Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Risk factors
By Mayo Clinic staffThe following factors may increase your risk of having a rotator cuff injury:
- Age. As you get older, your risk of a rotator cuff injury increases. Rotator cuff tears are most common in people older than 40.
- Being an athlete. Athletes who regularly use repetitive motions, such as baseball pitchers, archers and tennis players, have a greater risk of having a rotator cuff injury.
- Working in the construction trades. Carpenters and painters, who also use repetitive motions, have an increased risk of injury.
- Having poor posture. Poor posture can allow a muscle or tendon to become pinched under your shoulder bones.
- Having weak shoulder muscles. This risk factor can be decreased or eliminated with shoulder-strengthening exercises.
Preparing for your appointment
You'll start by seeing your family doctor or a general practitioner. If your injury is severe and requires surgery, however, you'll likely be referred to an orthopedic surgeon.
What to expect from your doctor
Your doctor is likely to ask you a number of questions. Being ready to answer them may reserve time to go over any points you want to spend more time on. Your doctor may ask:
- Where is the pain located?
- Does your job or hobby aggravate your shoulder pain?
- When did you first begin experiencing shoulder pain?
- Have you experienced any symptoms in addition to shoulder pain?
- How severe is your pain?
- What movements and activities aggravate and relieve your shoulder pain?
- Do you have any weakness or numbness in your arm?
What you can do in the meantime
In the days before your appointment, you can make yourself more comfortable by:
- Resting your shoulder. Avoid movements that aggravate it and give you more pain.
- Applying cold packs to reduce pain and inflammation.
- Taking pain medications, if necessary. Over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others) and naproxen (Aleve), may help reduce pain. Acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) also may help relieve pain.
