Human body is indeed a marvel. The human body is built with complex systems allowing humans to thrive and strive. This makes humans one of the intelligent creatures that is able to survive in many environments through adaptation while having the ability to socialise. Body parts such as limbs enable humans to move things around and as a means of mobility. When something is wrong with the limbs, some may opt for medical supplements to help improve the limb’s condition.
One of the diseases affecting the limbs is a frozen shoulder. Frozen shoulder or also known as adhesive capsulitis is characterised by pain and stiffness in the shoulder. This limits the shoulder movement. Frozen shoulders may occur for months and at times, even years. Frozen shoulder usually begins with an injury like fracture, overuse injuries or inflammation to the soft tissues surrounding the shoulder joint. Immobility due to diseases or medical conditions such as from stroke, surgery and heart condition may result in frozen shoulders. Although, there is no clear cut on why people get frozen shoulder. People with thyroid diseases, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes have higher risk for developing frozen shoulder. Frozen shoulder is common in those between the ages 40 to 60.
Symptoms of frozen shoulder are usually a pain sensation that is dull or aching. Typically, the pain can be felt over the outer shoulder area and sometimes the upper arm area. The pain usually gets worse when a person tries to move the arm. Since moving the arm can be painful, frozen shoulder often leads to limited arm movement. The pain and limited movement are caused by the thickening and contracting soft tissues surrounding the shoulder joint limiting the ability to stretch. This led to the humerus bone of the upper limb having less space to move in the capsule of thicken soft tissues and the joint loses its lubrication that is supposed to ease shoulder movement.
Due to the nature of this disease leading to discomfort, getting treatment can greatly help the person feel better and improve the shoulder movement. Before any treatment is done, doctors will do physical examinations to determine severity of the limited shoulder movement. Imaging tests such as X-ray, ultrasound or MRI scan may be suggested to get a clear picture of the causes for the stiffness and pain.
There are treatments available to help treat this condition. To find out the best treatment of frozen shoulder is quite difficult as the long course of this disease itself may make many patients lose hope on healing. Currently, the best treatments for frozen shoulder are physiotherapy. Treatment in physiotherapy includes stretching exercises, strength exercises, range-of-motion exercises and posture fix. Progress can be seen around a few weeks up to a year. If you are not seeing any improvement in 6 months after such exercises, do talk to healthcare providers on other alternatives available.
The best treatment does not mean the first thing to do when experiencing a frozen shoulder. First thing to do when experiencing this is to take pain relief such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). You may place ice packs on the shoulder for 10 to 15 minutes a day to help ease the pain. Reasons being pain is usually the dominant complaint caused by frozen shoulders. Always try to move the shoulder and not keep it still as this may worsen the pain. If pain or swelling does not subside, corticosteroid injection may be offered by doctors. You may ask for doctor’s advice on what exercises or therapy you can get to help restore the shoulder movement. Most people are likely to be able to do usual activity after completing a series of frozen shoulder exercises. Most people do recover from frozen shoulders but it usually takes 1 to 3 years.
