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Frozen shoulder - The Bowen Technique
My problem is Frozen Shoulder. I have had steroid injections twice now and some physiotherapy, which provided some relief. One doctor told me not to move my arm but to keep it in a sling. Another said the opposite. What do you think I can do to help it?
One of big criticisms of complementary health is that there is little or no real scientific evidence that it works. This is, in fact, not true but much of the research that has been done is fragmented. What it true is that there is nothing like the amount of clinical investigation as there is for allopathic medicine where the pharmaceutical companies, who spend a fortune on research and development, can patent a new product and recover their expenditure.
The relevance of this to you is that you have a condition - Frozen Shoulder - for which there has been a formal research programme designed to investigate the efficacy of a hands-on treatment called The Bowen Technique.
This is a gentle method of manipulating muscles, which has good results with musculo-skeletal conditions, especially frozen shoulder and tennis elbow. In fact, for the kind of problems that would usually be treated with cortisone injections, physiotherapy or surgery, it claims an impressive 70% recovery rate.
The technique is named after the self-taught Australian osteopath, Tom Bowen who, despite having no formal medical training, worked as a healer in Melbourne for most of his life until his death in 1982. Today, the Technique is taught to final year Osteopathy students at Universities throughout Australia and practised in this country by people who do have recognised medical backgrounds, including nurses.
Practitioners report excellent results with persistent and difficult to treat conditions such as asthma, tennis elbow, whiplash injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive strain injury (RSI), and hay fever - but the first-ever clinical study into its effectiveness concentrated on frozen shoulder and was carried out in the UK by the European College of Bowen Studies.
Over 3,000 volunteers called up asking to join the research programme, which we advertised two years ago on this page. Patients were randomly assigned to a placebo-control group or to the group that was given three Bowen Technique treatments over a six-week period. The trial was blind, which means patients did not know which treatment they were getting. All patients were asked not to make lifestyle changes that might have affected the outcome over the study period.
None of the patients had been treated by a Bowen therapist before the study, and both groups were given exactly the same aftercare. What the researchers found was that those patients who had Bowen treatments improved significantly more than those who were in the placebo group. Almost 80% of those having Bowen sessions said their shoulder had improved. Only 20% of those in the placebo group could claim the same. About half of those in the placebo control said their shoulder had worsened. Less than 10% of the treated group had the same complaint.
As with so many of these hands-on therapies, the outcome of any treatment will depend on your own commitment to the programme and the skills of your therapist. To find a practitioner, call The European College of Bowen Studies on 01373-461873. Expect to pay between £15-£30 per session.