A basic understanding of how spurs form is helpful. The body responds to stress by growing or getting stronger. If you load up your muscles regularly they will eventually get bigger and stronger in response. The same goes for your tendons ligaments and fascia, if you stress them regularly they will change. Another example is the effect that weight bearing exercise has on the bones. Weight bearing exercise is recognized as the most important factor (even more than calcium supplementation) in fighting osteoporosis (loss of bone mass in elderly and not so elderly). Anthropologists and forensic specialists can often tell what a person did by the shape and density of the bones. So we can see that the body is constantly growing and responding to the stresses put on it.

Lets look at a spur in the neck as 'case study'. Lets say that you hold your neck really tight most of your life. Maybe you were in a car accident many years ago and never worked out the tension and trauma, or maybe you are a fearful person who carries your body all closed up and tight, or maybe you are just plain stressed. What ever the source of the tension, the result is the same. The neck muscles are held tight all the time. The body responds by trying to make the muscle stronger. But the muscles are held tight and are therefore unresponsive. The ligaments and tendons begin to thicken so as to meet the task of support, unlike muscle they do not require movement so much in order to grow. This goes on for a while and is often without symptom. Then after a bit the bone itself will begin to thicken at the attachment sites of the effected ligaments or tendons. Again the body is simply responding to stress by getting stronger. Bone grows fast, faster than ligament. So after awhile the body, in an attempt to strengthen the attachment sites, will begin to mineralize the ligament at the attachment, and, walla� there you have your bone spur.

Now they can form for other reasons as well. The heel spur scenario is obviously a product of improper footfall and/or overuse as well as tension (chicken or egg?). Sometimes those who take too much calcium or other mineral supplementation will get depositing in joints as well as at stressed attachment sites (kidney stones can also result as my wife can attest). All of this is made worse as symptoms build. The body responds to pain by immobilizing the painful area. Often called splinting this natural protective response simply makes things worse by further reducing proper movement. Like being in a cast too long, the effected areas begin to atrophy and weaken (again in response to outside stresses or the lack thereof) compounding the problem.

So what does this mean in terms of prevention and treatment? It all boils down to tension in the body. Lets look at the neck again. If the neck is loose, mobile and strong, there is no need for it to build up as there is no extra load. If you want your neck to be strong you can exercise the muscles and they will get stronger and the bone and fascia will grow appropriately for support and movement. Having weak muscle and structure can lead to injury so strength built properly is important as a preventative measure. It is important to understand though that any muscle that is held tight all the time cannot function properly and will eventually begin to literally transform itself into a more ligament like structure and this is why MOVEMENT is so important. Muscles need rest and they need to stretch, contract, release, and generally move for health. Movement like Bagua, which articulates all of the joints and explores movement extremes and is integrated and connected is great for this. Standing practice is more for structure and less for muscular strength. This is why we must relax when standing. This releases the muscles from support and allows the fascia to support and therefore grow and create good structure; tendons, ligaments, bones and fascia, rather than just creating tense musculature. Your body actually knows this and if listened to it will release the musculature all by itself (quiet standing).

If an area has already formed a spur or an embedded nodule the area and all of the surrounding tissue must be returned to normal function. All of the surrounding fascia must be released and triggerpoints worked out of the muscles and the tendinous junctures of the muscles (myofascial release and triggerpoint therapy). The musculature will need to be strengthened properly (physical therapy) and most importantly the body will have to be taught how to move properly (neuromuscular reeducation). These are all part of a prevention program and are also part of healing whether or not you have surgery or some less invasive method. If it is small enough and depending on location, the spur or nodule can be manually ground out and the body will reabsorb the mineral content and redeposit it where needed. The spur may need to be removed surgically if it is too large or is in a difficult location and continues to be symptomatic after other treatment. There are internal concoctions and herbs that may facilitate the re-absorption process, this is not really my bag so I defer to others in that area. I generally find Castor Oil to be a good external compress for soft tissue buildups (read your Edgar Cayce).

Often an area that has some spurring can be returned to normal function by simply removing the tension. The spurs hurt and cause dysfunction because they interfere with normal movement. If the surrounding tissue is treated then the spurs may no longer be symptomatic. In some cases this reducing of stresses will even effect a reversal of the spur growth, again the body moving it's mineral resources to some other area that needs them. In most cases this will at least slow and or stop the growth of the deposit. Lets look at another situation. I have a client with spurring around the lesser trochanter of the femur and along the ischiopubic ramus. (inside of the thigh at the hip and the groin area of the pelvis) along with this he has a narrowing of the acetabulum (hip socket itself). This was caused by a lifetime of tight pelvic, hip and leg musculature combined with improper movement patterns. After releasing the fascia all around the hip, leg and pelvis with particular attention to the adductors and teaching him to move a little better with more fluidity, the pain has disappeared and function returned to normal without the removal of the spurs. It is likely that one day he will need to have the spurring removed and or have a hip replacement. But not today� maybe not ever. The spurs may reabsorb now that they aren't being irritated all the time. The narrowing of the socket may halt with out the stress and grind created by tight muscle, fascia and poor movement. Even if he does have surgery one day the habits he has learned about movement and relaxation will be essential in his recovery.

Do a little experiment. Find a friend that you trust. Lay down face up. Have your friend kneel at your head and hold your head in both hands (sort of cupped- you'll figure it out). Close your eyes and allow your head and neck to relax into the support of your partner's hands. Then gently, slowly, carefully, have them rock your head side to side up and down and rotationally. Partners should be aware that you want to go carefully and feel the person on the ground's responses. The idea is to create trust not to stretch and twist the neck. The point of the exercise is to allow the holder to have complete control of the head and neck so that you can feel where and when you have tension. Over controlling movement is in my opinion one the main causes of musculoskeletal dysfunction. You may notice that you have a hard time letting go, this would indicate that you are over controlling your neck. Some times this will take the form of following, where the receiver ties to follow the holder or even anticipate the movement. So change rhythms and directions now and then and try to feel if the receiver is trying to control. Quite often the person who is receiving this work won't be aware or be able to feel that they are over controlling so it is up to the person holding the head to pay attention so that you can coach the receiver to relax. After a little bit you might find that the musculature of head and neck begin to respond to the gentle rhythmic movement by relaxing their iron grip. At this point you can gently (never force and be cautious with forward and back movement or if the person has an injury) stretch the neck in different directions always returning to rhythmic movement in between the stretching. After about 5 min of this switch partners so that your friend can benefit from the exercise as well. What you should find is that your head and neck are more relaxed and less painful. Certain movements that used to cause pain may no longer hurt simply by teaching the head and neck to relax.

This type of relaxation and reeducation technique is often all a person with minor spurring or depositing needs especially if combined with the other soft tissue techniques. It won't take away the spur but it will make it less problematic. Non surgical options being less invasive and being less likely to have permanent negative outcome in my opinion should be always be considered first. This is not at all to say that surgery is never appropriate, each case is individual and often when things are advanced surgery is the only answer.

I got a little carried away, sorry for the length of this message. I hope you find it useful .I guess I need to say that I am not a physician so the above is just my opinion and should not be taken as medical advice. And for honesty I need to admit that the `case' information was a conglomerate of client situations and does not represent one person's history (privacy).