shoulder pain and diet

I heard Dr Bernstein identify this as a complication of diabetes, actually. You might want to Google that.

LucySW said:

I heard Dr Bernstein identify this as a complication of diabetes, actually. You might want to Google that.

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That's right Lucy, people with diabetes are more prone to develop a frozen shoulder.

There are a number of threads about frozen shoulder on the forum. That might be what you have. It sounds like a bit of a coincidence. OTOH it might not be of course. Hope it isn't.

On the positive side, Dr B says that near-normal BG (ha ha), meaning real low carb, has in his experience reversed many or most complications of diabetes. That's certainly what I'm hoping. I think I have in the past had twinges of this. I'm aiming for near-normal blood sugars, if I can do them safely.

Perhaps do some research. Best of luck!

Lucy

I have a link regarding Frozen shoulder as a complication of diabetes, but I haven't got it on my tablet. I'll try and find it when I eventually find the lead for my laptop

The gist of it was that it is linked to higher blood glucose levels, as reflected in your HbA1c rather than your daily readings. It would make sense that it improved while you reduced your carbs, and came back with bells on when you upped them again. Despite you using insulin to cover the carbs, your BG levels will be higher for longer in between testing times, even though they will be lowerish by the time you next test. It wouldn't hurt to try reducing the carbs again and see if it improves .

Wheat intolerance in itself is unlikely to present itself with neck or shoulder pain, but is one of the main culprits for post meal spikes, so indirectly, it could be causing the problem

It isn't usually insulin, so I wouldn't worry about that

Signy

That gue that is produced, namely glucose has a big part to play in alot of health problems, if you ask me.
Common sense say if you as something that will thicken a liquid, the liquid flows less freely & in the cause of blood, the flow is slowed down & finds it harder to get to areas supplied by small vessels & less oxygen gets around the body to feed our muscles & organs. This we get more pain & health problems diet to the glucose.

i sometime suffer from a frozen shoulder it do get better but it takes a long time.you need to find the best way to relax it .i hate taking pain killers and found that an ice pack worked for me .
i also tore a muscle in my back last year and it still not right.
i think this all to do with nerve problems that diabtics tend to get

Real truth is that loads of people regardless of being diabetic or not, develop frozen shoulder(s) at some time in their lives. It is painful and more troublesome to get rid of in diabetics but is not necessarily caused by badly controlled bg levels.

Usually, it really hurts to try to lift the arm up in the air as the muscles tighten up at the back where the armpit is. Most frozen shoulder peeps cannot lift their arm up more than 90 degrees because of the stiffness but with time, frozen shoulders go as there is usually a freezing stage, then frozen, then the thaw. Hot water bottle helps and getting someone to massage the muscles across the back where the shoulder blades are and at the back of the armpit.

I get pain at the front of my shoulder, apparently it's the tendon, could have injection for it but there's a chance it could make it worse, so just have to live with it. Hayho.

C1a1r319 said:

Hello
For about 6 months I have been TRYING to follow a lower carb diet. Not ketogenic low about 100g a day.
Recently I decided to try a more balanced diet again as I wasn't seeing results I wanted from low carb.
Before I started lower carb I used to have this chronic muscle pain in my neck/shoulder. Sometimes it was so bad I couldn't move my neck.
After I tried eating more carbs I noticed this shoulder pain came back with a vengeance. My glucose weren't particularly high. About 7-9 which surprised me.
I'm starting to wonder whether this is a wheat allergy/intolerance rather than a problem with control (which I thought it was when it disappeared on low carb).
Just wondered whether any other people with wheat problems had this?
Another thought I had was could it be the higher amount of insulin with higher carb intake.
Does insulin do this?

I have decided to stay lower carb and today I'm still in agony even though my glucose have been 5-7 all day.


Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Claire Lovelock

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In your shoes I'd go back to your previous level of carbs or lower.

C1a1r319 said:

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Claire Lovelock

Click to expand...

I have no idea

C1a1r319 said:

Hello
For about 6 months I have been TRYING to follow a lower carb diet. Not ketogenic low about 100g a day.
Recently I decided to try a more balanced diet again as I wasn't seeing results I wanted from low carb.
Before I started lower carb I used to have this chronic muscle pain in my neck/shoulder. Sometimes it was so bad I couldn't move my neck.
After I tried eating more carbs I noticed this shoulder pain came back with a vengeance. My glucose weren't particularly high. About 7-9 which surprised me.
I'm starting to wonder whether this is a wheat allergy/intolerance rather than a problem with control (which I thought it was when it disappeared on low carb).
Just wondered whether any other people with wheat problems had this?
Another thought I had was could it be the higher amount of insulin with higher carb intake.
Does insulin do this?

I have decided to stay lower carb and today I'm still in agony even though my glucose have been 5-7 all day.


Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Claire Lovelock

Click to expand...

Hi Claire

I had acute shoulder pain on my left side that was incredibly painful for more than a year. The pain kept me awake and was debilitating. I couldn't raise my arm above my ear, and seriously considered changing my manual car for an automatic because my range of movement was so limited I had to use 2 hands to use the gear stick and hand brake. I couldn't lift my arm above my head to wash my hair and or get out of the bath.

I had ultra sounds and ex rays and the diagnosis was distal supraspinatus tendinopathy and a thickening at the posterior shoulder joint. I refused the steroid injections offered yet as soon as I went LCHF all pain disappeared and full movement returned. I was told by my personal trainer who is also a nutritionist that the increase of good fats in my diet on LCHF was contributory to my full recovery without any medical intervention.

I hope this helps.

This thread contains some people's experiences with Frozen Shoulder.
Is yours affecting arm movements as well?

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/frozen-shoulder.64339/#post-632619

Frozen shoulder is not well understood even by orthodox medicine so we are in the range of speculation as to links between it and diabetes. Bernstein reports it as a comorbidity of diabetes. It's interesting the people reporting it as varying according to their blood sugar level.

I certainly suffered from it for years and only when I found a great osteopath was I able to get rid of it.

Even I have noticed same.I tried to google and find out and couldn’t find anything.Pain is in the scapula ..its not frozen shoulder.I will really appreciate if someone has input

I developed two incredibly painful (but not frozen) shoulders, and scapulae about three years ago, and couldn’t lift either arm above shoulder level - plus enormous pain. I had physio, steroid injections, acupuncture (was so desperate I was willing to try anything, even though I think it’s a load of b*ll*cks, and the NHS physio suggested it. It didn’t work.), and a plethora of pain meds. It was horrendous. Couldn’t sleep on either side, and it still hurt to sleep on my back - had to take large doses of opiates to get any relief. At the time my HbA1c was in three figures and had been for some time. I wasn’t testing, either.

I really took control of my levels in the new year this year and have pretty much normalised them now, my last HbA1c was 41. The difference in the pain has been remarkable. I’m off all my painkillers, (except the one I’ve always taken for sciatica) and although my arms aren’t as strong as they were, I’ve got a full range of movement again, to the point where I’ve been painting my bedroom walls this week. I’m slowly regaining my strength, and might even be able to start archery again soon. The pain comes back a bit if my BG goes high.

So while you might not have a frozen shoulder, it could well be diabetic neuropathy - as the others have said, sorting your levels might be key to helping your pain. It’s a long slog, I’m afraid, but it will only benefit you if you do x

I have an arthritic shoulder after a horse riding accident 20 years ago. A day of high blood sugars (yesterday - a lot of travel and a funeral) & it aches badly.

Before I was diagnosed T1 last year my GP ran tests for rheumatoid arthritis my joints were so sore and swollen. That's cleared up now my hba1c is down.