National Back Week:

HOW are you feeling, right now? Chances are that you, or someone close to you, is in pain. Therefore National Back Week is held from 3 to 9 September focussing on how physiotherapy can help you to return to maximum independence.

A percentage as high as 80% of people have back pain at some point in their lives.

The good news is that one’s body heals. Most soft tissue injuries heal within 6 weeks to 3 months.

“One of the biggest obstacles to leading a life of well-being, of functioning at your best without having to think about it, is pain,” says Dr Witness Mudzi, president of the South African Society of Physiotherapy.

From something as severe as a spinal cord injury to something as debilitating as persistent headache, physiotherapists have many tools to help people beat pain.

And not just people. A group of physiotherapists in South Africa has joined colleagues round the world in the growing field of animal physiotherapy, helping animals to overcome injury and illness and live happy lives bouncing with energy.

“Helping a patient, human or animal, walk – or run – away from a limiting condition which prevents them from enjoying life is a result we are able to see every day as physiotherapists,” says Dr Mudzi.

• If you need help with back pain or any other joint or muscle problem or neurological condition, contact your local physiotherapist, who is uniquely qualified to work with you to return to maximum independence. Find a physio at www.saphysio.co.za