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About Neck and Shoulder Pain:

Majority of pain that travels to your shoulder from your neck is referred pain. Your shoulder is usually not the problem, though it may feel that way. So during the acupuncture treatment the aim find the key point to cure the pain. This kind of neck and shoulder pain is a common complaint. Some may last a few days, other may last several years.

Shoulder pain in the muscles is similar to upper back and mid back pain (see back pain) the treatment for shoulder joint pain is not only for pain but also for the joint function, many clients have came to our clinic for the pain but they may not realize that the abduction of the arm had been limited, the reason is our movable shoulder blade can compensate limitation of shoulder joint. After acupuncture the pain usually is much less, it is good time to recover the joint function by stretching the arm in all direction, normally, the arm abduction could increase 3 to 5 degrees. We also instruct function exercise. Some clients have pain in the early morning or have been woken up by the pain, the reason is coldness; coldness of body lead to poor circulation, in this case we also boost body energy, warm up body to achieve long term effect.

Causes:

Most neck and shoulder stiffness results from two factors: continuous mechanical strain and emotional stress. It is injury to the soft tissues including the muscles, tendons, and ligaments within these structures. This can occur from whiplash or other injury to these areas. Degenerative arthritis of the spine in the neck (cervical spine) can pinch nerves that can cause both neck pain and shoulder pain. Degenerative disc disease in the neck (cervical spondylosis) can cause local neck pain. Abnormal conditions involving the spinal cord, heart, lungs and some abdominal organs also can cause neck and shoulder pain.

Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Treatment for Neck and Shoulder Pain:

Acute pain in early morning

If you have the acute neck pain in the early morning and have difficulty turning your head, it may be due to coldness. A hot shower or applying heat pad may help relieve some of the pain, acupuncture and/or massage will cure it in 1 to 3 sessions.

Chronic pain due to work

Neck pain caused by leaning into your computer at work or hunching over workbench usually is chronic. Over work and stress will worsen the condition. The treatment may take a long time, but it always can be cured at last. While treating the pain with acupuncture and/or massage, calming down the mind will also help because the pain pay irritate the mind.

Auto injury and others

Neck pain caused by injury could be severe, even if the X-ray or MRI shows nothing wrong, the pain could still last a long time. Most commonly the pain is triggered by the stressful mind. The accident not only injured body, but also disturbed the mind. In our treatment, we relieve pain first, then according to patients’ accompanied complaints, calm down the mind, treat insomnia, diarrhea and any other related concerns accordingly. In our experience, usually patients only complain about neck pain, but other parts of body may also have been injured. Because the neck pain is usually most severe, patients often don’t realize the other problems so we do careful physical examination to find and treat all potential problems.

Cervical spondylopathy

This kind of neck pain is featured by Neck shooting pain and radiate to your shoulder, may down to your arm, numbness or loss of strength in your arms or hands may also happen, the neck pain may come with nausea, dizziness when turning head. For this kind of pain, X-ray or report will be read in consultation, physical examination of nerve system will also be applied, deep massage should be used with caution.