Holistic Remedies for a Frozen Shoulder

Frozen shoulder is said to be a metabolic problem, related to Dupytren's Contracture and Parkinson's. I noticed when struck with it for the second time that when I ate sugars or carbohydrates with fats the pain would go off the scale. So I cut sugars and carbs out of my diet all together. The pain reduced considerably and I'm recovering at a much faster rate than before.

As well as having a genetic predisposition to it I think for me it's a stress/stomach bacteria related problem. Stress alters the stomach bacteria. Stress also lowers your magnesium levels as you use up your magnesium to produce adrenaline. This has knock on effects in the stomach as you need magnesium to digest your food properly. Badly digested food encourages bacteria to thrive that causes stomach upsets and causes inflammation in the body and these alter the ph to encourage Candida Alicans to thrive. I have suffered with CA after being given iron tablets that allowed the small amount of CA to form a biofilm around itself that protects it from the stomach acids and other bacteria, allowing it to get out of control and cause massive problems.

I don't think that as a species we were meant to eat lots of grains and sugars yet that is what the western diet mostly consists of these days - count how many aisles of a supermarket DON'T contain sugar and grains!

I also took Pau d'arco to kill off bad bacteria and upped my intake of green tea, kimchi, kefir and anything else that supported my good stomach bacteria. Even I am surprised at how quickly the spin reduced. Still quite stiff but beginning to loosen up. But I know if I go back to eating carbs and sugars it will bite me again!

I have a frozen right shoulder and I really want to do the '10 min hung the shoulder over the bed ' do you mean that the shoulder should be below my body like trying to touch the floor or how?

How do you get your shoulder like that? I can't even move mine.

I would like to make a general comment. After seeing 6 different doctors, X rays, MRI, Ultrasounds, etc etc etc. If any of these options give you fast results the chances are you could be misdiagnosed. It may be I was, I was within minutes of paying $7500.00USD for a procedure. And then, I went for another opinion. My range of motion does not fit the "text book definition of Frozen Shoulder". My shoulder actually moves. So I am taking some of the advise given here and doing some shock therapy. I will be more than happy to give this great forum an update. I am doing MSN, DMSO, Shock and non traditional physio which involves stretching and some standard physio exercises (which includes the stretching listed here) I am so happy I found this site.

The Dr, in Toronto referred above charges between $7500 to $10000 US dollars for the procedures.

I was experiencing frozen shoulder about 7-8 out of 10 in the pain department for about 2 weeks. Sleeping at night extremely difficult for only for a few hours at night. Last night I hung my frozen shoulder arm over the bed for 10 min with excellent results. Sleep last night was pleasant without constant pain of the shoulder all locked up. I'm thankful for the advice and the significant increased mobility.

Omg THANK YOU. I stumbled across your post and I have INSTANT relief. I did both stretches, hanging off the side of the bed, and the side - and my range of motion improved at least 50% in FIVE MINUTES. I can't tell you how happy I am. Thank you thank you. Every other stretch /exercise I've tried to do was painful and tedious. Wow, how does everyone not know about these simple stretches. Xoxo

Frozen shoulder - stretching

I damaged some tendons in one arm doing heavy overhead lopping. I thought rest would be the best cure but the problem developed into frozen shoulder. I realised after 3 months rest was achieving worse than nothing so finally saw the doctor who recommended 400 mg ibuprofen 3 times daily on a full stomach for 2 weeks to reduce the inflammation. Not something I would normally consider.

After a week the pain and presumably the inflammation did reduce and I tried to hang my arm down over the edge of a bed/sofa, as suggested by Teh's post below.

Very painful at first and I could only manage to dip the elbow down, not the whole arm. But persevere. Day 3 and I can now almost hang the arm down, but some support, resting hand on floor, is still required. Nevertheless this is real progress. Inch by inch I'm getting further. The arm can now get above the horizontal in forward motion but sideways and backward motion is still very limited.

It is absolutely not possible yet to hang the head and arm over the head as also suggested here, but it's a good start.

If you want to take alfalfa or another herbal anti inflammatory in addition to ibuprofen, please research possible interactions, especially if you have any bleeding issues.

La-Jin Self Healing Slides by Master Xiao Hong Chi (2012) 1 of 2

These slides will give you a better idea of the exercise. Hope you enjoy.

Anyone with frozen shoulder should research vitamin d3, vitamin k2-4, and to a lesser degree, calcium and zinc intake. The vitamin k2-4 keeps the calcium in your bones where it belongs, and the vitamin d3 helps regulate your hormone levels.

hi, could anyone, show us any photo/drawing about the position please?

I tried the Kirsch protocol for frozen shoulder, which involves hanging off a chin up bar for 30 seconds at a time with a minute or two rest for 10 minutes a day.

Within 4 days my frozen shoulder felt tremendously better, I could move my shoulder above my head and behind my body pain free. Ido Portal loves this method, and it works incredibly.

I love it, so simple! Any gym or playground will have chin up bars, otherwise find a tree.

I hope this helps someone with the same poor shoulder flexibility!

DMSO cured my brother's frozen shoulder. I don't know if he had calcium buildup in his shoulder or not, but he later did have an artery clogged up with calcium, and had a stent put in for that, so it seems like calcium buildup could have been a factor.

He told me that his shoulder had been bothering him for 3 or 4 years, and that his doctor told him it was frozen, and there wasn't much they could do for it. I offered some DMSO to him, and jokingly told him to go rub some on, and his shoulder would likely be healed, by the time he left.

He rubbed some liquid 99% DMSO that I had bought at Tractor Supply, on his shoulder, morning and evening, for a couple of days, and he told me that his shoulder felt like new, after only a couple of days of the DMSO treatment.

Later, he told me that he had to put some on, for a couple of days, a few weeks after the initial treatment, but he told me that his shoulder felt like it did, when he was 18. He was in his mid-50's, when this happened.

I do believe his doctors had told him that he had some nerve damage, which was causing his frozen shoulder, but whatever the cause, DMSO healed it, and, last I heard, it is still fine, today.

I told this story to a 70-something gentleman, who also had frozen shoulder and also told me that he had nerve damage, so he tried DMSO, and it worked for him, too.

I don't know the details, as to how long it took, but several months later, I talked to someone who talked to the man in question, and he told that person that his shoulder was now fine. So, DMSO might do the trick.

Teh, one should never go "into" the pain. This exercise is good if taken VERY slowly and patiently and only to the point of feeling a slight stretch, each time or two, that point will get farther.

Hi Starsa,

Lay with your head at the foot of the bed (feet pointing toward pillows). Your head should be on the edge and arms above your head, hanging over the edge of the bed.

A couple of points to keep in mind, there will be some pain in the area of the shoulder with this issue, but it is a matter of persevering with it.

Another point is when you retract your arms to your sides, you will probably need to assist the affected arm with the opposite arm or have someone to assist you. It certainly does bite!!

Bottom line is: NO PAIN NO GAIN.

Cheers, Teh.

Was wondering if you could clarify this. Laying in bed as normal but just closer to the edge, with arm hanging down and hear bent so that it falls off the side of the bed, or laying sideways on bed with head hanging down and arm extended up over head?...lol where is a whiteboard when you need it :)

Is this infrared light and what wave length?

Laser light therapy was a Godsend for the frozen shoulder. It was hell on earth with the pain and lack of function for the shoulder for almost two years. After two sessions of laser light therapy per week for a month, there was significant ease of pain and shoulder movement. I now have full function of the shoulder and no pain. Every once in a while I feel a twinge in that shoulder and I go and have a laser light treatment (through my Chiropractor).

In regards to the frozen shoulder remedies, I came across a Chinese Treatment which I tried and has cured this issue I had with the frozen shoulder.

The method is as follows:

Lie on your back with your head @ arms hanging over the edge of the bed for at least 10 minutes.

The longer you stay in this position, the better. Initially, you will feel pain but the more you do it, this pain will eventually disappear, as mine did after 3 days. I have not had an issue since, but it is still a good idea now @ again to through this stretching routine to maintain this condition.

Cheers, Teh

You may want to check out low level laser therapy or cold laser therapy. Many chiropractors offer it and I have seen quite a few friends with frozen shoulder get relief with this therapy.

Update:

Just wanted to show what looks like a very promising non surgical proceedure. Wish I had found it earlier. You'll need to do some research but I found much on YouTube.

The Oolo-Austin Trigenics Frozen shoulder treatment procedure is an unprecedentedly non-surgical operation which is rapidly becoming accepted as being the world's best and most successful treatment for the condition called "Adhesive Capsulitis" which is otherwise known as "Frozen Shoulder". No surgical dissection instruments are used and no actual cutting or incisions of tissue is performed requiring sutures. Patients undergoing the operation are not put under general anesthetic although local injections of anesthetic are sometimes administered.

The OAT procedure was invented and developed by Dr. Allan Gary Oolo-Austin in 2002. Dr. Oolo Austin, who has been in practice for over 30 years, is an Osteopathic Physician and Doctor of Chiropractic with a doctorate in Manual Medicine. He also holds specialty designations in physical rehabilitation and sports medicine.

Your experience with frozen shoulder, or adhesive capsulitis, was very similar to mine. About 10 years ago I had sudden onset of excruciating pain in my shoulder with even the slightest of movements. At the time I was working in an OR and had recently assisted at a few surgical procedures designed to relieve the condition. That absolutely cemented my decision to go the physical therapy route! Ironically, even with surgery the next step is PT. Like you, insurance covers only a short period of treatment and it took fully 6 months for me to regain complete range of motion in my shoulder, though my orthopod had predicted that would be impossible. I took the opportunity of therapy at the PT office to duplicate most of the exercise materials (mostly inexpensive stuff) at home and at work, and for all those months I don't believe I went a day without going through the routine a minimum of three times a day. Yes, it was a pain in the neck (or shoulder), but today I still have full use of my shoulder - pain free. PT often works, but really requires didication, time, and a bit of pain. Real healing almost always requires patient participation and can't be acheived by third person intervention alone. Doctors most often will tell you that frozen shoulder is idiopathic, without any obvious origin, but, I was also using a sideways motion while setting heavy trays of instruments on tables and think that at least contributed to the situation. So glad you are recovering, though still having pain. You may want to consider more frequent PT to keep the capsule that envelops your shoulder stretched. All the Best.

I know this is long winded but since there is very little on the Earth Clinic website I felt it necessary to elaborate.

My problem started while on business in India this past May. As a field service engineer I'm required to haul around a tool case weighing over 50lbs. I believe what caused the original problem was the lifting and tossing sideways that heavy case. I don't remember there being any specific blast of pain, more like a twinge. The next day the pain was there and stiffness not allowing me to raise my arm nor extend it very far. No longer a young man but still in pretty good shape I felt (as usual) it would simple heal itself with time. All the while picking up bits and pieces of the horror stories of torn rotator cuff diagnoses, surgeries and long and painful recoveries. I simply couldn't believe I had torn a muscle.

Well, as time passed from days into months (3) I finally realized it was time to get serious and sought professional medical advice. Since I don't have a regular Dr. I simply found a local one who is part of my health ins. group. She of course wanted to do X-Rays and I immediately questioned that with "what will that show" when I knew the answer was "my bones". Since I knew there was no bone injury I balked and asked what else can I do. She mentioned physical therapy so I chose that in order to get it prescribed for insurance purposes. Before I left the Dr.'s office she was trying to find more ways to raid my health coverages by requesting a cholesterol test. I replied I didn't need one since I don't consume red meat nor consume dairy. She said she wanted to do one anyway, I said thank you and goodbye.

Not knowing exactly where to look I found tidbits here and there on what I could do to avoid the knife at all costs.

I began taking alfalfa supplements which are purported to help repair muscle as well as turmeric, MSM, and DMSO, and started physical therapy. I did a total of eight 45 minute "PT" treatments two times a week which consisted stretching and muscle exercises mostly using resistance bands and about 10 minutes each of direct therapist stretching. Progress was slow and extremely painful and then my insurance co. began to question effectiveness. I didn't realize why until the bill showed that each 45min treatment cost $316 of which I paid $30. It was then I decided to simply purchase my own resistance bands and take my healing into my own hands.

It is now five mos. after the original injury and although I still have considerable pain it is lessening and I have almost complete motion in my shoulder.

This is simply my own journey of recovery but want to aim anyone suffering this malady to what I found on youtube after I was far on my way to wellness. There are very interesting videos of trigger point therapy as well as a Canadian Dr. who uses a chiropractic method who supposedly is returning full motion after one treatment. Also look for stretching exercises to return your motion.

I, as well as others believe there is a ton of misdiagnosis and unnecessary surgery associated with this injury. Do yourself a big favor, research and treat thyself unless you've been in an accident that caused physical trauma to the shoulder.

Best of luck and thank you Earth Clinic.

The miracle balls were a life saver for me. But I was also very helped by acupuncture. After the second acupuncture visit, the acute sharp pains in my shoulders went away but the nagging muscle aches, especially underneath my shouder blade was still present. Rolling on these miracle balls really gave me some relieve. I also sought the help of a viseral massage therapist and she was able to release a lot of the muscles that were all knotted up because of my frozen shoulder. I am now 6 acupuncture treatments in and getting better each week although the progess is slow.

I've had issues with frozen shoulder. Painful!!! Thankfully I found out about Miracle Balls, looked up the exercises to do that would help and did them. It was a miracle! Seriously worth it. Not just for the frozen shoulder either, every exercise I've tried with them has helped more than I ever could have expected. Super simple too. Almost too simple but you will feel the difference. Just try it. Look it up online, I don't really know where you can buy them. They used to sell them at costco but I don't see them there anymore. They were cheap too, totally worth the $. Good luck.

I had a frozen shoulder first in the left, then in the right. For the first time for 2 months I used cold showers. The reason it works is that it increases circulation. Frozen shoulders can be caused by diabetes or heart and circulation problems also infections have a role to play. Mine started from a wisdom tooth infection and when it was extracted, my first frozen shoulder cleared up fast.

But what got the healing started was when I drank pau de arco herb. My pain stopped almost instantly.

I drank this tea 5 times a day thereafter and the second time I also took d ribose to increase the heart output and also vitamin e and ubiquinol (the better form of coq10) also started taking baking soda 1 teaspoon morning and bedtime.

Cleared up fast then. Since found this site and using many of Teds remedies and feeling great.

15 days ago I came down with all the symptoms of a frozen shoulder. This is an extremely painful condition in the shoulder that makes it feel sort of like its falling off. Every movement hurts, and no movement hurts. Sleep is all but impossible, because its so hard to find a place to rest your arm that does not hurt. This condition can last for 8 months to 3 years, and may not go away at all. My sister had frozen shoulder several years ago, so I'd seen the condition first hand with her.

After 4 days of frantic searching, I found the cold shower remedy. I started taking them 3-4 times a day when I realized it was helping with the pain. It's been 15 days, I'm down to 2 cold showers a day.

My mobility is getting close to normal. I missed my second shower yesterday, and the nighttime pain was back so at 4 in the morning I'm cold showering again. I will not miss again for a while. I told a nephew who is overweight about it, he has severe hip pain, and he said it's really helping him as well. Just water... Go figure!

I started taking turmeric powder about 2 and a half years ago, after seeing on a famous news show that it was one of the main ingredients in a pill that was able to reduce your antioxidant level to zero. I did a little research and saw there was little Alhiemers in India, where it is a big part of the diet. I was having a bit of a memory problem at the time. Anyways, after about 3 months of taking a tablespoon a day, I noticed my shoulder pain went away. My doctor had said he could do nothing for it, as it was arthitis and that he had it also. Now I notice that I don't seem too concern about memory and I have regained some interest in reading articles. I have had several, 3, cases of skin cancer in the last year, hopefully its due to the years of living in a tropical climate. I tried to stop taking it a couple of times to see what would happen and my shoulder pain seem to start to come back. So apparently it did not cure it but stopped the pain and I am now able to shoot basketball or any other activity. I put it in water and stir it up and swallow the half a cup very quickly as I do not like the taste. I order it 5 pounds at a time and keep a 10 pound supply on hand. Be careful it stains things yellow.