Does knee degeneration supplements work?

Patients affected by the knee pain problems, and with degenerative changes conditions, often ask if they should take prescribed supplements. The research determining the correlation, show that degeneration does not always mean pain i.e., the same kind of joint deviation often does not cause any pain to a part of the population. On the other hand, a smaller deviation can cause intensive and chronic pain.

According to our experience, joint pain is caused mainly by the state of soft tissue locally and distally, and by the general physiological situation (diet, medications, lack of physical activity), therefore, it is curable by natural methods.

But let’s get to the point. We scrutinized the research of the influence of the popular joint supplements. The main stars were glucosamine and chondroitin. As it turns out, their effectiveness is true only in advertisements, in other words, they won’t bring the desired effects. Statistically, those two supplements start showing results after approximately 6 months of intake.

This means, that until the 6th month of intake, any noticeable improvements were a placebo. The structural impact appears only after 2 years of taking those substances and doesn’t hold much significance. The effects of visibly decreased loss of the cartilage appear only after 6 years of regular intake. Those research does not include the information whether or not the improvements are connected to the change of lifestyle – whether the patient started to eat healthily, increased his physical activity, kept hydrated, reduced stress, or underwent effective physiotherapy. Another problem is the lack of clear statistics.

Therefore, if we want the statistical improvement, why not give it a try? 6 years and the results will be there, not significantly great, but there, nonetheless. Although, from our perspective, taking into consideration the statistics, it is not the cartilage loss that is responsible for the pain sensations.