Hey all,

Koni19 had suggested that I post this quesiton in this forum (thanks koni!). It's the same as written in the Kit Bag section.

Anyway, I wanted to hear peoples opinions about glucosamine. About 3 years ago, I stretched my MCL and moved my patella, but nothing ripped. I quickly went into physical therapy. I didn't undergo any surgery. About a year later I could play on my knee but it would occasionally "pop" and I'd be out for a week. I'm getting older now and with a hurt knee don't play as quick as I used to. I only play for fun now, but still have recurring knee problems.

For those people with knee injuries, do y'all do anything special to care for your knee? I do slow steady excercises to keep the knee joint's flexibility and range of motion at optimum. I also use the exercises to strengthen my upper leg muscles and gastrocnemius. I'm considering taking Glucosamine (Dona). I believe I should have started taking it awhile ago but I don't believe it's too late to try. Anyway, I wanted to hear about other people's opinions on how they treat their knees and what they do to stabilize the knee area for playing. Thanks,

David

I think you're on the right track with strengthening your muscles around your knee, especially those stabilizer muscles... that's very important. The better physically in shape you are, the less likely to have a reoccuring injury. That is, of course, dependent on the severity of your injury and whether or not you may actually need surgery to prevent the "popping".

I've never used Glucosamine but I think it's similar to methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) in that it's used for joint/arthritis pain. I do know of someone who used MSM for joint pain (he was over 40 years old) and he swore by it but i've heard using MSM with glucosamine works well in that it helps to improve the effectiveness of glucosamine. The only big difference with the two is that gluco has a longer and more indepth record of use and MSM doesn't have very many studies about it (in comparision with gluco). But really, from everything I know about both of these products... results have been varied and very individual. It may or may not work for you and I guess you'd never know if unless you tried.

In the end though, it'd probably be best to check with your doctor before taking any products like this just to be sure of safety and that you aren't wasting your money. A knee brace may also prove to be a good investment!

Should also note, I did have a knee injury that took me out for about a month and a half or so. The doctors said it was "just bruising" which is a bit hard to believe when I still have some odd fluid buildup/swelling at the back of my knee and I couldn't leave my knee relaxed out infront of me unless I had some support under my knee for about 2 years. In any case, I didn't do anything unusual. I just rested as needed (along with RICE) and had it wrapped (similar to a brace) for maybe 6 months while I played after that. I just continued on training like normal and I assume i've strengthened my muscles up a bit by now. I was into sprinting at the time too so maybe that helped for me. I'm fine with doing plyometrics now too.