The Burden of Shoulder Pain: Searching for an Effective Treatment

Despite its prevalence, for over 100 years, finding an effective treatment has eluded research and the medical community. This leaves people suffering from chronic pain and limited mobility. Here, we will discuss the shoulder pain problem, research reviews of care, and an innovative treatment.

The Occurrence of Shoulder Pain:

Shoulder pain is a common complaint among adults, encompassing a wide range of conditions such as rotator cuff injuries, tendonitis, frozen shoulder, arthritis, and bursitis. Harvard Medical School, Special Report, states “The fact is, more than 70 percent of people will suffer the effects of shoulder pain.” with rates increasing with age. 50 percent of shoulder patients still have the problem after 1.5 years, even with treatment. 20 percent of people will have problems in both shoulders. Factors such as repetitive motions, poor posture, aging, and ineffective treatments contribute to the development of shoulder pain.

What Research Says:

In 2017, the highly respected British Journal of Sports Medicine published a review study of all previous shoulder treatment studies (5,630 studies reviewed), to evaluate the quality of evidence and effectiveness of typical care offered in clinics. Rating of effectiveness can fall into four categories: High, Moderate, Low, and Very-Low. The results were startling. Of the 25 most common treatments used in clinics every day, all around the world, every single treatment rated: Very-Low. These included: ultrasound, laser, shockwave, exercise, medications, cortisone injections, electrical stimulation, manual therapy, surgery, and acupuncture. None received a rating of Moderate or High levels of effectiveness.

It is no wonder that 50 percent of people will still have a shoulder problem after a year and a half, even with treatment.

Challenges in Treatment:

Despite advancements in medical technology and treatment modalities, effective care for shoulder pain remains elusive for most patients. Traditional approaches may provide temporary relief but fail to correct the underlying root causes so they fail to provide long-term solutions.

The current research push is to use exercise to treat the shoulder problem, especially tears of the rotator cuff muscles and tendons. There exists a multitude of issues surrounding exercise as a solution for shoulder pain. There is no evidence that weakness is the cause of the tear. If weakness was the cause, then most tears would happen in the weaker, non-dominant shoulder. But, there is a 50-50 chance of which shoulder will be injured. Additionally, is exercise actually good for a tear? Exercise actively stretches and pulls on a torn tissue. Exercise can, and often does, re-tear the muscle tear. Current research advocates for treatment spanning 3 to 6 months, followed by ongoing lifetime maintenance to manage shoulder pain. This puts exercise in the realm of, ‘the shoulder injury may be healing in spite of exercise.’

In 2021, Current Treatment Options in Rheumatology, published a review study, “Shoulder Pain ̶ Where are we now”. It discussed, does MRI help? Apparently, not. “Importantly, a US study which investigated patients with rotator cuff tears…found that pain and functional status were not associated with any MRI features including tear size and thickness [or] muscle atrophy. It is important to realise that rotator cuff tears are also common in those without shoulder pain (prevalence 4 to 51 percent increasing with age) and do not always correlate with symptom severity.”

It also found (the same as the British Journal of Sports Medicine) poor effectiveness of conventional medical shoulder care. Concluding: “There is plenty of evidence that the current approach to shoulder pain is limited in its success. This is a common, costly problem that increases with age and, as longevity increases, is set to cause more disability. For the majority of cases of shoulder pain, we call for a new approach… emphasising de-medicalisation [stopping conventional medical treatments, and instead…], supporting people to manage their own symptoms.” So, what can you do to quickly recover from a shoulder problem?

Finding An Innovative Highly-Effective Solution:

For four decades this innovative care is exactly what we have provided at the Pain-Free Shoulder Clinic (Portimão). Treatment helps you manage shoulder care at home, 100 percent of the time, 7 days a week, night and day, for fast results. Patients are able to sleep with little or no pain and then return to their lives in short order, normally in just three treatment sessions. No: exercise, pushing/pulling, snapping/cracking, therapy machines, side-effects, drugs, or surgery. This is nothing new to us. During the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, while working as an Olympic doc, Dr. Bock discovered the root cause and created this innovative treatment. Since then, 50,000+ patients have followed his care resulting in a 97 percent recovery rate.

We are here to help you recover your active life, from sports to work, from sleep to swimming. Pain-free care so you can have a pain-free life! (Phone (+351) 282 352 202, 20 percent off using code: TPN)