Frozen Shoulder Treatment
Frozen shoulder is a term for pain and stiffness in one or both of your shoulders, and is often also called “adhesive capsulitis,” referring to an inability of your shoulder joint to move in full ranges of motion because of thickening and adhesion of the capsule tissues, preventing proper movement and causing pain.
Your MD may tell you that frozen shoulder will go away on its own, and indeed this might be true, after a great deal of time in pain and with an inability to do very much with the affected shoulder. Your best bet is to get manual therapy such as physiotherapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, osteopathy or massage therapy. Oftentimes using more than one of these therapies is recommended, as multiple approaches seem to be better at tackling complex issues.
What causes frozen shoulder?
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) we say that frozen shoulder indeed does come from cold entering the body. Unfortunately this only aids in TCM diagnosis, and treatment with acupuncture (a main modality of TCM) is often as difficult as with other modalities. And the mystery behind frozen shoulder gets even more complex: the reason it starts is often unknown, possibly sometimes linked to autoimmunity, and recovery can be anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, to even a few years.
Symptoms of frozen shoulder include near constant pain, sometimes worse at night and sometimes worse in windy or colder weather. As your condition progresses you may find that the pain decreases, but that movement becomes more inhibited. Women over the age of 40 seem to be more prone to the issue, and also tend to have more trouble recovering from it as well. In addition, people with diabetes, thyroid concerns, and other chronic issues such as heart disease tend to be more susceptible.
How does natural medicine treat frozen shoulder?
An acupuncturist such as myself would likely find the more sensitive areas of your frozen shoulder and needle along the appropriate meridians, making sure to also include points into your neck and down the affected arm as well. Sometimes a series of treatments face up are a good plan, followed then by a series of treatments face down. My own experience with frozen shoulder has taught me not to expect certain things to happen along the course of recovery, but to instead try to continually adapt to changes in pain and ranges of movement.
Your chiropractor, physiotherapist, osteopath or massage therapist, on the other hand, will likely want to do range of motion exercises with you, using one or more of a variety of possible methods of breaking up the stuck tissues and increasing your range of motion. A series of this type of treatment is often a great adjunct to a series of acupuncture in the same shoulder, as they are quite different approaches and seem to together reduce pain a great deal while also improving range of motion.
Finally, you will likely also be given a series of exercises to do daily at home while recovering from frozen shoulder. This is usually necessary as letting your shoulder rest too much during your treatment process might allow some of the adhesion to come back.
If you would like to talk to one of our experts about your particular concern, we can give you a better idea of how your individual recovery process might look. For more info, call us today at 416-909-2334, or use the online booking link below to book your first treatment.
