What causes shoulder pain and how can acupuncture help?
Shoulder pain can be caused by a number of different conditions. It can be caused by rotator cuff disease, periarthritis or adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder). Shoulder pain can sometimes go away on its own but may last up to 12 to 18 months. Drug and non-drug treatments are used to relieve pain and/or swelling. Acupuncture is a non-drug therapy being used more and more to treat shoulder pain. It is thought that acupuncture works either by releasing chemical compounds in the body that relieve pain, by overriding pain signals in the nerves or by allowing energy (Qi) or blood to flow freely through the body. It is not known whether acupuncture works or is safe. How well does acupuncture work? The improvements with acupuncture for pain and function were about the same as the effects of receiving a fake therapy for 2 to 4 weeks. One study showed that acupuncture improved shoulder function more than fake therapy after 4 weeks. But after 4 months, improvements were about the same with onl
