By Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD · Published March 8, 2025 · 6 min read Watch the Full Video If you are over 40 and have had a shoulder MRI, there is a very good chance your report mentions something about your rotator cuff — tendinopathy, a partial tear, maybe even a full-thickness tear. Those words sound alarming. But a landmark study published in JAMA Internal Medicine is challenging everything we thought we knew about what these findings actually mean. The researchers scanned ov

By Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD · Published March 6, 2025 · 7 min read Watch the Full Video Rotator cuff disease is one of the most common causes of shoulder pain, accounting for up to 70% of all shoulder complaints. The condition spans a wide spectrum — from tendinopathy and subacromial impingement to partial and full-thickness tears — and the vast majority of cases can be managed without surgery. But when pain is severe enough to prevent participation in physical therapy , injecti

By Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD · Published March 6, 2025 · 7 min read Watch the Full Video Rotator cuff disorders are among the most common causes of shoulder pain, contributing significantly to lost function and decreased quality of life. When conservative measures such as physical therapy and activity modification fall short, many patients are offered cortisone injections. While cortisone provides strong short-term pain relief and anti-inflammatory effects, growing evidence sugge

By Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD · Published March 5, 2026 · 5 min read Watch the Full Video Myofascial pain syndrome is one of the most common and frustrating musculoskeletal conditions encountered in clinical practice. Characterized by painful trigger points within taut bands of skeletal muscle, it can significantly diminish quality of life and prove remarkably difficult to manage. Clinicians have long relied on a multimodal approach — combining heat therapy, cardiovascular and res

By Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD · Published March 5, 2025 · 6 min read Watch the Full Video If you are dealing with persistent shoulder pain — whether from a rotator cuff tear, tendinopathy, or impingement — your doctor may have recommended a cortisone injection. Cortisone is a well-established treatment that can provide quick symptom relief. But recent clinical evidence suggests that platelet-rich plasma (PRP) may offer superior long-term results for many shoulder conditions. In t

By Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD · Published March 4, 2026 · 8 min read Watch the Full Video For decades, surgery was considered the only reliable option for repairing torn tendons. Partial tears of the rotator cuff, in particular, present a clinical challenge because they rarely heal on their own and tend to worsen over time. However, emerging research suggests that platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections may offer a compelling nonsurgical alternative — one that not only reduces pain

By Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD · Published March 4, 2026 · 8 min read Watch the Full Video Frozen shoulder — clinically known as adhesive capsulitis — is one of the most frustrating conditions I treat in my sports medicine practice. Patients often arrive having received conflicting advice: some were told to wait it out, others to get surgery, and many were never informed about the full range of evidence-based options available today. In this comprehensive guide, I break down every

Written by Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD — Board-Certified Sports Medicine Physician Published: March 3, 2026 | Last Updated: March 3, 2026 If you have been told that surgery is the only way to fix your rotator cuff tear, you may not have the full picture. While surgical repair is necessary in some cases, the majority of rotator cuff tears can be successfully managed without an operation — provided you take the right steps to support your recovery. As a sports medicine physician, I h

Written by Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD — Board-Certified Sports Medicine Physician Published: March 2, 2026 | Last Updated: March 2, 2026 Shoulder cracking and popping sounds can be unsettling, especially when they seem to come out of nowhere. Many patients walk into my clinic concerned that a click or pop in their shoulder means something is seriously wrong — perhaps a rotator cuff tear or the beginning of arthritis. The good news is that in the vast majority of cases, these mecha

Written by Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD — Board-Certified Sports Medicine Physician Published: March 2, 2026 | Last Updated: March 2, 2026 Pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy has gained significant attention in recent years as a non-invasive treatment option for chronic pain and musculoskeletal conditions. Many of my patients ask about PEMF, and it is one of the most common questions I receive in my video comments. In my practice as a sports medicine physician in the San Fra

Written by Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD — Board-Certified Sports Medicine Physician Published: March 1, 2025 | Last Updated: March 1, 2025 Shoulder pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal complaints I encounter in my sports medicine practice, and it is also one of the most misunderstood. Most shoulder problems do not develop from a single dramatic injury. Instead, they build gradually over time from tight muscles, poor movement habits, and the cumulative effects of everyday w

Written by Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD — Board-Certified Sports Medicine Physician Published: March 1, 2025 | Last Updated: March 1, 2025 If you have been diagnosed with a rotator cuff tear, one of the first questions you are likely asking is whether surgery is necessary. It is a common concern, and the answer may surprise you. Depending on the type and severity of your tear, non-surgical treatments such as physical therapy and platelet-rich plasma ( PRP ) injections can be just as

Written by Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD — Board-Certified Sports Medicine Physician Published: March 1, 2026 | Last Updated: March 1, 2026 Shoulder pain is one of the most common complaints I see in my sports medicine practice, and certain patterns consistently stand out as early warnings of a more serious underlying problem. In my experience, patients who recognize these signals early and seek evaluation tend to have significantly better outcomes than those who wait until the pain

Medically reviewed by Dr. Jeffrey Peng, MD — Board-Certified Sports Medicine Physician Published: February 26, 2026 | Last Updated: February 26, 2026 If you have been told to just live with calcific tendonitis — or to keep getting cortisone shots until you are "ready for surgery" — you have probably noticed the pain always comes back. That is because most conventional treatments only mask symptoms without addressing the underlying calcium deposit. The good news is there is a

Board-certified sports medicine physician Dr. Jeffrey Peng explains how ultrasound-guided percutaneous tenotomy with PRP can heal partial rotator cuff tears without surgery — and what the clinical evidence shows.

If you're over 40 and you've had a shoulder MRI, there's a 99% chance your report says something is wrong with your rotator cuff. Tendinopathy. Partial tear. Maybe even a full-thickness tear. That sounds terrifying. But a brand new study just scanned over 600 random people's shoulders — people with pain AND people without — and what they found completely changes how we should think about these results. Hey everyone, Dr. Jeff Peng here. I'm a sports medicine doctor currently p

Today, we’re diving into the world of frozen shoulder treatments. We’ll explore groundbreaking therapies like extracorporeal shockwave...