard working physical therapist specialized in spine, demonstrates a hard working mindset. Due to his hard work, he has opened his own business in Milpitas, called Thrive Milpitas; his accomplishments depict how working hard allows you to accomplish millions things, and to never give up. Stretching is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of physical therapy, but it is way more than just sitting down and trying to touch your toes. 

Physical therapy is the the rehabilitation of a certain injury and by strengthening your body, individuals can return to their everyday lives supporting the society and economy. Physical therapist Michelle Nomura stated in an interview that “PT benefits society by helping injured people return to function so they can once again contribute to their families & society. PT helps the economy by decreasing the use of narcotics by helping to decrease a patient’s pain” (Nomura Email Interview). Mrs. Nomura, a kind, knowledgeable, and passionate Physical Therapist at Fyzical Therapy and Balance Center-Fremont; first got interested in physical therapy at the age of fifteen, when she injured her knee, and her physical therapist impacted her so much she decided to make it her career. Not only do physical therapists rebuild your strength, they build a strong relationship with their patients. The feeling Mrs. Nomura endures when helping her patients drive her into loving her career. Not only does she do her job for her patients but to get the feeling of accomplishment, and knowing she helped someone. Equivalent to Mrs. Nomura, Dr. Kyle Tanamachi has also been influenced by physical therapy. Likewise, they share the love of feeling accomplished, knowing someone is healed and getting back to what they love. Dr Tanamachi also mentioned how being a physical therapist influenced him to be “more compassionate and a caring person” (Tanamachi Phone Interview). All physical therapists work to ensure a speedy recovery, allowing patients to return to the world as the best version of themselves. 

Bringing me to my next point, physical therapists help people get back to their everyday lives, which benefits the society. Along with that, lowering the costs of painkillers, and reducing the amount sold benefits the economy grately. The risks of taking opioids outweighs the advanagements, and with a high risk of addiction and overdose, physical therapy is the smarter option when choosing to treat pain (“Physical Therapy vs. Opioids”). The common use of massage, traction, and exercise became the watershed moment due to the decrease in overdoses and prescriptions. With physical therapy being an alternative, the thought of helping people who could have gotten addicted and overdosed is heartwarming. The fact that physical therapy can save lives makes the job ten times more worth pursuing and knowing you are benefiting the society is miraculous. 

As a physical therapist, bonds are built with your patients and the feeling of accomplishment is overwhelming. Heidi was diagnosed with POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) and did seventy one hour sessions a year with physical therapists. Because she was there so often she built a bond with her therapist, and her therapist knew her better than anyone. Her therapist would help her through her anxieties and insecurities, allowing her to push through and be the best she could be (“Why You Shouldn’t Overlook Physical Therapists”). Analogous to Heidi, Gabrielle Calabretta, an Athletic Trainer specialized in Sports Therapy, expressed that “after spending so much time with them it is a very proud moment for me to see the athlete come back to play their sport after all the work that we have both put in to speed up the healing process” (Calabretta Email Interview). When a physical therapist can witness one of their patients who they have been treating for a long time finally get back to working, they know that what they are doing is right and is encouraged to keep helping other athletes. It’s hard to imagine a world without physical therapists, without people specialized in guiding us to recovery. They help fix and rehabilitate numerous injuries, from spin, shoulder, hips, and even rehabilitating those affected by strokes. According to “The Good Body” there is a 72% success rate in treatment with physical therapy allowing people to get back to their family and supporting the society. It is hard to imagine not having those people around to guide us, and according to Dr. Kauffman, “Pharmaceutical companies would be in more high demand, people would need more prescription drugs, and the price of medication would go even higher and higher” (Kauffman Email Interview). 

In agreement, physical therapists have such an impact on the medical field that the world would suffer without them. As Dr. Kauffman had mentioned the prices of pain medication would skyrocket because so many people would need them. Along with prices, the amount sold would increase greatly, not to mention the amount of overdoses and addiction increases. Physical therapists are so valuable in today’s society that they prevent a vast amount of addictions and overdoses, overall, saving lives. Everything today costs money, there is no way to escape it. Medical care is something that people are demanding to be cheaper, but at this moment it is very expensive. Physical therapy acts as a way to save money by preventing expensive surgeries and overall benefiting the economy. As Mrs. Nomura, Dr. Kauffman, Dr Tanamachi, and Gaby mentioned, physical therapy helps prevent injury and limits money spent. To stay at a hospital it costs $3,494 per day, and surgeries cost an average of $15,734 (Fay). It is common for individuals not having the money to get surgery or treatment, but physical therapy allows that person to obtain treatment. Physical therapy sessions average $150, way cheaper than a combined $19,228 for surgery and only one night at the hospital. As you can see, physical therapy serves as an alternative for surgery and as an effective way to save money. Physical therapy is a heavy science based field, where you would focus on the human body, anatomy, chemistry and even physics. Most physical therapists have a minor in some sort of science field, commonly biology. The more you know about the human body and how it works, the more precise and knowledgeable you would be as a physical therapist. You have to know how each muscle and bone works in order to make a therapy plan for each specific patient (Nomura Email Interview). Not everyone has the same injury, so therapy plans are prepared for each individual person, allowing them to get the best treatment possible. 

There are different types of physical therapy, each specialized in a different aspect of the body. For example, Dr Kauffman is specialized in the the spine and back, and he is the only doctor allowed to manipulate and adjust the spine (Kauffman Email Interview). All different types of physical therapists all have one goal, to make their patients better and get them back to their everyday lives. Not everything is great about physical therapy, there is a lot of paperwork and not all patients are going to want to cooperate with what is being said. Mrs. Nomura mentioned that “ a person’s mindset is important for their recovery” (Nomura Email Interview), and not all patients are going to want to help themselves. It is the therapists job and drive to motivate their client and act as a psychologist at times to motivate a speedy recovery. Athletes, for example, do not want to be told “you have to rest,” or “no sports until it’s healed,” it makes them feel like they are not only letting their team down but themselves. Physical therapists can assure them that by being healthy you can give more than you ever could to your team (Tanamachi Phone Interview). Older and working adults, on the other hand, will not have the same mindset as an athlete who wants to get back on the court or field. Some adults will find an excuse to not work with their therapist and better themselves. With the help from physical therapists adults can get back to their families and work, but most importantly getting back to supporting the society. Without physical therapists, there would be more injured people in the world spending money on expensive treatments that might not even work. 

Physical therapists make the most impact on society but is arguably the most underrated medical profession. Due to the amount of people physical therapists help, and the low amount of people in the occupation, it is safe to say that physical therapists are underrated. Physical therapists spend at least seven years in school trying to become doctor in this field. They make the biggest impacts on an individual, and get no credit. “Each year, half of all Americans over the age of 18 will develop a musculoskeletal injury that lasts longer than three months”(Klepps), meaning there will be a need for physical therapists. Not all superheros wear a cape but in order to get the recognition they deserve, they probably should. They prevent surgery, which completely decreases the rehab process (Tanamachi Phone Interview). There are so many things physical therapists do, that other doctors are not authorized to do. For example, pediatricians are not allowed to restructure or give any types of therapy, they can only refer you to a person specialized in that field. Physical therapists are the only authorized doctor allowed to prepare a workout designated for you and speed up your recovery. There is a variety of different treatments, massage, exercise, and traction are the most common and effective ways. Again, by using these specific treatments there is a noticeable decrease in opioid overdose and addiction. Therefore, changing the medical field for the better, and saving lives without risking lives. Massage therapy is manual manipulation of soft body tissues (muscle, connective tissue, tendons and ligaments) (Kauffman Email Interview) to enhance a person's health and well-being. Traction is a set of mechanisms allowing broken bones to rebuild and rehabilitate faster and efficient. Exercise is the strengthening and rebuilding of muscles and preventing new injuries from occurring. Patients do not want any pain, so with these methods, no pain and no opioids are needed (“Physical Therapy vs. Opioids). Physical therapists know when the therapy regime works when their patients are strong enough to go back to work and can continue to support themselves and the society without any pain. Physical therapy techniques are constantly advancing, allowing shorter recovery times. There is so may new technological advancements being made that treatment for stroke and other paralyzing diseases can be treated . New technology has allowed patients to learn to walk after having a stroke, and even allowed patients to rebuild paralyzed body parts (“Intriguing Physical Therapy Statistics (And Facts).” Technology like resistance bands and hydrotherapy has advanced the physical therapy field by allowing muscles to rebuild faster and more efficient. Mrs. Nomura had mentioned in her interview that staying up to treatment techniques are challenging (Nomura Email Interview). 

In the next ten years there will hopefully, and most likely, be more techniques for treating new diseases and injuries. In the future, there will definitely be new, more efficient, technology allowing people who are paralyzed to use those paralyzed muscles again and rebuild them back to full power. Advancements like these will benefit the society greatly and will lower the amount of hurt and injured people. From the discrete arguments presented, it is recognizable how much of a positive impact physical therapists make on society and economy. The society flourishes from physical therapists by allowing commonality to support their families and help lower the amount of deaths and addiction caused by opioids. By keeping people healthy, the society can benefit as a whole, allowing advancements in all fields to be made. Economy on the other hand, is impacted immensely, by allowing an alternative to surgery, many more people will spend their money on a cheaper treatment. Most people do not realize how much of an impact a physical therapist makes, until you go through physical therapy. 

The moment you find out your physical therapy worked and you can get back to doing what you love, is the best feeling in the world. To have full mobility of your body with no pain is astonishing. This proves that physical therapists can encourage and motivate their patients and allow them to be the best version of themselves, with no pain.