Chiropractic Care For Your Frozen Shoulder

The first time I heard of the condition known casually as “frozen shoulder”, I thought it was a pretty silly name. However, as silly as it may sound, having a frozen shoulder is no laughing matter, as I learned from an article by Chiropractic Now that I recently read.

After my mom got a diagnosis of a frozen shoulder, I decided to do some reading on the matter, so I could be better informed of what exactly she was dealing with.

As it turns out, having a frozen shoulder is actually a pretty common problem, especially for older women, or people who also have conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, or cardiovascular disease.

The symptoms of a frozen shoulder are pretty obvious, and they make the need for treatment that much more immediate. A frozen shoulder tends to develop over the course of three stages. The first stage is known as the freezing stage. This is when the pain and immobility begins to make itself well known to the patient. Generally, almost any movement of the shoulder will cause pain at this stage. Since many people tend to avoid getting treatment at this stage, hoping that it will just go away with time, the shoulder tends to progress into the full frozen stage. The interesting part about this stage is that the physical pain actually tends to go away at this point, which leads to a false sense of relief and security for the patient.

Unfortunately, this relief tends to be very short lived, since the shoulder quickly becomes completely stiff, to the point where any movement is either excruciating or downright impossible. This is the stage when patients tend to realize that something is wrong in their shoulders, and they start to seek out professional medical help as a result. Once a patient receives the proper diagnosis of a frozen shoulder, they can begin to start getting the treatment they need to restore mobility and relieve the pain, stiffness, and discomfort in the area.

Chiropractic care has been scientifically shown to be one of the most effective and safe, not to mention completely natural, methods used to treat cases of frozen shoulder. A chiropractor will work to use applied pressure to the joints near the shoulder in order to gradually restore mobility and decrease discomfort in the area. With time and proper treatment, the patient enters the final stage, known as the thawing out stage, where the shoulder’s range of motion begins to improve.

Used under Creative Commons Licensing courtesy of Ruth Hartnup