One of the biggest patient concerns we see in our midtown practice in New York is patients with shoulder pain. It has become more and more frequent and we are treating more and more patients with it. Fortunately, we do have the tools to help with it through chiropractic care and specific adjustments and therapies that help improve function and reduce pain.
By far the most common reasons for shoulder pain are the loss of humeral inferior glide and reduced shoulder stability on the rotator cuff.
We have several ways of treating both conditions.
For the humeral inferior glide, we can have the patient lay on their back and have them hold their arm up at 90 degrees from their body and then support that arm with ours and with the free hand, cup over the top of the shoulder and produce short, sharp movements in batches of 3 up to 12 times. And then we can maneuver the arm a little to another angle and repeat again. This helps to free up the gliding mechanism within the shoulder to get it to work properly again.
Another action we can perform is again with his arm held out and at 90 degrees to the body and supporting the elbow, allow the forearm to drop to a comfortable position and then place our hand over the patient’s and ask them to push upwards and hold the position with the hand.
For the rotator cuff, we can do some myofascial trigger point therapies to help break up adhesions in the area. We can also direct you in specific exercises that will help to restore proper range of motion based on your condition. And we can also do manual therapy with our hands or instruments to help free up problem joint areas as well.
Shoulder pain is unfortunately becoming more and more common, but with these techniques we can help to provide our patients with relief from their pain while increasing proper range of motion. With the range of motion corrected, then dysfunctional movements will decrease leading to less inflammation and pain.
In pain? Want a tune up?
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