Flexability Blues & Glucosamine Use

One physiological issue which has become painfully apparent after completing my first month on the exercise comeback trail is my entire body is permanently stiffer than frozen saltwater taffy. After sitting dormant for nearly eight years, it is going to take veritable time and effort to loosen up my ligaments, tendons, and soft tissue in general.

I've decided to take a two pronged approach to address increasing my overall flexibility. First I need to articulate and record both pre and post activity stretching routines. I'd like to compile a one page 'cheat sheet' containing all the stretching exercises and have it laminated. I would bring this stretching punchlist to my track runs (as opposed to road runs) until I had the entire routine committed to memory.

I am also going to add a Glucosamine supplement to my daily dieting regimen. Knox makes a product called NutraJoint Plus Glucosamine. It can be purchased in powder or pill form. I'm leaning toward the capsule form because the powder is not delectable. It can be found at Wal-Mart and most drug stores for somewhere in the neighborhood of $20. There's also a brand named Osteo Bi-Flex which markets a glucosamine product line. [I purchased Oste Bi-Flex capsules - the packaging was more attractive than Knox's and their product line was more extensive.]

You should allow for a three month absorption period before determining whether you have derived any benefits from this supplement.


Excerpted from http://altmedicine.about.com

Glucosamine supplements are widely used for osteoarthritis, particularly knee osteoarthritis. In osteoarthritis, cartilage -- the rubbery material that cushions joints -- becomes stiff and loses its elasticity. This makes the joint prone to damage and may lead to pain, swelling, loss of movement, and further deterioration.

Since the body's natural glucosamine is used to make and repair joint cartilage, taking glucosamine as a nutritional supplement is thought to help repair damaged cartilage by augmenting the body's supply of glucosamine.

There is promising evidence that glucosamine may reduce pain symptoms of knee osteoarthritis and possibly slow the progression of osteoarthritis. For example, a study published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine examined people with osteoarthritis over three years. Researchers assessed pain and structural improvements seen on x-ray. They gave 202 people with mild to moderate osteoarthritis 1,500 mg of glucosamine sulfate a day or a placebo.

At the end of the study, researchers found that glucosamine slowed the progression of knee osteoarthritis compared to the placebo. People in the glucosamine group had a significant reduction in pain and stiffness. On x-ray, there was no average change or narrowing of joint spaces in the knees (a sign of deterioration) of the glucosamine group. In contrast, joint spaces of participants taking the placebo narrowed over the three years.