Stress and frozen shoulder?
Posted , 16 users are following.
Does anyone else think there is a link between stress and frozen shoulder, or is it just coincidence that the last 6 months have been extremely stressful and for four of those I have suffered with a stiff painful shoulder that has recently been diagnosed as FS ?
2 likes, 48 replies
jennifer_99224 cindy_45475
Posted
I had to marvel at your latest post. Although, I have fully recovered, I felt exactly the same way as you with people not understanding because you look fine (except for the misery written all over your face) but the pain is beyond belief and you're the first who described it like me being a toothache. I also tried explaining it that way, saying that it was like a the worst toothache you ever felt, but it was in my arm with the aching continuing ever second of every minute of every day - it's not surprising most of us thought (or still think) we were going off the deep end. I also want to reiterate how much a good massage therapist specializing in active release can do to break up some of the lesions that have taken hold.
For all those stil suffering, my heart aches and wish I could do more.
-Jennifer
cindy_45475 jennifer_99224
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Cindy
jennifer_99224 cindy_45475
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Guest cindy_45475
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I spoke to a friend of mine about this. He is a very sharp 86 year old retired British man. His career was working as a psychiatrist in both Britain and America for altogether over 50 years in psychiatry.
He served in the British army as a doctor and endured the Nazi bombing of London as a child/ teen.
He said in his professional medical opinion that unequivocally Yes to stress as a contributing factor to the development of frozen shoulder in some cases.
Fir what it's worth that is the professional medical opinion of a retired British psychiatrist who was trained in Britain.
teresa59318 Guest
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cindy_45475 Guest
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Cindy
frozen_stiff Guest
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As the average age in the military at that time was 19 years and only few senior officers served past 42 years of age his experience in frozen shoulder must have been somewhat limited as it is very unusual to begin before 40 years. How many FS patients are seen by psychiatrists I dont know. Reading the sad diagnostics by primary care physicians on this site and orthopaedists and PTs your friend may have beenjust as efficient.
I should add that I as a child also lived in London at the time of the "Blitz".
I do think that if stress were a cause of frozen shoulder it would be just as common in the under 40s and over 60s. I am at this time looking into epigenics relative to genetic musculoskeletal conditions and will report later.
maria58274 Guest
Posted
My current feeling is that lack of estrogen (and maybe too many stress hormones) have some role to play in this. It's hard to know if these hormonal changes themselves could trigger the condition but at the very least, they may well be disrupting the body's ability to resist whatever causes this condition.
teresa59318 maria58274
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Rose_in_Dorset cindy_45475
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Yes! I had a moment of realisation recently. I was having acupuncture for my FS & the acupuncturist said that the areas I indicated to be tender when palpated were in a channel which when translated from Chinese means grief.
My acupuncturist was unaware that my mum had passed away last year very suddenly & that came as such a shock that I don't think I dealt with it. At the time I had so much other stuff going on (separation, flat-hunting & applying for a mortgage whilst working [in a horrible full-time job which I hated] on top of running my business - so I could borrow enough.
Anyway, yesterday I read some examples of people who have FS & are recently bereaved (the initial tendonitis mild symptoms which I got before FS really kicked in started about six months after my mum's death).
I now looking for options to deal with the underlying issue of processing my grief properly.
It really is as though my shoulder is carrying all my sadness. I have a heavy, sad shoulder :-(
teresa59318 Rose_in_Dorset
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Hello Rose, I think there's something in that. My FS started when my beloved brother was dying. My physio feels we carry our stress in our left shoulder. I'm over a year into FS now. The pain was unbearable and I thought I was losing my mind. I've had the cortisone shots and lots of physio and am finally on the mend. There's been a lot of family tension also. I think I have to heal my heart before I can heal my body. You mind yourself. X
cindy_45475 Rose_in_Dorset
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Hi rose , apologies for late reply, I some how seemed to have missed your post.thank you for commenting. I haven't been on this site for a fair while, I would consider myself to be 'one of the lucky ones ' (although I wouldn't have been found saying that 3 months ago. I have been painted free now since beginning of April, it was a long painful road but I got through it. I still believe to this day that the condition is due to stress/ hormones (in my opinion), my mum had had x2 seizures which stemmed from her having a brain tumour and cancer of the lung , this resulted in a pretty hectic and traumatic 6 months in which time I developed FS, and like you said a very unhappy shoulder. I do hope you are on the mend, and I'm sorry for your loss.
Hi to everyone out there who saw me through some very rough nights/ and days
Cindy
silvia123 cindy_45475
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Hi Cindy,
I too, have been thinking in similar direction about my FS.
Mine is in stage two, maybe a month or so in. After some negative experiences with orthopedic doctors (missing the FS altogether and ordering surgeries for bursitis, or shoulder decompression, or patronizing me when asking about neck possibly being involved, and brushing me off when asking about inflamation in the body in general), I have decided to see how it does on its own before I seek the mainstream medicine help again.
My treatments so far involve only the supporting kind - massage and osteopathy, which are both very helpful in keeping my back healthier, especially my neck, which seems to 'go out' now more than ever before.
But talking with holistic health practitioners and reading up on symptomps that I feel, I am now looking at my case of FS as a near-autoimmune disease rather than an injury.
To explain - I am a freshly turned 40 year old, otherwise very healthy woman, who up until the FS struck, exercised 3 to 5 times a week, ate healthily, never had smoked, rarely drank. BUT, prior to my waking up about healthy diet (about a year and a halF), I abused sugar for decades. I lived for sweets. And I have been under periods of chronic stress my whole life.
Thinking about all of this has led me to two things: dysautonomia, which is an autonomic nervous system dysfunction, and metabolic syndrome, which includes a variety of trouble including pre-diabetes, diabetes, heart disease etc.
Basically, I think that chronic stress and sugar, both indulged for years, have contributed greatly to my having one full blown FS and a starting second one on the other arm (yeah, very lucky indeed).
My self healing now involves a few-stage sugar removal from my diet, walking for exercise, stretching as much as can, breathing exercises (I take 10 deep breaths every hour (when I don't forget, and when I remember to finish all 10), toning down caffein (because it too affects the adrenal glands function, which is extremely important to managing not only stress responses but also blood pressure and blood-sugar levels), and continuing seeing a massage therapist and an ostheopath to help me maintain spinal health, which plays a great role in overall health.
To come back to your question Cindy - yes, I think you are onto something when looing at stess as risk factor in FS.
It may not be everyone's case (especially if clear injuries are present at first) but stress seems to be involved here. It is a symptom of things not being alright either in the physical (a great injury, long term inflamation) or in the emotional body. So I think it is well worth looking deeper for the underlying cause.
Hope that you all have a good day, no pain, and I'm looking forward to when we all share our success stories at the end of this difficult time in our lives.
lisa80451 cindy_45475
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