This topic is divided into several sections, the neck and the trapezium problems as one, the shoulder joints and other related issues as the other. The former is very common, with young and old population. The later happens to mostly people in their upper 40’sand older. Younger people only get it through traumatic incidents, such as a bad fall. It will be discussed later the frozen shoulder sections.
Frequently, patients may come in for various complaints such as migraine, dizziness, but not neck and shoulder or simply mild neck issues. These patients would however show various degree of stiff neck. This happens especially with lots of elderly. Some of them may have a significant reduction of range of neck but may not be aware that they have the problem. It kind of creeping up gradually on them, little by little until most range of movement is lost eventually. After treatment, they would notice that they do not need to turn the shoulder to look for the incoming car while driving anymore. They just turn their neck, naturally!!
For younger people, it can be a postural issue or traumatic injury. These days, everybody seems to be perpetually sitting in front of computer terminals. Stiff and sore neck issues are common. It makes people uncomfortable, for most people, some rest and everything is O.K. Without resolving the issue, often it leads to other more serious problems such as numbness of arm and fingers. Sometimes even turn to problems like carpel tunnel syndrome, which is horrible to live with.
Graph from : http://nursing411.org/Courses/MD0556_Basic_Patient_Care_Procedures/2-06_Basic_Pat_Care_Proc.html
2.1 N-S protocol: protocol for neck and shoulder problems
Basic: (done bilateraly)
Luo Zhen
SJ 10
Exam: Ask the patient to do neck rotation. 90 degree without tension is healthy. Otherwise, there is some issue with the neck and shoulder. Treat with N-S protocol
The basic acupuncture treatment for neck and shoulder problems is two sets of acupuncture points: Luo Zhen (which does not belong to any of the twelve meridians) is located on the dorsal of the hand, between the second and third knuckles. Luo Zhen means “fell off pillow” in Chinese. It treats locked neck from bad head posture in sleeping. The other SJ 10, which is at the upper edge of the elbow bone. SJ 10 is a pivotal point in San Jiao (SJ) meridian that travels up the arm, shoulder neck, and surround the ears.
For lots of cases, these points work like magic. You can literally see the neck starting to move like been lubricated right after needle insertion. I have taught all of my students of such application. The feedback has been very good. Sometimes, the effect is not very apparent. Frequently, it is caused by improper needling technique. Not enough of Qi was moved.
When the case is more complicated as in auto related injury, such protocol might not be sufficient to resolve the whole problem. It is important to seek out what the complicating issues are.