Shoulder articulation
A frozen shoulder is a painful restriction of your shoulder, often with no obvious cause. It gets harder and harder to move your arm, getting slowly worse over several months. This often happens to people in their 50’s and is more common if you have another long-term illness like diabetes.
The medical name of this is “adhesive capsulitis” because the tough bag or capsule that surrounds the joint starts to get stuck to itself. The inside of this bag has lots of nerve endings that are meant to tell you when you are over-stretching the joint but the adhesions mean that you get the pain signals before you reach the limit of the joint movement. This makes you wary to stretch it so you start to guard the movement, hoping it will get better if you rest it – but this is one condition that doesn’t improve with rest.
You should see a professional who understands how your joints work, as it’s all to easy to stretch it in the wrong way. It’s also important to make sure it isn’t another problem like arthritis or an injury to the joint.
Osteopaths are highly skilled manual therapists who can treat all kinds of joint, muscle and other musculoskeletal problems. Call 01375 396402 to find out more or make an appointment to end your pain!
