Re: Joint Health, Exercise, and Nutrition (was Everybody loves Gene!)

[Guest guest]

On 7/23/05, Deanna Wagner <hl@...> wrote:

> >Have you tried supplementing with MSM or chondroitin sulfate?

> >

> I do supplement with both, albeit rather haphazardly. They don't hurt

> now, which is good. I just need to leave the bottle out so I remember

> to take it daily

Hi Deanna,

Could you describe the " crunching " in your knees more elaborately? My

knees crack a lot. They generally crack when I go down on the squat,

and they often crack if I bend down to pick something up. There is no

pain involved whatsoever. I've noticed that over the last two years

or so, certain things are crackable now, since I've been weight

lifting, that weren't before. For example, if I clasp my hands

together in front of my abdomen and pull my shoulder back, my upper

back cracks, and even sometimes my sternum!

Are these bad signs?

I've noticed before that I would get joint pain, probably from working

out, sometimes, and MSM would stop it, though I've always been

inconsistent with MSM. However I don't seem to have any of those

problems right now. I've been consumping soup from stock regularly,

which probably helps.

Chris

[Guest guest]

On 7/23/05, Deanna Wagner <hl@...> wrote:

> Sure. It probably sounds similar to eating tortilla chips with a pillow

> over the head, lol. It's not very audible; I have to have it close to

> hear it usually. When I had an old two story home with a basement, I

> could hear them on the stairs all the time more audibly. I attribute it

> to too many years of step aerobics and such.

I think I may have had a problem with this type of crunching for a

short period of time when I was doing squats, but it didn't last long.

Maybe I was eating poorly at the time, or it might have been during

my concrete days when my whole body was in overuse.

> They're not good signs, that's for sure, but I don't know how " bad " they

> are. It really depends on what's causing it. And it appears on the

> surface it is workout related. Do you stretch regularly? I have been

> pretty bad about it lately, but I am very flexible generally.

Well, recently, since losing my job, I've been doing stretches and

joint rotations in the morning, but for the most part I've considered

myself too busy to stretch and consistently blew it off. Always

knowing that I should be stretching, and always telling myself that I

would start doing lots of stretching regularly, and always telling

myself that one more workout without stretching isn't going to make a

difference.

> Do you know about this connective tissue component and

> what the supplements out there might be made from, how NT they are, yada

> yada?

>

> The supplement I have has per daily dose of 2 horse pills:

> Glucosamine HCl 1.5 gram

> Chondroitin SO4 1.2 g

> MSM 250 mg

Apparently some people have a bad reaction to glucosamine with blood

sugar problems, but others say no problems and it works better in

combo with chondroiton SO4 than the chondroitin by itself.

> I have no idea how ideal the combo is, just picked it up one day. I've

> only been taking it every other day for a couple of weeks. I think I

> should up the MSM maybe. Bone broths! Glad you mentioned that. Yes, I

> eat homemade bone stock based soups twice a week or more. I've been

> nibbling on chicken tendons and cartilage too when I make it. I figure,

> why not, it wouldn't hurt. Sardines with the bones too. DS dissects

> them and saves the spinal chord for last!

When I took MSM, I took a teaspoon a couple times a day. I've been

buying 4 quarts of Mom's Chicken Soup from Whole Foods, which is much

easier than making my own. It's made with bones, which I know is true

because I find pieces of bone in it somewhat regularly! I've recently

discovered that this is great to make cream of chicken soup out of.

Just add cream. Delicious! I've done sardines before-- I don't like

them too much, but definitely a good source of bones.

I'm thinking that bones should be considered a food group. I know

there were healthy primitives who both ate dairy and did not eat

dairy, but where there ANY who did not consume some form of bone? I

doubt it, but not sure.

Chris