Fitness and Nutrition

Glucosamine for athletes under 35. Does it really help???

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Deal Fanatic
Aug 15, 2003
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Glucosamine for athletes under 35. Does it really help???

I had a Grade 2 ankle sprain in Feb 2015 for the very first time playing competitive volleyball. Nothing has been the same since. My R knee started compensating due to tightness and lack of mobility in the R ankle, shortly after I started feeling more stress in my lower patella when walking down stairs, and now I feel pain in the upper patella and I feel pain in the quadriceps tendon. I started feeling the same thing on my L knee last week and had to take a week off without any physical activities. I've been doing treatment, stretching, foam rolling for the last year, and while everything helps in the moment, as soon as I play and wake up the next morning I'm in pain again. Then I met a few athletes who advised me to take Glucosamine - they took it for 6 months and claimed that they felt less pain. I used to think the supplement was only for 60+ with arthritis and joint pains but maybe I'm wrong??? Should I give it a shot??
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Jan 31, 2006
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I have a friend in the same situation as you, he is older than you (47 yrs old), he took glocosamine and feel less pain after taking it for more than 2 months.
Deal Guru
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Apr 10, 2011
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MtX wrote: Glucosamine for athletes under 35. Does it really help???
No it doesn't.

No serious study has ever proven the efficacy of Glucosamine for young OR for old people.

The placebo effect is a powerful thing.

If it would work, you would know and everybody would know.

But it's cheap to try...
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cgtlky wrote: I have a friend in the same situation as you, he is older than you (47 yrs old), he took glocosamine and feel less pain after taking it for more than 2 months.
Anecdotal.

The body repairs itself sometimes. Different exercise regime, more rest, many variables. Cannot be seriously attributed to glocosamine.
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Temporel wrote: Anecdotal.

The body repairs itself sometimes. Different exercise regime, more rest, many variables. Cannot be seriously attributed to glocosamine.
At least it help relieved the pain.
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Temporel wrote: Anecdotal.

The body repairs itself sometimes. Different exercise regime, more rest, many variables. Cannot be seriously attributed to glocosamine.
Well nothing's a guarantee, but it's sure as hell cheaper than going to physio or RMT. Sure I have benefits, but the only reason I keep going back is because my pains are all chronic now. And there's nothing better for therapists to see than a chronic condition.
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Temporel wrote: No it doesn't.

No serious study has ever proven the efficacy of Glucosamine for young OR for old people.
I looked into this several months ago and there are studies that show that Glucosamine does reduce pain and increases flexibility in the knee but it's not proven to help with pain in the shoulder or other areas of the body. However, there is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that indicates Glucosamine definitely works for some people.
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Soda Popinski wrote: (...) However, there is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that indicates Glucosamine definitely works for some people.
"Anecdotal" and "evidence" are contradictory. Anecdotes are odd stories, reports, grand-ma says... An evidence is not anecdotal; it's obvious.

Anecdotes have nothing to do with scientific methodology, control groups, double-blind testing, etc.

And "indicates" does not mean "proves" either.

You can't say "Glucosamine definitely works" even for "some people". Almost "anything" will work for "someone", "somewhere", "sometimes".

You are re-enforcing an unproven food supplement myth giving false hope to people in pain.

The only scientific answer to this is "No serious study has ever proven the efficacy of Glucosamine."

Period.
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If I find the lab results I referred to earlier, I'll post links in this thread.

I know a few people who have arthritis and started taking glucosamine supplements. They didn't take anything else for their arthritis and their diet remained the same and after 2-3 months, they had much less pain and had much more mobility in their shoulder. To me, that's evidence that it works... at least for some people. The studies I read all stated that the positive results were all related to people with knee problems. There's no evidence that it works for other parts of the body, as far as I know, but it has helped a few people I know. Therefore, I believe that if more research is done, it will reveal that glucosamine supplements would benefit some people. This is my opinion.
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There are natural anti inflammatory properties in glucosamine which gives the people pain relief due to inflammation. However it does nothing to rebuild or repair cartilage.

So it's essentially an Advil
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mpt wrote: There are natural anti inflammatory properties in glucosamine which gives the people pain relief due to inflammation. However it does nothing to rebuild or repair cartilage.

So it's essentially an Advil
According to an article published on the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health when Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate are taken together, these are the effects:
(1) as basic components of cartilage and synovial fluid, they stimulate the anabolic process of the cartilage metabolism; (2) their anti-inflammatory action can delay many inflammation-induced catabolic processes in the cartilage. These two mechanisms are able to slow the progression of cartilage destruction and may help to regenerate the joint structure, leading to reduced pain and increased mobility of the affected joint.
It's not essentially the same as taking an Advil.
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Soda Popinski wrote: According to an article published on the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health when Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate are taken together, these are the effects:



It's not essentially the same as taking an Advil.
So does fixing the reason why they are degenerating. Which would actually have a more significant impact then slowing down the degradation.
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Apr 11, 2006
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Temporel wrote: "Anecdotal" and "evidence" are contradictory. Anecdotes are odd stories, reports, grand-ma says... An evidence is not anecdotal; it's obvious.

Anecdotes have nothing to do with scientific methodology, control groups, double-blind testing, etc.

And "indicates" does not mean "proves" either.

You can't say "Glucosamine definitely works" even for "some people". Almost "anything" will work for "someone", "somewhere", "sometimes".

You are re-enforcing an unproven food supplement myth giving false hope to people in pain.

The only scientific answer to this is "No serious study has ever proven the efficacy of Glucosamine."

Period.
Butttt even something that is, so-called, proven, doesn't mean that it "definitely works" on all people. It still "definitely works" on "some people", " somewhere", "sometimes".
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kenchau wrote: Butttt even something that is, so-called, proven, doesn't mean that it "definitely works" on all people. It still "definitely works" on "some people", " somewhere", "sometimes".
Placebo plays a major impact in a lot of things. Secondly, just because a randomized controlled trial was done, doesn't prove anything. Most research that is conducted, their designs usually have a major flaw that makes you unable to accept their conclusions. Very few independent randomized trials are done properly. Sad to see so many researches waste their time, careers and essentially lives doing study after study that conclusions can't be accepted due to poor scientific method.

I would say from the research I read, less than 10% are well conducted and acceptable; the rest you can find major flaws in their design which render their conclusions and statistical analysis useless.
Jr. Member
Jun 28, 2012
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MtX wrote: I had a Grade 2 ankle sprain in Feb 2015 for the very first time playing competitive volleyball. Nothing has been the same since. My R knee started compensating due to tightness and lack of mobility in the R ankle, shortly after I started feeling more stress in my lower patella when walking down stairs, and now I feel pain in the upper patella and I feel pain in the quadriceps tendon. I started feeling the same thing on my L knee last week and had to take a week off without any physical activities. I've been doing treatment, stretching, foam rolling for the last year, and while everything helps in the moment, as soon as I play and wake up the next morning I'm in pain again. Then I met a few athletes who advised me to take Glucosamine - they took it for 6 months and claimed that they felt less pain. I used to think the supplement was only for 60+ with arthritis and joint pains but maybe I'm wrong??? Should I give it a shot??
I have found it helps yes. My wife also has had 6 knee surgeries from soccer from torn ligaments and she also says it helps. Also, the fowler clinic surgeon she has now said to keep taking.

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