Frozen Shoulder Treatment

As I said, if you really want to know more about frozen shoulder then have a look at some of the other lenses on the subject, but I'll cover the basics for you.

The medical term for frozen shoulder is adhesive capsulitis.
The condition usually starts with a loss of motion and some pain.
It then becomes very stiff and painfull, especiallly painfull at night.
The most common description of the pain is 'like tooth ache in the arm'.

The worst thing: it lasts on average for 18-24 months.

The usual conservative treatments are pain killers, physiotherapy and an exercise program, followed by cortisone injections when nothing works. Cortisone usually fails too.

Getting a good physiotherapist who knows how to really treat frozen shoulder is pot-luck on the NHS, but its always worth trying, despite what I just said. The problem with exercise is that one exercise may work for one person, but make another worse!

Acupunture can be great for temporary pain relief, but it may not restore the lost movement.

Massage therapist, osteopaths and chiropractors have probably all had individual successes with frozen shoulder patients, but probably not consistent results.

Various muscle rubs and supplements rarely seem to do much.

What does work though, with amazing consistency, is the Niel-Asher Technique.

The theory behind the Niel-Asher Technique is that the brain has somehow lost proper control over the shoulder muscles so they no longer contract in the correct sequence. This then leads to damage both in the muscles and to the soft tissue covering of the joint itself.

The technique employs a specific sequence of shoulder manipulations and mobilizations to get the shoulder and brain working together again. Although painful at the time patients always describe it as a good pain and see almost immediate results in creased shoulder movement.

The terrible nagging, toothache pain that keeps frozen shoulder victims up all night is usually one of the first symptoms to go.

I have found that it almost always best to start gently with the technique and explore a few other complicating factors.

The two most common problems I find that may have caused the Frozen Shoulder in the first place are spinal misalignment and something called dental distress syndrome (I'll do a lens on this soon). Both of these conditions interfere with shoulder muscle co-ordination and treatment can further enhance the Niel-Asher Technique.

Once the shoulder is moving more I have found various other sift tissue techniques - including one I learned from a world Kung Fu champion - speed the process along in helping to restore full shoulder mobility.

So far, I have never found the technique to fail on true frozen shoulder - but it does not work on all shoulder conditions, so proper diagnosis by a skilled professional is essential.

There is one condition which seems to decrease the effectiveness of the technique, and that us diabetes. I'm not sure if it is the condition itself, or the drugs that slow results, but I have found a remedy for that too. Simply eating more raw food - vegetables and salad rather than fruit - seems to bring diabetes under more control with less drugs.