[Paz]

That's what we want to hear.  We should all want to believe in it.  I've said it once and I'll say it again, even if it's a placebo effect, the placebo effect works and you don't get a placebo by not taking something, and any benefit from it is probably in addition to the conventional good it's doing you.  That's how i like to use SCIENCE.  My Glucosamine from Health span is good value for the effect I get from it.

[ian h]

glucosamine sulphate can be bought a fair bit cheaper on ebay

[clm]

christ!! how do you lot get so damaged??
do y'all think these supplements are doing good?? ie do you reckon that if you stop you would be a crip?
guess what im asking is are all these chemicals cures for damage or are they preventative measures.  and if they are cures do you quit once you are fixed?  do any of you reckon you are supplement dependent?
what motivated you to start taking them??
discuss.

[Pantontino]

I started taking glucosamine for the frst time in January this year - I was suffering with a painful hip joint that felt like it was going to dislocate. Within about a week it felt better and within 2 it felt virtually pain free.

I then tried some more glucosamine tablets with chondriten and this seemed to bring some strange side effects (gassy guts, wierd throaty feeling), so I stopped and haven't taken anything since. I do ache most of the time (always have), but I reckon I'll wait until something really painful comes along again before I start on the tablets again.

[r-man]

what motivated you to start taking them??

Not being able to climb properly for over six months. I'll try anything, provided I can afford it and it won't kill me.

I dunno about the whole dependency thing. I'll think about that when and if the pills actually work. Though I've just done the chair test (where a stand on a chair using only one leg) and the knee clicks noticeably less than it used to. This is a good thing.

I'm not really expecting my tendon to improve that much from the pills, as despite the packet's claims everyone keeps saying that the only thing proved to help tendons is MSM and I haven't got any of that (yet!) though I've seen it available with glucosamine sulphate and chrondoitin. So maybe when this lot runs out I'll try that.

Expensive though pills are, they are cheaper than going to the physio/alternative therapist every week, so I reckon I'll test them out for another couple of months. Though to be honest, pills or no, it's been over 6 months now so I'd expect my tendon to heal soon anyway. Please, tendon, please...  

:cry:

[andy_e]

you on drugs now dude?

[r-man]

you on drugs now dude?

You heard me. Now hand over your wallet. And your watch. Bet you thought the internet was safe... Sucker.

[andy_e]

doh! not again. i hate it when you squeeze money from me.

[r-man]

Found this on a discussion about tendonitis on 8a.nu. Some serious drugging:

I'm sorry to hear about the tendonitis dude. Its a MAJOR pain to live with. I'm 20 years old and have suffered horrible tendonitis and burcitis since I was 15.
I have it all the way from both shoulders down all the way into my hands pretty badly. I've seen many doctors about this and one of them even told me to quit climbing for good and that was just out of the picture for me, so I never talked to that doctor ever again.
Things that HAVE helped me is do windmills with my arms for like 2 minutes on each arm till I feel them getting warm and almost pumped, before I warm up for a climbing session. Suprisingly this has helped me alot.
Also, takes rests and don't over do it when your hurting. When I was in Hueco and talking with Fred Nicole he said to never just completely stop climbing for tendonitis but to do "athletic rests" meaning do climbs that don't cause you ANY pain at all and that are easy and comfortable. Over time you will get better depending on how well you take care of your body.
Things that I've taken to help with tendonitis and keeping healthy joints are.
*Bromelain- Helps rebuild tissue and support tendon repair. You can get this from "fresh" pinneapple and popaya's, but avoid canned pineapple which Bromelain usually gets vanished in from all the preservatives they use. I actually take the pill form 500 mg. twice a day, once in the morning and once at night before bedtime. This stuff has helped me alot.
*Glucosamine, Condroition Sulfate Sodium- Helps with joints and tendons. Very popular supplement for healthy joints, tendons, and muscle, etc. If your allergic to shellfish stay away from this stuff. I take it twice a day, same dosage as the Bromelain.
*MSM-Has alot of purposes but it mainly helps repair tissue, takes down imflamation, helps with skin repair, hair, etc. I take this twice a day as well.
*Alfalpha-Helps with toxins cleansing which can often cause tendonitis and bad imflamation. This stuff is also helping my immune system and keeping me well in this allergy season. When your immune system is healthy your able to recuperate alot faster to get BACK to climbing when your sore and having tendonitis you have to recuperate because you can only take so much of the pain and the abuse.
*Multi Daily Vitamin- Something like Centrum.
*Flax Seed Oil tablets- Great healthy fatty acids and takes down imflamation.
Then something my doctor right now told me to do to take down swelling and flarring which I immediately get even just warming up is, NAPROXEN SODIUM (Aleve). I take it 30 minutes before I climb and this takes down alot of the imflamation making climbing more "normal" like it used to be.
Over all listen to your body and find what works for you.
Some personal physical therapy excercises with a stretch band could really help your bicep. It helped my shoulders ALOT.
Yes, its boring but it pays off when you do regularly.
I hope you this helps you dude, let me know how its going.

All the way from his shoulders to his hands! :shock:   That's pretty bad.

[a dense loner]

Over all listen to your body and find what works for you

genius, obviously did him a lot of good

[Ru]

see post below...

[Ru]

I've actually read this thread now.

I'm pretty sure glucoasamine/condroitin is effective on cartilage, not tendons, which are mede of different stuff. I noticed nothing by taking it, but there are trials that show improvement, but mostly with arthritis.

Topical creams are, I think, mostly crap. You body metabolises and uses things on a system wide basis, most things, a few drugs excepted, can't be absorbed through the skin. In the same way that smearing yourself with beef paste isn't going to increase your protein intake and make you grow, neither is smearing yourself with glucosamine going to repair your joints.

[erm, sam]

I too have only just read this post.
I have been taking glucosamine, lately with chondritin. I can't honestly say I have noticed any difference. I am not so sore as I used to be, but I have been climbing less, and hopefully am being less of a shoulder/finger thrashing nob.
Nobody has mentioned Tumeric. I have been taking this for a while. It is a non steroidal antiinflamatory.. Apparently if you take it all the time, it decreases the inflamation response, so you can train a bit less tweakily.
Takes a while to kick in apparently, like a week or something, so I take a pill every mornign. I don't know if it has helped really. But I do know that taking two pills every morning makes me feel like i am doing something to reduce tendon stress. And ordering the really expensive Tumeric off the internet gives me somethign to do at work that is "climbing related". Slightly climbing related.

[SA Chris]

You mean Tumeric, as in the stuff you put in curries?

[r-man]

Um...but isn't inflammation a sign that you've damaged your tendon and should rest? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's the symptom , not the problem, so it's like taking headache pills but carrying on headbutting things...

[erm, sam]

Yes, kind of. I am not an expert (in any way), but.
The inflamatory response is not allways a totally appropriate response by the body to injury. By this I mean, the bodies inflamation response may not help injuries repair quickest in some cases.
An example would be studies which show that eg, runners who sprain an ankle get better quicker if ice is applied to the injury site immediatly. The rest and repair time can be a lot quicker compared to if no ice is used.
Ice is simply a way of decreasing the bodies response to the injury: Less blood arrives at the injury site, less "injury markers" are left, and less "emergency injury repair" mechanisms  respond to those markers.
This results in quicker repair, because some of the injury recovery time is in fact just spend dissasembling the repair mechanisms.
So I understand the Tumeric will decrease the body's over-response to slight injuries allowing normal repair to take place.
Mind you, personally I heard Tumeric helped decrease inflamation, so I took it. Thats that. I have only rationalised it later.
I understand that it is recomended by some Physios who deffo know their stuff, and basically, thats enough for me.
I am sure some sports phys type is going to correct all the inaccuracies in my post.
And yes, Tumeric of Curry fame.

[a dense loner]

i have found that tumeric helps you process food a LOT faster

[Paz]

So why do you order the really expensive stuff off the internet when it costs 60p for more than you'll use cooking in a year from an indian super market?  Do you still get the benefit if you have it in Dahl or Chicken Tikka Masala?

[erm, sam]

You still get the benefit , but the (fucking expensive) tablets have about 500 time the amount of the active ingredient compared to honest normal Tumeric. You still get a benefit , I expect, but you would have to eat pounds of it...