I have a kind of low back pain that makes it hard to bend over. My doctor says this is a problem of the sacroiliac joint. She wants me to have physical therapy. Will physical therapy take the pain away?
The outlook is good. A recent study showed that physical therapy really makes a difference for people with sacroiliac joint dysfunction, or pain in the low back where the spine and pelvis meet.
None of the patients studied had more pain after physical therapy. In fact, 95 percent of them rated their results as good or excellent two years later. Only 5 percent said their results were fair or poor. The patients who still had a lot of pain after physical therapy had chronic pain before treatment, meaning they had been in pain for at least 50 days. However, many patients who had chronic pain still saw some improvement.
If you decide to have physical therapy, you'll want to find a therapist who has experience treating the sacroiliac joint. He or she will work with you to create movement in the joint and strengthen the muscles around it. You'll also learn bending and lifting techniques and find out which activities to avoid. Physical therapy may be just the key for helping you move more comfortably.
