Thawing the Freeze: Stem Cell Therapy for Frozen Shoulder

How often do you use your shoulder muscles each day? Try and tally it up now. Every time you reach for something in front of you, try to grab something on a high shelf, or simply stretch after a long day, you’re putting those muscles to work. Now imagine someone tied your arm down. Wouldn’t your daily activities become that much harder? That’s daily life for people who live with a frozen shoulder. Let’s take a look at the condition — the symptoms, risk factors, and current treatments — and how looking into Stem Cell Therapy in India might help.

What is a frozen shoulder?

Frozen shoulder is also called adhesive capsulitis, and is characterized by stiffness and pain in the shoulder joint. It is a chronic illness — its symptoms begin gradually and worsen over time. It usually begins with a dull ache in the outer shoulder area and upper arm, and is usually worse in the early stages of the illness. Frozen shoulder tends to develop over three stages, each of which can last for a couple of months:

• Freezing stage — any movement of your shoulder is painful. Your shoulder’s range of movement becomes limited
• Frozen stage — pain may begin to diminish, but your shoulder becomes stiffer and more difficult to use
• Thawing stage — the range of motion in your shoulder improves

These stages are cyclical and will continue over the course of the disease. But what causes this condition?

Frozen shoulder occurs when the capsule of connective tissue that protects the bones and ligaments in the joint begins to thicken, effectively developing into scar tissue. But doctors aren’t entirely sure why this happens. However, they have been able to identify some risk factors. You are more likely to develop frozen shoulder if you:

• Have diabetes
• Suffer from hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, Parkinson’s disease, or cardiac disease
• Have recently had a surgery, fracture, or other condition that required the shoulder to be immobilized for a period of time

It’s also most commonly found in women over the age of 40.

Treatments

Most treatments involve simply mitigating the pain. If you have a frozen shoulder, your doctor is likely to recommend:

• Medication — over the counter pain relievers such as aspirin or ibuprofen are often enough to control the pain, but if your case is more severe, the doctor may prescribe stronger pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory medication
• Therapy — physical therapy can help improve your range of motion and help you regain some mobility in your shoulder
• Surgery — surgery for frozen shoulder is very rare, but may be used as a last resort to remove the scar tissue from the shoulder joint

Other common possible treatments include steroid injections, joint distention, and shoulder manipulation. However, more recently, doctors have been looking at Stem Cell Therapy as a possible solution to the problems caused by frozen shoulder.

How does it work?

Stem cells are effectively blank slates. They have the ability to mature into a blood cell, muscle cell, fat cell, or really anything else required by the environment it’s in. Stem Cell Therapy in India involves taking adult autologous stem cells from the patient’s bone marrow and injecting them into the affected area, in this case, the shoulder. It’s a perfectly safe and almost painless procedure — patients can even return to work the very same day!

In the case of frozen shoulder, stem cells are injected into the shoulder joint along with platelet-rich plasma. This solution will activate the stem cells and promote their natural, anti-inflammatory properties, which help regenerate the scarred tissue at the cellular level. By reducing the inflammation in this area, they also reduce the stiffness and pain in the shoulder.

If you’re looking for a more permanent way to deal with the pain and stiffness that come with frozen shoulder, Stem Cell Therapy might be right for you. Look into Stem Cell Therapy in India today and stop living with one hand tied behind your back!