Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine is a Toronto naturopathic clinic dedicated to providing safe and effective treatment of a wide variety of health conditions using natural therapies and the principles of naturopathic medicine.
Frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis) is well treated using naturopathic medicine. Frozen shoulder is caused by inflammation of the shoulder capsule, resulting in inflammation and stiffness and ultimately the development of adhesions between joint surfaces and decreased range of motion.
The precise cause of frozen shoulder is unknown. Possible causes include shoulder injury or prolonged immobilization (e.g., after an arm fracture). Persons with diabetes mellitus are at a greater risk for frozen shoulder. Frozen shoulder can lead to such a significant loss of mobility to the point that performing activities of daily living (e.g., brushing teeth) can become difficult or even impossible.
Professional healthcare should be sought if experience significant pain combined with stiffness and restricted mobility in your shoulder.
Symptoms of frozen shoulder
Possible symptoms of frozen shoulder include:
• Pain with any shoulder movement concomitant to decreasing shoulder mobility (“painful stage”)
• Diminishing pain concomitant to further decrease in shoulder mobility (“frozen stage”)
• Improved shoulder mobility (“thawing stage”)
• Pain increases at night
Treatment of frozen shoulder at Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine, the goals of frozen shoulder treatment are to reduce shoulder pain intensity and immobility, identify and address causes to prevent recurrence and manage possible side-effects from conventional treatments.
Conventional treatment for frozen shoulder may include physical therapy, and variety of medications, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), injected corticosteroids and surgery. These treatments may have short- or long-term side effects. For this reason, you may choose to try natural treatment to possibly avoid use of conventional treatments, or together with conventional medications in order to decrease dosages of conventional medications required to manage your frozen shoulder symptoms.
Naturopathic treatment of any chronic health concern must be recognized as a process that involves identifying specific treatment goals, a thorough understanding by your naturopathic doctor of all factors affecting your health, including physical, psychological, emotional and lifestyle factors, development of a comprehensive treatment plan and execution of that plan through periodic monitoring and adjustment.
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine, a typical approach to treating frozen shoulder may be to identify and address underlying factors in your lifestyle (e.g., immobility) or general health (e.g., systemic diseases such as an diabetes mellitus, hyper- or hypothyroidism, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease) that may be contributing to your frozen shoulder symptoms, decrease pain using botanical (herbal) medicines and increase mobility using acupuncture, Bowen therapy or Suikodo™.
Where appropriate, a number of therapeutic options are available, to be used alone, or more often in a complementary fashion, including:
• Acupuncture
• Bowen Therapy
• Suikodo™
• Exercise prescription
• Hydrotherapy
• Relaxation techniques
• Homeopathic medicines
• Diet therapy
• Nutritional supplements
• Botanical (herbal) medicines
• Lifestyle counseling
References
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Frozen shoulder [Online]. [cited 2010 Jan 13]; Available from: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/frozen-shoulder/DS00416.