Originally Posted by
DaveLeeNC
My personal physician told me that (in his experience) glucosamine/chondroitin supplements help about half of the patients who try it and that you have not really completed 'trying it' until you have taken it for at least 3 months.
I was in the half who get no benefit. I have a sister who finds it quite helpful.
dave
I'll add a caveat to that - I've looked at a lot of studies. The ones which found no benefit all used glucosamine hydrochloride. The ones which found at least some benefit all used glucosamine sulfate. There's a decent chance that it's just the sulfur. I haven't found a study which found chondroitin beneficial. Agree about the length of time. Joint stuff takes time. I've been using the sulfate form for 40 years or so. My knees are fine. I had a meniscus repair, but that's not the knee's fault. I've also been taking MSM for the past 10 years.
It's one of those things - the possible result of not taking it can be a lot worse than the result of taking it and it doing nothing, especially when the result you want to see is . . .nothing.