According to certain records (pictorial and written) discovered by historians, physical therapy treatments such as hydrotherapy, therapeutic messages and exercises were used in countries like India, China and Greece thousands of years ago.
Around 1000 B.C, Chinese people used to perform an exercise namely Cong Fu to correct the body positioning and improve the breathing. Indians were also known to perform certain form of exercises and messages to treat arthritis.
Around 500 BC, in ancient Greece, Herodicus, a Greek physician, explained about exercises known as Ars Gymnastica or The Art of Gymnastics that includes wrestling, walking and weight lifting to improve certain febrile conditions.
In 460 BC, Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician traditionally regarded as the father of medicine, emphasized on exercising to improve physical strength. During the same year, in Greece, Hector employed hydrotherapy (meaning water therapy). In addition, Aristotle also recommended that messaging with oil can relieve tiredness.
Around 180 BC, Romans adopted a form of exercise known as gymnastics to improve physical strength. Later, in the second century, Galen, a famous physician, taught about performing modern exercises to improve the overall strength.
Physical therapy originated as a professional group that dated back to Per Henrik Ling, who is known as the "father of Swedish gymnastics." He founded the royal Central Institute of Gymnastics in the year 1813 for massage, manipulation and exercise. In 1851, the term "Physiotherapy" first appeared in its German form "Physiotherapie" in an article written by Dr. Lorenz Gleich, a military physician from Bavaria.In an English article published in Montreal Medical Journal in the year 1894, Dr. Edward Playter used the word "Physiotherapy." With time, the word "Physiotherapie" changed to "Physiotherapy" and then to "Physical therapy."
Modern physical therapy was established towards the end of the 19th century due to events that had an effect on a global scale, which called for rapid advances in physical therapy. Soon following American orthopedic surgeons began treating children with disabilities and began employing women trained in physical education, and remedial exercise. These treatments were applied and promoted further during the Polio outbreak of 1916. During the First World War women were recruited to work with and restore physical function to injured soldiers, and the field of physical therapy was institutionalized. In 1918 the term “Reconstruction Aide” was used to refer to individuals practicing physical therapy. The first school of physical therapy was established at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., following the outbreak of World War I. Research catalyzed the physical therapy movement. The first physical therapy research was published in the United States in March 1921 in “The PT Review.” In the same year, Mary McMillan organized the Physical Therapy Association (now called the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). In 1924, the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation promoted the field by touting physical therapy as a treatment for polio. Treatment through the 1940s primarily consisted of exercise, massage, and traction. Manipulative procedures to the spine and extremity joints began to be practiced, especially in the British Commonwealth countries, in the early 1950s. Around this time when polio vaccines were developed, physical therapists have become a normal occurrence in hospitals throughout North America and Europe. In the late 1950s, physical therapists started to move beyond hospital-based practice to outpatient orthopedic clinics, public schools, colleges/universities health-centres, geriatric settings (skilled nursing facilities), rehabilitation centers and medical centers. Specialization for physical therapy in the U.S. occurred in 1974, with the Orthopaedic Section of the APTA being formed for those physical therapists specializing in orthopaedics. In the same year, the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists was formed, which has ever since played an important role in advancing manual therapy worldwide.
Physiotherapy in India;
The famous Indian physician, Sushruta’s techniques of proper breathing and physical exercises are in mainstream popularity till today. His book, Sushruta Samhita, written circa 600 BC, is one of the most comprehensive treatises on the entire medical discipline, and whose detailed descriptions of surgery and medicine are relevant even today. His written works had accounts of physical therapy being used in the ancient times, like treating a joint problem with water therapy, massages and proper stretching. So the seeds of Physiotherapy were sown then.
