Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My joints are really bad, especially my knees, and it's making me not want to exercise very much anymore :(

I looked up vegan glucosamine online and a few different options came up. I would hate to buy one just by what name sounds coolest, so do you guys have a favorite?

I just buy whatever. Deva or VegLife are my go to brands.

Thanks, I'll check those out.

I take the Deva one, too. It takes a few months to do anything so I haven't noticed any huge difference yet. But my joints aren't really bad yet, they're just a bit problematic and I take glucosamine as a preventative sort of thing since knee cartilage issues run in my family. But it was pretty cheap on iherb.com, I guess that's a point in its favour.

Damn, really? A few months?

I started giving it to my dog 2 weeks ago and noticed a difference in the way he favored his back legs within a few days. I guess I was hoping it would have a quick response in humans too :)

I am going to share my knee joint problem just because I was really down in the dumps with it for a long time.

I have pretty serious condromalacia in my knee and I suffered for about 10 years as it continued to decline: the less I did, the more the muscles atrophied, which resulted in more damage when I did exercise. I was pretty down and didn't really see a decent outcome. 3 Dr's told me just to give up on anything athletic and accept that anything I do beyond the really basic was now off limits; however, because it was a form of arthritis, the baby boomer investment would benefit me with their funding of research on joint replacement etc. I unfortunately listened to them for the better part of a decade.

A while back, I watched Fat Sick and Nearly Dead and the really big trucker starting to exercise hit me....I got really mad that someone could abuse their body for so long and then start running while I had done everything right and I couldn't exercise at all without serious inflammation and pain. I did feel good for the guy in movie making the changes that he needed, but it led me to basically say, "If he could do something in his state, I am just gonna give my knee hell and see what happened." I started seriously riding my bike again after 4 years of not being able to without excessive pain. I pedaled really easy gears to limit the pressure on the back of my knee cap. It wasn't exactly pain free but my lack of activity was causing all sorts of pain anyways - knee, hips, back, etc - so I figured I want to finally hurt because of something I did. I rode 1 - 1 1/2 hour a day spinning easy gears about 5 days a week.

6 months and 1900 miles later, I am very happy that I finally challenged my knee to a duel to the death. After letting my leg muscles - which control the kneecap movement, limiting joint damage -pretty much disappear, in six months, only riding my bike and exercise walking I have pretty much redeveloped my quads to the point they were at. I still have some minor knee pain, which I control with daily icepack in the morning, icepack after exercise, icepack before bed (no Ibuprofen) but the rest of my body isn't hurting anymore and mentally I feel alive again. I ride 130 miles a week (sometimes exercise bike miles) and I take 2-3 ten mile urban walks a week plus daily 3 mile walks. I give my knee a pretty massive workout and it the best it has been in a decade. I still can't go for runs (which would be heaven for me) but my leg is stable now and my life isn't really hampered beyond the ice pack routine. When I have a bad knee day, it because I did something to make it hurt....I get to control my own body. I no longer get the deep inactivity low body aches that would keep me awake for hours.

I guess I just want to pass on hope and suggest not to give up on joint problems because the joint issues are exacerbated by the surrounding muscles atrophying; and conversely, perhaps they can be alleviated in the long term by painfully working through building those muscles. Every case is different but people do things that Dr's tell you is impossible all the time so I might be worth a try.

Good luck and I am sorry it this comes across as a thread hijack.

i am jumping on this hijack to say I had the EXACT same experience. Almost 10 years ago I had a lot of knee pain and dislocations [and good insurance, ha] and went to a series of orthopedic surgeons who all told me the same thing- nothing to do, anatomical problem exacerbated by years of running on pavement as a young girl. One doctor told me he had one patient who, with some fancy $3000 orthotics, "was even able to run, but he's a special case" and that i should just get used to it.
Forward 10 years, I fell on a wet floor and tore my MCL. I was in horrible pain and unable to get around, saw a future of limited mobility and reached the point of making deals with god-- 'if this gets better i promise i'll start running again'. It was almost a year, shitloads of acupuncture and physical therapy, but i started running with the couch to 5k thing. i had to learn to walk again, and so i learned to run again as well [i used to strike with my heel, but i learned to strike mid-foot, low impact, and to run easy]. i used a LOT of ice and anti-inflammatories. lots and lots of ice!!!

i'm not at the point of doing marathons [and may never be] but i do 5k a few times a week. i still do my PT exercises after every workout. My knee has not dislocated since I hurt myself [it used to happen almost monthly]. And my knee pain only returns when I have a few days where i don't run [like on vacation last week]- it used to be constant.
My acupuncturist was a bit woo but he said a few things that really made me think- that my knee was connected with fear, and while i think that may be a bit weird he was definitely right that for years i had been scared, super careful not to do anything to bother my knee, or strain it, and the muscles that really were needed were atrophied, and that made the whole damn thing worse.
(sorry about the hijack)

Thanks for sharing your stories guys, it makes me hopefull. I don't have an official diagnosis as to what is wrong with my joints (it started when I was in jr. high and has slowly gotten worse). Arthritis runs in my family though. My knees are the worst, but my shoulders and ankles have issues too, especially when it's cold.

I have noticed that since my exercise has declined, they feel worse but I assumed it was the weather. I guess I will suck it up and get back on track with physical activity and see where that takes me. I do still want to take glucosamine though.

I think glucosamine is great and honestly, I notice the effects sooner and the effects of not taking it also show up fairly soon. Also, if you suspect arthritis, exercise is great as it keeps fluid in your joints and strengthens the supporting muscles.

i think anything that gives you a chance to decrease pain and increase function is a good thing!! i hope you find some relief.