If so does it work, how well and how much do you take. Do you also take Chondroitin with it. I've got to get rid of this cane, it's driving me nuts.

I take it, 1500 mg twice a day. At first I didnt think it worked, and stopped taking it....thats when I noticed the difference.
I am only 35 but arthritus runs in the family and have it in my back, neck, knees, hands and shoulders.... being a carpenter dont help any either, when I get out of bed my body cracks and pops with every step for 20 min or so. If it wasnt for glucosamine and ibuprohen I woulnt be able to get out of bed at all.

I can't give you a definitive answer. I had knee surgery at 52 and it didn't go well. I took the the glucosamine/controitine combination for a year and couldn't tell any difference so I quit

I take the combination, one tablet in the morning, one at bedtime for the hips. They haven't given me much trouble since I started taking it three or four months ago. Problem is one anecdotal story does not a study make. And the hip pain was kind of an on again off again thing. Doesn't seem to make much difference to my fingers but they were never very bad to begin with.

Yes it works both my wife and I have been taken it for years. Stop taking it and you will feel the difference.

I don't know if it works but i've taken 2 1000 mg. capsules of Glu.Sulfate every morning for about 30 years.

If you are on other meds, watch your gut...may, or, may not effect you.

quote:

Problem is one anecdotal story does not a study make.

No, good point, but there are strong, well-designed double blind trials on glucosamine. It works - I've seen it, and read the research (I have not used it).

1) make sure you are taking glucosamine sulfate, and not another form

2) Next time you talk to your doctor, talk to him or her about it. He/she should be very up on this and able to recommend a therapy regimen - it's pretty standard treatment nowadays.

I am not up on the research re: chondroitin as a supplement. Again, your doctor will be up on the latest.

quote:

Originally posted by photohause:
If you are on other meds, watch your gut...may, or, may not effect you.

I've got no guts anymore, literally. How does it affect them?

A recent medical research study in Australia has just been released and it claims MSM glucosamine and chondroitin are not an effective treatment and people given these compounds claimed the same releif stats as people given a placebo. I tried it for two years for relief from osteoarthritis and found no benefit. A lot of people swear by it though. I guess it just depends on the individual and the specific type of arthritis. Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by Kamerer:

quote:

Problem is one anecdotal story does not a study make.

No, good point, but there are strong, well-designed double blind trials on glucosamine. It works - I've seen it, and read the research (I have not used it).

1) make sure you are taking glucosamine sulfate, and not another form

2) Next time you talk to your doctor, talk to him or her about it. He/she should be very up on this and able to recommend a therapy regimen - it's pretty standard treatment nowadays.

I am not up on the research re: chondroitin as a supplement. Again, your doctor will be up on the latest.

Good post.

I'm a pharmacist and have been saying that Chondroitin/Glucosamine was unsubstantiated bullshit for years. Vets have been using the combination (especially in large animals) for decades. My vet and I got into a screaming match about this in her waiting room a few years ago.

One thing is for sure: You can't just try it and see if you feel better, and if you do decide that it works.

You need very carefully designed studies with lots of subjects that last for a long time. You need controls, double-blinding, statistical analysis, and all of those goodies to really know whether it works or not.

The National Institutes of Health has just competed such a study: The NIH Glucosamine/Chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial (GAIT).

Here were their conclusions:

What were the key results of the study?

Researchers found that:

Participants taking the positive control, celecoxib, experienced statistically significant pain relief versus placebo--about 70 percent of those taking celecoxib had a 20 percent or greater reduction in pain versus about 60 percent for placebo.

Overall, there were no significant differences between the other treatments tested and placebo.

For a subset of participants with moderate-to-severe pain, glucosamine combined with chondroitin sulfate provided statistically significant pain relief compared with placebo--about 79 percent had a 20 percent or greater reduction in pain versus about 54 percent for placebo. According to the researchers, because of the small size of this subgroup these findings should be considered preliminary and need to be confirmed in further studies.

For participants in the mild pain subset, glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate together or alone did not provide statistically significant pain relief.

LINK

So, I don't really know now, maybe it does work.

- Jim

used it for a couple of years cause my knees were hurtin helped alot a tri athlete buddy turned me on got better and for got to take it one day and never been back still feel fine sent some to my wifes 86 year old uncle ww2 vet he was havin trouble gettin around well he's traveled down here 4 times sense if your allergic to SHELL FISH ask your doc JOINT FUEL is what i like best

I have been taking the combo for about a month and I do believe my knees are better than they were.

I would suggest you try it for a few months and see.

I've been taking it for about two years and seems to have helped.
Bob Ray

My wife has been taking it for years. Arthritis runs in her family like the Mississippi River. Since see has been taking it she has decreased the amount of perscription medications. If we go out of town and she forgets to take it she really starts to hurt in a couple of days. This has been going on long enought (15 years at least) that we see a direct correlation between her taking it and the decrease in pain. We don't think her arthiritis has gotten much in any worse since see has been taking it.