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Could you be Suffering from Frozen Shoulder?

What is Frozen Shoulder?
If you are experiencing stiffness and loss of movement in your shoulder joint, you may be suffering from frozen shoulder, also known as Adhesive Capsulitis.  This condition is very different from a rotator cuff injury or tendonitis, because the joint capsule is the area affected.  The other two conditions stem from issues with the muscles and tendons of the shoulder joint.

What Makes up the Shoulder Joint?
The shoulder joint is a very complicated area of the body. It contains a varied combination of bone, muscle and tendonous tissue and provides extensive range of motion for your arm. The fact that this joint is so moveable presents a downside – it is a very unstable joint.  This instability makes the shoulder joint an area that is easily injured.

There are three bones in the shoulder, the collar bone, upper arm bone, shoulder blade.  This joint is also made up of the tendons of four of the main shoulder muscles that attach to these bones enabling us to move our arm in a complete circle.

Frozen shoulder can develop in the area where the upper arm bone fits into the shoulder socket.  When this condition occurs, you get stiffness and lose your range of motion because of inflammation of the tissues.

What Causes Frozen Shoulder?
There is no known single cause of frozen shoulder.  However this condition usually begins after an injury to the joint, the development of arthritis in the joint, or from issues related to surgery on the shoulder joint.  Having poor posture can lead to this condition by creating a shortening of the ligaments and tissues around the shoulder. Other theories on specific causes that can lead to this condition are hormonal imbalances, which have led some doctors to label this as ‘menopausal frozen shoulder’.

What are the Symptoms of Frozen Shoulder?
Pain and stiffness are the most common reported symptoms of frozen shoulder. Pain is usually described as a persistent, dull ache and sufferers experience problems in taking the shoulder and arm through its full range of motion.  People with this condition have difficulty lifting their arm above their head or away from their bodies at all.  They also experience problems with inward rotation of their arm.

Frozen shoulder normally is said to have three stages.

Stage one, is the development of mild pain and stiffness in the shoulder. This stage can last from a few weeks to a few months and is usually known as the freezing stage.
Stage two, stiffness remains but the pain begins to subside. This stage can last from a few months to nearly a year and is known as the frozen stage.
Stage three, the shoulder and arm begin to regain movement and more normal range of motion. This stage can also last a few months and is knows as the thawing stage.

Recovery can happen within 4 to 6 months, but some cases have lasted for several years.

Treatment
Treatment for this condition consists of pain reduction and some sort of manual tissue manipulation like massage.  In the more progressed stages, physical therapy may be needed to help regain movement in the joint.  Anti-inflammatory medication is usually given at the start and during manual treatment to make it bearable for the sufferer.  Heat is also helpful to loosen the muscles and encourages new circulation to the joint, bringing in nutrition to the tissues.

One of the best ways to increase circulation to an injured area is massage therapy. Massage is also a good way to reduce scar tissue that can often result from injury to tissues.

Some doctors will tell their patients to stop moving.  This approach can actually aggravate and encourage this condition.  Gently moving the joint will help to keep good circulation to the affected area.  Don’t move in a way that causes pain, but don’t completely stop moving.  There are some specific exercises and stretches that can be done to help keep the joint lose and accelerate the healing process.

How Can I Prevent Frozen Shoulder?
Preventing injury in the first place is a great strategy.  The better condition your shoulder joint is in, the less likely you will become injured.  Two great ways to ensure healthy shoulder joints are stretching and strengthening the muscles and other tissues of the shoulder joint. The prevention of frozen shoulder and other shoulder injuries comes down the conditioning of the shoulder muscles, tendons and ligaments, which ultimately involves both stretching and strengthening of the shoulder.  A good rule to follow is to always warm up your muscles properly before strenuous activity.  Following are two stretches that are good for the shoulder area.

Warm up your muscles first with some gently movement and only take the stretch movements to a comfortable level, don’t cause yourself pain while doing these.

Shoulder Stretches

#1  Stand upright and clasp you hands behind your back. Keep your arms straight and slowly lift your hands upwards. Hold this stretch for about 15 to 20 seconds and then repeat it 3 to 4 times.

#2  Place one arm across your body, keeping it parallel to the ground. Then slowly pull your elbow towards your body. As above hold this stretch for about 15 to 20 seconds and then repeat it 3 to 4 times.

Stretching is a very effective technique that can help prevent injuries and improve athletic performance.  To help you improve your flexibility quickly and safely, you can’t go wrong with The Stretching Handbook & DVD.   In these helpful guides you can see step by step how to do each stretch correctly.  To see four great exercises to help strengthen the shoulder joint muscles, check out http://familydoctor.org/handouts/265.html.