Glucosamine Might Not Work As Well As Hoped

If you are a fan on our Facebook fan page, you might have seen this newspaper link I had on the wall. It was a report that suggests glucosamine does nothing to help joint pain. Unfortunately, I have seen several studies like this and through my own experience with glucosamine, it does not shock me. On the other hand, I have had people who swear by it and love the supplement. Whether it works or not, that is a debate for another time, but I wanted to discuss a few ideas that might help alleviate some joint pain.

1. A Functional Movement Screen - If you have been on my newsletter list for awhile, you know that I became FMS certified recently. This screen grades movement patterns and if you don't score well, then you are at a higher risk for injury and could possibly explain joint tenderness. So if you have a tender joint, it might be because your muscles aren't firing properly when you are doing movements. Thus causing stress on joints that shouldn't be stressed. Once the movement patterns are corrected you can then hope to alleviate that stress and be just fine.

2. Rolfing - Along the same lines, a lot of times if you have pain in certain joints (I'm assuming it isn't a torn ACL or something along those lines, maybe a tendinitis) it might be because of an issue above or below the joint. Maybe there is a tightness or maybe something is not aligned properly. Rolfing might help that. Rolfing is a series of sessions that manipulates muscles back into their proper position. Once that happens, you then can retrain the muscles to move properly. Thus, relieving the pain. I have done this with rolfer, Michael Loukas, and I have had several issues alleviated because of rolfing.

3. I do believe that there are certain supplements that can be taken or an increase of whole foods that can help the lubrication. I'm not as familiar with this process, but I did read at one time pineapples can help with tender joints. Omega fatty acids also seem to help the process as well. I don't have documented research to back it up, but I firmly believe that these things could help.

So, if you are bummed out by the glucosamine story, all is not lost. Take advantage of these methods and see if you can correct some of those minor aches and pains that you just chalk up to old age. Feel free and post me your thoughts.