06/01/2026
Your body called. It wants you to cancel those plans and go to PT instead.
While the rest of us are doom-scrolling, double-booking happy hours, and Googling “is this pain normal,” research published in JAMA and Physical Therapy (Oxford) has been quietly confirming what every physical therapist already knows: PT modulates pain through multiple pathways — reducing central nervous system excitability while targeting root causes, not just symptoms. 
The data on prioritizing PT early is honestly kind of wild. Eight of 13 studies found that early PT was associated with reduced subsequent opioid use  — meaning the people who showed up to their appointments were the ones who needed fewer prescriptions later. In post-surgical patients, those who received PT first had downstream healthcare costs of ~$16,955 vs. $18,806 for those who went the opioid-first route — and needed nearly half the opioid prescriptions. 
Translation: people who prioritize PT aren’t just recovering faster. They’re playing a completely different game.
So yes — skipping brunch to do your hip flexor stretches is a personality trait. It’s also evidence-based medicine. We don’t make the rules. We just read the journals.
Source: Rhon et al., Physical Therapy, 2018 (Oxford Academic) | Sun et al., JAMA Network, 2018
