Today I have a patient with pain in his shoulder. He swears the pain is coming from his shoulder. He can feel and hear the crackling – which is of course fascia – but our bodies deceive us.

Think of a heart attack. People older than 65, especially women, especially diabetics, they often don’t have chest pain when they have a heart attack. They can get left (even right) arm and shoulder pain. When you have shoulder pain – check to see if the pain is worse when you are exerting yourself. If the pain comes when you exert yourself and then stops when you rest, then consider your heart.

Think about your gall bladder. If you have right shoulder pain – especially the tip of the shoulder, you could actually have gall bladder stones or inflammation.

My patient’s pain is with raising the arm. When he puts the left hand on his right shoulder and raises the elbow – he gets pain in the left shoulder. Typical of rotator cuff tendinosis. Sick fascia around tendons and muscles of the rotator cuff.

He also has pain moving the arm so that the humerus moves inside his joint. Maybe a bit of osteoarthritis.

Actually, when it comes to rotator cuff and osteoarthritis, really, exercising and stretching so that the fascia loosens up is what is really important. When you are afraid of pain, this makes every condition worse. Our bodies heal. We have forgotten how to move past pain. We are so busy relying on tests and doctors and physios to heal, we have forgotten that most injuries will heal if we can stop being afraid of pain.

If the shoulder exercises are not working – you probably also have problems elsewhere. Look to the neck and back as well. Don’t just exercise your shoulder. So do the stretches for Neck Pain and Upper Back pain and also do the Lower Inflammation exercises to reset your alarm in the brain.

Chronic pain is different to Acute Pain. We have to treat the tissues and the brain.

Take care

Judy