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When you are suffering from any type of shoulder problem you will often be told to ice it right away. This is a great idea as the icing will help to take away the inflammation. However, what you will find is this can also cause some harm as well because it can cause the shoulder to get stiffer and more painful.

This is when you need to explore the benefits of heat treatment for frozen shoulder. If you have experienced frozen shoulder for a period of time already, you will be aware of the stages in which it affects your movement.

There are three stages involved with frozen shoulder. Depending on which stage you are at will determine whether or not ice or heat therapy is needed. These are the three stages and the applicable therapy recommendations:

1. Freezing – The initial stage. The treatment for this stage is cold therapy as it numbs the tissues that cause swelling and reduces the impact of pain you feel.
2. Frozen – This is when your shoulder becomes ‘frozen’ and movement is greatly reduced. Heat therapy is recommended.
3. Thawing – Heat therapy is recommended as the scar tissue begins to loosen. Movement is starting to increase and the benefits of heat therapy (blood circulation, body healing & more below) play a key role in a quick recovery here.

Types Of Heat Treatment For Frozen Shoulder You Can Use From Home

These three stages can repeat themselves over and over. So a good at home treatment plan is essential to managing frozen shoulder. There are various ways to use heat treatments from home for your frozen shoulder.

Below you can find some of the popular at home treatments for from shoulder that involve heat therapy.

Infrared Light Therapy

Infrared light is an invisible energy source that naturally comes from the sun. When used in a device as a heat therapy device it is in my opinion the most effective tool for the job.

The range of infrared light therapy devices is quite extensive. However to be really effective you need to consider devices that utilizes the 890NM wavelength. This has been proven to be the mos effective when treating conditions such as neuropathy, frozen shoulder and any other condition which requires increased blood circulation.

The best infrared light therapy device is the Anodyne Therapy device. It’s a tad expensive but it does a very good job at stimulating blood flow. This kind of investment pays for itself over the years as it can be used for just about any muscle, bone and tissue condition.

The infrared light that comes from the Anodyne penetrates your shoulder via pads that are attached to your body. These infrared waves are invisible to the human eye yet can penetrate up to 2 inches deep into your shoulder. This heat wave will expand the diameter of the blood vessels and increase blood circulation to the frozen shoulder.

This will free up stiff joints and the increase in nutrients from the blood will start healing any nerve damage, scar tissue and constricted muscles. Because the 890NM infrared energy can penetrate so deep into the shoulder, you get far better results that any other method in my opinion.

Read More About The Anodyne Therapy Device Here

 

Infrared Heating Shoulder Pad & Strap

Because the Anodyne is quite an expensive device as it is medical grade, the more affordable option is this infrared shoulder wrap by Venture. This device also uses infrared as the heat therapy method, so it penetrates much deeper than your traditional heating pad.

The other benefit of infrared is that you can still receive the heat and blood circulation benefits after the device has stopped. Which is good because like most heating pads, the Venture wrap has a 30 min shut off automatically installed into it. This is a safety thing more than anything. So you can restart the wrap straight after if you like.

But what I like about this pad over the other infrared neck and shoulder heating pads is that it completely covers the ball joint of the shoulder(Acromioclavicular joint).

This is the main area where blood needs to circulate. Which is why I recommend this kind of device over the more common neck and shoulder heat pad.

More About The Venture Heat Wrap For Frozen Shoulder

Unfortunately the Venture is not a cordless heating pad. This would have made it the ideal heat device for frozen shoulder. So you will need to dedicate 30 minutes of your time close to a power source in order to receive the benefits of infrared directly into your shoulder.

Update: There is now a cordless Venture shoulder heat wrap available on amazon. It’s a little more expensive but in my opinion is well worth the freedom of moving around. You can wear it in the car, while at work and even out shopping.

The wrap is completely washable by hand as the power cord plugs into a controller which then plugs into the shoulder pad. With the controller you can switch between the four heat settings. The maximum heat setting is 132 Fahrenheit. But when first starting out I would recommend choosing the low to middle heat range and work your way up.

The Venture shoulder heat pad is adjustable to suit the various shoulder sizes. There are two sizes I am aware of, this corded model is the regular fit and the cordless model is the maximum size for large and more broader shoulders. It has a soft touch to your skin as it is brushed fleece.

Overall I find the Venture shoulder heat pad one of the best value for money devices to treat frozen shoulder. You get the option to be cordless for a extra fee or stay plugged into the wall for on tap infrared heat therapy. Really good product.

 

The Benefits Of Using Heat On Your Frozen Shoulder

Heat Can Help Relax The Shoulder Muscles

When you are working out you will often find that one of the first things that you have to do is go out and stretch. That is generally to help you in warming up the muscles that are around the bones and help to prevent the injury. That is the same concept when you are using heat here as it will help to relax the shoulder muscles quite a bit more than what you would expect and this will help in getting the muscles ready to be moved around.

At the same time, with the muscles being relaxed it makes it easier for you to start to stretch out the ligaments that are often the root cause of the issue. Since this is the case it will allow you to treat the shoulder in a more traditional method of physical therapy. However, when you are looking at this it will also help you out in getting the shoulder moving again and this allows you to enjoy the shoulder movement that you are doing and know it will make it easier for you to move your arm around.

Provides Some Pain Relief

Sometimes you will find the pain that comes from the frozen shoulder is because the muscles are so tense. This is when you need to realize you can use the heat treatment for frozen shoulder to get some of the relief you need to have. Since this is the case you will find that it will help you out quite a bit in getting rid of the pain. This then means you will not be taking as much in the way of pain medication nor will you have to take as much in the way of muscle relaxers either.

When you are using the heat treatment for pain relief you will want to make sure you use this in the same basic rotation that you would use with ice. It is important to note that when the muscles are relaxed and you are not in pain that you should try to do some of your exercises to help you out in getting the relief that you need to have done.

Boost The Natural Healing Of The Body Through Blood Circulation

While this is not really talked about a lot, when you are using ice and heat in a combination you will find that it helps to boost the bodies natural healing ability. With this, you will not be in pain as much and you will be able to recover faster than what you expected. So this is definitely something that you will want to consider as it makes it easier for you to go on with your life. At the same time, you are going to notice this may take a little bit for you to start to notice the difference, but you are making the healing all natural and not going to be concerned about it not helping your body heal.

Can Help Prevent Future Injuries

This is definitely something that you will find great about this treatment and that is the fact that it will help build up your muscles even more than what any other treatment will do. When these are built up properly and over time it will help to prevent you from getting injured again. So you are not going to be left trying to figure out how to fix your shoulder again later on. Instead, you will just have to be concerned about some of your other joints giving you problems in the future, but you will know how to fix them as well.

Heat Treatment For Frozen Shoulder From Home

Generally when you are suffering from this condition you will notice that you are going to often be too shy to go to the doctor to get treatment. However, what is great about this treatment method is the fact that it is going to allow you to have a great treatment that you can do at home. So you will not have to worry about trying to set time aside from work or other places to go and get the treatment you need to have.

Now, it is important that you do get the proper gear to do the treatment at home. That may be something that you would have to go out and get, but it is definitely going to be something that is fairly easy for you to get and can typically be picked up at the pharmacy or even the local large box store. So this could be something that you will have to go out and get, but even then it does not mean that you will be going out to the doctors office.

Finding the proper treatment for frozen shoulder can be difficult to do. That is when you should know more about the benefits of heat treatment for frozen shoulder. Once you know these benefits you can easily see this is the best treatment option on the market.