The Shoulder and Rotator Cuff

I would like to give thanks to my brother, Dr. Greg Fox, clinic director of Heritage Family Chiropractic in Portland, Maine for introducing me to such a wonderful treatment tool as Applied Kinesiology.

I don't know how I or my patients would fare without the diagnostic ability that Applied Kinesiology muscle testing adds to standard methods of diagnosis taught in traditional medicine, combined with the treatment options gained through Chiropractic, Physical Therapy, and Osteopathy.

With that in mind, I would like to offer some insight to pain symptoms that affect the Shoulder and Rotator Cuff, a commonly mis-diagnosed joint problem

With the increasing numbers of rotator cuff surgeries performed today, it seems prudent to offer a treatment choice that may help people to avoid a costly surgery or permanent impairment. Either way, the least invasive treatments should be sought-after first before ever considering an irreversible surgical procedure. Any doctor, regardless of degree, should follow this philosophy.

The typical diagnosis for a rotator cuff tear, using ranges of motion, orthopedic tests, and MRI results is often not enough to rule-in or rule-out a surgical procedure. MRI results are often the conclusive evidence used to determine if a surgical repair is necessary. The disturbing news is that potential tears in the shoulder are often imperceivable on MRI, leading to an educated "guess", at best.

Physical therapy is normally very successful in rehabilitating a shoulder that has experienced muscle or ligamentous damage. Fortunately, most muscular tears are hardly ever "full tears" and can be improved with proper exercises, manipulation, and manual treatment.

Chiropractic and Applied Kinesiology methods of treatment strengthen the standard approach of Physical Therapy and should always be considered together to offer a patient the maximum benefit and recovery time.

Why choose Chiropractic and Applied Kinesiology?

Diagnosis using Applied Kinesiology gives the patient the added benefit of combining safe chiropractic adjustments with the rehabilitative efforts of manual medicine...Essentially, Applied Kinesiology give patients more treatment options that cover a wide-array of professions...including Physical Therapy, Massage, Chiropractic, Naturopathy, Osteopathy, and Acupuncture. A doctor trained in Applied Kinesiology (AK), has the ability to use muscle testing to determine which treatment option will allow the patient to recover the fastest depending on an individual's response to the test. This is functional neurology which tests the body's own muscles and nervous system responses to arrive at the proper diagnosis and treatment.

There are four muscles that comprise the rotator cuff: Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres Minor, and Subscapularis. Upon inspection of a shoulder diagnosed with rotator cuff tear, I become fascinated by one of the most complex joints in the human body (second to the Jaw and TMJ). The rotator cuff is not able to act on it's own accord, it relies heavily upon other core-stablizing muscles of the shoulder girdle, including Pectoralis Major and Clavicular, Serratus Anterior, Upper Trapezius, Rhomboids, Teres Major, and Deltoids.

The idea to take from this list of stabilizing muscles is that the Rotator Cuff muscles are Second in Command to other more important muscles. Applied Kinesiology offers one of the only techniques available that can isolate and identify which muscles are responsible for the Rotator Cuff imbalance. Furthermore, Applied Kinesiology also helps your doctor decided what needs to be done after determining what is wrong.

Significant pain relief can often be obtained within several visits, depending on the initial underlying cause of the Rotator Cuff imbalance. Beyond direct shoulder involvement and thoracic outlet symptoms of , many cases of Rotator Cuff Pain can also be produced from pinching of nerves in the spine, where the nerves exit your spinal cord. This is called a Radiculopathy, a form of nerve compression that has been treated in Chiropractic for over a hundred years.

To consult a Chiropractor trained in Applied Kinesiology or to find an AK doctor near your home, please visit the website for the International College of Applied Kinesiology at http://www.icakusa.com/ or contact the Chapel Hill Chiropractic Centre at http://www.chapelhillchiropracticcentre.com/ for more information.