Who do you call?

For people who are sick, going to see your primary care physician and getting a diagnosis is common sense. But who do you see for a diagnosis if you’ve got a movement “illness”? For example, if your knee hurts when you go hiking, if you can’t get on and off the floor to play with your kids, or if you can’t lift things to do your job—who do you see then? Physical therapists (PTs) and chiropractors (DCs) are experts in human movement with doctoral level training. That’s why it makes sense to call them first for movement issues.

How movement diagnoses and treatments work

After a comprehensive evaluation, a PT or DC will give you a movement diagnosis. Like a medical diagnosis, your movement diagnosis will describe what’s causing your difficulty with movement. Some examples would be difficulty standing from a chair secondary to decreased force production, scapular down rotation syndrome, or lower crossed syndrome.

Human movement is complex and influenced by many factors, including the pulmonary, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, integumentary and musculoskeletal systems. Because of the complexity of the movement system, getting the diagnosis right can be difficult. Physical therapists and functional movement chiropractors have extensive training and expertise in human movement and should be your go-to practitioner for movement issues. Getting an accurate diagnosis is important because it sets the roadmap for treatment.

Once your movement “illness” is correctly diagnosed, your PT or DC can design the correct treatment plan for your issues. Before you know it, you’ll be back to work or play and moving as well as—if not better than—before!

What next?

Are you feeling limited in some of your movements? Are you not sure who to talk to about your functional limitations or pain with movements? No worries—this is what we specialize in at Capital Chiropractic & Rehabilitation Center. Go ahead and make an appointment and we can get you moving on to living your best life.

Information sourced from the PPS of the APTA.