Frozen shoulder and low back pain

Frozen Shoulder and Low Back Pain in a 26.2 Mile Marathoner – Prolotherapy Gets Him Back on the Road!
 

David is a 52 year-old male who came to Caring Medical with complaints of shoulder pain that had been present for 18 months. He began resting his shoulder and was forced to limit his workouts due to the pain. As an active person who worked out regularly, David was not sure how he developed this injury, but felt it could have been during weight lifting or any number of sports. The more he rested it, the worse it seemed to be getting.  He was anxious to get back to doing all the workouts he was accustomed to doing and was hoping he did not start gaining weight due to his inability to fully exercise. David had begun training for the Chicago Marathon (26.2 mile run) and really wanted to be able to complete it.  Interestingly enough, David’s brother who lives in another state had received Prolotherapy treatment for an injury and suggested that David try it as well.
 

David’s initial physical examination showed all the signs of frozen shoulder: he had little range of motion and had pain when lifting his hands overhead or reaching behind him. Dr. Hauser explained that frozen shoulder occurs with weakness in the rotator cuff tendon causing scar tissue to develop around the shoulder joint. Also, the capsule surrounding the shoulder joint can thicken and contract, allowing the upper arm bone less space to move. The treatment for frozen shoulder is Prolotherapy combined with physical therapy and motion exercises such as swimming. Resting the shoulder is the worst thing that David could do. By strengthening structural weaknesses in the body, as natural medicine therapies like Prolotherapy do, frozen shoulder pain can be alleviated permanently. Unfortunately, many athletes move toward RICE treatments (rest, ice, compression and elevation) and do not learn about MEAT (movement, exercise, analgesics, and treatment) often until the shoulder injury has progressed to a near-frozen shoulder. David was happy he decided to take action when he did!

David was treated with Prolotherapy to the front, back, and inside of his shoulder joint using a total of 60 cc of solution. Dr. Hauser also prescribed physical therapy in order to improve the range of motion in his shoulder and instructed David to utilize swimming as one of his main exercises, using skulling and back stroke to further improve his motion. He was given the diagnosis of adhesive capsulitis and told that it would take at least three to four visits for full recovery. Dr. Hauser emphasized that if David wanted to regain full motion and pain resolution, he needed to fully comply with the whole program.

At David’s second visit, David was happy to report that his pain was significantly reduced and the motion in his shoulder had improved dramatically. David reported that he had been faithfully attending physical therapy two to three times per week, along with swimming twice per week. He felt the combination of Prolotherapy with the physical therapy/exercises was accelerating the improvement.  He was so hopeful in the Prolotherapy that he asked Dr. Hauser to examine his low back which had been a nagging injury for years without any resolution from any of the treatments he had previously tried.  David had been diagnosed with degenerative disc disease but nobody gave him any ideas for a resolution of this pain. At this visit David received Prolotherapy to both his shoulder and his low back.
 

At David’s third visit one month later, he was able to reach above his head with no pain. His low back was also significantly improved, as the nagging pain he used to suffer with daily had disappeared. When David came for a fourth visit he told us his shoulder was 100% better. He completed physical therapy and was certain that he was done with Prolotherapy to his shoulder. His low back pain was minimal and present only after running long distances. Despite the pain he noticed that he recovered much faster after his long runs.
 

Five months after first visiting Caring Medical we checked on David to see how he was doing. He informed us that he both his low back and shoulder were 100% pain free and he was back to long distance running and working out. He had a total of three treatments to his shoulder and four to his low back. He was incredibly impressed with Prolotherapy and started spreading the word to his friends and family. Pain that had plagued him for years was finally healed in four short months and he was finally able to get back to marathon training!