C1 Blog

The great problem with adhesive capsulitis (a.k.a. frozen shoulder) is that there is no standard agreed treatment for it. Now the reason for this, I suspect, is because there is no really good understanding of cause – signs and symptoms yes, but cause, no. Therefore addressing the underlying problem becomes a real issue: if there is no understood cause to tackle then curing it is always going to be difficult. So loads of stuff is written about treating the symptoms – which itself has value and several approaches have been advocated (have a look on the internet and see how many options are open to you). However, there have only been a few good research studies on AC and they only looked at a few of the options available. (And here’s a thought, a lack of fully rounded research into complementary care is explainable as it would be hard to gather enough cases to conduct a study. This is unfortunate but reasonable, especially taking into consideration how ‘conservative’ many of these procedures are. Cutting your shoulder ligaments apart or sticking some serious drugs into your joints similarly suffers from a paucity of research which is a little strange considering how un-conservative the treatments are – how did they get away with that one I wonder).

When assessing the claims of some available treatments remember that the condition will fully recover on its own even without any treatment whatsoever. So, bearing this in mind, surely the aim of treatment is either to relieve pain while nature gets on with resolving the underlying problem or to speed up the recovery process and both if at all possible. So then choose a therapy which:
1. Reduces pain.
2. Accelerates healing
3. Causes no further damage

So what do we choose?

Painkillers – well, yes they clearly have there place but let’s call them what they really are Painmaskers as ‘killers’ is a marketing deceit designed to give us the impression that the pain has gone (and therefore you are mended) when actually the structures are just as damaged and likely to get worse as you abuse them thinking you are fine.

Injections – have a place but here’s a bit I found on the web:
“Repeated cortisone injections are not healthy for tissues. Small amounts of cortisone in the body are probably reasonable, but repeated injections can cause damage to tissues over time. Sometimes this is of little concern. For example, if a patient has severe knee arthritis, and a cortisone injection every 6 months helps significantly, then the number of injections probably does not matter too much. On the other hand, if a patient has shoulder tendonitis, but an otherwise healthy shoulder, the number of injections should probably be limited to prevent further damage to these tendons.” Did you notice the word damage to tissues – what! How on earth can that be anything but wrong – it’s like saying collateral damage is good. Madness. Try anything before going here as I suspect you are going to need those damaged structures to work in the future.

Massage therapy – done well is certainly the first step. We at C1 Chiropractic Health Centre advocate this alongside some chiropractic manipulation of the neck (C5 dermatome stuff).

Acupuncture – I think so but I’ll let others comment on this.

Surgery – Please don’t be tempted to rush into a surgical treatment option until you have really, really, really explored all the other treatment choices.