The Stiff or “Frozen” Shoulder
Although not related to the cold weather of winter, I thought it would be helpful to discuss a common shoulder problem known as “adhesive capsulitis” or “frozen shoulder.” Frozen shoulder most often affects people between the ages of 40 and 60 and is more common in women. Normal shoulder function depends on pain-free, fluid, and unrestricted motion of the joint. As such, patients afflicted with frozen shoulder can be significantly debilitated with everyday activities such as work, recreation, and sleep impacted. Though the cause of frozen shoulder is not clearly understood, there are certain known risk factors. Below we’ll delve into the symptoms, risk factors, and possible treatment options for frozen shoulder.
Symptoms
Frozen shoulder results from thickening of the tissue that surrounds and stabilizes the shoulder joint making it tight and difficult to move. The tissue may also become significantly inflamed and or irritated making motion of the shoulder painful. Frozen shoulder often follows three predictable phases each with slightly different symptoms as outlined below.
•A dull ache and onset of worsening pain during the first stage (“freezing phase”).
•A slight reduction in pain during the second stage (“frozen phase”) where the shoulder becomes significantly stiff with very little mobility in the shoulder.
•A slow return to normal and pain-free motion in the shoulder in the final stage (thawing phase).
Each phase may last from a few weeks to several months with the complete course of the condition lasting for 18-24 months.
Risk Factors
There are certain factors that can make a person more likely to develop frozen shoulder. These includes:
•Diabetes
•Thyroid dysfunction (hypo- or hyperthyroidism)
•Parkinson’s disease
•Cardiac disease
•Immobility. If a person becomes immobile for a period of time, usually do to a surgical procedure or injury, then their risk for developing frozen shoulder increases.
Treatment
The most common treatment for frozen shoulder is non-surgical with the aim to reduce irritation and pain in the shoulder and then slowly regain full motion through gentle stretching exercises.
Common treatment methods include:
•Anti-inflammatory medicine
•Steroid injections
•Physical Therapy – both home stretching and office-based treatments
In rare cases where non-surgical treatment fails to resolve the condition, surgery is generally very successful at restoring full shoulder function. The procedure is done athroscopically, or through tiny incisions, and involves gentle manipulation of the shoulder with the patient anesthetized as well as release or cutting of any tight scar tissue around the shoulder.
Hmm it looks like your blog ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any suggestions for rookie blog writers? I’d certainly appreciate it.
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. After all I will be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!|
Nice to you, I am Oma Dismukes but I am like and also exercising . use my full term. I’ve always cherished living in colorado. One created by my chosen hobbies is really handwriting also I definitely will never this really is doing this method. The job he’s been taking up for time is a major interviewer regrettably he intentions of changing which it.
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your blog when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?
Simply desire to say your article is as surprising. The clearness in your post is simply great and i can assume you’re an expert on this subject. Well with your permission allow me to grab your feed to keep up to date with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please keep up the rewarding work.|
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d most certainly donate to this fantastic blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to brand new updates and will share this blog with my Facebook group. Chat soon!
Unquestionably believe that which you said. Your favorite reason appeared to be on the internet the easiest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get irked while people consider worries that they plainly do not know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the whole thing without having side effect , people can take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thanks
I truly appreciate this post. I have been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You have made my day! Thanks again
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your website. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create your theme? Outstanding work!
Today, I went to the beach with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!
Good day I am so thrilled I found your web site, I really found you by mistake, while I was searching on Yahoo for something else, Regardless I am here now and would just like to say cheers for a marvelous post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read it all at the moment but I have book-marked it and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the excellent job.
Hey there! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could locate a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having problems finding one? Thanks a lot!|
Howdy! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this site? I’m getting sick and tired of WordPress because I’ve had problems with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives for another platform. I would be fantastic if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.|
It truly is the kinda regular mail I have been hunting for. Once in a while I struggle to find what exactly I have been searching for from Ask nevertheless it would seem these sessions it succeeded in my opinion! With thanks for your help.
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates. I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this. Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.
Wow that was odd. I just wrote an extremely long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted to say great blog!
Hello there! This is kind of off topic but I need some help from an established blog. Is it very hard to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty quick. I’m thinking about creating my own but I’m not sure where to start. Do you have any points or suggestions? With thanks
Our prepared department including enthusiastically encountered world wide wed graphic designers try and give out presentation adjusted goods and services. They strive to create together with build distinguished online forums that assists in subscribes to amass their variety from the web in the most beneficial and perhaps cost-efficient way.
Hi! I’ve been reading your weblog for a long time now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Austin Texas! Just wanted to mention keep up the good job!
It’s great that you are getting ideas from this article as well as from our dialogue made at this time.|
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your website. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create your theme? Exceptional work!
Hey there! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be bookmarking and checking back frequently!
This is the right site for anybody who wishes to find out about this topic. You realize so much its almost tough to argue with you (not that I really would want to…HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a topic that’s been written about for many years. Wonderful stuff, just excellent!|