Volume 4 Read Time: 5 Minutes
Table of Contents:
1. Glucosamine’s Role in the Rehabilitation of Cartilage
2. Secondary Osteoarthritis in Athletes
There is often a misunderstanding of exactly what role glucosamine plays in rehabilitating cartilage within joints.
The reason your joints develop osteoarthritis is that it has stopped producing the elements necessary to maintain them. What is happening is really a two-fold problem. First, your body is not maintaining healthy joints, and secondly, “cartilage-chewing” enzymes are working to destroy the cartilage that is still present. Here’s how we challenge the problem and begin restoring healthy joints.
What is glucosamine doing to help your condition? It is synthesizing the production of new cartilage and at the same time, fighting the “bad” enzymes. In effect, you are addressing your joint problems at the cellular level which slows the progression of the disease and assists your body in the healing process. As well, if you are going to control pain during the healing process it is essential that the purity of the product(s) you are using should be very high. You should be using pharmaceutical-quality glucosamine to reap the benefits. The latest research suggests that glucosamine is up to twice as effective in liquid form so I would highly recommend liquid over capsules, pills, and creams.
There is no single prescription drug that can achieve the wide-ranging impact that high-quality glucosamine can. As some clinical researchers have described it, it is simply “remarkable.” glucosamine…
Of course, the most important role (and one that should be of interest to you) is pain management. Since pain control is paramount in your mind you should be most interested in this aspect of glucosamine as a tool in fighting it.
Since the medical community has never been able to come up with a prescription medication that will address all of these issues, most physicians are skeptical. That skepticism is fueled by a lack of knowledge about glucosamine benefits, a factor that you must consider when discussing the use of it with some doctors.
As the clinical evidence continues to mount, it is inevitable that those same skeptics are going to have to accept the reality that pain-free, healthy joints can be a reality by using the right glucosamine/chondroitin product. It would not be surprising to see the day when physicians will open up and encourage their patients to use this approach instead of recommending radical treatments such as surgery. For recommendations on glucosamine arthritis products, please read the Consumer’s Guide to Glucosamine Products. (This product guide was prepared by the makers of Syn-flex).
More information on glucosamine and cartilage rehabilitation can be found in our Glucosamine Resource Center.
For anyone involved in sports activities, injuries are a way of life. It doesn’t matter if you engage in these activities professionally or for recreation, you are at risk all the time.
When you discuss “injuries”, most of you are thinking about the common broken bone and sprained ankle. However, there is a more insidious kind of injury that can leave you with debilitating pain for the rest of your life.
When arthritis develops as a result of injuries, it is generally referred to as “secondary” osteoarthritis. That means the deterioration of the cartilage was caused by a traumatic injury to begin with. As a general rule, it takes years after the injury before it develops.
There are 147 joints in the human body and each one of them has cartilage that protects the bones from coming into contact with one another. It is the degradation of this cartilage that leads people into a lifetime of debilitating pain from arthritis.
There is, however, something you can do now that will protect your joints and cartilage and ease any pain you may currently be experiencing. Using liquid glucosamine and chondroitin may ease your pain quickly. With the recently released clinical studies indicating the power of these ingredients, the market is literally flooded with competing products. So how do you select the product that is the right glucosamine for you?
As a general rule, the lower the quality of the product, the less pain relief you will get. Using medium quality products, it will take 5-6 months for you to see relief. The same is true for the process of rehabilitating cartilage. On the other hand, a high-quality product will usually ease your pain in 10-25 days, depending on the extent of your disease. As well, the rehabilitation process may begin immediately. When choosing among glucosamine products a pharmaceutical-quality liquid formula most likely will bring maximum relief and protection. In addition, a high-quality liquid glucosamine formula might do wonders for those recovering from orthopedic surgery.
Given the availability and benefits of glucosamine without prescription, the smart athlete is already taking a supplement to help joint cartilage. With its low cost, it’s a smart move both for the short term and the long one. After all, there is no sense in paying the physical price for doing the things we enjoy. For recommendations on glucosamine arthritis formulas for athletes, please read the Best Joint Supplements for Athletes page.
This concludes Volume 4 of The Arthritis Ninja. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram to be notified as soon as the next issue of The Arthritis Ninja is live! Please share with any friends you know who have arthritis and would be interested.
Yours in Joint Health,
The Arthritis Ninja