In any chronic or recurrent peripheral joint injury (shoulder, hip, knee, elbow, wrist, ankle etc), the entire kinetic chain must be assessed for dysfunction... not just the part that is sore!
Any trauma to a limb, or any movement of a limb for that matter, is going to transmit force back to the spine. Conversely, dysfunction of the spine can cause dysfunction, or overload, of a peripheral joint... and thus injury and inflammation. This is quite common the case for the shoulder, as the shoulder is the most mobile joint in the entire body... which, in a chain that is dysfunctional, causes it to be readily, and repeatedly injured.
In chronic cases of shoulder pain, often we see the primary cause originating from the thoracic, or lower cervical spine.
The scapula, which makes up half of the shoulder joint, sits on the thoracic cage. In a hyperkyphotic (overly curved) and hypomobile (stiff) thoracic spine, the scapula are pushed back, increasing the distance between scapula and humeral head (ball of the ball and socket joint), causing the rotator cuff muscles to have to tighten to try and pull the humeral head back into the socket of the scapula. This overloads the rotator cuff muscles and sets them up for recurrent rotator cuff micro trauma and tears, and bursitis.
Chiropractic adjustments are used in this type of dysfunction to restore movement to the subluxated vertebra (misaligned or dysfunctional vertebra effecting the nervous system), and improve thoracic spine extension, thus relieving tension on the overloaded rotator cuff muscles, allowing the shoulder joint to heal and pain to resolve.
Forward head carriage can also produce recurrent shoulder pain and dysfunction, as pressure or impingement of the spinal nerve roots from C4 - T1 provide can alter communication between brain and shoulder tissues, again degrading the kinetic chain, and hampering healing or resolution of injured and inflamed tissues. Chiropractic adjustments to subluxated vertebra in the base of the neck or upper thoracic spine (C4 - T2) help to alleviate pressure on exiting spinal nerve roots, and restore proper neurological function.
The idea that the painful site is the only site that needs to be 'treated' is redundant in most instances, and rarely leads to long term improvement and restoration of function.
If you step on a dog's tail, he barks out of his mouth.... it's not a muzzle he needs... you need to take your foot off his tale ;-)
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Best regards,
Dr Dan Shakespeare (Chiropractor)