Did you know that 25% of patients over the age of 50 visit the doctor about some form of shoulder pain?
Types of Shoulder Injuries
Let’s take a look at the shoulder itself to understand the different types of injuries. First, you have the bursa, which is a gel-filled sac that sits over the joint and protects the tendons and muscles from wear and tear. The bursa in the shoulder is one of the largest in the body and can become inflamed, creating a lot of pain. You can get impingement shoulder from bursitis or from the rotator cuff tendons becoming impinged.
The shoulder is a ball and socket joint, giving a lot of surface area, but also creating opportunity for injury. Over time, stress on the shoulder can lead to scar tissue and the development of different types of pain associated with it. Arthritis (degeneration with joint pain) can happen overtime.
When you look at the joint itself, there’s a cartilage called a labrum. It can get torn or stuck, which makes it difficult for patients to move their shoulder full-range because of the compromise to this area.
Tendinitis may also occur within the tendons of the bicep and deltoid, leading to joint pain.
Lastly, a ligament tear within the acromioclavicular or coracoid process ligament may cause a shoulder injury.
Treatment of Shoulder Injuries
The treatment for arthritis in the shoulder is finding ways to reduce inflammation such as natural herbs (turmeric, boswellia), or anti-inflammatory medication (motrin, advil, tylenol) which can cause side effects like gastric bleeding or liver/kidney damage.
Other things that promote joint healing and help the body recover without the side effects are collagen peptides, glucosamine and MSM.
One of the most exciting and recent discoveries at our center is specialized pro mediators that support the body and help heal damage to tendons and cartilage.
Our chiropractor, Dr. Hazen, is now certified in Ultrasound. In addition to MRI’s, which are effective, Ultrasound gives you the ability to look at the shoulder while it’s moving, in order to see the damage and receive the best treatment, in a cost-effective way.
Another type of treatment for shoulder injuries is injection therapy. This can include steroids and hyaluronic acid injection into the joint to promote healing. Steroids can have side effects and prevent the immune system from repairing and keeping out infection.
At our center, we see great results with ozone therapy, stem cell treatment (biological allograft), as well as PRP. Because shoulders have ball and socket joints, they can be harder to treat, compared to the knee or ankles (hinge joints), but we are still seeing a significant success rate - 70-75% range.
If you are having shoulder issues and this is something you would like to learn more about and receive treatment options, please come visit us at Temecula Center for Integrative Medicine and our regenerative clinic. We are happy to help you receive the best treatment possible.
Thank you,
Dr. Lundquist