Ever since i started doing step aerobics (laugh if you will, dammit) my knees have started to hurt to the point where i had to stop doing step aerobics and now i do bicycling. I am thinking of buying some glucosamine & chondroitin on ebay and trying it.
I take it for arthritis and it seems to help, but it’s really difficult to tell, since arthritis is a thing that comes and goes anyway. It isn’t a pain reliever, and needs to be taken for a while before having any alleged effect.
Maybe you should just stop doing step aerobics and leave it at that.
Elenfair’s dog Valen has an old hip injury, and she adds glucosamine to his food. If he goes without for a while, it’s clearly evident that his hip is bothering him. Just another data point.
I haven’t taken it myself, but I belong to a fitness board where many of the other members do take it (glucosamine that is). I’ve heard very good things about it.
I like Glutamine, it seems to really help the soreness the day after a workout.
I asked this a few months ago, and the users of those supplements all said they’d noticed no improvement.
I was getting runners knee (would feel stiff when I sat in one position too long, hurt sometimes while exercising). Anyway, a friend who does yoga recommended some stretches that really helped. One was kneeling, then sitting as if you were going to sit on your feet, but splay your feet out to the sides a big so that if you were to sit all the way down, your feet would be at the sides of your hips, if that makes any sense. Of course only do what you can without hurting yourself. That totally got rid of my runner’s knee, though.
I’ve used it with some of my older sled dogs, and have noticed a great improvment in some, and no difference at all in others (I know you didn’t ask about dogs, but that’s what I know 
)
Both my wife and I have had knee surguries (I had ACL reconstruction, and she had ortho mcl repair). We both take glucosamine and we have found that it does help some with join pain and strength.
As MLS said, one thing to keep in mind is that it takes a while for the glucosamine to build up in your blood stream, so if you decide to start taking it, dont give up on it for a couple months.
I tried it for a while (2-3 months) for post-traumatic ankle arthritis and didn’t notice any difference, so I gave it up. Eventually my ortho doc prescribed orthotics, and they have been a HUUUUGE help in improving my endurance and reducing my pain levels. My grandmother swears by the stuff for her arthritis, though. It’s worth a try; it’s sure less invasive than surgery!
My mom takes it for her arthritis and she swears it makes a difference. She said she used to have trouble combing her hair, and now she has almost full range of motion for both arms and hands. Dunno if it’s psychological or physiological, but Mom’s happy, so that’s something.
My husband takes both MSM and Glucosamine/Chondroitin. He swears by it. I saw a program last night about James Coburn, who was crippled by arthritis until he got on the MSM. He was a big public voice in favor of it until his death.
I’ve used Glucosamine/MSM and it has really helped with joint pain. Chondroitin is expensive and may actually interfere with Glucosamine absorption (sorry, don’t have a cite right now).
I took it for knee pain and it made no difference at all (I took it for several months). What will make a difference is losing about 20 pounds and putting that much less pressure on my knees!
Consumer Reports had a cover story on “Mystery Cures” 3 or 4 years ago. Glucosamine was one of the few things reviewed which they approved of. Chondroitin was not.
It seems to help me.
I’m having knee pain right now, and I’m thinking on going on it for a while, just to see if it will work.
I looked on the archives of this message board for this same information.
One kind poster linked to a medical review of double-blind tests on people with joint pain and cartilige problems. (Dose 1500 mg for 1 year was pretty standard.)
The experiments indicated that it does have beneficial effects. However, the journal pointed out that experiments which didn’t produce results would probably be less likely to be published.
I figure that studies which showed nasty side-effects would have been published, though. So I started taking it. At worst, it is placebo.
Gluco works nicely for my feet & knees. I’m overweight & have a congentital knee problem to boot. Taking this stuff seems to reduce the pain I feel in my joints.
I notice I don’t snap & pop at much straight out of bed, too.
Glucosamine works for arthritic pain - not muscular pain. For muscular pain, you can take MSM.
There’s little research on the effects of glucosamine in humans - nothing more than the anectodal stuff, at any rate.
With animals, we do see a difference in many subjects, but not all - most though, yes. The nice things about dogs is that they don’t suffer from psychosomatic disorders and/or aren’t subjective about the pain. I can see that Valen moves better, runs, and can jump up on my bed when he’s on glucosamine/MSM. When he’s off, it shows.
The GOOD news is, it can’t hurt to give it a shot!
One of the problems with glucosamine, as well as most such supplements, is that they are very loosely regulated. I read recently (I’ll do a search for a cite, but can’t lay my hands on it at the moment) that researchers pulled some bottles of glucosamine off store shelves, and tested them for the active ingredient. Almost none contained as much as the label indicated, and some had no detectable active ingredient at all.
Given that the stuff is fairly pricey (especially if you really do take the recommended dose), those findings would worry me.
Here’s the article I was thinking of: problems with glucosamine, and chondroitin even worse. While we’re on the subject, topical application of these supplements (i.e., rubbing them on your skin) is truly worthless, according to this.