Shoulder Pain

If you or someone you know has shoulder pain, you’re not alone. According to Physician and Sportsmedicine Online (www.physsportsmed.com), there are about 4 million people suffering from shoulder problems on any given day. We ask a lot of our shoulders. This joint has the largest range of motion and yet it also must be strong and stable to allow us to move heavy objects. When we have pain in or near the shoulder it can vary from being a simple annoyance to be incapacitating. I see a lot of shoulder troubles in my clinic and have found acupuncture to be a very effective treatment for most of those problems.

Quick Anatomy Lesson
Most of us tend to think of the shoulder as only consisting of the joint between the humerus (our arm bone) and the scapula (the shoulder blade), but actually there are two other joints involved. The clavicle (collar bone) articulates with both the scapula and the manubrium (the top of the sternum in the center of our chest). Also, there are 19 muscles that can affect the shoulder.

The most common shoulder troubles I see are rotator cuff injuries. The rotator cuff is comprised of four muscles and their tendons whose function is to stabilize the shoulder joint. These muscles often develop micro tears or worse resulting in inflammation, pain and/or weakness. Sometimes these injuries are due to repetitive movements such as in tennis, swimming, golf or baseball. Other times they are the result of imbalance in the muscles. This is most often brought about by poor posture, i.e. sitting at a desk hunched over.

Frozen Shoulder
Middle-aged women have a tendency to get what is commonly called frozen shoulder. In this condition the shoulder has very little range of motion and there can be excruciating pain associated with it. Sometimes patients report that they literally woke up with the pain and frozen shoulder. Most, however, report that they had a sore shoulder for a long time, but just dealt with it. Traditional treatment involves physical therapy, anti-inflammatories and steroids. It can take up to two years to resolve. In severe cases surgery is needed to sew up the tears and to clean out calcification. I am currently treating two frozen shoulder patients and they are getting great results by combining acupuncture with physical therapy. One of my patients has had the bad luck of having frozen shoulder twice. She reports that this time with the acupuncture added to her treatment she is progressing much faster.

Treatment
I treat shoulder pain the same as any other musculoskeletal problem. I test to determine the muscles affected then I needle motor points (see Motor Point newsletter on my website) as well as traditional Chinese medicine point combinations that are designed to help underlying conditions. I also will recommend stretches and exercises, and often refer the patient to their doctor to get a further diagnosis. My advice is to not ignore shoulder pain. If you are experiencing pain, weakness or restriction in your range of motion please get it checked out and remember that acupuncture can be a very effective treatment.

back to newsletter index