Out of all the joints that the body has, the shoulder is the one that is moved the most. That has both advantages and disadvantages. Because of such a function level, we do have some instability that appears. Pain can appear and chronic shoulder pain is much more common than what many think. Various injuries and conditions can affect your shoulder so we need to learn how to deal with the associated pain. The most common shoulder pain causes include bursitis, dislocated bones, broken bones, arthritis, frozen shoulders, overuse injuries and torn rotator cuffs.
Obviously, when you suffer from chronic shoulder pain, life quality is negatively affected. If this is your case, here are some tips that you want to know, according to health professionals at the Health Annotation Blog.
Avoid Strenuous Activities
Based on the cause of the chronic pain in your shoulder, there are some movement and activities that would make symptoms worse. The healthcare providers recommend that you use your shoulder and that you do not stop doing so but that you have to focus only on milder activities. If you keep the shoulder still, the symptoms can actually become worse. Try to avoid lifting weights that are heavy and all contact sports should be avoided for around 3 months. If you have an injury, a sling may be necessary in order to support arms for around 7 days after your initial injury date.
Use Ice Packs
If you are faced with an injury that is caused while you play sports, ice packs on areas that are affected are recommended as it would reduce inflammation and pain. You just have to apply the packs for around 15 minutes. Make sure that ice packs are wrapped in towels in order to avoid having the ice directly touch the skin. This would cause the appearance of ice burns.
Using Painkillers
When the pain that you feel is just mild, you can take painkillers in order to control it. In this case what is really important is making sure that dosage instructions are properly respected. Never take too much. If you find yourself relying on painkillers, you need to talk with a doctor as soon as possible. He may prescribe something different and stronger like corticosteroid tablets, which are hormone based medicines that are known to reduce swelling and pain.
Corticosteroid Injections
Your doctor may tell you that you should consider corticosteroids in the event that you are faced with a highly severe pain that simply does not go away when you use painkillers. These are injections that would be done on the shoulder joint area. They would increase movement range for a number of weeks while also reducing pain in most patients. The only problem is that such an injection will not cure the underlying cause. Symptoms can easily return. This is an option you would use while you go through another treatment program.
There are some serious shoulder conditions that do require surgery. They are rare but if this is the case, you will need to get the surgery done as soon as possible to speed up recovery and reduce the damage created.