Anyone who has experienced frozen shoulder knows how debilitating it can be with excruciating pain. It leaves you helplessly unable to do even simple tasks. You are, therefore, left unproductive for up to several months at times. Frozen shoulder can be prevented, though, and its pain can be eased.

Medically, frozen shoulder is called adhesive capsulitis. It involves the shoulder capsule which is the connective tissue around the shoulder joint. Inflammation of the shoulder capsule creates adhesions which are abnormally fused bands of tissue. This results in chronic pain and a drastic reduction in one's range of motion.

Frozen shoulder has three stages. In stage one, or the freezing stage, the pain sets in gradually. This can take from six weeks to nine months. The end of the period is also the peak point of the pain. By then, motion has been lost totally. Stage two or the frozen stage then begins. It is also called the adhesive stage. The shoulder remains stiff for the next four to nine months during which the pain very gradually improves. Stage two ends and stage three begins when there is the barest return of mobility. Stage three is the thawing stage wherein there is a very gradual return to one's normal range of motion. This can last for five months or even more than three years in certain cases.

The pain of a frozen shoulder is described as a dull ache that intensifies and erupts into sudden spasms when one makes certain movements. The pain also worsens at night and when the weather is cold. Satellite pain is felt in tissues surrounding the affected shoulder, including the neck and back. Because of this, the patient cannot sleep well. Chronic fatigue sets in, the patient becomes depressed due to the suffering, the immune system is weakened and other complications arise.

When frozen shoulder occurs spontaneously even without any trigger it is known as idiopathic frozen shoulder. Other factors that are often connected to it are extended immobility of the shoulder due to trauma, injury or recent surgery. Sometimes, in a patient with an autoimmune disorder, the body's own immune system attacks the shoulder capsule tissues and creates adhesions. Also at high risk are patients suffering from connective tissue disorders, rheumatic disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, lung disease, heart disease and patients who have recently had a stroke.

People in high risk conditions can prevent the onset of frozen shoulder by never allowing the shoulders to become immobile for extended periods of time. Massage and exercise should be used to put the shoulders through their full range of motion regularly. Massage and physical therapy may also stop the progress of the condition if used just as the pain has begun to set in.

In full blown cases of frozen shoulder, though, treatment can be too painful without pain relief medication such as analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and steroids. In extreme cases, anesthetics may be needed. With the inflammation under control and the pain masked, the shoulder tissues can be manipulated and stretched though massage therapy and physical therapy in order to break up the adhesions and scar tissues.

Various therapeutic massage modalities such as reflexology massage therapy, deep tissue massage therapy, sports massage therapy and Swedish massage therapy may be used to prevent frozen shoulder or alleviate its pain once it has set in. Even pregnant women may get frozen shoulder and in such cases, pregnancy massage therapy may be used. Any of these massage therapy modalities should be done only by professional massage therapists, though.