It’s an ailment that most commonly affects those over forty years of age, and women more than men. It can start suddenly and without warning. One night you go to bed, and the next morning you can’t move your shoulder an inch without severe pain. It’s a very inconvenient ailment, as it is quite difficult to get around, dress and care for yourself without any shoulder movement at all.

Causes of frozen shoulder vary and could include fractures or torn tendons. For many people, the cause is mostly normal wear and tear, overuse and lack of use. The most common treatments start with rest, ice and pain relievers. Ultrasound may be used along with physical therapy that includes stretching and strengthening exercises.

But some doctors may choose to start out with an injection of corticosteroids right off the bat. Others may choose to wait and see if less invasive therapies work.

The danger is that if the frozen shoulder does not resolve using these methods, surgery is usually recommended.

In a completely different and drug-free approach, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners have been having great success treating frozen shoulders with Acupuncture.

In one report written by two practitioners, 50 patients were treated with Acupuncture and massage. Points on the affected shoulder, plus the hand and arm on the same side were treated – as many as 4 to 8 points at a time. In 48 out of the 50 cases, the condition resolved and the other 2 cases showed improvement.

Another report from Dr. Li Lingling described her work with 61 patients. Treatment of each patient alternated 5 different points of Acupuncture and again, massage was added for the muscles and Acupuncture points. After only 5 treatments, 58 of these cases showed improvement and 25 of them resolved completely.

With acupuncture, anyone who wakes up to a frozen shoulder has a safe, drug-free and surgery-free option to address the problem with a high likelihood of excellent results.

Tags: acupuncture Berkeley CA, Berkeley CA acupuncturist, Berkeley Frozen Shoulder

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 16th, 2012 at 1:32 pm and is filed under Health Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.