Here’s Why You Need To Seek Physical Therapy For Concussions
If you are an athlete, who plays high-contact sports like football, soccer, basketball, or boxing, then you are more vulnerable to concussions – which are nothing but temporary injuries to the brain that are caused by a sudden blow to head.
Although, it is true that concussions are sudden brain injuries, with right preventative actions you can reduce their risk to a great extent. For example, if you are a boxer, using right protective gear like a mouth guard and headgear can minimise the risk of concussions.
Before we discuss, how to treat a concussion, take a look at some of the important signs and symptoms of this condition.
- Memory loss, wherein a person fails to recognize anything that happened with them before or after they received the injury to their head
- Headaches that are unable to stop even after taking painkillers
- Vision problems such as blurred vision
- Difficulty maintaining balance
- Feeling tired and sick all the time
- Changes in behaviour ( such as getting irritated frequently) and slurred speech
- Concentration problems and sluggishness
- Getting confused all the time
The kind of treatment that you take for this condition, depends on the type of concussion you have. Concussions are generally divided into there categories, which include mild, moderate, and severe.
A mild concussion is also known as grade one concussion, wherein the person observes its symptoms for a very short duration of time or fewer than15-minutes. Since it is the least severe type of brain injury, the person in question does not experience memory loss.
A moderate concussion is known as a grade two concussion, and it also doesn’t lead to memory loss. On the other hand, a severe concussion, which is also called a grade three concussion, may lead to the loss of consciousness.
People who have a grade three concussion must seek immediate medical help to prevent further problems. Your failure to treat a grade three concussion at the right time can prevent you from returning back to your normal activities quickly.
Try To Avoid Successive Concussions
When you suffer a concussion, you should take proper rest. And, you must take the approval of your doctor before returning to your daily activities. For example, athletes should take the approval of their healthcare expert before getting back to active sports again.
However, if they get back to active sports without being fully recovered, it increases the risk of repeated concussions among them, which is very dangerous for them. People with repeated concussions are more likely to experience dementia-like symptoms.
Yes, successive injuries have extremely harmful repercussions for your brain. Repeated concussions can lead to brain swelling, and in some cases, patients also experience permanent brain damage. In the worst case, repeated concussions can also claim a person’s life.
Treatment For Concussions
You can treat such brain injuries with medication. In addition to that, you can also recover from them by seeking drug-free treatments like physical therapy.
Reasons You Should Seek Physical Therapy
In the absence of a right treatment, it may take a lot of time to recover from a concussion. Yes, depending upon the severity of your condition, it may take anywhere from a few days to a few months to recover fully from it. However, if you consult a physical therapist immediately after the injury, you can reduce your recovery period to a great extent.
When you meet your therapist for the first time, they analyse your symptoms in detail. They ask you several important questions about your condition and the way you have been feeling after the injury. All you have to do is, tell them everything clearly. Your failure to explain your condition clearly can create problems for your therapist when it comes to gaining a deeper understanding of your condition.
So, explain your symptoms effectively. Do not hide anything from them.
Besides, your therapist will also check your medical history to figure out if you are also suffering from some other problem. Once your therapist understands the severity of your injury, they will then design a highly effective care plan to address your symptoms.
They will incorporate advanced physical therapy techniques like manual therapy in your care plan to ensure a quick recovery. In addition to that, they may also include strengthening and stretching exercises in your care plan. Since the symptoms of a concussion vary from patient to patient, different types of care plans are designed for different people.
According to BodyGears Physical Therapy, a San Diego-based PT clinic, “Physical therapy after a concussion includes vestibular interventions, balance retraining, proprioceptive training, neuromuscular re-education, joint mobilization, muscular facilitation, and so much more! ”
Since physical therapists offer personalized care, patients tend to recover quickly from their injury. And, the best part is that, when they incorporate exercises in the treatment plan, they always make an effort to teach their patients how to perform those exercises effectively. Apart from that, physical therapists also offer quality advice to their patients in terms of how to avoid such injuries in the future.