If you check around the internet, you’ll see any number of sites that promote glucosamine supplements for joint pain. Some of them promote glucosamine for tendon pain as well…but is it really effective?
Glucosamine has a lot going for it. It’s cheap, widely available, easily absorbed by the body, and better tolerated in people than NSAIDs such as aspirin and ibuprofen. The pain-relieving effects last longer than NSAIDs, too (even if it’s not as fast-acting). Furthermore, unlike some other supplements it has been extensively studied in clinical settings, with thousands of subjects. And sales in the USA top over a billion dollars a year, so clearly a lot of people think that something good is going on. Let’s take a look and see exactly what’s what.
Joints are made up mainly of cartilage, and glucosamine has been shown in dozens of scientific studies to have a beneficial effect on cartilage formation. While the exact mechanism isn’t clearly understood, it seems that taking glucosamine helps your joints heal because your body is able to manufacture cartilage at an increased rate. Older people in particular benefit from this effect, as rates of production tend to decline with age.
Furthermore, according to some studies glucosamine’s action can be enhanced by combining it with other natural substances such as chondroitin and/or MSM. This combination seems to be especially effective for certain types of arthritis (osteoarthritis in particular), and both clinical and anecdotal evidence point to the fact that it works.
So what about the effects of these substances on tendonitis? People assume that because tendons connect muscles to bones, and because these connections generally occur near joints, tendons themselves are also composed of cartilage. Unfortunately, this assumption is incorrect. Without getting too technical, tendons and joints are different. Among other factors, tendons have blood vessels (which cartilage does not) and are made up mostly of fibrous collagen, not cartilage. There is absolutely no evidence that glucosamine, chondroitin or MSM have any beneficial effect whatsoever on collagen formation.
So if you’re looking for a solution to tendon pain and find yourself at a site that is trying to sell you a glucosamine supplement (with or without chondroitin or MSM) to help deal with it, you might want to look elsewhere. To put it bluntly, sites that try to tell you that a cartilage-building supplement will heal collagen structures simply do not know what they’re talking about. A better supplement idea would be to get a really good COX-2 inhibitor like Repair Gold, and a better overall nutritional strategy would be to examine your diet and make sure that it’s not too weighted with Omega-6 fats.
If you’re suffering from tendon pain, rest assured there is something you can do about it. For one thing, my blog has plenty of good information that can help you out. And if you want a guaranteed solution to the type of tendon problem that over 90% of long-term sufferers experience, try Target Tendonitis. You can test-drive my program risk-free for 60 days, but it won’t take that long for you to start seeing results. Target Tendonitis will have you feeling better and well on the road back to your normal activities – permanently – within two to three weeks or your money back.
