EDS/HSD Awareness Month: The Importance of Physical Therapy when living with EDS/HSD

Why physical therapy?

EDS/HSD is a dysfunction of the connective tissue, leading to ligament laxity and joint instability, among other issues. Because so many symptoms of EDS/HSD involve the joints, muscles and nerves, we look to the provider who specializes in that, which are Physical Therapists! PTs are specialists in the musculoskeletal and neuromuscular systems, with so many tools to help reduce pain, improve stability and optimize movement patterns. 

What should physical therapy look like?

Physical therapy treats the whole body.

EDS/HSD is a systemic condition, since it affects all connective tissue. Some people will experience pain in certain areas of their body more than others, but because it affects the whole body, we need to be treating the whole body. In physical therapy we often say “it’s all related”, and it’s true! Your jaw can affect your pelvic floor muscles, your tongue can affect your posture, your feet can change how your hips and low back are feeling. 

Physical therapists practice holistic care.

A holistic approach means that we address all aspects of the body when providing care. One  tricky part about living with hypermobility is that people often experience what I like to call chronically acute pain, meaning they experience acute pain over and over again, but in different places in their body. One day they might have subluxed a shoulder, three days later start to feel tendonitis flare up in their knee, then a headache and on and on. 

As physical therapists, we need to be addressing this acute pain with our orthopedic skillset, which might look like hands on manual therapy + exercise, while regulating the nervous system to dial down the pain response and improve resilience, and also coaching patients on pacing, stress management, sleep, hydration and fueling. 

Physical therapy is personalized.

Even though hypermobility can present similarly in people and there are well established patterns of symptoms that we see, each person is unique and experiences their symptoms differently. Because of this, your physical therapy session will be customized to you! Utilizing a collaborative, patient-centered approach helps ensure that we meet your goals that are important to you instead of checking the boxes of a protocol.  It can be extremely helpful to find a PT who you can have an ongoing working relationship with so that you have someone on your team who knows your body well and can help you through the ups and downs of your health journey.

Physical therapy feels good.

Physical therapy should feel good and should help you feel better! If you’re feeling worse during or after a session, we need to change something! Sometimes flare ups happen and we can work with that, but overall, we want to utilize techniques that feel safe and comfortable to you so that you learn to connect with your body in positive ways. Done are the days of “no pain, no gain”. And believe it or not, we don’t need to push through our symptoms to get results. 

Your physical therapist is an expert at treating the whole body, including the pelvic floor!

Stabilizing the pelvis is an essential piece to building strength and stability throughout the entire body. But, we need to know what’s going on at the pelvic floor muscles before we can blindly strengthen. That’s why we believe it is imperative to have a PT on your team who specializes in hypermobility AND the pelvic floor. It can make a big difference and help you see the results you are looking for.

---

We’re passionate about providing high quality physical therapy for people living with hypermobility conditions because we know just how much it can help! If you’re interested in getting started with PT, reach out, we would love to be a part of your care team!

Contact Us