Carpal Tunnel and Frozen Shoulder–Are These Two Syndromes Related?

Are frozen shoulder and carpal tunnel syndromes related?  Can they heal naturally, without surgery?

Here’s part of a question I received:

“I’ve both tendonitis AND/OR carpal tunnel along with Frozen shoulder, all stemming from a repetitive stress job related injury, slowly progressed into the Frozen shoulder.

It’s been 6 mos now and it’s all gotten better but get flare ups now on the forearms, and fingers sometimes tingle and lightly numb and top of thumbs get painful but worst right now is probably the Frozen Shoulder pain. Is this normal I’ve not healed yet although was on modified duty and now laid off a month?

I’m told the MRI and Nerve Conduction tests are NEGATIVE.

Will I heal from these?

The bone Dr. says my next option is shoulder manipulation (under
Anesthesia), followed by more phys. ther. before and after.”

Here’s my response:

As I understand the procedure, while the patient is under anesthesia, the doctor forcefully moves the shoulder to break up adhesions or restrictions in the joint
and stretch the muscles and tendons (tendons are muscle attachments.)
This is no doubt an expensive procedure and may be covered by your insurance.
The other option is to find a neuromuscular massage therapist who can manually manipulate the muscles around the shoulder to cause them to relax.

There may be massage therapists with other training who can also do this work but I am most familiar with Paul St. John-trained NMT or neurosomatic massage therapists. This may only take a few sessions.

One of my clients who had his frozen shoulders treated both under anesthesia and manually said the manual treatment was the way to go. He said as soon as the manual (hands on/massage) treatment was done, the discomfort was gone as well as
the symptoms. He said there was a period of discomfort during recovery from the medical procedure.
There are NMT massage therapists who treat the muscles of the shoulder girdle, rotator cuff, neck muscles that cause hand and arm pain, arm and chest muscles.

Those muscles can all become ‘too tight’ and press on nerves (which causes symptoms) or develop trigger points (which cause pain in arms and hands.) Once those muscles are released (relaxed) your symptoms will go away and you can keep them that way with appropriate stretches and by using good working positions as much as possible.
I believe in my heart that you will heal.

Do everything you can to support your muscles: eat healthy, drink lots of water, take a vitamin-mineral supplement if you wish, and look for a therapist who practices the type of massage/manual therapy I mentioned above.
You can also use heat on your upper chest, front of your arm (your whole arm if
you feel like it,) and around your shoulder. I suggest cold packs on your neck. If heat makes you feel a little worse, that’s a clue to switch to cold.
Do little movements in all directions with your shoulders to help the muscles relax.
Note: Frozen shoulders often do get better on their own within two years at the most.

Years and years ago, before I got into this field, I had a frozen shoulder. A physical therapist did physical manipulation (without benefit of warming with ‘real’ massage first.)

They did some ultrasound first, which was supposed to warm the area (I have serious doubts about that) and then the physical therapist forced the shoulder to stretch it while I was awake. It hurt so much that I got
tears in my eyes but only during the procedure. It took several sessions since no one warmed or relaxed the muscles first. Now, I would always choose a skilled massage therapist who knows how to release those muscles as my
treatment of choice.

Kathryn Merrow,The Pain Relief Coach

4 comments

  1. Hi Janet,
    There is something called a trigger point. These develop in muscles that are unhappy (i.e., when overstretched.) A trigger point can cause weakness as well as pain (the pain is often at a distance, sometimes a great distance.)
    If you notice the weakness in the one shoulder only, it could be a trigger point(s) in a muscle. If you notice the weakness in BOTH shoulders, strengthening them will help. 🙂
    By the way, I used to have a ‘sloppy’ shoulder joint, perhaps from some childhood injury, but years of doing massage have built up the muscles around that joint and it stopped slipping out of place years ago.
    Kathryn

  2. I think you are absolutely right Kathryn. When I was younger I could move the ball and socket joint in and out – just a little way. Some years ago when I was playing squash – I did an overhead smash and unbeknown to me my joint had just dislodged slightly. The pain was excruciating. My frozen shoulder seemed to appear shortly after that.
    Most of the time I have full use of my joint I can do any moves with no problem then the tiniest little move can make me jump and it feels as though it has just dislodged a little and that is where the pain is coming from – it is almost like a weakness sensation. Building up the muscles would seem to be a sensible place for me to start.
    I do try to carry my shopping as you suggested and even just bending my arm a little seems to help – but again my muscles are quite weak!!!

  3. Dear Janet,
    You are very welcome. Here are some thoughts: You may know I am a huge proponent of massage therapy so, yes, strengthen your whole shoulder, however, you may find that massage for the specific muscles involved in your tennis game may make a world of difference. I’m not talking about a lovely relaxation massage but about massage that is specifically for pain provided by a well-trained therapist.
    We all have ‘wear and tear’ but we do not all have pain. That is a convenient excuse which may show up on x-rays but isn’t necessarily the cause of our pain. The cause is more often muscles.
    Many times a pain seems to be permanent but turns out to be temporary when the appropriate muscles are treated with manual/massage/hands-on therapy.
    Since you know what causes your ache, please don’t do it. 🙂 If you can carry your bags like a football in the crook of your arm, it causes less weight on the shoulder.
    Is part of your strengthening program to hike your shoulders and strengthen the muscles on the ‘tops’ of your shoulders? I suspect that may help (long-distance suspicion.)
    I’m glad your frozen shoulder resolved itself naturally. The shoulder is a kind of sloppy joint and sometimes the bones and joint are actually the cause of pain or dysfunction but more often, it’s muscles. 🙂
    Kathryn

  4. Thanks Kathryn. I had a frozen shoulder many years ago and as you say it got better within two years. I was offered manipulation under anaesthetic but decided against. In recent years I have developed a more permanent shoulder problem which I am told shows signs of wear and tear. The advice given was to build up the muscles using rubber bands. I also find a big improvement when I don’t eat wheat and gluten.I am still able to play tennis but find I have a dull ache in my upper arm afterwards. The worst thing is carrying heavy shopping and even sometimes walking letting my arms hang down causes the dull ache

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.