There is no one solution to pain, but at least one expert says physical therapy is highly effective. “I recommend it to almost all of my patients,” says Hayes Wilson, MD, chief rheumatologist at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, and national medical adviser to the Arthritis Foundation.
Physical therapists teach people how to take care of themselves. “If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If you teach him how to fish, he eats for the rest of his life,” says Wilson, noting physical therapists are like fishing instructors.
He is not far off. According to the American Physical Therapy Association, physical therapists teach patients self-management skills. In the case of arthritis, therapists show people how to deal with pain in day-to-day life. They show people how to build up strength and improve range of motion, and how to make sensible decisions about activities to prevent arthritic flare-ups.
Source: webmd.com