About 12 years back my right arm refused to swing back! In a span of few days, my shoulders stiffened and I was in excruciating pain if I tried to swing my arm back beyond 30 degrees to my body axis! You see, I am a yoga practitioner. Even if I missed appointments or flights, I would not miss a single day of doing my entire routine of yoga as taught to me by my Guru Shri Vethathri Maharishi! So you can imagine my surprise when I found I could not move my limb beyond a point!

How I Suffered from Frozen Shoulders?

My son, Dr. Achyuthan Eswar who was training to become a Naturopath was in the middle of his exams and requested me to consult a senior Naturopathy doctor. My wife who was had bulged disc issue and I visited this doctor. She put us through a few routines of heat therapy.

While I felt great comfort when the therapy was administered, I did not feel complete recovery at all! I also tried to have a massage therapist give me massages. I think he came from a family of roti makers! He would roll and knead me so much that I would be like a zombie the rest of the week! By the time I could feel my limbs again it would be time for another rolling and kneading!

I assumed that I needed more exercise and tortured myself with dumbells that I tried to swing over my shoulders and would bring the house down, screaming with pain! I could not lie down on my right side at all! I would not spare my wife and children and would catch whoever crossed my line of vision to walk over and massage my upper right back! For a period of time people would try to escape my clutches!

Frozen Shoulders can be an Embarrassment!

Socialising became an embarrassment! If someone offered to shake my hands, I had to first shake my right hand with my left hand and then lift it up and deposit it unceremoniously into the other person's hand! Only thing was I didn't know who was more embarrassed, me or the person whose hands I tried to shake with my jellyfish right hand! And then, I would type only using my left hand, much to the consternation of my wife as she wondered if my left hand, too would stop functioning one day! She always loves scaring the living lights out of me by prophesising doom! And so like the monk with the handsome pigtail, I wondered much and sorrowed more and was resigned to living the rest of my life as a person with frozen shoulders!

My Savior arrived

A few days later, after finishing his exams, our son visited us. From when he was young, the slightest act of mine in any direction would send him rolling in laughter and he would double up into stitches laughing! He listened to all my stories and I don't know what he found so funny, but there he was laughing! Of course he sobered down when he saw how much in pain I was. He made me stop everything. He felt sorry that he was not there for me on day one. That gave me immense satisfaction that I forgave him and his mom of their questionable behaviour!

He sat me down and told me that with just food I could forever free up my shoulders. If anybody else had told me this including my wife, I would have pooh-poohed the whole thing! But it was my son! I would listen to whatever he says. I feel he is the wisest person on the planet,...oh err...along with my other two children of course, of course! (Psst...like my wife, my daughters do this arms akimbo frightful act! Now we don't want that now, do we?)

The Magic of Plant Based Diet

I was totally surprised though! I asked him how. He walked me through the whole gyaan about whole food plant-based diet. Through that summer, he cooked delicious meals for all of us...oh err...just like his mom, (by now you know why I am saying that) Slowly, before he left for college again, my arms swung a full circle like magic! I defrosted my shoulder with just good food!

I have never gone back to eating any other kind of food after that...err...except that one time in Vishakapatnam with my daughter Janani! But that story is for another day!

Be blessed!
Krish Murali Eswar.