Anyone Taking Glucosamine?

[dancingalone]

I'm considering taking a 1500 mg pill daily as a supplement in hopes that my aging joints may benefit at least a little. Reading the monograph on glucosamine suggests that doctors use it to treat osteroperosis and that it can reduce the amount of anti-inflammatory drugs (like steroids) for people with bad knees.

 

[Carol]

I've been taking it for my back for four months and its done absolutely nothing.

I wish I would have spent the money on kettlebells, I would have gotten a lot more out of it.

 

[d1jinx]

I take the Chrondroitin/MSM/Glucosimine 500mg (2ea at a time) and I can say i noticed my joints "feel" better. dont know if it's Psychological or legit, it seems to work for me. give anything time to see how it effects you. nothing works overnight.

 

[Marginal]

It worked on my dog's arthritis. (Had to switch from buffered aspirin cause it was giving her nose bleeds.) She couldn't even put weight on her right front leg without the supplement.

Studies haven't shown much benefit though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucosamine

 

[ATC]

It worked on my dog's arthritis. (Had to switch from buffered aspirin cause it was giving her nose bleeds.) She couldn't even put weight on her right front leg without the supplement.

Studies haven't shown much benefit though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucosamine

It is all the placebo effect. No different than taking a sugar pill. I took it for years and still have pain. I just brace up now and ice later. All you can do.

 

[Marginal]

It is all the placebo effect. No different than taking a sugar pill. I took it for years and still have pain. I just brace up now and ice later. All you can do.

Yeah, but how does a placebo effect work on a dog?

 

[ATC]

Yeah, but how does a placebo effect work on a dog?

Animals are different. There are many things that worked on rat and monkeys that did not work the same on humans. Animals are where they start there trials but sometimes they don't always transfer over to humans.

 

[seasoned]

I read an article years ago about Glucosamine & Chondroitin while at a doctors office. The article was in one of the magazines on the table in the waiting room. It seems this combo was used on horses with good success for years, and then tried on humans. For some reason it works better on the lower joints, particularly the knees. I have been taken it every since I read the article, and have had very, very good results.

 

[Kembudo-Kai Kempoka]

Unfortunately, whenever the mechanism of action is multivariate, poorly controlled, and produces effects anyways, it gets written off as "only placebo efffect". For decades, we didn;t know how aspirin worked; it was written off as placebo effect, cus it didn;t help all kinds of pain in all kinds of patients. Then we identified the cyclooxygenase chains, and discovered that aspirin is a COX 1 inhibitor.

Is it all placebo? No. Is it going to work on all patients, all the time? No. No drug does that; capping on something because it doesn't is sorta silly.

For the osteoporosis: Calcium is allowed to be leached from bone to buffer bloodstreams, made acidic by leaky gut syndromes that allow acidic GI contents to enter the bloodstream and muck up the plumbing. Bump up your dietary fiber, add a chelated cal-mag supplement, and drink more water -- preferably with some Hawaiian blue-green algae or shilajit once in a while, and you'll substantially reduce the risks, prevalence, and manifestation of osteoporosis.

And get kettlebells -- nutritional changes and weight-bearing exercise are the two things that research keeps supporting as being the best solutions for bone density issues. The meds have side-effects for a reason; they act on your whole body, not just on the disease process.

That being said, I'd pass on the glucosamine: too much cost for too little benefit. Switch to an alkaline foods diet, and do some light weight training a couple times a week.

And, if you want some enjoyable reading, get a couple books by Majid Ali, M.D., and learn about the effects of state change and expectation on the electrophysiologic events that precede both injury to tissues, and episodes of recovery/healing/wellness, and the link to dietary changes on systemic issues.

D.

 

[Laurentkd]

My dad's doctor recommended he take it and my dad thinks it is great. His doc said there were two brands that had more testing done on them, and he recommended getting one of those two brands. I know one was CosaminDS because that is what he uses. I just started on it a week or so ago.
As far as a placebo goes... I figure if you think it works, and it works then it works!

 

[Earl Weiss]

Been Taking Glucosimine Chondroiton for maybe 20 years . At one point I stopped thinking I didn't need it anymore and discomfort level rose.

Sam's club has best prices and so do some of the large chains when they have two for one sales

 

[elder999]

Liquid glucosamine=Happy knees.

At least, it works that way for me.....

 

[Kwan Jang]

I'm bone-on-bone on my left knee after the surgeon botched my knee operation and it's helped me at least make it tolerable.

 

[jim777]

I take it, and it has been a wonder for me personally. I still can't write a paragraph with a pen, but I can do pushups and open jars and stuff. The cartiliage in my right hand from the wrist up through the thumb is simply gone due to arthritis, and the pain before the pills was really non stop and quite annoying. I couldn't play the guitar for more than a minute or two, and now I'm up to 30 or so (which I can live with).

I currently have bottles of Osteo Bi-Flex, and another called Flex-a-min. They are both Glucosamine, condroitin, and MSM. I honestly believe it isn't an exageration to say I'd have had to quit katate/TKD for something else without these pills.

YMMV of course, but the stuff has been fantastic for me.

jim

 

[K-man]

After the results of an early trial were published some 16 years ago I started recommending Glucosamine. Unfortunately it has now come to light after many subsequent trials, that that early trial is the only one demonstrating a benefit. Could just be a coincidence but the beneficial trial was funded by the manufacturer. Funny about that.

Some people will get benefit, some people will think they get benefit but most people will be no better off. If it works for you, great. But don't expect too much as the evidence of efficacy is not there. :asian:

 

[IcemanSK]

I've taken it for 10 years. It seems to help me out.