13 February 2007

Pondering Podiatric Pain

You may or may not remember, but last winter I was having foot problems, most especially when I wore unsupportive shoes like my moccasins. They've come back, now, and I don't think the footwear is the cause. I'm beginning to suspect it may be pseudogout, where calcium crystals deposit in the tissues. There are several reasons for my suspicion.
(1) My dad has attacks of pseudogout, though his affect the knee.
(2) I haven't done anything to injure either my feet or ankles recently.
(3) Problems flared up after starting to take my multivitamin and Cal-Mag regularly again (increased calcium intake).

What I don't have is the classic redness of the swollen joint. So this is definitely speculative. Interestingly, the Wikipedia article claims that magnesium and Vitamin B6 will help ease attacks and redissolve the deposited calcium (with no source cited), while every other source I've found insists that there is no way to redissolve the calcium. However, I did find out that B6 is another vitamin that people with gluten intolerance classically are deficient in. It's a bit problematic to megadose on B6, though: it can cause some pretty nasty neurological symptoms. Maximum dose believed safe is 200 mg. Maximum recommended dose is 100 mg. That's what I get if I double up my current multivitamin, but I'm switching when it runs out to one that has 100 mg in its regular dosage. (Random rant: in two pills, the new one has roughly the same nutrients as six of the other) (Random addendum: apparently low levels of B6 impair absorption of magnesium...isn't being a celiac fun???? Oh, and deficiencies in both nutrients have been linked to depression; wish I'd known that two months ago.)

So...possibly pseudogout. Increasing magnesium intake isn't likely to cause problems, so I'm trying that. B6 will get increased when I switch multivitamins. Unfortunately, a clearing of symptoms doesn't necessarily indicate that the magnesium/B6 was effective; pseudogout tends to come on suddenly, then disappear, then recur. If symptoms don't recur NEXT winter, after continuing magnesium and B6, then I might be able to conclude that there's a connection. *sighs*

On the bright side, this time I immediately switched to better shoes, and that has helped immensely. Doesn't get rid of the problem, but it does keep the pain down.

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