Frozen Shoulder Isn’t Just a Structural Problem

An interesting study came out in 2025 discussing how several systems of the body affect frozen shoulder. This was no surprise to many functional medicine doctors and especially applied kinesiologists as we have been seeing this connection for years.

Find the study here.

Causes Of Frozen Shoulder

Up until this study, frozen shoulder was looked at as a condition that often didn’t have a cause. Sometimes it happens after an injury, but overall, the cause was not well understood. Frozen shoulder most commonly occurs in women 40 and older, interestingly right around the time when estrogen naturally begins to decline. This is typically when hormone imbalances become even more apparent and women experience perimenopausal symptoms.

The study discusses how since estrogen has many protective effects in the body, when it declines that sets women up to develop a frozen shoulder. Estrogen helps with inflammation, the immune system, thyroid, connective tissue health, blood sugar, and much more. Of course, men can develop frozen shoulder as well if any of those systems aren’t working well for them either.

Here is a list of what systems can contribute to the development of frozen shoulder when they aren’t working well:

• Thyroid (hyper or hypo)
• Immune (inflammation, allergies, infections)
• Metabolism (blood sugar, fat digestion, mitochondrial health)
• Reproductive (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone)
• Adrenal (cortisol, adrenaline)
• Connective tissue (and the nutrients that keep it healthy)

When these systems are all working well and in harmony with one another, it is very unlikely that frozen shoulder or many other conditions will occur. Dysfunction in one of these systems often causes dysfunction in the others in some way. This can lead to increased inflammation and thickening of the connective tissue around the shoulder.

I could expand on how all of these topics affect the shoulder or connective tissue as a whole and maybe I will eventually, but I want to discuss this from an Applied Kinesiology perspective since that is what makes all this make even more sense.

An Applied Kinesiology Perspective

Within Applied Kinesiology there are specific muscle-organ relationships. This means that when there is a dysfunction in an organ, there will also be dysfunction in a specific set of muscles. Typically this will lead to inhibition, or weakening, of the muscles, but they can also become over-facilitated, or tight.

Of those organ systems discussed above, the thyroid and immune system (spleen and thymus) have related muscles in the shoulder.

Thyroid = teres minor, one of the 4 rotator cuff muscles

Immune system = spleen – mid/low trapezius and thymus – infraspinatus, another rotator cuff muscle

The thyroid and immune system are both highly interconnected with the other systems. So, if there is something causing the thyroid or immune system to not function well, then when there is an injury, immobilization, or overuse to the shoulder the body may “over-react” to the injury and thicken the connective tissue too much in an effort to heal.

By knowing the muscle correlations to different organs, we can see how a frozen shoulder may not be a strictly structural problem, it is a viscerosomatic problem. This muscle-organ correlation can also be tested through manual muscle testing to find out what organs aren’t functioning well and exactly what treatment is needed. One person may have old injuries causing excess stress to the adrenal glands causing too much cortisol release, thus lowering thyroid hormones and weakening the immune system leading to muscle dysfunction in the related muscles. The next person may have a chronic infection leading to an overactive immune response.

What to do When You Have Frozen Shoulder

Okay, now you have an overview of what can cause a frozen shoulder. What do you do about it? Ideally you work with a natural doctor that understands these concepts, but in the meantime, there are a few labs you can do to try to figure out where the problem may be coming from.

Thyroid Panel – Blood Draw

• TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone)
• Free T3
• Free T4
• TPO Ab (Thyroid peroxidase antibodies)
• TGB Ab (Thyroglobulin antibodies)

More on the thyroid here.

Reproductive Hormones – Ideally Saliva

These labs will help you get an idea of where your thyroid and reproductive hormones are to see if they are contributing to the frozen shoulder. I have several articles discussing reproductive hormones such as this one for men or this one for women.

Check Your Blood Sugar

Since blood sugar handling plays a big role in your connective tissue health and health in general, I recommend checking your blood sugar regularly. KetoMojo* is a great way to check both your blood sugar and ketones at home. This will help you see if your blood sugar is too high and if there are any foods that spike your blood sugar more than others. Fasting blood sugar shouldn’t be over 100mg/dL, but ideally 70-90mg/dL. If you find that your blood sugar is too high, then try lowering carbs or eating more protein and veggies to help slow the digestion of carbs.

*As an affiliate of KetoMojo, I may earn from qualifying purchases.

How Long Does It Take for Frozen Shoulder to Heal?

There are typically some structural changes that take place when a frozen shoulder occurs. Remember how the connective tissue thickened? Because of this it is hard to say exactly how long it will take for you specifically to heal. Conventionally it can take anywhere from 1-3 years to completely heal. I like to think that when the cause is found an addressed that helps to speed up the timeline. I have seen some patients that do take over a year to see really good improvement in their shoulder, but there are also others that respond within a few months. So, it all depends on what is causing the problem, how long the problem has been there and how much structural change has already taken place.

It is important to be patient with your body while it is healing. By working to improve your health you should be able to enjoy other benefits as well while trying to help your shoulder heal. More energy, less allergies, better sleep are all examples of what you may feel by improving your thyroid, immune system, and metabolism.