After many months of trying to decide whether or not to try the glucosamine regimen for joint therapy I finally decided to start a daily dosage yesterday and continue for 3 months. As a runner I do suffer from some soreness in my knees. It's not very bad and comes and goes. After 30+ years of running, sore knees are to be expected. However, I suspect my sore knees are more a result of football injuries from high school rather than running, per se.
Here is an impressive article on the effectiveness of glucosamine on sports injuries, particularly runners:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-241-286-289-8138-0,00.html
My bigger reason for trying glucosamine is for treatment of my elbows. Six years ago I fell while running and broke my left elbow after hitting it on the curb. My right elbow suffers from many years of sports abuse related to being a pitcher in baseball, lots of tennis as a young adult, and softball church league play. On rainy days my elbows get so sore I can hardly touch them. Yes, humid weather bothers my elbow joints.
In researching glucosamine and chondroitin I decided to take glucosamine sulfate without chondroitin. Most articles said to purchase a name brand and try for 90 days to see if it works for you. The evidence is not convincing medically, however, many people, including athletes, testify as to its effectiveness. My own mother-in-law has found it to be very helpful in treating arthritic pain in her hip.
My experiment is very simple and should be easy to judge results. If my elbows improve, I'll be a believer! I'll post results in this column in the future. Hopefully, it will not adversely affect my GERD.
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