Do you suffer from shoulder pain? Believe it or not, you are not alone. This is a very common complaint that we see come into our office everyday!
What Causes Shoulder Pain?
Shoulder pain is often caused by either the shoulder muscles, i.e. the rotator cuff, being strained and/or chronic muscle tightness from overuse, or may be due to the nerves being stressed.
Depending on which is causing your shoulder pain, you will experience a different set of symptoms.
With rotator cuff and muscle involvement, you are likely to experience dull pain at rest and possibly sharp pain upon movement of the shoulder. You may also have difficulty using that shoulder. For example, you may not be able to reach over your head, or to carry bags over that shoulder, due to a sharp pain upon movement, or the inability to move the shoulder in that range of motion.
With nerve symptoms, it is going to depend on which nerve is affected. If the spinal nerves going to the shoulder, arm, and hand are affected, you may experience symptoms of pain, tingling, muscle tightness, weakness, or a pins and needles feeling in the body part that is affected, for example the shoulder.
Nerves In The Shoulder
The main nerves coming out of the neck into the shoulder is the brachial plexus. The brachial plexus comes out of the middle and lower neck and upper back, and branches out to the shoulder, arm, hand, and fingers.
Injury and/or “pinching” to these nerves can lead to shoulder pain. There are many things that can cause your nerves to be pinched or impinged. You may have spinal stress, been in a car accident and injured your neck and shoulder, sports or activity injuries, injuries from when you were younger, sleeping on an incorrect pillow for your body, or arthritis.
Until you are able to get to the cause of your shoulder pain, the symptoms will hang around and cause you problems. Chiropractors look to the cause and do not just treat the symptoms.
Chiropractic For Shoulder Pain
The most a medical doctor is going to be able to offer you for the management of your shoulder pain is pain medication, muscle relaxers, and prescribed sessions of physical therapy. If there is a tear to one of the rotator cuff muscles, they may suggest surgery for repair.
If you take the medication, you are only treating the symptoms, and you are not fixing the cause of pain. This means that someday down the road, maybe tomorrow or maybe in 5 years, you will experience shoulder pain again. Why? Because the cause of your pain was not addressed and not fixed. Additionally, you are now at risk for experiencing possible side effects from the medications that may bring on another whole set of problems.
Physical therapy will bring some pain relief and increased range of motion. But typically, physical therapy will only treat the shoulder and symptoms, and again not necessarily look to the cause. And if your insurance runs out, you either have to stop the sessions before healing has taken place, or expect to pay $150-$500 per session cash out of your pocket.
Chiropractic is the best value for your money and most all encompassing care for your condition. Chiropractic will relieve the nerve stress, address and treat the tight muscles, and allow the spine, as well as the rest of your body to function normally. Chiropractors address the cause of your shoulder pain, and then put together a treatment plan that involves specific chiropractic adjustments, massage, therapy, stretches, exercises, strengthening, and overall healing to the structures involved. And this is all done with a proven natural and drug-free approach permitting your body to heal without unnecessary side effects.
Chiropractic will provide you with excellent results for your shoulder pain, no matter what the cause. We see and treat shoulders everyday in our office with great success. Chiropractic works better than drugs, injections, and surgery. I encourage you to seek out a local chiropractor in your area today and to discover the many benefits that chiropractic has to offer you for better health.
If you liked this article, please comment and share below on Facebook.
P.S. There are also natural treatments that you can utilize at home to assist in your shoulder becoming healthy, as well as to help with your pain. Essential oils may offer relief from pain, as well as analgesic rubs.
