Health

[cjsmith]

Nice run this morning. Yay!

Visited the chiropractor later on. Among other things, I wanted to mention my twisted ankle, so that he would give it a tug. He'd done that for me Friday morning before I left for Chicago. It felt better for a while after that. I have come to the conclusion that running on it is fine, but square dancing on it makes it start hurting again. Sure enough that's what happened this weekend. So, fine, I got another tug on it this morning. And it just about separated! For just an instant I felt like my foot was going to detach from my body completely. Yowza. Then, of course, everything settled back into place. Apparently this is what he'd been hoping to accomplish Friday. It definitely feels much improved now. We'll see. I hope it stays that way.

And my knee is just sort of, well, it's just annoying. Bleah. I read the Consumer Reports tests of glucosamine/chondroitin supplements, with the references to the results of human trials. Will adapt dosage accordingly.

Comments

[oddhack.livejournal.com]

What did CR recommend? I tried G/C for a few months. It's possible there was a helpful effect on my neck, but the most obvious effect I noticed was an unpleasant one on my digestive system :-(

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

As sunnydale47 mentions below, 1500mg of glucosamine and 1200 mg of chondroitin (both usually in some salt form - doesn't seem to matter whether it's a sulfate or hydrochloride). Some products CR tested had noticeably less glucosamine, chondroitin, or both, per pill than the label proclaimed. But most were supplying ninety percent or more.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

SAM-e (which you can get at CostCo for a decent price) is also good for "joint support." And has the double bonus of being slightly mood enhancing (though for real antidepressant effects you need to take 1600mg/day--4 times what's usually recommended for general supplementation).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

CR even mentioned SAM-e in their article, although only briefly: "a few human studies have suggested" that it might relieve pain and inflammation. I wouldn't be surprised if CR takes a look at the pricing, labeling, etc of SAM-e products some day.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

I think they already have. I remember seeing something on it almost 2 years ago now. But it was in an article about antidepressants (including St. John's Wort). Check the back issues of the on-line version, to see if it's there, or I'm hallucinating....

More on SAM-e

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

Link to info on SAM-e, including dosage recommendations for the various conditions:

http://www.smart-drugs.net/ias-SAMe.htm

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

I take glucosamine/chondroitin for my arthritis, so I read the report. Why don't they just state the appropriate dose (1500 mg glucosamine and 1200 mg chondroitin) instead of playing with how many tablets you need for each of the different brands? *grumble*

If you like doing that type of research, check out ConsumerLab.com (http://www.consumerlab.com/). Only partial reports are available for free, but I figure one mistake could cost me a lot more than the 18 bucks a year it costs to subscribe, so I consider subscribing a very worthwhile value. With the supplement industry free of any regulation whatsoever (thanks to the Republicans' Contract on America), it's nice to know that somebody has vetted them and that the pills I'm pinning my hopes on -- and spending all that money on -- really contain however much of whatever that they're supposed to

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Is the G/C supplementation helping you, d'you think? I haven't been taking it at a high enough dose to know yet how my knee is responding.