BONE SPURS, CHELATION THERAPY

It’s pronounced KUH-LAW-SHUN.  I originally thought it was key-lay-shun. 

So, from my persistent research into natural health, I believe this therapy to be one of the best kept secrets of the natural/alternative/eastern world of health. 

Some of you know of my bone spur problem. 

While growing up, especially during my intense running years, I would usually have sore feet after running, especially after running a race.  I recall one particular time when my dad and I were riding back from a race – it may have been the Covered Bridge Run in Deep River Park (not the water park) or the Hobart Brickyard run – I was feeling a burning sensation all along the bottom of my feet.  I kept adjusting my feet to see if it made a difference.  My feet felt better after I got where I was able to take off my shoes.  I didn’t think much of this.

It wasn’t until July 2004 when I began to feel a slight discomfort in the back of my heel after doing calf raises.  Those were part of my rehab procedure following my arthroscopic knee surgery.  Once in a while, I felt a “click” back there, as if something was getting caught. 

I went to see a foot specialist in the Valpo surgery center.  To make a long story short, it turned out the doctor was quite unlearned.  He went to med school, so don’t ask me how he could be so dumb.  He incorrectly diagnosed me with having stress fractures because he put a metabolic liquid in my body was could be read by another machine and deciphers the quality of blood flow.  I saw this doctor four or five times over the course of three months.  He eventually showed me a computer printout which stated I have stress fractures.  He said it’s either surgery or that I have to get off each foot for six weeks each so my fractures could heel, which would be a month total, or sit in a wheel chair for six weeks.  I was sad.  Yes, I cried.  I believe I even called up one of my friends to share with him how sad I was.  I was ready to do it, but something …. Something told me I shouldn’t take his word for it and should go see another doctor. 

I went to see Dr. Fedorchak (spelling?) in Portage, Indiana.  Within two minutes he said, I think I know what the problem is.  Let’s have you get some x-rays.

What appeared on the x-rays were bone spurs on the back of both feet and on the bottom of both feet.  They were completely visible with the naked eye.  I looked at them and they were the size of small pieces of gravel.  This made the previous doctor look that much more dumb to me.  How did he pass med school?

I asked Fedorchak what the options are.  He said, go to therapy to see if they improve because many people’s spurs don’t get much worse.  And some get worse but people still refuse to have surgery.  Others have little choice but to have the surgery because they’re either too big or hurt so bad or both.  My case would probably be both. 

The surgery basically consists of cutting fascia and shaving off the ones on the bottom, and then cutting and peeling back the archilles tendon, shaving off the spur.  It’s said to take anywhere from six to eight weeks where a patient can begin walking, and this does not include walking quickly. 

To sum up the surgery – it’s invasive as hell.  They also told me my knee surgery recovery would be three months or less.

It’s been over three years.

So immediately after my bone spur diagnosis, which, due to their locations are specifically referred to as heel spurs, I began researching bone spurs.  This search for information began in April of 2005. 

And now it’s September! 2007.  I feel like I’ve had these things for so damn long.  It’s a challenge to imagine me without the feeling of pebbles on the bottom and back of my feet while I walk.  … Not to mention how difficult it is to imagine me without knee pain…  but that’s a different story.

So, since my education of heel spurs began, I’ve discovered that heel spurs are bone spurs and that spurs can form on any bone on any part of the bone.  The available information exponentially increases when you search for bone spurs instead of heel spurs, as both are treated the same.  My genetics are possibly week in my feet.  My younger brother Jon has spurs on his feet, too. 

I was getting mixed information about whether spurs are caused by too much calcium or too little calcium.  The orthodox community told me it’s too much calcium.  I believed this for a little while until I came across extensive evidence to the contrary, such as how our standard food supply is highly depleted of vitamins and minerals, calcium being no exception.  It no longer made sense to me that I was getting enough calcium – where common sense is a gift from the magnet of Truth.

I learned that as children we absorb up to 80% of the calcium we consume.  As adults, we absorb 30%.  Because our bodies are so cluttered with toxicity?  Maybe.  What I do know is that certain minerals are needed to aid the absorption of calcium.  Magnesium is most important, then vitamin D and several other vitamins like B6, etc.

There is much debate over whether coral calcium is more beneficial than other kinds of calcium.  In my research I got tired of wondering, so I had to find out for myself, especially since I had already tried the most highly absorbable calcium in the form of lactate, but it did nothing for me.  I even took it with magnesium, suggested by a naturopath in Valpo.  Did nothing for my pain. 

I didn’t like the idea of taking advil all the time so I decided to try the famous coral calcium.  I had my doubts, but I feel it’s wise to be skeptical. 

The first day I took the coral calcium was October 29^th, 2006.  Two days later I was suppose to go over to Jen’s to help her move.  I purposely got there late so I wouldn’t have to haul a lot and feel the pain in my feet.  When I got there, she was angry I was late.  Hardly anything was moved. 

I began carrying things to the car.  After an hour or so, I literally stopped in my tracks… and realized my pain was greatly reduced.  I couldn’t believe it. 

In 2005 when Jen and I began dating she would massage my feet, and I would take her fingers and press hard so she could feel my spurs on my feet.  She was grossed out.  Eight or so months later she was massaging my feet again and she was surprised that she could feel the spurs without any effort.  They grew quite a lot. 

When I started taking coral calcium, not only did it take away my heel spur pain more effectively and for longer periods of time than advil or other NSAIDs but my spurs stopped growing.  It was easy to tell because from that day when Jen pointed out how much bigger they were I found myself looking at my feet all the time.

Now I’m all about trying chelation therapy.

Chelation therapy has been around for at least fifty years.  What it’s most known for is helping patients in grave heart trouble – mostly having anything to do with clogged arteries. 

Just like with coral calcium, I’ve found there are many sites on the internet that outright bash chelation therapy and declare it dangerous, yet, the abundant anecdotal evidence has only good things to say. 

In my natural cures research, I find the internet very tricky.  Any half-wit can make a website to state anything with no laws requiring them to credit their sources.  But with a book, as a consumer you’re able to trace the author to the publishing company.  I do get information from the internet, but I usually start with a subject as controversial as alternative medicine books.  After I become familiar with credited information, I take on the internet avenue. 

Chelation therapy offers two ways.  The first one is oral chelation.  The second is intravenous.  Oral consists of taking a chelation supplement, usually EDTA once a day everyday.  It’s much cheaper – maybe 20 bucks a month, but it’s much less efficient.  And it is recommended by certified practitioners of chelation to have intravaneous chelation if you already are experiencing a medical problem in full swing. 

Intravaneous chelation consists of a patient sitting down with an IV of EDTA running through the bloodstream.  Each session is three and half hours.  The most I’ve heard people getting approved to go through is three days a week for three or so months. 

Supposedly, one session of intravaneous chelation therapy is equal to one month of oral chelation. 

EDTA is a man-made amino acid.  That’s the only part that makes me wonder.  I have to look into exactly what EDTA consists of.  It flows through the body and binds with heavy metals which are then excreted out via the liver and kidneys. 

The approval process for the procedure consists of several tests to identify the shape of a person’s organs.  By that time I will have cleansed my liver and kidneys so I’m not worried about being approved to be administered EDTA. 

There is no proof that cholesterol is lowered with the use of cholesterol lowering drugs.  And strangely enough, it’s the best, if not, one of the best selling drugs on the market.  In my opinion (and I know I’m not alone here) I think it’s the biggest scam in the drug world.

Anyway, how chelation helps clogged arteries is EDTA binds with the plaque in the heart and removes it.  There is loads of evidence proving the validity of this procedure, and it’s recorded in alternative medicine books written by MD’s who have either witnessed the results or experienced it for themselves.  Such accounts describe patient experiences of where they were before they were administered EDTA which is they had just been told by heart specialists they needed to have double “bye”-pass or triple “bye”-pass surgery.  And after the chelation therapy, they went back to see the doctor who is then baffled as to how their arteries “miraculously” cleared up. 

So what does the removal of plaque in the arteries of the heart have to do with my bone spurs?

Well, this is where my research does me good.  Bone spurs are also known as osteophytes.  It’s a fancy word for calcium deposits.  And, what encapsulates the cholesterol in arteries is, in fact, calcium.  If the calcium can be removed from the arteries of the heart, why the arteries of the feet? 

I don’t know.  But this is where fuck-faces might tell me to not waste my time with chelation therapy.  The difference is, when this happens, I guarantee you they will be people who do not have heel spurs and are not faced with the prospect of having yet another invasive surgery.  (If you include my wisdom teeth removal, it would be my fourth.)

What’s the motivation of doctors and other “really smart” people to deny a natural healthcare alternative such as chelation? 

Maybe to protect their ego, Maybe to avoid the reality that they were not educated in all options for health issues,  Maybe they really believe they’re right even without knowing all there is to know

What’s my motivation to try a natural healthcare alternative such as chelation therapy?

- To get rid of the balls of pain on the back and bottom of my feet instead of having my archilles tendon and fascia tendon cut, torn back, calcium deposits shaved off, risk infection and wait for the tendons to heal, and heal correctly.

I’ve spoken to four patients who had the heel spur removal.  One of them was Brittany’s grandmother and another was a friend of Kathy Dewitt.  Three out of four of them told me they still have slight pain in their feet.  Similar to the “slight” pain in my right knee? 

I also understand that heel spurs can grow back.  And this is where conventional medicine blows -  Calcium deposits formed for a reason.  By surgically removing the calcium deposits does not ensure they’ll cease to return!!!!!  Again, this is a clear-as-day example of conventional medicine treating the symptom and not the cause… but I like to go a step and further and say, conventional medicine treats symptoms and causes but not the root cause.  In the case of bone spurs, taking away the spurs takes away the pain as the spurs cause the pain, but they don’t solve what caused the bone spurs in the first damn place. 

That’s what I’m interested in.  Believe me -  if I knew that our conventional way of nurturing the human body worked, I wouldn’t go to all this trouble.  If I knew that having heel spur surgery would cure my bone spur problem, I would go through with it.  Because then I’d be that much closer to being able to walk long distances, to tip toe without pain, to do calf exercises and, most of all, to run!!

I’m pretty sure I messed up my shoulder with tendonitis because I used the wrong weight-lifting machines that twisted my arms in an awkward position while bearing weight, repeatedly.  My should pain keeps me from swimming long distances.  So I finally saw Dr. Michael Leeland, an orthopedic surgeon in Valpo last October.  I told him I hurt when I bear weight on them and it’s been like that for three years.   In small talk I also told him I’m studying music composition.

This is what he told me - Just take it easy.  Do these exercises here, and don’t worry about it too much because you’re a composer.  Playing the piano doesn’t consist of strenuous activity. 

This pissed me off.  I nearly lost it in the room.  The only reason I kept calm was because at the time he was my only hope.  The Valpo community health center set up and paid for that appointment. 

But how dare he?!  He doesn’t even know me.  Before my health problems I was more fuckin’ active than anyone I was friends with.  I was running, biking, lifting, playing baseball, you know, the sport where you throw hard with your strong arm.  In my case it was my right arm!! 

Do you see where my anger comes in toward conventional medicine??  Just like Christianity, I feel boxed in.  I feel the limits.  I’ve been to so many doctors about different things, I reached a point where I was able to predict what they would say.

Having been given completely inaccurate diagnoses in the past and doubtful that what most of what everyone else is doing (in this country) will work, and been told by “well-learned” physicians that they don’t know what is causing my pain and/or that I should just try and not use that part of my body a lot, is it so outrageous that I’ve decided to look out for my own health by seeking out things that might work much better than what I’ve been offered up to this point?

Did you ever see Tim Burton’s BATMAN?  In the end, Batman is about to kill The Joker when The Joker says, “You idiot!  You created me!  You dropped me into that pool of acid!  Now don’t think that I didn’t try!”

I tried to get better within conventional health.  I’ve seen knee doctors and specialists, foot doctors, arm specialists, physical therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, pain management counselors, gotten x-rays on my hands, forearms, left hip, both knees, feet and even been in a psych ward twice where the second time I even tried to convince a girl to reconsider getting on psychiatric medication… 

As a result, the age of western medicine created a believer in original eastern medicine.

Now don’t think that I didn’t try!