With a record cold wave coming this winter, Korea has become a truly frozen kingdom. This strong cold is expected to continue for the time being.
The winter season, when people’s shoulders shrink, is also a time when more patients complain of shoulder pain regardless of age or sex.
This is because when the blood vessels contract due to a drop in temperature and blood circulation decreases, nutrients and pain relief substances go to muscles and ligaments.
The pain may intensify due to frozen shoulder, shoulder collision syndrome, and rotator cuff tear. These diseases have similar symptoms, making it difficult to accurately determine. Accurate diagnosis by a specialist is important.
The frozen shoulder is a representative shoulder joint disease that causes pain and movement restrictions. It is often called frozen shoulder, but the medical name is adhesive arthritis.
The shoulder joint is hardened without any special trauma or shock, causing pain, especially at night, with severe pain and limited exercise.
Yoo Soon-yong, director of the Orthopedic Surgery Department of Mokdong Hemchan Hospital, said, “If you can’t do a hurray motion with both arms raised and the back movement is difficult, you can suspect a frozen shoulder.” “It’s often caused by bad habits rather than change.”
It is important to maintain a correct posture to prevent frozen shoulders. Avoid taking the same posture for a long time, and if you need to take the same posture for an hour, it is good to stretch your arms and shoulder muscles from side to side for more than 10 minutes.
When it’s easy to get stiff around your shoulders due to the cold these days, you can regularly take a full body bath in a hot bath for 10 to 15 minutes a day or put a warm pack on your shoulder.
Collision syndrome is a disease in which a tendon called “superlative tendon” is inflamed, which is located at the top of the tendons that move the shoulder and is used to raise the arm.
It often occurs in occupational groups that enjoy exercise using the shoulder or frequently use shoulder for work, and more than half of the patients are in their 40s to 50s.
To prevent collision syndrome, it is essential to strengthen the shoulder muscles. Sit on a chair, hold both handles, lift your shoulders and hold it up 3-4 times. It can be helped by training the muscles of the shoulders and smoothing the blood circulation around the shoulders.
Rotator cuff tear is a condition in which the muscles and tendons that cause the shoulder joint to rotate are damaged or broken. It is difficult to turn the arm behind the body, or the shoulder pain lasts for several months or longer, and symptoms of sleep installation appear.
However, since the severity and pain are not proportional, it is difficult to diagnose the presence of damage based on symptoms alone. If a partial rupture is in progress, it is easy to get tired when you use your arms over your shoulders, but the rest of your muscles are often normal.
In general, when the rotator cuff is ruptured, the pain is so severe that the arm cannot be lifted up at the beginning, and then the pain subsides over time and the arm can also be lifted.
Because of this, it is often thought of as a simple inflammation or bruise and lightly overlooked.
However, it is difficult to heal a rotator cuff that is once ruptured or damaged naturally, and if the tendon rupture is more than 50% or is completely ruptured, special attention is required because the tendon suture surgery using an arthroscopy is required.
The persistent pain in the shoulder of the middle-aged has a great effect on daily life and may cause joint deformation.
Yoo Soon-yong, director of the Orthopedic Surgery Department of Mokdong Himchan Hospital, said, “If shoulder pain intensifies due to the cold in winter, it is important to take a warm compress, stretch, rest, etc., and if the pain persists, it is important to receive professional diagnosis and treatment.” Ⓒ Safe Times
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