Shoulder pain? You may be at a risk of heart disease!

Pic for representational purpose only

New Delhi: If this new study is anything to go by then you possibly need to be more careful if your shoulder pains more often than not. According to a study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine having shoulder problems may be due to heart disease risk factors.

The study mentions that shoulder pain might not just simply be caused due to physical strain.

IANS quotes the study`s lead author Kurt Hegmann, Professor at University of Utah School of Medicine in the US as saying, “If someone has rotator cuff problems, it could be a sign that there is something else going on. They may need to manage risk factors for heart disease.”

The researchers examined data from 1,226 skilled labourers. "What we think we are seeing is that high force can accelerate rotator cuff issues but is not the primary driver. Cardiovascular disease risk factors could be more important than job factors for incurring these types of problems," he added.

It is possible that controlling blood pressure and other heart risk factors could alleviate shoulder discomfort, too, Hegmann noted.

The more heart disease risk factors that each of the study participants had racked up—including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes—the more likely they were to have had shoulder trouble.

The participants with the most severe collection of risk factors were 4.6 times more likely than those with none of the risk factors to have had shoulder joint pain.

They were also nearly six times more likely to have had a second shoulder condition, rotator cuff tendinopathy.

Participants with mid-level heart risk were less likely to have had either shoulder condition, showed the findings published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

(With IANS inputs)