Introduction
People always need clarification on physiotherapy and massage therapy. Physiotherapy is restoring body parts' movement and function when someone is affected by disability, illness, or injury. The person who does the physiotherapy is called a physiotherapist. Massage therapy manipulates the body's soft tissues, such as muscles, connective tissues, tendons, ligaments, and skin. The healthcare professionals massaging the soft tissues are said to be massage therapists. Both massage therapy and physiotherapy aid in relieving the patients' discomfort. Most patients often ask about the difference between physiotherapy and massage therapy. Read this article to get more information on it.
What Is Physiotherapy?
A physiotherapist often treats a severe illness of the body that impacts a person's daily functions and is involved in rehabilitating the disabilities from any trauma or injury. The primary responsibility of a physiotherapist is to give their patient a full range of moving quickly and safely. To achieve faster patient mobility, physiotherapists create structured programs for individual patients.
Physiotherapy requires a detailed medical history for the correct diagnosis of the cause and treating the issue. They are also involved in ruling out the pain history, the timeline of the injury, and the patient's occupation to treat the cause. The physiotherapy treatments include acupuncture, joint manipulation, and taping, and they also do ultrasound and hands-on therapy.
What Are the Advantages of Physiotherapy?
The advantages of physiotherapy are:
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Physiotherapy helps treat severe illnesses and disabilities such as knee pain, tissue injuries, shoulder pain, neck injuries, back pain, joint pain, ankle sprains, sports injury, mobility issues, and damaged muscle tissues.
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The treatment plans for physiotherapy are individual for each patient based on the severity.
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Physiotherapy helps in strengthening muscles; as a result, the treatment ends in controlled pain.
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Physiotherapy helps to improve patients' balance and reduces the risk of falls.
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In stroke patients, it improves their quality of life.
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Physiotherapists rehabilitate cancer patients and maintain their muscle tone.
When Should a Patient Choose Physiotherapy?
Physiotherapy and massage therapy is for relieving pain and restoring the complete range of movements of the patients. However, they should reach out to the physiotherapist when they
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Feel pain and stiffness of muscles and joints.
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Sprains, sports injuries, accidents, and fractures
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It helps in the prevention of further injuries.
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To increase the range of movements for more physical activities.
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If the patient requires rehabilitation due to surgery.
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Patients with conditions like arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
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In a condition where massage therapy does not help to relieve the pain.
In some cases, the physiotherapist may also suggest the massage therapist for further treatment.
What Is Massage Therapy?
Massage therapy is responsible for the patients' good mental and physical health. Massage therapy includes kneading and working on soft tissues and muscles to relieve pain and discomfort. It needs pressure and touches certain delicate tissue parts in various intensities to ease discomfort.
What Are the Advantages of Massage Therapy?
Massage therapy is not the solution for an illness; they are the additional treatments that soothe the discomfort. Regular massaging makes patients feel relaxed and reduces stress and tension. The advantages of massage therapy are
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Massage therapy reduces muscle stiffness and chronic pain.
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Massage therapy helps in reducing stress.
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Massage therapy gives relaxation and increases the quality of sleep.
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Massage therapy improves immunity by stimulating the lymph nodes.
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It helps in reducing depression and anxiety.
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It reduces fatigue and promotes sound sleep.
When Should a Patient Choose Massage Therapy?
Massage therapy is first to relieve pain quickly. The patient should reach out to a massage therapist if they require
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It reduces pain in muscles and joints due to intense workouts and occupation.
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Relaxation massage from excessive stress.
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To improve their posture.
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It helps in the relaxation of muscles and improves circulation.
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Reduction in anxiety and depression.
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To improve their sleep quality.
What Are the Critical Differences Between Physiotherapy and Massage Therapy?
Patients highly benefit if they undergo both physiotherapy and massage therapy simultaneously.
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Physiotherapy comes under a medical profession, while massage therapy comes under alternative medicine.
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Massage therapy relieves the pain immediately, whereas physiotherapy is for muscle and joint pain rehabilitation.
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Massage therapy loosens muscles and facilitates relaxation; physiotherapy helps in acute and chronic pain and also helps in preventing injury and improving balance.
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Physiotherapy helps in rehabilitation and plays a vital role in recovery from surgery or injury, whereas massage therapy is more of a pain-relieving, not a treatment.
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Physiotherapy works on muscle strengthening and stretching exercises, whereas massage therapy works on applying pressure to manipulate muscles by hand and massaging with the help of oils.
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Massage therapy helps with overall health, whereas physiotherapy comes in the role when an illness or injury occurs.
In What Way Does a Massage Therapist Differ From a Physiotherapist?
Physiotherapy and massage therapy relieve pain and reduce stress and anxiety. The massage therapist treats by doing hand massages to relieve pain, whereas the physiotherapist uses various objects to treat the patients. The massage therapist is involved in collecting pain history and medical history. Still, it needs to be in detail, whereas a physiotherapist contains the medical history of patients in fact for treating the underlying cause related to their profession.
Some of the massages done by massage therapists are Swedish massage therapy, sports massage therapy, deep massage therapy, and trigger point massage therapy. However, physiotherapists do sports, geriatric, orthopedic, pediatric, neurological, and cardiovascular physiotherapy.
Conclusion
The experts in physiotherapy and massage therapy help relieve the pain, discomfort, stress, depression, and anxiety of hundreds of people worldwide. Getting help from physiotherapists and massage therapists makes people's lives happy. They get ease from various pains and feel satisfied as they can do physical activities according to their occupation and profession. So, reaching out to a physiotherapist and massage therapist without fear makes people's lives better and more comfortable. Healthcare providers of various specialties work day to day for the betterment of the public, in which physiotherapists and massage therapists are also under such improvement.
