M² Therapeutic Massage, LLC

05/08/2025

Not fake news!

Tight hip flexors, especially a deep muscle called the psoas, can silently stress your spine. Here's why this muscle deserves more attention—and how to strengthen it.

12/07/2023

🔈 TIGHT MUSCLES THAT MAY BE THE CAUSE OF LATERAL PELVIC TILT

🔒 There are several kinds of pelvis tilts that are unhealthy for our body:

1. There is the anterior pelvic tilt, where the front of the pelvis is tilted downwards.
2. There is also the posterior pelvic tilt, which is the opposite of the anterior pelvic tilt, where the front of the pelvis is tilted upwards.

However, the lateral pelvic tilt is unique, in that the pelvis is tilted to the side where one side will be higher than the other.

🔒 Symptoms of a Lateral Pelvic Tilt

Other than one hip being higher than the other, the presence of a lateral pelvic tilt can have a drastic chain effect which reverberates not only from the pelvis downwards, but also up to the shoulders.

Uneven Hips – This is the obvious symptom. Now that we have briefly discussed what a lateral pelvic tilt, we now know that this is a tell-tale sign of its presence.

Uneven Shoulders – From the image above, you will see how the hip which is higher will usually result in the shoulder on the same side, being lower than the other side. This can cause someone to notice or think that they have uneven shoulders, when in fact it is a problem that stems from having a lateral pelvic tilt.

Leg Length Differences – Someone with a lateral pelvic tilt may think they have one leg longer than the other, or one leg shorter than the other. However, this is a myth as it is the tilt in the pelvis which makes it feel like the hip that is lower down is longer because the other leg doesn’t reach the ground when you stand. There are such things as true differences in leg length but most of the cases are misdiagnosed. The truth is that uneven hips creates this illusion. The best way to rule out a true leg length difference is to measure both legs. If you do have a true leg length discrepancy, then it is unlikely that these exercises I am about to discuss will be of use to you.

Leg Rotation – You can see from the diagram that the bones of the leg usually rotate internally as a result of a lateral pelvic tilt. What’s not to be ruled out, is that the internal rotation of all these bones could also be the cause of the lateral pelvic tilt. If it is the cause, then it starts all the way down at the foot. Typically, one foot will be pronated where the ankle is rolled inward, this could be a flat foot or a collapsed arch. When one foot becomes pronated, the shin bones and the femur rotate inward and the hip will drop.

🔒 Causes of a Lateral pelvic tilt

a) Muscular imbalances: (Sagittal plane)
A Lateral pelvic tilt can result from an imbalance between the Quadratus Lumborum, Adductors and Glute medius muscle.
Other muscles involved: Obliques, Tensor fascia latae

b) Sub-optimal habits:

Do you lean on one leg?
Do you sit more on one butt cheek than other other?
Do you always sleep on the same side?

If you do, then you have postural habits that may encourage the tilting of the pelvis!

c) Neurological conditions

Any condition that impacts the nerves that supply the control of the pelvic musculature may result in a laterally tilted pelvis.
(The superior gluteal nerve supplies the glute medius)

🚩 How to Fix a Lateral Pelvic Tilt

There are a couple of angles that can be taken to fix a lateral pelvic tilt. The first is to fix the flat feet (if you have them) and the other is to correct any muscle imbalances that may have developed that causes your body to hold onto the lateral pelvic tilt position - massage and proper exercise. The final step is to address the bad posture that causes the problem in the first place.

11/21/2023

Another good article from Healthy Street.

🔈 FROZEN SHOULDER AND RISK OF CANCER - A POPULATION-BASED COHORT STUDY

Frozen shoulder, also called adhesive capsulitis, is characterised by stiffness and pain in the shoulder joint due to inflammation of the synovial lining and capsule. The aetiology of frozen shoulder is not fully understood. It can develop after a shoulder has been immobilised. An increased incidence of frozen shoulder was observed in diabetes vs non-diabetes patients and in patients with diseases such as thyroid and Parkinson’s disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and myocardial infarction (MI). Frozen shoulder can last for up to 3 years, and resolves spontaneously in most cases.

Frozen shoulder can be a musculoskeletal manifesting of solid tumours and haematological malignancies and may also represent a misdiagnosed shoulder tumour. In addition, frozen shoulder is a frequent complication after mastectomy due to breast cancer.

Thus, there is some clinical evidence, based on case reports and small cross-sectional studies, that patients with malignancies are at increased risk of frozen shoulder. Scientists examined the association between frozen shoulder diagnosis and subsequent risk of cancer using linked data from Danish population registries.

THE RESEARCH EXPLAINED

Scientists found a slightly increased risk of any cancer diagnosis during the first 6 months following diagnosis of frozen shoulder, while the absolute 6-month risk was 0.70%, thus, 1 out of 142 patients. In particular, there was an association between frozen shoulder and subsequent diagnoses of the lung cancer, breast cancer, and non-Hodgkin’s malignant lymphoma.

The study helped extend the sparse previous research. On the basis of 60 patients, reported that musculoskeletal lesions can follow a cancer diagnosis with frozen shoulder occurring in 20% of patients with solid cancers and 7% of patients with haematological cancers within a mean follow-up time of 3 years. Scientists also observed seven cases (8%) of frozen shoulder within 30 days after surgery among 89 patients with modified radical mastectomy. Researchers also reported frozen shoulder as the only symptom of gallbladder cancer in the case of a 35-year-old woman, suggesting that a skeletal condition may be the initial symptom of a cancer (a marker of occult cancer) rather than a complication of cancer. This is important to consider since cancer in the shoulder can be misdiagnosed as a frozen shoulder.

A possible mechanism underlying the association between lung cancer and frozen shoulder is direct invasion of the cancer into the shoulder joint or peripheral nerves. This is supported by the data showing that 72% of lung cancers were diagnosed at stage III or IV. Direct invasion could occur in particular for apical lung cancer, presenting with rapid onset of clinical symptoms and pleuritic pain due to neurovascular compromise at the level of the superior thoracic aperture. These symptoms might be mistaken for frozen shoulder. Primary treatment for pain symptoms and frozen shoulder can cause delay in reaching a correct cancer diagnosis, and thus negatively influence prognosis.

Synovial reaction of extra-articular bone and capsular carcinomatosis also could explain the association between lung and breast cancer and frozen shoulder. Physicians and surgeons should be open to differential diagnoses if initial treatment of a frozen shoulder is ineffective, including the possibility of lung or breast cancer. Increased risk of cancer diagnosis following frozen shoulder could also be due to diagnostic heightening, since SIR was highest for patients with frequent contacts to the hospital. In addition, frozen shoulder patients undergo shoulder radiographs, which also visualise part of the lungs. This might increase the probability of lung cancer detection.

In conclusion, the scientists found an association between frozen shoulder and a subsequent risk of cancer diagnosis. Thus, frozen shoulder might be an early predictor of cancer. However, the absolute cumulative risk of cancer is too small to recommend screening of frozen shoulder patients in order to find occult cancer.

Reference: British Journal of Cancer