Physical therapy is just one of many types of treatments and therapies that your senior may want to consider. It’s a common treatment after an injury, but it can be incredibly helpful for your elderly family member even if she hasn’t sustained any injuries. Here’s why you might want to consider physical therapy for your senior.
Reduces the Risk of Injury
Often seniors opt to move a little less out of fear of becoming injured. That’s a valid concern, but the decision to move less can create bigger problems. Physical therapy helps your elderly family member to move her body properly and can help her to avoid the injuries that she might be afraid of incurring.
Aids Recovery After an Injury
Accidents can still happen, unfortunately. But what your senior needs is a plan that helps her to get back on her feet as quickly as possible. Physical therapy can do that for her. If she’s already started physical therapy in a bid to reduce her injury risk, she’s already ahead of the game. She’s already built strength and hopefully reduced the impact of the injury on her daily life. If she hadn’t started physical therapy yet, this treatment method can still reduce her recovery time significantly.
Improves Both Flexibility and Strength
One of the best results of physical therapy is that your elderly family member is able to improve both her flexibility and her strength. Both of these factors take a hit with age. Your elderly family member may not be moving nearly as much as she did in the past, and her range of motion may not be where it used to be, either. Physical therapists work with your senior to help her to regain the mobility that she needs.
Can Help with Chronic Health Conditions
So many health conditions, like arthritis, bring pain with them. In many cases, specific movements or making some areas of the body stronger can help to alleviate pain and help health issues in other ways. Moving more is associated with improving blood flow, which also helps to improve oxygen levels. Another huge benefit is that the more your senior moves, the more her body releases endorphins, which help with both pain and mood regulation.
Improves Independence
Your elderly family member can easily feel defeated when there’s a lot she’s battling. Pain and spending too long in a sedentary lifestyle can also make it difficult to do the things that she wants to do. Physical therapy can help her to regain the independence that she might have thought she’d lost forever.
Physical Therapy Is Easiest When it’s Built into Your Senior’s Routine
Incorporating physical therapy into your aging family member’s daily life is the easiest way to help her get started. When your senior is already spending time at an adult day center, physical therapy can be part of her routine. At an adult day center, your elderly family member is also able to get help with daily activities and spend time with other people.
Helping your elderly family member to have the best quality of life possible might be easier than you expected when you have the right tools in place.
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