If you're going through physical therapy, it's time to talk to your doctor about dry needling therapy. Dry needling uses thin needles to provide relief from a variety of physical ailments. Some of those ailments include neck and shoulder injuries, and sciatica. Unlike acupuncture, dry needling works to stimulate a release in muscles. If you want to improve the results you get from physical therapy, read the list provided below.
Here are four reasons to look into dry needling therapy.
Improve Blood Flow
When you're dealing with muscle injuries, you need to increase the blood flow to those areas. Unfortunately, tight muscles can constrict blood flow. Once blood flow stops to your muscles, the problems can get worse.
In fact, poor blood flow can interfere with your physical therapy. That's where dry needling comes into the picture. Dry needling stimulates your muscles to release. Once that happens, blood flow gets restored to the area.
Enhance Healing
If you're getting physical therapy for an injury, you need to focus on the healing. One problem with muscle and joint injuries is the body doesn't always respond to treatment as fast as it should. This can slow down the healing process.
That's why dry needling is so beneficial. Dry needling increases your body's healing response. This encourages collagen production and enhances the healing process. As a result, you'll heal faster.
Reduce Spasms
If your muscle spasms aren't responding to physical therapy, it's time to add dry needling to your treatment. Muscle spasms can interfere with treatment, and can reduce your range of motion. When that happens, dry needling therapy can help.
One of the benefits of dry needling therapy is that it calms muscle spasms. This improves your muscles' ability to extend and contract naturally. As a result, your physical therapy will be more effective.
Alleviate Pain
If you're dealing with muscle and joint pain, dry needling can help alleviate the discomfort. When you're in pain, the pain can interfere with your physical therapy. This is especially true when movement increases the severity of your pain response. Dry needling breaks the pain cycle by interfering with the pain messages from the brain. That way, you can focus on the healing process, without enduring muscle and joint pain.
Give yourself the chance to heal. If you want to enhance your treatment, talk to your physical therapist about dry needling therapy. Dry needling can get added to your current treatment plan.
