Divya Narayanan, owner of One 2 One Physical Therapy has moved her offices from Fishers to 8902 North Meridian Street. Narayanan, who holds a degree of Doctor of Physical Therapy, is one of the few PT’s in the Indianapolis area to offer a relatively new treatment known as “dry needling.”
Dry needling is similar to acupuncture in that very fine needles are inserted in the area of the body being treated, but entirely different in the technique and objectives. With dry needling, the needles go much farther into the tissue and actually find the trigger point, areas of hyper-irritated tissue. Historically, in standard physical therapy treatments the therapists have used their hands and particularly their thumbs to massage the areas of irritation. It is difficult, if not impossible sometimes, for the hand massage to get deep enough to relive the trouble area.
While dry needling is relatively new in the US, it’s gaining in acceptance by the physical therapy world. In fact, in 2012 the NFL’s Washington Redskins became the fifth NFL team to embrace this revolutionary form of physical therapy. Elliott Jermyn, Redskins assistant trainer, noted that no formal surveys have been conducted with the players, but that roughly half of the players get treated with this procedure on a weekly or biweekly basis. Of those, 75 percent have had a good rate of success, with 50 percent experiencing “extremely good success.” Jermyn also noted that only physical therapists, chiropractors and physicians were able to conduct dry needling. “But don’t be surprised if this becomes mainstream practice in the next few years,” he said.
Recently, I was experiencing some pain in one of my shoulders that was also causing a noticeable reduction in its range of motion. In particular, when I swung a golf club I noticed my body was reluctant to fully rotate my shoulder. Minutes after receiving a dry needle treatment from Narayanan, I noticed a reduction in pain and a significant increase in my range of motion. As to those of you, like me, who are not fond of needles, I can assure you that I experienced little to no pain while receiving the treatment.
A recent change in Indiana healthcare law allows “direct access ” to a physical therapist, without doctor’s referral. You can simply give One 2 One Physical Therapy a call to set up an appointment. According to Narayanan, she has had particularly good results treating conditions such as tennis and golf elbow, s/i joint soreness experienced by runners, TMJ and general neck pain with the dry needling treatment. Communication is always open with the client’s physician to ensure patient safety.
To see the entire story of the Redskins experience with dry needling go to: http://goo.gl/vv7j96
