| Greetings friends,
The rule on rehabilitation of injured joints (sprains, including injury to the holding elements, the ligaments or tendons; and strains of muscle injuries) is to not move it in any painful way at the outset. Maybe you can use a device like a pulley to pull injured arm up with good arm, or passive motion (not using your own muscles). Passive motion must also be pain-free before moving into that range of motion. If you are moving into a painful range of motion, you are further inflamming the injury. Injured tissue brings fluids in to protect against too much movement. We call that swelling. REduce swelling with ice to relieve pain and to allow the body's circulatory healing to get into the area. You cannot do any weight-bearing activity, even lifting the weight of the arm, if it hurts to do so. "No pain, no gain" might work for Wall Street, but not for rehabilitation. Neel is right. Immobilize the area, be careful not to move into pain. If it's a simple injury, 6-8 weeks and the tissue will be back to normal. You get what you practice, though; check all the time to see where your pain-free range of motion is. Move it in that pain-free range. You can also exercise the opposite shoulder and have it benefit the injured shoulder because of the interactivity of the nervous system. Pain relief is relative to each person's learned pain responses - some need more than others. Ice is usually the best pain relief at the outset. Over the counter non-steroidal anti-inflam drugs (NSAIDs) are dangerous. Much better alternatives are available. If you are relying on NSAIDs, get help cause they can seriously mess you up. Read the labels and find out.
Simple injuries without much tissue tearing will heal in 8 weeks. You keep moving it with daily activities and it gets stronger. If your injury is not healing within a couple of months, you may need help. If you can't sleep on the hurt side after 8 weeks, you may need help. Falls onto straight arm are the classic way we tear the supraspinatus tendon, but ususally only partially. If it's fully torn, you can't lift your arm at all. But it's ususally just partially torn and may still need to be surgically repaired finally. Start with a good conservative practitioner if you must see someone: a chiropractor or nautropath specializing in neuromusculosleletal injuries. If consrvative measures fail, get a pre-surgical evaluation from an orthopod. Generally, muscle strains heal OK; torn holding elements, ligaments or tendons, need more specialized attention. Old tendon injuries respond to ultrasound and aggressive friction massage and can often be relieved pretty quickly. Surgery is certainly not always the answer.
Pain relief works best that controls inflammation. I prefer to use traditional remedies, foods whenever possible, such a ginger and turmeric. Chronic inflammatory pain is an epidemic among boomers now. A product that controls pain and uses traditional foods, called Zyflamend, is the best selling herbal combo on the market. It works great and can be taken everyday the rest of your life if you can handle the foods in it. It's sold by maker in Costa Rica, New Chapter, and is available a lot of places. Topical applications are typically just white noise to the nervous system and are not therapeutic. They work on the nervous system to distract our awareness away from the pain sensations with evaporation on the skin. Homeopathic preparations such as arnica work better and may be applied in oil form.
Hope this windiness helps....
Michael |
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