How To Cure Frozen Shoulder Quickly Without Painkillers

If you’re suffering with frozen shoulder, there is no magic pill or instant fix.

We understand that this will be hard to hear…

However, there are ways to speed up recovery, minimise your discomfort and improve your movement without relying on painkillers, injections or surgery.

In this article, we will discuss how to cure frozen shoulder quickly without painkillers, injections or surgery with expert advice and insight from our physiotherapy team at the Paul Gough Physio Rooms.

What Is A Frozen Shoulder?

Frozen shoulder is a condition that affects your shoulder joint, and means your shoulder is painful and stiff for months, sometimes years.

As well as the physical pain, our patients who come to us with frozen shoulder struggle with their usual day to day activities and it can leave them reliant upon their relatives.

The pain and discomfort is caused by the surrounding tissue become inflamed, which means it becomes tighter and causes pain.

Over time, this can create scar tissue, and a reduction in fluid that keeps the joint lubricated and moving freely. When this occurs, it’s hard for your shoulder joint to move freely which is why your range of motion is limited.

What Is Frozen Shoulder Pain Like?

Frozen shoulder pain is usually a dull, or achy pain in the affected shoulder. This pain can also radiate to the muscles surrounding the shoulder, and in the upper arm.

It is also common for frozen shoulder pain to become more uncomfortable at night, which makes sleeping harder.

If you are experiencing severe pain, and struggling to move your shoulder or upper arm, our advice would be to seek a professional opinion, as opposed to self-diagnosing and trying to treat this at home. To arrange a free physiotherapy consultation with one of our expert physiotherapist, complete our simple web form: Arrange My Free Physiotherapy Consultation

What Causes Frozen Shoulder?

There is no clear reason why people develop frozen shoulder, however there are certain people who are more susceptible to it.

For example, patients with frozen shoulder who visit our physiotherapy clinics are most often women, aged 40 and older. It can still affect younger people, and men, but this is less common.

There is also a higher risk for people who have had injuries or surgeries that stop your shoulder and arm from moving normally, and those with certain medical conditions.

Why Is Frozen Shoulder Pain Worse At Night?

If you have frozen shoulder, you might be wondering why frozen shoulder pain is worse at night.

At night, blood flow naturally slows down in combination with a reduction in other bodily functions like kidney filtration. Over the course of a night, slow blood flow and reduced water filtration by the kidneys lead to higher water retention. This means that your internal pressue increases across your whole body, and your already inflamed shoulder, becomes more painful.

This problem occurs for all inflammatory conditions, not just frozen shoulder, however there are things that you can do to reduce the impact, and make a good night’s sleep more likely.

How To Sleep With A Frozen Shoulder

A lack of sleep, or poor sleep, can really wreck our moods, leave us with low energy and also have a big impact in the ability for your body to heal. Frozen shoulder, especially during the early stages, can make it very difficult to sleep.

To help you sleep with a frozen shoulder, some simple tips are:

If you sleep on your side, don’t sleep on the affected shoulder

Whilst this might sound obvious, you might find that you’ve rolled over during the night to your preferred side and woken up in agony. To avoid this, sleep on your non-affected side, and place pillows behind your back to stop you rolling over.

If you sleep on your back, place a pillow under your affected arm, with your hand resting on your stomach.
Avoid sleeping on your stomach if at all possible, as this position is going to place your shoulder joint in an unstable position which could lead to pain, and even further damage.
Use light stretching exercises on an evening which can relax some tightened muscles connected to the shoulder joint and allow you to fall asleep with less pain.

How To Cure Frozen Shoulder Quickly Without Painkillers, Injections Or Surgery

To cure frozen shoulder, our patients tell us that the common solution offered to them by their GP is to take painkillers to mask the pain.

A few patients who visit their GP will get referred to an NHS physio.

However, appointment waiting lists are extremely long…

And due to financial pressures, NHS physiotherapy appointments are also often rushed, fail to get to the root cause of the problem, and fail to deliver significant improvement for a lot of patients.

This understandably leaves people suffering with frozen shoulder frustrated.

Without physiotherapy, your frozen shoulder may recover on its own – but this is a LONG and PAINFUL process.

This is where private physiotherapy is a perfect fit for people who feel let down by the free healthcare option, or just want to be out of pain and back to their normal life as soon as possible.

At our physiotherapy clinics, we understand patients don’t want to rely on painkillers, and are worried about the potentially dangerous side effects of these (or more extreme measures like injections or surgery).

To help our patients, we always try to achieve pain relief through natural methods and our team share a couple of them below which should help you relieve frozen shoulder pain.

Natural pain relief advice which reduces inflammation in the shoulder joint
Lifestyle advice so that you aren’t making the problem worse, and can spend less time in pain throughout your day
Tailored exercise plans specific to you which speed up recovery and minimise the chance of shoulder problems returning in future
Stretching and massage therapy to loosen tight muscles and stiff joints

And whilst there is no instant fix, physiotherapy can speed up recovery from frozen shoulder and make it much more manageable.

This enables you to carry on with your life, and once the frozen shoulder has passed, keep your shoulder joint healthy to reduce the chances of it returning.

At Paul Gough Physio Rooms, we have four North East clinics (Darlington, Durham, Guisborough and Hartlepool) and we offer free physiotherapy consultations, where you can speak to a member of our team, ask any questions that you have, and find out what can be done to cure your frozen shoulder as quickly as possible.

We can also help you understand how to strengthen your shoulder and minimise the likelihood of problems in future.

Arrange your free physiotherapy consultations with our simple webform, or if you prefer to talk over the telephone, you can call us on 01429 866 771.

Other Free Resources For Shoulder Pain

Click Here To Read – Expert Advice For Fast Shoulder Blade Pain Relief

Click Here To Read – Is Swimming Good For You If You Suffer From Shoulder Pain

Click Here To Read – Most Common Shoulder Problem And How To Fix It

We also have free, downloadable reports for people with Neck And Shoulder Pain

Want videos on demand? Check Out Our YouTube Channel (Remember to hit subscribe so you don’t miss out on our new videos!)

On social media? Follow us on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn

About
Latest Posts

Paul Gough

Paul Gough is an internationally known Physio and Founder of The North East’s Leading Specialist Private Physiotherapy Practice for People in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, who want to keep healthy and active.

You might know Paul as an expert Columnist who writes weekly health articles for TWO of the North East's biggest daily Newspapers, The Northern Echo And The Hartlepool Mail, he is a regular Speaker at Industry Seminars around the globe and a Radio Personality, often heard on the BBC. Paul has been an expert guest on dozens of Radio shows and regularly interviewed in newspapers, magazines and trade journals all over the world, including the Guardian.

Paul’s background included working extensively in the Premier League with a Top Professional Football Team, and since quitting his job in Professional Football in 2007, his Physio Practice has become the fastest growing in the UK and biggest in the North East. So successful, that companies like BUPA, ASDA, The Vela Group And Coast & Country, repeatedly retain his Physio company's services to keep healthy their own staff and workforce. Paul Gough Physio Rooms is now a large multi-physio, multi clinic speciality practice in Darlington, Durham, Guisborough and Hartlepool.