How does the lack of calcium cause bone spurs?

When I first heard I had a bone spur in my heel, the doctor told me it was a lack of calcium that caused them.  When I told other people that, they laughed at me.  Things don't GROW on your body when you LACK other things, silly girl.  So, then I thought maybe I misunderstood and bone spurs were from EXTRA calcium, so I did a little research.  

As many of you know, I had surgery to deal with my bone spur.  I am at four months out.  There has been little change since my three-month update.  My "good" foot hurts almost daily and my "bad" foot doesn't hurt much but is still swollen.  I am back to working out five to six days a week.  I have again recently confirmed with my doctor that bone spurs are from a lack of calcium, not an abundance of it.  So I decided to do a little more research (and by "research," I just mean I "Googled" it) to find out how bone spurs are formed.

Ice and rest after over-doing it

My assumption was that bone spurs were caused when calcium was somehow leeched out of the bones and then re-deposited when it had nowhere else to go.  I don't believe that is fully true, but the truth may not be so far from that.  Here is one explanation: 

"A heel spur is a hook of bone that forms on the heel bone, an X-ray will show a point of bone protruding from the bottom of the foot at the point where the plantar fascia is attached to the heel bone. The heel spur itself is not thought to be the primary cause of pain, rather inflammation and irritation of the plantar fascia is thought to be the primary problem cause by the tearing of the micro ligamentous tissue from the heal bone. The heel spur then forms because the body is trying to heal itself and has calcium deficiency. After the heel spur is formed and stress is placed on the plantar fascia from walking the heel spur just adds to the irritation and inflammation."

More interesting information:

"Researchers located the root cause. They found that calcium deposits are most common in women aged 35 to 65 – the group most prone to osteoporosis. Knowing that osteoporosis is primarily caused by calcium and mineral deficiency, they realized that two conditions share one cause.  Calcium and minerals are needed for every vital function of your body, from the pumping of your heart to cell division to DNA replication. If you’re not ingesting enough calcium to fuel these functions, your body robs your bones! This survival mechanism is the acknowledged root of osteoporosis, and now we know it causes bone spurs, too."

"Bone spurs are your body's cry for calcium and minerals. Ignore it – and you may become a prime candidate for osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and more than 160 other degenerative diseases related to mineral deficiencies!" 

Information about absorption of calcium (and I don't know how to adjust for gastric bypass patients, but I assume we absorb even less):

The exercises and stretches help a lot

"Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the body, but it may also be severely lacking. The amount of calcium that we absorb from our food varies widely. One factor that affects this is age. An adolescent may absorb up to 75% of the calcium obtained from foods, while in adults the maximum absorption rate ranges from 20% to 30%. Even though our bones feel solid and seem permanent, they're just like any other body tissue - they're constantly being broken down and formed again. In an adult, 20% of bone calcium is withdrawn from bones and replaced each year. Thus, every five years the bones are renewed."

So there you go.  Bone spurs are most definitely caused by a lack of calcium, AND it appears that I may be at higher risk for osteoporosis.  I get blood tests every year and I don't believe my labs have come back showing I was lacking in calcium, so I'm not sure if the test is flawed or if my body needs more calcium than the average person.  That's a whole other issue I'm not prepared to deal with.  I remember being told not to "worry" about osteoporosis because fat people don't get it....frail old white ladies get it (I believe I was told this by my previous (two doctors ago) tiny Asian lady doctor, who gave me bad medical advice on many, many occasions).  Apparently all the weight my body bears just walking around on a daily basis is literally saving it from ever getting osteoporosis.  I'm not really sure that's actually true, although perhaps it is somewhat more helpful than being tiny.  

It does seem like the exercising I am doing is probably the best thing I can do for myself.  Yoga, spin and pole appear to be great exercises for strengthening the body and the bones.   

What old wives' tales were you told that you believed, just because you didn't know better?  How did you find out it might be wrong? 

Three Months Post-Surgery ~ #HealingVikingWarrior

I am now three months post-surgery.  In August, I had plantar fascial release surgery to get the fascia away from a bone spur in my heel.  

About bone spurs:  http://lolorashel.blogspot.com/2013/03/bone-spurs-calcium-heart-attacks-and.html 

About taking care of yourself when you have an injury:  http://lolorashel.blogspot.com/2013/09/september-blog-hop-beauty-body-wellness.html

Two days before surgery:  http://lolorashel.blogspot.com/2013/08/surgery-is-in-two-days.html

Recovery has gone like this:  Month one: no activity.  I didn't work, I didn't work out.  I did a few stretches and things from my chair, or the floor, but otherwise, I was good.  Month two:  I went to Vegas and back to work wearing the moon boot still.  I was able to do a little more moving around but I still couldn't really do much.  However, every day, my foot felt a little better.  Month three:  Started back to pole, yoga and spin.  Recovery stops cold.  No better, no worse.  :-/  

I'm really a couple of weeks past my third month check-up.  I am working hard to get the swelling down in my foot.  My doctor said MOST people recover fully in three months.  Of course I'm not most people!  I'm definitely not in pain like I was before surgery, but I'm not out of pain either.  And my other foot hurts from bearing extra weight while I limped around.  Plus, my left hip is now hurting again (that's my old injury from a few years back), and my right lower back is out of whack.  It's very frustrating.  

I'm technically not supposed to be barefoot, so I will be wearing tennis shoes to pole.  Super hot, I know.  And I will carefully continue with yoga and spin.  I am still stretching and doing exercises to strengthen my calves and stretch them out as well.  My doctor said I have higher arches so it actually makes sense that it is harder to relax the fascia since it is pulled tighter.  I still have to tape my foot if I'm barefoot (which still isn't recommended EVER...I should literally have slippers with inserts by my bedside so even when I wake up, I'm in shoes) or if I'm wearing flip flops (also not recommended, except that I bought the $70 Othaheels that are slightly okay in my doctor's eyes).  I still have to roll my foot on the ball to massage it and ice it when it's really bad.  I am also drowning myself in Epsom salt baths and taking aspirin and Aleve (a big no-no post-gastric bypass). 

It is all so time consuming, expensive and frustrating.  Surgery definitely wasn't the quick fix, easy answer (I've been there before).  But I do appreciate that I am in less pain and am hopefully still moving in the right direction.

I took some photos of my healing journey (duh, have you met me?).  Enjoy some photos from the #healingvikingwarrior series.

Swelling in the right foot

About an inch difference in my calves

Probably one week post-surgery (they put a tube all the way through so there's one on the other side too)

Laying around after surgery

Leg lifts for exercise

I think that's a muscle

Post-surgery adventure (EDD actually required me to go pick up a form so my sister-in-law drove me and we made a stop)

How you carry stuff when you are on crutches

Hey my pants won't stay on

Getting better

More stretches and exercises with the surgical boot on

Upgraded to the moon boot

San Francisco adventure on the scooter...two peas in a pod

Moon boot fashion

The ink is almost gone (I seriously scrubbed even though I wasn't supposed to)

Exercising

Ink is gone, finally!

Icing

More exercising and stretching

I used to have rock hard calves!

Stretching

Only a tiny scar (matching one on the other side of my foot as well)

The size difference isn't as noticeable.  Don't tell my doctor I wore these shoes.

Back on the pole!

Dressing up as Candy for a photoshoot

Aerial Hammocks/Yoga

Fly Gym stretch

Yoga at Grace Cathedral

Bone spurs, calcium, heart attacks and gastric bypass

I recently reported that I have a very painful bone spur in my right heel.  It affects me every day.  I have spent a ton of money trying to make this thing right.  I don't know if it ever will be.  I've had two cortisone shots and they only seem to last about three weeks.  I had been told that bone spurs form due to an over-abundance of calcium in your system.  The calcium supposedly doesn't know where to go, so it attaches to your bones.  Apparently this is NOT true.  So I started researching bone spurs and calcium, and that lead to some studies, and my realization that gastric bypass surgery has potentially caused ANOTHER health issue for me. 

I had gastric bypass to AVOID health problems.  I was in my 20's.  I didn't have high blood pressure or diabetes.  I did not yet have ANY of the "fat diseases."  I was just fat.  But I thought I better ward them off by completely rearranging my insides.  Sounds like a great idea. 

My very first issue was waking up with staples holding my guts together.  I had gone to sleep thinking I was going to have laporoscopic surgery.  The intestine they had chosen to attach to my new pouch was too short, so they had to open me up at the last minute, leaving me with a much longer recovery than expected. 

My next issue, about nine months out, was blacking out.  My blood pressure and blood sugar would drop so low that I would black out if I stood up too fast.  I literally had to stop reporting it to my doctor because my driver's license was going to be yanked for losing consicousness (even though it never happend when I was just sitting).  I also had to go back to my surgeon and ask for more calories.  Our program told us that every person should eat 1,000 calories per day for life after surgery.  I insisted that since I was six feet tall, perhaps I should get a few more calories than a five foot tall lady.  I was given 1,500.  By the way, 9 years later, I maintain my weight on about 2,300-2,500 calories a day.

I also ran into tons of vitamin deficienies.  Each year was something new.  You want to know how you know you have a B12 deficiency?  The tops of your feet go numb.  Want to know how you know your protein is low?  Your hair falls out. 

Anyway, I don't want to bore you with all of my issues.  But I definitely ended up with more health issues AFTER surgery.  I'm not saying I wouldn't do it again, but it is something to point out...this surgery doesn't fix everything.

Back to the bone spur.  So, the doctor says, hey you have a bone spur, and they take a long time to grow.  At first I was thinking, well maybe I had it when I was even fatter.  But then I realize, I had surgery 9 years ago, and that IS a long time already, so I start researching bone spurs.  According to the Mayo Clinic:

Wear-and-tear arthritis (osteoarthritis) is the most common cause of bone spurs. As osteoarthritis breaks down the cartilage cushioning the ends of your bones, your body attempts to repair the loss by creating bone spurs near the damaged area. The extra bone may help increase the amount of surface area for load bearing.

According to Livestrong.com:

Calcium is essential in the formation of strong and healthy bones as well as in maintaining the health of your bones. According to "The Vitamin Book," a lack of calcium can contribute to the formation of bone spurs by not allowing your bones to form as they should. A lack of calcium can cause your bones to form abnormally, leading to the possible formation of bone spurs.

[emphasis added.]
So, did gastric bypass and vitamin deficiency strike again???  Was I not absorbing my calcium supplements, leaving me at a higher risk for bone spurs?  Who knows, but let's talk about some recent studies about calcium and heart disease, and why we have to be careful about taking TOO MUCH calcium. 

High calcium intake has recently been linked to heart disease in men!  Read the entire article HERE.

Over 12 years of follow-up, men who took more than 1,000 milligrams (mg) of daily supplemental calcium were 20% more likely to succumb to heart disease than those who didn’t take calcium supplements. There was no connection between calcium supplements and heart disease in women (which has been seen in earlier studies), and no connection with calcium from food. The results were published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

But wait, now there are studies to say calcium can lead to issues for women as well!  Read that article HERE.  They reported that women taking more than 1,400 mg of calcium per day were twice as likely to die as those taking 600 to 999 mg. 

What the studies don't seem to address is whether we are talking about calcium citrate (YES for gastric bypass patients) or calcium carbonate (NO for gastric bypass patients), or whether it matters.  They do both seem to suggest that we are only talking about supplements, and not getting calcium natrually from foods. 

I was recently told I have heart inflammation.  I will be writing about that soon, but I am having to increase my exercise, decrease fatty foods, and take...a baby aspirin (no-no for gastric bypass patients -- again, another planned future blog).  So, in response, I have lowered the amount of calcium supplement that I take (one pill instead of two to three...I'll grab the amounts and publish that new blog soon).  Also, we should be taking Vitamin D with calcium to help with absorption (and if you're a gastric bypass patient, you need the dry version, not those cute little oily pills).  I am also taking zinc and magnesium.  It is, in fact, be time for me to re-write my daily vitamin in-take blog, to let people know what I'm actually taking now. 

Ok, back to this bone spur.  I have heard some home remedies about apple cider vinegar dissolving bone spurs.  I have heard a ton of good things about health and apple cider vinegar, actually.  Some of the reports say you should drink a little bit of cider (I get the organic stuff, not the Heinz bottle) with water.  A bodyworker at Twirly Girls warns to do two weeks on, two weeks off.  So, I have been adding it to my morning glass of water for the last couple of weeks (before breakfast, I try to jump start my metabolism by drinking a glass of water anyway).  Now, other reports say to soak a towel in apple cider vinegar and wear it around all day (although I'm not really interested in having a wet sock all day). 

So, there you have it.  Lack of calcium may have lead to a bone spur in my heel, and trying to take additional calcium to fix it could potentially lead to heart issues.  I guess you can't win.  Has anyone else had any experience with any of these issues? 

Twirling on a Bone Spur

When I started this new job in San Francisco, I started walking a lot more.  I walk to BART (our subway/train system).  I walk to work.  I walk around work more than I did at my old job.  I walk to lunch.  I walk back to BART.  I walk home.  A few months before I started this new job, I hyper-extended my knee in a yoga class.  It was a little bit painful but I just kind of limped around and ignored it for awhile, then went to see Keith (you can read about how I connected the dots HERE).  Keith gave me some exercises and my knee pain went away but the foot pain was becoming increasingly worse.  After a partciularly painful weekend, which included a numb heel, I made an appointment with a podiatrist.

A lot of the advice he gave me was the same or similar to Keith's.  I had already picked up the shoe inserts (although he suggested a different brand than the ones I bought).  Stretches.  Rock tape for the arches of my feet.  The Strassberg sock (right, and all of this stuff costs money, you know, because I'm rolling in it these days).  Rolling my foot on a frozen water bottle.  But here's the kicker...no barefoot dancing.  What?!  THAT is how I dance!  This doctor basically said that I should have inserts in my freaking house slippers so that I have arch support from the minute I wake up.  I don't wear slippers!  I love to be barefoot! 

Also, I don't just have plantar fasciitis.  I have a bone spur in my heel.  It's pretty pointy and gnarly-looking on the x-ray.  I wish I had taken a picture.  He said he would actually call what I have plantar "fasciosis," because the plantar fascia essentially thickened around that bone spur.  He said the spur is probably something I've had for years and years. 

So, he tells me that getting back to the gym is good but no impact sports.  No running, no stairmaster, no squats or lunges, nothing that requires me to push weight through my heels.  Oh, well that leaves a lot for me to do.  I can do spin/cycling classes and yoga.  I can do water aerobics.  I can still do Twirly Girls (with a taped foot), but I have to be careful about stomping my foot down.  That probably means that Afro-Haitian dance, which is a lot of stomping, is out of the question for awhile.  But my dream of doing Half Dome again (hahah...not really, that hike almost killed me) is dead.  For now at least. 

I did go to Disneyland over the weekend and we walked A LOT.  I taped up my foot really well, put the inserts into my shoes and wore my good aerobic shoes.  I was in a lot less pain than I expected to be.  So, I am hoping with just a little bit of work, I can keep the pain under control.

I joined a brand new 24 Hour Fitness Super Sport that opened near my house.  I had hoped to get back into the swing of the early morning workouts but they changed the schedule and now their cycle classes start too late for me.  So, my plan is to get in there on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for cycle then yoga.  It will make for a long night, but I guess the alternative is sitting in front of the TV eating food.  It also means that I now have things to do after work Monday through Thursday.  I'm tired just thinking of this schedule but I need to make some changes soon or my weight isn't going to change and my pain isn't going to get any better.

Wish me luck!