Recently, Ms. Zhang came to Hunan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine for treatment due to shoulder pain, stiff shoulder and limited mobility. She said her shoulders were "frozen" and made her tears hurt at the slightest movement, and her symptoms were even more pronounced at night. After examination by Huang Zhen, deputy chief physician of the Third Department of Bone Injury, Ms. Zhang was diagnosed with periarthritis of the shoulder.
Periarthritis of the shoulder (hereinafter referred to as frozen shoulder) is also known as "frozen shoulder", "fifty shoulder", etc. According to TCM, this disease belongs to the category of "paralysis". When the human body liver and kidney are lost and qi and blood are weak, if you encounter wind and evil, cold evil, and wet evil and take advantage of the deficiency, it can lead to blood not nourishing tendons, menstrual blood is not smooth, and then there is a "pain if it is not passed".
Frozen shoulder is a chronic, specific inflammation of the shoulder capsule and its surrounding ligaments, tendons, and bursa characterized by shoulder pain, especially at night, with limited and increasing shoulder mobility, and gradual relief until complete recovery. At the time of onset, the shoulder may be extensively tender and radiate to the neck and elbows, and varying degrees of deltoid muscle atrophy may occur. If not treated effectively, it can seriously affect the functional activity of the shoulder joint.
Frozen shoulder can be divided into three stages
Pain period (lasting 2~9 months) is mainly painful, pain can involve the shoulder joint, upper arm, elbow, and even forearm, which is aggravated during activity and affects sleep.
Stiff phase (lasting 4~12 months) is mainly joint stiffness, and patients cannot achieve full range of motion even if they endure pain or use the help of the other hand.
Recovery period (lasting 5~26 months) Pain and stiffness gradually subside or disappear.
Rehabilitation exercises are an important way to prevent and treat frozen shoulder. Before undergoing rehabilitation training, patients should do a good job of local warm-up, can take a hot bath before starting to practice, or use a hot towel to cover the affected shoulder for 10~15 minutes.
Below, I will introduce you to a few exercises suitable for patients with frozen shoulder to practice.
Wall climbing exercise
Take a standing position, face the wall, keep a distance of 1/3 arm from the wall, slowly crawl up along the wall with both hands or one hand, so that the upper limbs are raised as high as possible, and then slowly go down back to the original place, 10~20 times a day.
Draw circles back and forth with a flat lift
Take the standing or sitting position, raise your hands sideways, palm forward, keep the elbow and wrist joints still, draw circles forward and backward shoulder joints, and cross repeatedly, 15~20 times each.
Hold sideways with bare hands
Take the standing or sitting position, stretch your arms straight, and lift forward flat, side flat, and up, repeat 10~15 times for 1 time, 3 times a day.
Circle the shoulders back and forth
Take the standing position, the affected arm naturally droops, the elbow is straight, the affected arm is circled forward, up, and backward in turn, the amplitude is from small to large, and repeated 10~15 times for 1 time, 10 times a day.
The shoulder blades are extended forward and retracted
Take the standing position, stretch your arms flat forward, palms facing each other, keep still, stretch and retract the shoulder blades before and then back, experience the feeling of the shoulder blades on both sides close together, repeat 15~20 times.
Bare hand
Take the standing position, the shoulder blades and shoulders are close to the wall, palms forward, fingertips up, arms straight up, arms along the wall up and down slowly do pushing movements, experience the feeling of shoulder blades on both sides close together, repeat 15~20 times.
Once frozen shoulder occurs in middle-aged and elderly people, they should seek medical attention in time and carry out functional exercises to achieve the purpose of reducing shoulder pain, shortening the course of the disease, and avoiding sequelae. In addition, Chinese medicine wrapping, acupoint application, Chinese medicine bamboo pot, moxibustion, acupuncture, tuina manipulation, etc. are also effective ways to relieve the symptoms of frozen shoulder.
Text: Lan Lan, Department of Bone Injury III, Hunan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Editors: Liang Jing, Li Shiyao
Proofreader: Ma Yang
Reviewed: Xu Bingnan, Chen Fei