Running, Arthritis, Knee pain, Glucosamine, Chondroitin

I've never had any success with either Glucosamine or Chondroitin. They do not seem to reduce the discomfort in my knees after running. A lot of people have said, in all seriousness, that I should try glucosamine and I have but it has not helped.

Last month the extension to the Glucosamine/Chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trail (GAIT) reported in the journal of Arthritis and Rheumatism that nothing worked better than a placebo !

This follow up trial had 357 participants and it lasted 18 months longer than the original 2 year GAIT trial. The participants were divided into 5 treatment groups:

• Glucosamine only
• Chondroitin only
• both supplements together
• Celebrex (as a pain killer)
• Placebo.

All the participants had repeated X-Ray examination to determine if cartilage loss was stopped or reversed. There were only tiny, insignificant differences between the 5 groups. The differences were too small to come to any conclusions.

These might be disappointing findings but it was an expensive, carefully designed study. The Berkley Wellness Letter said it was hard to imagine a better study being done any time soon. Their sign off advice was to keep on taking whatever you are taking now if it's working for you but apart from that caveat Berkeley Wellness said "Forget about glucosamine and chondroitin."