Recovering from frozen shoulder

The technical name for frozen shoulder is ‘adhesive capsulitis’ and this gives you a hint as to what it is and why it’s such an uncomfortable condition. The shoulder joint has a capsule around it to contain the fluid that keeps the joint moving freely and smoothly. In frozen shoulder, the capsule becomes inflamed, leading to that ‘stuck’ feeling.

This is a painful condition that gradually limits the movement in the shoulder and greatly impacts your day-to-day life. There are three stages to the problem and, unfortunately, it can take up to two years for full recovery.

1. Freezing stage: Painful and increasing limitations in shoulder movement.

2. Frozen stage: Less painful and sometimes pain free, the shoulder has limited movement but has stopped worsening.

3. Thawing stage: Painless, the shoulder gradually regains its normal range of movement.

It’s not entirely known what causes frozen shoulder, but sometimes problems in the back and neck can be found alongside the problem. It’s here that Osteopathy can become key to reducing the discomfort and improving your movement, allowing easier movements in daily life. If the shoulder pain is caused by a problem in your back or neck, the root cause needs to be sorted to prevent symptoms returning.

The long recovery time can lead to lots of compensation patterns forming. Try to imagine reaching for something high on a shelf, but you can’t lift your arm far over your head. What are you going to do to reach further? My guess is that you’ll go onto tiptoes, lean forward with your body from your hips and twist your spine in order to reach that bit higher! Osteopathy can help keep the rest of your body strong and moving freely to allow you to adapt to the reduced shoulder movement without causing further problems. The most common areas that are over-working are the arm, neck and upper back.

Exercises to gently encourage movement in the shoulder are essential. I adapt these to each person depending on the amount of movement they have and their pain levels. Although you want to encourage the movement, you don’t want to force the shoulder into moving because this can cause further injury to the joint and the muscles.

To help manage the pain, ice can be a really good local painkiller. GPs can prescribe painkillers if the pain is too much and the ice doesn’t give relief for long enough. Avoiding lying on the affected arm can help reduce the pain during sleep; if there’s one thing that makes pain harder to cope with, it’s sleep deprivation! It’s best to sleep on the other side and prop the affected arm up with a cushion in front of you to allow it to relax fully without causing pain.

Once someone is well on the way to recovery, I check their general posture and strength, then use hands on treatment as well as exercise prescription to rehabilitate the whole body. This is really important to help reduce the risk of problems reoccurring in the future and it also restores confidence in the body and returning back to normal activities. After a long time with pain, it can be difficult to get that trust back.

Hopefully this has given you an idea about how Osteopathy can help frozen shoulder and the problems associated with it. In the unlikely event of a course of hands on treatment and exercises not helping, your GP can refer you for steroid injections or surgery. The outcomes are mixed, so it’s only recommended when manual therapy hasn’t been successful. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in contact:

Call me on 07543 557746

Email zoeclarkosteopath@gmail.com

“Like” my facebook page ‘Zoë Clark Osteopathy’

Follow me on Twitter @ZoeClarkOsteo
Follow on Instagram @zoetheosteo

Zoë Clark is a registered osteopath trained at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine in London. Practicing in Howe near Norwich (01508 558373) and Diss (07543 557746) in Norfolk.