Glucosamine

i too is wary of supplements, i do however have a big jar of these "horse" pills that i keep telling myself i'm going to start taking, then forget (every morning).

thanks for the reminder!

That's the thing I hate about supplements. You have to take them for so long before they work. I want it to work NOW dammit! (Thanks for the heads up.)

I've taken it.  I can't tell the difference.  And neither can studies of otherwise healthy people who have tried it versus placebo.  People who 'say it helps', can't ever really 'know'.  So I'll go with the studies and save my money, thanks.

Best way to know if a supplement works or not (and guaranteed to not be a placebo effect)??

 Give it to a dog.

 Here me out... I have an old dog, who has had trouble getting up / laying down for a few years (gets stiff, poor guy).  Anyway, I have taken glucosamine / chondroitin for running for years myself, and believed it helped me.

My wife is a vet, so I asked her if it would help our dog Jake. Her answer, of course it will, they've been giving it to older animals at her work for a long time.

So I gave our dog Jake a pill with his dinner.  Same thing the next day, and the day after.  Third day, he is getting up and down with no problem.  

Dogs don't fake pain.  No such thing as placebo effect either.  Before glucosamine / chondroitin, it was painful for my dog to lay down or get up.  After glucosamine / chondroitin, he has no problem.  Nothing else about his diet or life changed.

Remember that relating the cause to the effect is not always straightforward...

Imagine that now he goes to take Glucosamine and after 1 week the "problem" disappears. Why should he say that it is for Glucosamine?

Why did you think that?

Again on the same old story...

How do you know it works? Especially after 20-30 days...Are you sure you are doing something positive for your body? And what if you are damaging something?

Your approach is not scientific and I hope all the best for you.

There are many examples in life where effect of taking something is delayed after years. You are taking this element without knowing exactly (scientifically) how much, when and if it has effect. Again, your experiment is not satisfactory to say it is good on you.

Some examples:

1) Iron: many runners taking iron (within general supplements) end up into Haemochromatosis in 5-6 years time (you see...iron is good, iron makes me feeling better because I train and I am always tired, etc. etc.)

2) simple carb: you eat 25grams of carbs per day more than you need and you gain about 5-6kg in 1 year

3) Asbestos: it takes 10 years to switch on a lungs cancer

4) Zinc: you supplement with zinc in normal quantities and, if you don't need it, after 3 years you lower the HDL cholesterol and you will be low in copper (needing another supplement)

Anyway, many people like to believe and this is the aspect which makes those providers rich.

I am totally against any supplements or medicaments.

I use tea against fever or cold...