Women Suffering From 'Frozen Shoulder' Can Find Relief In Physical Therapy

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There is a painful condition that can come out of the blue and slowly take away the motion in your shoulder.

It's called frozen shoulder, and it strikes millions of Americans -- women more than men.

As CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez explained, there are things you can do to fix it.

The feeling in Amelia Santaniello's shoulder was unlike anything she'd felt before.

"I can't explain the amount of pain it took for me to even put it up like this. It got so bad, I thought it was my back, something going on with that, or pinched a nerve of some sort," she said.

"Adhesive capsulitis is the medical name of it, but it's commonly known as 'frozen shoulder,' it feels like their arm is stuck and they can't get past the position," Dr. Frank Norberg explained.

The most common and effective treatment for frozen shoulder is physical therapy.

"What it is, is the capsule of the joint, the space that encloses the joint of your shoulder, shrinks down and gradually over time becomes inflamed and it tightens up, blocking motion in every direction," Dr, Norberg explained.

It also causes lots of pain.

"Most commonly you are going to see it in middle age people, more commonly in women than men, usually that 40 to 60 age group," Dr. Norberg said.

It's not clear what causes frozen shoulder, but physical therapy and stretching at home usually corrects the problem, but that can take as long as two years.

"So gentle stretching to work at those end points where it is so tight. By doing gradual and repetitive exercises, with the stretching you can regain range of motion," Dr. Norberg said.

If physical therapy and anti-inflammatory medications don't help, doctors may try cortisone shots, stretching the shoulder under anesthesia or as a last resort arthroscopic surgery to cut the scar tissue.

Frozen shoulder is more common in people with diabetes and in those who've had some sort of trauma to the shoulder.