I’ve only dabbled with glucosamine myself, never got into it, but what I’ve read points to the following:

One, it works well in some people and not at all in others.
Two, you have to take it regularly for a while to build a level in your system to see results.
Three, it is often combined with the supplement Chondroitin.

I have seen it work miracles in dogs (no placebo effect there.)

Different therapists will have differing opinions as to whether the vmo can be isolated and strengthened on its own. I have seen good results from a “closed chain” exercise which can be done (ideally) on a Pilates Reformer, or on an inclined leg press machine at the gym.

Warning: The big boys in the gym will have a laugh when they see this.

Set the weight light enough that you can press the carriage away while standing on your toes, as if wearing high heels. Depending on the machine, the carriage alone may be enough.

Place your feet parallel, squeezing a 6-8” ball between your ankles. On your toes do sets of 8 – 10 reps. The squeezing action should engage your inner thighs with an accent on the vmo. With a little practice you will find a weight which tires you in 8-10 reps but you are still comfortably on your toes. Avoid any rotation in the legs, concentrate on stability from the center of your body through your hips, inner thighs, knees and feet.

Discuss this with your knee doc and or P/T before going crazy with it to be sure it is right for your specific condition.

ksolem wrote:I’ve only dabbled with glucosamine myself, never got into it, but what I’ve read points to the following:

One, it works well in some people and not at all in others.
Two, you have to take it regularly for a while to build a level in your system to see results.
Three, it is often combined with the supplement Chondroitin.

I have seen it work miracles in dogs (no placebo effect there.)

Different therapists will have differing opinions as to whether the vmo can be isolated and strengthened on its own. I have seen good results from a “closed chain” exercise which can be done (ideally) on a Pilates Reformer, or on an inclined leg press machine at the gym.

Warning: The big boys in the gym will have a laugh when they see this.

Set the weight light enough that you can press the carriage away while standing on your toes, as if wearing high heels. Depending on the machine, the carriage alone may be enough.

Place your feet parallel, squeezing a 6-8” ball between your ankles. On your toes do sets of 8 – 10 reps. The squeezing action should engage your inner thighs with an accent on the vmo. With a little practice you will find a weight which tires you in 8-10 reps but you are still comfortably on your toes. Avoid any rotation in the legs, concentrate on stability from the center of your body through your hips, inner thighs, knees and feet.

Discuss this with your knee doc and or P/T before going crazy with it to be sure it is right for your specific condition.

Mike, good luck.
Kris +1

I'm 56 and my knees are 100%. I do a lot of Pilates which really helps the hips and knees.

My problems are from the neck up .

Good luck..

I tried it for about 4 months and it did absolutely nothing. I'm only 22 though, apparently its meant to be more effective the older you are.

go to www.pubmed.com and look it up. It is one of the few supplements that have been shown to be beneficial in a double blinded clinical study (a gold standard for medical research), atleast in patients presenting osteoarthritis

but even the initial clinical study is being called into question with some recent studies showing statistical equivelence with the placebo...

check out pubmed....

JackCarr wrote:I tried it for about 4 months and it did absolutely nothing. I'm only 22 though, apparently its meant to be more effective the older you are.

I'm 64 and I tried it for quite a while. At the time I thought it was doing some good. Now, I doubt that it did any good at all.

JackCarr wrote:I tried it for about 4 months and it did absolutely nothing. I'm only 22 though, apparently its meant to be more effective the older you are.

I'm 28. Tweaked my knee last year, hobbled around for about a month, never went to a doc. It eventually got better, but occasionally I have a dull ache. Started taking Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM (sp?) and I can definitely say that I can tell the improvement. It's true that it takes a few weeks to see the benefits, but when I have taken it consistently I have almost no pain.

A friend of mine who has Cerebral Palsy (35 yo) has taken it as well for osteoarthritis and said that it helped.

In college I hyperextended one knee and sverely strained the MCL of the other. I was also a baseball catcher for several years.

I've used glucosamine and chondrointin with MSM for a few years now (I'm now 37) and have had success. Previously, my knees screamed at me on descent. I described the pain as a hot, dry, sort of friction. I began using GC and after several weeks my knees began to feel better, sort of "more lubricated." This allowed me to begin running and get back into the weight room which allowed me to strengthen my vastus medialis which has further improved stability in my knees.

I still warn against anecdotal evidence, which although the alternative health industry thrives on it, it is been shown to be useless as evidence time and time again. Even if you take something and perceive a benafit, you don't know, a) if natural progression would result in the same outcome, b) if there is a placebo affect and because you think it works, you change your lifestyle and it affects the outcome (seen this occur in many studies)

ksolem wrote:I’ve only dabbled with glucosamine myself, never got into it, but what I’ve read points to the following:

One, it works well in some people and not at all in others.
Two, you have to take it regularly for a while to build a level in your system to see results.
Three, it is often combined with the supplement Chondroitin.

I have seen it work miracles in dogs (no placebo effect there.)

Different therapists will have differing opinions as to whether the vmo can be isolated and strengthened on its own. I have seen good results from a “closed chain” exercise which can be done (ideally) on a Pilates Reformer, or on an inclined leg press machine at the gym.

Warning: The big boys in the gym will have a laugh when they see this.

Set the weight light enough that you can press the carriage away while standing on your toes, as if wearing high heels. Depending on the machine, the carriage alone may be enough.

Place your feet parallel, squeezing a 6-8” ball between your ankles. On your toes do sets of 8 – 10 reps. The squeezing action should engage your inner thighs with an accent on the vmo. With a little practice you will find a weight which tires you in 8-10 reps but you are still comfortably on your toes. Avoid any rotation in the legs, concentrate on stability from the center of your body through your hips, inner thighs, knees and feet.

Discuss this with your knee doc and or P/T before going crazy with it to be sure it is right for your specific condition.

Hey Mike, I have been messing around with similar crap for a while too and did not know about the glucosamine. Maybe I'll give it a shot, seems to work for some people here.

There is actually a bunch of exercises (strengthening and stretching) you can do at home so the big boys in the gym won't laugh at you. Put your back against the wall and bend your knees about 25º. Put a soccer ball (or simialr) between your knees and press agianst the ball for ca. 10 sec., repeat 8-10 times, 3 sets. This is basically the same excercise as the one desribed by ksolem. I did PT before and it did help; now I'll have to go back to doing the exercises since my knee is messed up again. It's probably a good idea, once you have it, to stick with the exercises and incorporate them into your regular routine.

Mike,

Get your exercises from a good sports oriented PT, who works in a place where you see motivated people working hard to get better. A positive attitude is key to recovery, and that is much easier to achieve in a positive environment. You live in a big city? Find out who works with the local pro athletes.

Regarding the ball squeezes mstender describes, they are ok but lack the component of leg extension you get by using the leg press.

MikeTX wrote:I've been lucky with my knee doc. He's worked on Yau Ming's knee before, so I figure he knows sports medicine. He did my acl reconstruction on my left knee and it has come back solid as a rock. I'm tempted to tear my right acl and see what happens.

just kidding of course!

Are you sure he is all that good, Yao has not played much last season and he'll be out for most of this season as well. Just kidding!

They say body pH which is even slightly acidic can lead to the condition, as well as many ailments. Contrary to intuition, acidic foods create alkalinity, as against acid-forming foods.

Take a look at this list. http://www.essense-of-life.com/moreinfo/foodcharts.htm
See that grapefruit is Alkalising.

Though what most affects body pH is stress. Laughter is the greatest cure-all.

RayMondo wrote:They say body pH which is even slightly acidic can lead to the condition, as well as many ailments. Contrary to intuition, acidic foods create alkalinity, as against acid-forming foods.

Take a look at this list. http://www.essense-of-life.com/moreinfo/foodcharts.htm
See that grapefruit is Alkalising.

Though what most affects body pH is stress. Laughter is the greatest cure-all.

They say lots of things, and of course if it's on the web it must be true.

What I find truly amazing about this thread is that the question was about osteoarthritis and glucosamine and none of the so-called answers actually addressed that question. Some talked about the use of glucosamine for various injuries, but not for osteoarthritis. The latest so-called answer seems to possibly talk about osteoarthritis, but not about the use of glucosamine for it.

I guess we all like to talk and don't really care that we are not answering the question that was asked. Oh, and if you're one of the people posting answers, please don't feel singled out; this sort of thing happens all of the time on lots of threads here and if you are really observant you will have noticed that in this post I also didn't address the original question.