chondroitin and glocusamine-opinions please

HardyEustace

Hi guys,
training for my second marathon(Dublin) with Dublin 2006 as my first.

Having terrible problems with knee pain (due to lean quads and lack of muscle support to knee joint, not mechanical damage if you know what I mean, have been to orthopedic surgeon about this in Feb of this year). Also having problems with aching lower back (had back operation 15 years which involved lots of chopping of bits).

Anyway, since yesterday taking a mega multi vitamin which COST A FORTUNE Omnium
and a vitamin C supplement as well Ester-C

The supplement with chondroitin and glocusamine was also mooted. Is this worth while or not? I've done some reading up on it and some people do find it really effective.

Also, the vitamins I bought were somewhat pricey. Now I don't mind if thats what I have to pay. But are solgar really that good to justify the price hike? And is there an alternative?

Was going to post on athletics but you guys seem to really know your stuff about suplements (forgive sycophantic comment but it's true!).

Would really appreciate people's opinion (and if I was completely ripped off by paying those prices for the multi-vitamins please be gentle, was just despairing as training speed has been dropping over the last week and was permenantly wrecked... was ready to try any panacea!).

crotalus667

http://www.animalpak.com/html/sections.cfm?ID=7
http://www.animalpak.com/html/sections.cfm?id=60
I take “animal pak” as my multivitamin as do a lot of people it’s handy because all the tablet’s/ pills come repacked in little baggies (it’s about 10 tablet’s/ pills per dose 44 dose’s per tub wich is about 35-40 euros depending where you get it) also today im about to start taking “animal flex” it’s aimed at joint’s and ligaments (it’s about the same price per tub) they come highly recommended by a lot of lifters they are mainly aimed at lifter’s , there’s a list of the contents on the links above I know if your looking for glocusamine flex has your daily allowance
Ps
If you can get your doctor to put you vit’s on a prescription you can claim the money back under the drugs repayment scheme

cowzerp

chondroitin and glocusamine is amazing and necessary if your doing marathon running or anything that puts pressure on your joints and cartrilidge, get it asap-the improvement in anyone who has problems is amazing..

HardyEustace

What brand do you use? Where do you get it from please?

tunney

cowzerp wrote:

chondroitin and glocusamine is amazing and necessary if your doing marathon running or anything that puts pressure on your joints and cartrilidge, get it asap-the improvement in anyone who has problems is amazing..

I've tried it a bit and never found any difference.
Waste of money, better off getting an extra massage a month.

spiral

I've found glucosamine and chronodritin to be very good if you take it in sufficient doses. I take about 1000-1500mg a day , takes a week or two to kick in and a cod liver oil or fish oil supplement wouldnt be a bad idea either.
I train BJJ and always had very sore and achey hands forearms and elbows some days I really dreaded training , the glucosamine cleared all that up in 2-3 weeks.

cowzerp

HardyEustace wrote:

What brand do you use? Where do you get it from please?

Any health store-the brand is not important, its all the same anyway, its best taking in 500mg glucosimine and 400mg tablets-3 times a day when your injured or feeling an injury coming on and 2 times a day when taking it for maintenance-if the dosage is small then you might not notice any effect, some brands tell you to take it all at once but like food-spread it out so your body uses it all, if all in 1 go i believe you'll use what you need and the rest will be waste product!

HardyEustace

spiral wrote:

I've found glucosamine and chronodritin to be very good if you take it in sufficient doses. I take about 1000-1500mg a day , takes a week or two to kick in and a cod liver oil or fish oil supplement wouldnt be a bad idea either.
I train BJJ and always had very sore and achey hands forearms and elbows some days I really dreaded training , the glucosamine cleared all that up in 2-3 weeks.

Sorry to sound silly but whats BJJ?

HardyEustace

cowzerp wrote:

Any health store-the brand is not important, its all the same anyway, its best taking in 500mg glucosimine and 400mg tablets-3 times a day when your injured or feeling an injury coming on and 2 times a day when taking it for maintenance-if the dosage is small then you might not notice any effect, some brands tell you to take it all at once but like food-spread it out so your body uses it all, if all in 1 go i believe you'll use what you need and the rest will be waste product!

Thanks for that cowzerp. That makes a lot of sense. Does that mean that the next time I buy the vitamin C tables that I should go for a smaller dose through out the day?

siochain

Holland & barret are doing a good sale on glocusamine and chondroitin, well worth the investment.

cowzerp

HardyEustace wrote:

Thanks for that cowzerp. That makes a lot of sense. Does that mean that the next time I buy the vitamin C tables that I should go for a smaller dose through out the day?

Vitamin c usually comes in small enough dose that your body can use in 1 go but in theory your correct-ps, bjj is brazilian jiu jitsu-submission grappling that has lots of joint locks involved..

HardyEustace

siochain wrote:

Holland & barret are doing a good sale on glocusamine and chondroitin, well worth the investment.

Thanks for that. Do you order it on line or do they have shops in Ireland?

cowzerp

Shops in all major supermarkets..

siochain

ones I know of in The Square, Liffy Valley, Whitewater (Newbridge)

http://www.naturesway.ie/