Bone Spur Remedies
A bone spur, known to the medical community as an osteophyte, is defined by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons as an overgrowth of bone. While bone spurs are not painful in themselves, the muscles, tendons and ligaments that rub against the bone spur can become inflamed and swollen, sometimes causing severe pain.
Other People Are Reading
-
What Causes Bone Spurs?
-
The overgrowth of bone that defines a bone spur is often a reaction to tiny injuries that happen to the tendons, ligaments and cartilage in joints daily. Sometimes they follow a specific injury, but bone spurs quite often are part of the natural process of aging. They are especially common in those with osteoarthritis, because the cartilage that protects the ends of the bones becomes worn and inflamed. Excess weight, tight ligaments and poor-fitting shoes may also lead to inflammation and damage to these structures. In any case, the body's response to this damage is to build new bone.
Features and Identification
-
Bone spurs can occur on any of the bones of the body, but are most commonly found at the heels, the spine and the shoulder. They are often the first noticeable symptom of another condition, such as spinal stenosis or plantar fasciitis, which leads to heel spurs.
Sometimes you or your doctor can actually feel the bump from a bone spur, but usually they are diagnosed by an Xray, CT or MRI study.
-
Treating Bone Spurs
-
You can have bones spurs without even realizing it, so most require no treatment at all. When treatment is needed, it generally addresses the symptoms, rather than the bone spur itself.
Painful bone spurs can often be managed with over-the-counter, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), such as ibuprofen or naproxen. Ice, elevation and resting the body part may also help you manage the pain of an inflamed bone spur.
Depending on the location of the bone spur, an orthotic device, such as a shoe insert, may both help relieve pain and prevent further damage. If none of the many orthoses available in the store where you purchase your NSAIDS offers relief, you may need to get a doctor's prescription to have an orthosis custom-made for your particular situation.
A more difficult, yet equally important treatment, is to keep your weight down. Carrying around excess pounds is damaging to joints and may lead to the creation of bone spurs.
Surgery
-
Sometimes the pain, swelling or inflammation from an osteophyte can be so debilitating that surgical removal of the spur is the best option. This is true if the bone spur is limiting your range of motion, which can happen with bone spurs in the shoulder, elbow, heel and spine. Bone spur removal is frequently done during other surgeries to treat arthritis and may be done either through an open incision or by arthroscopy.
Prevention/Solution
-
Because bone spurs are a fairly common response to aging bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments, there isn't much to be done to prevent them. However, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, including keeping weight down, exercising regularly --- remembering to warm up and warm down as part of that exercise --- and wearing well-fitting shoes will go a long way toward avoiding the swelling and pain associated with the worst-case bone spurs.
Warning
-
While most bone spurs are benign or, at most, annoying, they do occasionally break off and become lodged in a joint or the joint lining. This could cause the joint to "lock up," which will cause increasing joint damage. If this occurs, you should make an appointment to see an orthopedist.
-
