On her first visit to my chiropractic office, a patient named Karla told me, “My shoulder blade is killing me.” She had been having ongoing mild pain in her right shoulder blade area for several months. She did rigorous physical labor with her house cleaning job. Over time her discomfort worsened to the point that she had to do something and she decided to come to my office.

In my 34 years of chiropractic practice I have seen many cases similar to Karla’s and had a good idea of ​​what was causing her problem and how to help her. This article will discuss what can cause pain in the shoulder blade area. It will also discuss a recent research study that provides more insight into the underlying cause of shoulder blade pain and how chiropractic care can help improve this common condition.

Many people experience discomfort in the shoulder blade region. Let’s give some clarity on this area. Anatomically, there is a large bone that rests on the back of our upper ribs on both sides called the scapula. Some people refer to this bone as the “wing bone.” The inner edge of this particular bone is called the medial scapular border, which simply means that it is the inner part of the shoulder blade.

Going further in our description of this area, we note that there are muscles that attach to the scapula. A muscle that attaches to the shoulder blade and extends to the spine is called the rhomboid muscle. We have a right rhomboid muscle and the left rhomboid muscle. Again, they attach to the inner border of the scapula and insert into the spine. Its main job is to pull our shoulder blades back. If a person is doing a rowing type activity, he is using his rhomboid muscles.

Interestingly, the mid-back area we are discussing is intricately associated with the neck area. A recent research study in the Journal of Biomechanics, April 2019, notes that researchers observed that patients who had neck pain also had mid-back problems. The findings suggest that pain in the neck area may affect the spinal region of the mid-back and may increase the risk of mid-back pain.

For Karla and many other patients who have shoulder blade pain, this means it is important to assess and examine the neck and mid-back areas to determine the possible cause of their problem.

What chiropractic practitioners have discovered for over 125 years is that the mid-back spine area is linked and associated with the neck spine area. If the neck bones are misaligned, causing irritation to the spinal joints and pinching the nerves in the neck, the muscles of the mid-back, especially the rhomboids, will go into spasm to protect the abnormal condition in the neck area. the neck spine.

This discomfort can vary being a tightness, pain, spasm or burning. It can be constant all the time or it can be intermittent; perhaps occurring if patients engage in certain types of physical activity.

Whatever the symptomatology, it is important that the health professional examines the patient in its entirety to identify the cause of the pain, so that a successful outcome of the treatment can occur.

As a chiropractor, I will check the alignment of the neck and mid-back. If there are misalignments in any of the regions, I will perform chiropractic adjustments that will safely and gently realign the spinal vertebrae. This will eliminate irritation of the spinal joints and pinched nerves. In turn, the muscles, including the rhomboids, will relax as they don’t have to compensate and try to protect the deleterious condition.

Many people experiencing mid-back and shoulder blade pain can be helped with safe, gentle, non-surgical, drug-free chiropractic care. Doctors of chiropractic have been helping patients suffering from pain in the shoulder region for over a century.