Transcript

Voice- The Bodyshop with Jennifer Black and Dr. Steve is brought to you by Allegheny Chesapeake Physical Therapy.

Jennifer Black - Good evening and welcome to this weeks edition of The Body Shop. Tonight we will talk about frozen shoulders. Dr. Steve what is a frozen shoulder?

Dr. Steve - Frozen shoulder is a shoulder that won't move, or is frozen in one position. What happens is the capsule which is like cellophane gets stuck together and doesn't allow movement. Like the wrinkles in your shirt, when you reach up they separate. Normally the same thing occurs to the capsule, when it is frozen it won't allow movement and the medical term is called adhesive capsulitis.

This can happen to anyone. After trauma, surgery, overuse, fractures that limit the shoulder, even a wrist fracture. Or there may be no reason.

Diabetics and women experience this more often. No known reason why this occurs. There is treatment but Prevention is best. If you have surgery move the shoulder immediately, same for any injury or trauma Once it is stuck it can be painful, and it takes a lot of work with stretching, and pain management. The key is to not ignore this problem the sooner you get into treatment the better your result.

Signs of a frozen shoulder include:

• Unable to reach your wallet
• Putting clothes on over your head is painful
• Can't reach to put belt on
• Pain with putting on jackets
• Difficulty reaching higher cupboards