Shoulder Pain . . . It’s Back

Did you know that people who get over shoulder pain on their own or just with pain meds will have the same or worse problem again 52% to 73% of the time?

This is according to research in the British Medical Journal and the American Family Physician. Among athletes who routinely perform overhead motions, the recurrence rate reaches 90%!

The problem is that people often think of shoulder pain as a one-time injury. “I just overdid it.” “I must have slept on it wrong.” In fact, shoulder pain so bad you stop doing your normal activities or start taking pain meds usually results from some sort of subtle dysfunction or imbalance. The dysfunction repetitively creates small damages to the structures in the shoulder, and occasionally, an episode of pain flares up.

An interesting fact about the shoulder is that the neck, head, and shoulder operate as one functional unit. Many of the actions performed with the shoulder require coordinated stability at the neck. Often, pain experienced at the shoulder is due in part to limited range of motion in the neck or thoracic spine or a muscle imbalance that causes one to carry the head just 2 cm too far forward.

In most of these cases, these problems can be corrected. At Advanced Physiotherapy, we have rehabilitated more than 5,000 shoulders over the past fifteen years. We start with a complete evaluation. We don’t just look at the shoulder and work on the shoulder. We assess the function of every structure that contributes to the proper functioning of the shoulder. We go into detail about your sporting techniques, equipment, workplace ergonomics, sleeping ergonomics, and activities at home. Good physiotherapy can often replace the need for surgery in certain shoulder cases such as subacromial impingement. In short, we evaluate all contributors to your situation, so we can let you know exactly what’s going on and show you exactly how to fix it, once and for all.

Free E-Book: Understanding Shoulder Pain

References:

Winters JC, et al. Treatment of shoulder complaints in general practice: long-term results of a randomized, single blind study comparing physiotherapy, manipulation, and corticosteroid injection. BMJ; 318: 1395-6.
Woodward TW, Best TM. The Painful Shoulder: Part II. Acute and Chronic Disorders. Am Fam Phys; 61 (11): 3291-3302.