Do you suffer from shoulder pain? If so, then you need to continue reading below!
Shoulder pain can be caused by a variety of problems. Correcting shoulder pain and discomfort is actually one of the most difficult things for a chiropractor or a physio to diagnose and correctly fix. The reason for this is because the shoulder has so many different areas in the body that can cause it to work improperly which can lead to shoulder damage and cause pain to show up. Being a chiropractor in downtown Toronto, shoulder pain and discomfort is probably one of the top 5 most common complaints patients have when they come into our office for the first time.
The reason many patients come into our office is because they have been seeking care elsewhere to help alleviate their shoulder pain and have found no relief. Why so many other clinics shy away from properly treating shoulder pain is because they do not look at the overall picture of what could be causing somebody's shoulder pain. Many healthcare practitioners including chiropractors, physiotherapists, and medical doctors tend to compartmentalize their healthcare. When someone comes into their office complaining of shoulder pain, they look only at the shoulder and try to treat only the shoulder itself. This might seem logical, and sometimes it works, but rarely it resolves the issue completely. This is because the shoulder is a very complex area and serves as an attachment point for the upper extremity to the torso. It also has many muscles that attach to the shoulder that can cause strain on the shoulder and cause discomfort to show up.
At our chiropractic clinic in downtown Toronto, we have an excellent success rate on treating shoulder pain. The reason for this is we look at everywhere that could be contributing to the underlying cause of your shoulder pain. Believe it or not, a problem in your foot could contribute to a problem in your shoulder. Here's how, let's say you injure your big toe, now because you have injured your big toe, you start to walk differently, you begin to create compensations and now your pelvis starts to go out of alignment. Now, your pelvis is pretty much the foundation for your entire spine, and because your latissumus dorsi muscle originates on your pelvis, it starts to become more strained and tight. So your latissimus begins to start pulling, and guess where the lat attaches to? You've got it, your shoulder, now this starts to affect how well your shoulder moves, and your rotator cuff muscles start to strain trying to compensate for this new pulling from your lat muscle. Your rotators get strained and over worked, and they begin to swell, now that swelling goes into your shoulder joint and generates some pain in your shoulder. So how would you treat this shoulder pain now? Would you work on the shoulder only? A lot of physiotherapists and chiropractors do just that, so how well do you think their shoulder injury recovers? It probably helps a little bit, but will they make a full recovery? Probably not, as the others contributing issues aren't being addressed.
When you see a chiropractor or a physiotherapist, they should be examining every area that be a contributing cause to the problem, anything less than that and they won't be able to create a customized treatment plan that will fix the cause of your shoulder pain.
If you live or work in downtown Toronto and are experiencing shoulder pain, you should give us a call so we can examine you and find out what the contributing causes of your shoulder pain and what you need to do to fix it!