Dr. Adnan Badr's Physiotherapy Rehab Clinic

The shoulders are the most mobile joints in your body. Shoulder joints undergo wear and a tear over time and hence become unstable. Shoulder arthritis is one of the painful conditions affecting the shoulder joints. Arthritis not only takes a toll on the tendons and muscles, but also affects the ligaments and joints too. They usually cause symptoms such as joint pain, resulting in limited mobility.

Treatment:

Nonsurgical or Lifestyle treatments:

1. Take rest or avoid the activities that provoke pain or change the way of your arm movements.
2. Physical therapy boosts shoulder mobility.
3. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen or aspirin alleviate pain and inflammation.
4. Corticosteroid injections in the shoulders can also help to ease the pain and inflammation, although temporarily.
5. Applying moist heat or ice packs over the shoulders for about half an hour at least thrice a day brings relief.
6. Drugs such as methotrexate can be administered in case one is suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (a chronic disease attacking multiple joints of the body).
7. Dietary supplements such as chondroitin and glucosamine may help reduce pain.

Surgical treatments (if your pain results in disability and does not lessen with nonsurgical options)

1. Join replacement surgery or arthroplasty involves replacing the damaged parts of the shoulder with a prosthetic (artificial) joint.
2. Few mild forms of arthritis may be treated using the Arthroscopic procedure (minimally invasive surgery). It requires a surgeon to ease the joint pain by making small incisions to “clean out” the joint. A tiny camera fitted into the joint guides the surgeon through the surgery.
3. Resection arthroplasty is a method that involves the surgical removal of the bone from the collar bone and substituting it with a scar tissue to treat arthritis of particular joints.

Back Pain Symptoms
Back plays a very important role in a human body. It is composed of a complex structure of muscles and ligaments that supports the body and enables us to stand, move around, and indulge in almost every physical activity. The inconveniences with any of these bodily structures can lead to back pain which might range from severe to moderate. This is very common among people from all age groups due to their sitting and standing position.

Do you think why you have a back pain every time? Well, the cause of back pain is still unknown. The back pain varies from one person to another. Some of its symptoms suggest that back pain has a more serious cause that includes fever, weight loss, and numbness.

Symptoms of Back Pain
In most cases, back pain gets cured and one does not go to a doctor. Back pain is accompanied by many symptoms; some of those are included below. If a person experiences any of these symptoms, it might be a sign of a back pain; the doctor should be informed about it.

-  Fibromyalgia – Fibromyalgia causes pain in the entire body. A person has painful tender joints that hurt a lot even after taking medicine. In this condition, the affected person should not indulge in any kind of exercise. The symptoms of fibromyalgia differ from one person to another, but symptoms such as stiffness, fatigue, and issues while sleeping are common. Apart from back pain, patients also experience stiffness in the shoulders and neck. Patients complain of feeling extremely tired, especially waking up and feeling pain in specific areas called tender points. Many patients complain about stiffness, which is worse in the morning and increases as the day passes. Any physical exertion increases the pain.

It can be improved by adopting lifestyle changes that include a change in diet and exercising daily.

-  Degenerative arthritis –This condition occurs due to an internal damage caused to the facet joints. The surfaces of the joints are lined with smooth cartilage that allows movement. Both sides of the joint rub against each other, thus allowing a free movement. In case of injury or internal damage, apart from back pain, patients may also experience stiffness and pain in bending over. The joints are smaller when compared to the body weight they bear. The stress and strain may cause damage to the cartilage. Injuries and other internal and external damages over a lifetime may cause the joints to degenerate. 

The spinal facet pain in the lower back pain may, later on, lead to osteoarthritis.

-  Inflammatory arthritis– It is a group of disease caused due to inflammation of joints and other tissues. In this condition, there is pain in the lower back, together with morning stiffness in the hips or both; in some cases. There is also pain, feeling of tiredness and stiffness in the neck or the chest. Other symptoms of this disease include psoriasis, eye pain, and fever; depending on the specific disorder that is causing the back pain.

-  Osteoporosis – This condition is different from rheumatoid arthritis and other forms of arthritis as it only affects joints without affecting organs or soft tissue areas of the body. It is often characterized by thinning and weakening of bones that fracture easily. It is most common in postmenopausal women. When vertebrae are compressed because of a fracture, along with a slight to moderate slouch, it may result in back pain. This condition does not cause any pain unless a bone fractures.

-  Cancer in the Spinal Column: If cancer spreads to spinal nerves that control the bladder and bowel, there may be bowel incontinence. Its symptoms depend on various factors, including the tumor type, size, age and health. Some of the common symptoms include back pain, numbness, weakness and difficulty while urinating. These symptoms even get worse with time.

Sometimes the symptoms may occur quickly and sometimes slowly and it may take hours and days. Metastatic spinal tumors, which spread to the spine from a different location in the body, progress quickly.

-  Protruding disk: A spine intervertebral disc when sustains an injury to the spine, it is commonly referred to as Protruding disk. This injury can not only occur in the lower, upper, and middle back, but also at the cervical spine. People with significant disk disease go through severe pain in the lower back. If a disk compresses a nerve, the pain may spread down to one leg. In this condition, one should avoid bending or twisting. It is mostly caused due to poor posture while sitting and standing. To lower the effect of poor posture on the spine it is necessary to continuously maintain a good posture or regularly change the posture.

-  Back sprain: A series of ligaments and muscles hold the bones of the spinal column together. A person may strain these muscles by stretching them too much. This can even tear the tissue.

The muscles get weak due to which it cannot be held at one place. Because of this, the spine gets a little unstable and causes back pain.

Back pain usually occurs after heavy exertion in which muscles in the back, buttocks and thighs get stiff.

One can avoid back pain by improving one’s physical condition by adopting certain changes in lifestyle.

-  Exercise: One should start their day with light aerobic activities that do not strain the back. This can increase the strength of the back by allowing the muscles to function better. Walking and swimming are the most recommended form of exercise. Alternatively, people can talk to a doctor about which activities they should indulge in.

-  Build muscular strength: One should practice abdominal crunches and back muscle exercises that strengthen muscles so that they can work together. Communicating with the therapist to know the right exercises is important.

-  Watch your weight: Being overweight strains the muscles of the back. Overweight people should cut down on their weight in order to avoid back pain.

-  Quit smoking: Smoking is definitely injurious to health. It is difficult to quit it at once; therefore, one should talk to their doctor about ways to quit it.

People suffering from back pain should bring about some changes in their normal routine and temporarily avoid lifting heavy items and sitting for long hours. If a patient is recovering from back pain, they can ask the doctors to follow up regularly to know whether the symptoms have been cured or not. Once the symptoms have relieved and the patient feels decrease in the intensity of the back pain, they should go back to their normal routine.