Don’t Wait to Get Your Frozen Shoulder Treated

“Will I ever be able to reach that shelf in the kitchen?”

When you have a frozen shoulder, even simple everyday tasks like putting away your groceries are daunting, painful, or simply impossible.

Frozen shoulder can be extremely painful in its early stage; it becomes even more debilitating when the lack of range of motion sets in later on. Recovery from this condition can take months – sometimes years – for full recovery.

Although frozen shoulder is a very common condition, there are some things that are mysterious about it. Typically frozen shoulder tends to affect one side, usually the non-dominant side, but some develop the condition in both shoulders. In rare cases, patients develop frozen shoulder on the other side within five years.

It’s important to seek treatment early for frozen shoulder to avoid permanent damage to the joint. During the many months of decreased shoulder mobility the rotator cuff muscles weaken and the joint capsule tissue surrounding these muscles stiffens. This can place the shoulder at significant risk for cuff tears, arthritis, and possible osteopenia or thinning of the bones.

Without treatment, the shoulder joint can actually deteriorate to a point where full recovery becomes very difficult – if not impossible.

The risk of permanent damage however can be reduced with early physical therapy, with a focus on shoulder mobility under the guidance of a skilled health care professional. The therapist might recommend strengthening the rotator cuff muscles. A strong rotator cuff can help support your shoulder and allow it to move more freely. They might also give you exercises to work on your scapula. (One way to diagnose frozen shoulder is by observing if the scapula or shoulder blade moves excessively when you reach to the side or above you head.)

It’s important to keep mobilizing your shoulder – but don’t overdo it by making up strenuous exercises at the gym.

A Naturopathic Doctor might suggest prolotherapy – both non-surgical injection treatments that can greatly reduce pain and speed the healing process. In a prolotherapy treatment, dextrose is injected into the affected area to bring immune factors to the area and effectively stimulate the body’s own healing capacities.

Take it slow. Remember that your frozen shoulder didn’t develop overnight – it will take some time and patience to repair it with a little help from a skilled health care professional. Dr. Michael Mason-Wood, ND and the team at Natural Terrain Naturopathic Clinic are trained in alleviating joint pain. Click here to find out more about prolotherapy. 

Solutions for Chronic Pain: Part 2, Prolotherapy and Biopuncture

Pain is an alarm signal that there is something wrong going on in our bodies. When there is chronic pain, the alarm signal continues to go off for months or even years. If you are dealing with chronic pain, relief can feel hopeless, but there are a number of strategies that can be used in the treatment of chronic pain. Biopuncture and prolotherapy stimulate the body’s natural healing response at the site of pain. These injection techniques can be very helpful in the treatment of chronic pain.

Prolotherapy

Prolotherapy incorporates the use of a specifically formulated dextrose (sugar) solution injected into a ligament or tendon where it attaches to the bone. When this solution is injected, growth factors are recruited to the area. Growth factors stimulate tissue growth and the deposition of collagen, which is important in healing damaged muscle, tendons and ligaments. Prolotherapy is helpful in a variety of conditions such as torn ligaments or tendons, osteoarthritis, back pain, fibromyalgia, frozen shoulders, whiplash injuries, herniated and degenerative discs and a number of other conditions.

Biopuncture

Biopuncture is an injection of glucose-based substance with dilute botanical and homeopathic substances into areas of pain. The combination of ingredients is individualized and tailored to the patient to allow for the best outcome. The injection is made at the site of pain to help stabilize the inflammation in the musculoskeletal system. Inflammation is an important process of healing. Inflammation is the accumulation of immune cells that work to repair the damage. Biopuncture works by supporting inflammation to speed up the healing process. It treats the underlying cause instead of covering up the symptoms. Biopuncture treats a variety of musculoskeletal and chronic inflammatory conditions. 

For more treatment options, see last week’s article. Don’t live in pain any longer. Book an appointment with Dr. Mason-Wood, ND to see if these treatments are right for your chronic pain.

Is Pain Affecting Your Life? Prolotherapy May be the Answer

Exercising is such an important part of both our physical and mental health. It is one of the best ways to perform “self-care” because it supplies oxygen to our cells and regulates our mood by balancing neurotransmitters. However, if you are injured or in pain, exercising may feel out of reach.

If you are suffering from pain, whether it’s osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, back pain or a sports injury, prolotherapy may be just the thing to get you back to your daily activities.

What is Prolotherapy?

Prolotherapy, also known as “non-surgical ligament reconstruction”, is an effective way to treat the cause of pain. It has been around for over 80 years and has been effective in treating a host of conditions. Prolotherapy works by injecting a solution containing a specialized sugar called dextrose. When dextrose is injected, it stimulates the body’s natural immune response.  Growth factors are brought to the injection site and the body stimulates tissue growth to promote healing of damaged muscles, tendons, ligaments or bones.

What can it treat?

Prolotherapy can treat a number of different conditions including….

      1. Low back pain
      2. Hip & Pelvic Pain
      3. Knee & Leg pain
      4. Neck Pain
      5. Temporal mandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome
      6. Plantar fasciitis
      7. Achilles Tendinosis & ankle pain
      8. Patellar tendinopathy
      9. Shoulder pain
      10. Osgood-Schlatter Disease
      11. Groin pain
      12. Osteoarthritis
      13. Fibromyalgia
      14. Many other conditions…

Why Should You Consider Prolotherapy?

Aside from limiting the ability to exercise, chronic pain has a huge impact on quality of life. It can affect our ability to work, our relationships, our ability to perform daily tasks and it can affect our mental health. One in four Canadians live in chronic pain and it is one of the major causes of lost work hours. Luckily, Dr. Mason-Wood specializes in pain management and wants to get you back to your normal routine.

Don’t suffer from pain any longer, book your appointment with Dr. Mason-Wood today!

Resources
  1. Hauser RA, Lackner JB, Steilen-Matias D, Harris DK. A Systematic Review of Dextrose Prolotherapy for Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain. Clin Med Insights Arthritis Musculoskelet Disord. 2016;9:139-159. doi:10.4137/CMAMD.S39160
  2. Dueñas M, Ojeda B, Salazar A, Mico JA, Failde I. A review of chronic pain impact on patients, their social environment and the health care system. J Pain Res. 2016;9:457-467. doi:10.2147/JPR.S105892