Physical Therapy Can Help with Lingering Symptoms Post COVID

The medical community continues to learn more about COVID-19 and the way it affects the body. While some people are able to recover at home with little difficulty, others need hospital-level care. There is also a subset of patients with symptoms that persist for weeks to months after the initial illness.

According to the CDC, the most commonly reported long term symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, joint pain, and chest pain. Other long-term symptoms include brain fog, depression, muscle pain, headache, intermittent fever, and heart palpitations. In these cases, it can be appropriate to seek physical therapy, pulmonary rehabilitation, cognitive rehabilitation, and/or mental health support.

Physical therapists are healthcare professionals who treat the neuromusculoskeletal system and commonly treat the majority of the long-term symptoms listed above. By performing an examination, physical therapists are able to identify patient-specific deficits and develop a personalized treatment plan. Plans may include things such as diaphragmatic breathing to improve oxygen uptake, therapeutic massage to address headache, joint, and muscle pain, and conditioning programs to improve activity tolerance among many other treatment options.

Overall, it is important that patients with lingering symptoms get the proper medical care in order to prevent symptoms from potentially developing into long term debilitations. If you are experiencing long-term effects or lingering symptoms from COVID-19 or another illness, contact Red Canyon Physical Therapy to see if a personalized treatment plan can help you.