Shoulder to shoulder
Shoulder pain is a common complaint today. It is the third most common complaint regarding musculo-skeletal system pain. Studies show that long term resolution of shoulder complaints are less than 50 percent when treated with typical medical protocols. After one year, that increases to 60 percent failure.
Shoulder complaints are generally categorized as: inflammatory conditions, repetitive use, structural causes of limited range of motion and muscle imbalance or weakness. Inflammatory conditions include bursitis, impingements, rotator cuff tear, degenerative processes such as osteoarthritis or autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis. Structural limitations include adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder), and tight ligaments. These categories of shoulder pain are the areas that acupuncture has the greatest effect on.
In a study done by Yuxi Hospital of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) to test the effectiveness of acupuncture for adhesive capsulitis, researchers revealed that acupuncture had “a total effective rate exceeding 90 percent." Depending upon the acupuncture technique used, the success rate varied between 94 and 96 percent.
In a large 17,922 patient meta-analysis (researching the research and throwing out questionable results) — including most research groups from the U.S. – researchers found 67 percent improvement with acupuncture. The conventional orthopedic group had a 37 percent improvement). While that is not as impressive as the Yuxi Hospital study, it still demonstrates effectiveness. I have found in my experience that it is closer to the 90 percent or more range. More than likely it is because we are treating an overall imbalance in the body, and including the proper nutrients needed to heal.
Acupuncture modulates pain by assisting your body’s nervous and immune systems to heal the damage. It has shown effectiveness in treating osteoarthritis, thoracic outlet syndrome, bursitis, frozen shoulder, rotator cuff tendonitis, tendon sheath inflammation (tenosynovitis), tendonitis, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and sprains/strains.
Shoulder injuries that obviously need surgery (such as dislocations, fractures, severe rotator cuff tears, for example) are certainly referred out to an orthopedic surgeon, but acupuncture has demonstrated success in speeding up recovery. Most traumatic injuries that don’t require surgical intervention are effectively treated by acupuncture.
When shoulder to shoulder with other therapies, each have their distinct benefits. Physical therapy, chiropractic, even steroids (initially, to control runaway inflammation) and pain pills have definite benefit. If you are suffering from shoulder pain and not getting results elsewhere, or don’t want to spend months or years on drugs to help, it may be time to consider acupuncture — it works!
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Holly Carling is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Licensed Acupuncturist, Doctor of Naturopathy, Clinical Nutritionist and Master Herbologist with nearly four decades of experience. She is currently accepting new patients and offers natural health care services and whole food nutritional supplements in her Coeur d’Alene clinic. Visit www.vitalhealthcda.com to learn more about her, view a list of upcoming health classes and read other informative articles. Carling can be reached at (208) 765-1994 and would be happy to answer any questions regarding this topic.