Glucosamine?

Can't comment personally I'm afraid, but my stepdad takes it for his joints.


He buys his from www.zipvit.co.uk and finds it particularly good value.

Lisa

I take it for bad knees and joints etc (not arthritis) and most of our rugby club are on it and all I ever hear are very positive comments. There are different strengths.

The latest research is still somewhat equivocal about the benefits of Glucosamine and chondroitin. However it is clear that for some people do benefit from them so it's well worth trying to find if you are one of the subgroup for which it may be helpful. However if you look at the research the placebo accounted for a 60.1 percent improvement so doing anything is better than doing nothing.

It is quite usual to take two of those 750mg tablets daily as the effective amount is supposed to be 1500mg.

Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate alone or in combination did not reduce pain effectively in the overall group of patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Exploratory analyses suggest that the combination of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate may be effective in the subgroup of patients with moderate-to-severe knee pain.

Anyone wanting to save £2 off Simply Supplements before 30th April may like to quote DVO2 which will cut the price of 360 glucosamine 500 chondroitin 400 from £16.99

[size=+1]Supplementation of fish oil and olive oil in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.[/size][size=+1] is a some interesting research showing that [/size]fish oil omega-3 fatty acids (3 g/d) and 9.6 mL of olive oi was helpful in reducing the pain in joints.
As there are loads of other good reasons for taking fish oil omega 3's (heart, circulation, brain, depression, eyes etc) this is another useful combinations of supplements which could be used to supplement the glucosamine/chondroitin.
But you do have to take a medically effective amount of omega.
most fish oil capsules contain about a third of a gram (simply supplements even less so although the cheapest not necessarily best value) to get 3g OMEGA you would need over 10 capsules daily or a liquid supplement such a Zipvit Search Routine[size=-1]A216j, OJ Omega Juice, Omega 3 fish oil Flavouring. A218,[/size]this provides 1.5g of omega 3's (900mg EPA+600DHA)per teaspoon so rather than taking 10 capsules you would just need 2tsps of Omega Juice and the same of a nice virgin olive oil.(lidl's is ok)
With both the omega/olive oil AND the Glucosamine/chondroitin you are actually treating the cause rather than the symptoms of the arthritis. It follows that these aren't immediately effective and will be better if you take them ALL the time (well particularly in the cold/damp) so that your joints have chance to improve. Although some people are lucky enought to see an improvement in days I think weeks or months is a more likely scenario. Certainly for depression I would expect it to be 3 months before improvement which be achieved.
With the brain (and I suspect with other cells but I don't think it's been proved yet) absorbtion of the DHA (omega 3) into astrocyte brain cells (these support the brain neurones)is best achieved in the presence of vitamin d3.
People get depressed in Winter because they have low DHA levels in the brain. As there isn't a seasonal shortage of sardines in tomato sauce it's always bothered me why omega status is lower in the winter. The reason is that the vitamin d3 provides an ion exchange to allow the dha to pass through the cell walls. So more vitd3 more omega in the cells and more omega means more antiinflammatory agent where you need it.
So whenever you get the chance strip off and sunbathe for around 20-40 minutes. It's surprising how drawing back the patio windows allows you to benefit from the sunshine by nude sunbathing even in March providing you keep out of the wind. If you don't fancy the nudy sunbathing (you need as much skin exposed as possible, hands and face aren't sufficient) (If you are brown skinned 6 times longer and black skins would need 10 times as long) you could take vitamin d3 cholecalciferol around 4000iu daily is needed to keep your levels topped up and to give yourself a boost (and speed up any tanning)you could take 50000iu (125 tablets of 400iu) just to bring your levels up to scratch to start with.

A 125g tin of sardines (lidl's) in tomato sauce contains about 80g drained weight of sardine and that contains 2g of omega. However taking over one tin of sardines a day may be a bit much. but 4 portions of oily fish a week would mean you could reduce the amount of omega juice you would need to take.

You would need the sun to shine directly on your skin. So in a conservatory you would have to open the windows as the glass blocks off the UVB rays. If you wanted to give your vitd3 a quick boost you could investigate the local sunbed studio's however they can be a bit pricey.

I am better than I usually am depression wise this time of year. I'm putting that down to the mega-doses of vitamin d3 and zipvit omega juice. Vit D3 does actually improve mood on it's own but it's the long term improvement in Omega uptake which is the most important. Anyone with SAD would need about 100,000iu to see an improvement.