Are Glucosamine Supplements a Good Choice For Back Pain?

Learn about Glucosamine Supplements and see if it'ssometimes dangerous levels.
the right choice for you or not. The jury is in on theIt is much better to attain the nutrients your body
effects, or lack thereof, of the use of glucosamineneeds through food as opposed to vitamins and other
supplements to relieve pain and disability. A recentsupplements. Foods that are full of nutrition are also
study in the Journal of the American Medicalbursting with different forms of vitamins, like carrots,
Association, says that the use of a glucosaminethat have many different forms of Vitamin A, so it
supplement for chronic pain works as well as sugar pill.works better than just taking a Vitamin A supplement
Glucosamine is made from healthy cartilage, and isdoes. However, if your diet doesn't cover all of the
supposed to get rid of pain by restoring cartilage thatnutritional basis, it is still a good idea to take a
wears away with age, resulting in osteoarthritis. Kneemultivitamin each day.
pain cause by arthritis wasn't really helped with theIt is wise to stay away from pills that say they can
supplements either for most people.cure anything that plagues you. Echinacea is a great
The study was described as large and long term. Theimmune booster, but will only shorten cold symptoms
people in the study were given either 1,500 milligramsfor about one to two days, and will not work if taken
of glucosamine or a placebo each day for six months.regularly to try to prevent illness.
They were then reviewed after six months, and thenIf you are simply taking a cheap supplement that
one year using disability and pain questionnaires. Theredoesn't have any real side effects, you will not be
were not many differences between the two groups,losing much. However, costly supplements that have
and doctors were advised not to recommendnot been proven to work can waste a ton of money.
glucosamine to patients that have chronic lower backPills that have greater risks than benefits should be
pain and degenerative lumbar osteoarthritis.avoided, such as certain herbal weight loss remedies.
Some patients did receive some benefit from the useSome products that pose a greater risk than any
of glucosamine, like those that had osteoarthritis of thebenefit they might provide, are things like chaparral,
hip and knee.kava, yohimbe, and many others. If the supplement has
Most people don't know much about the dietarynot been show to provide any real benefits to using it,
supplements they use each day, and a few haveit is best to stay away from it.
been associated with real health problems. ForFor most people, the use of a glucosamine supplement
instance, Comfrey tea has been associated with liverto ease lower back pain is ineffective, and no longer
disease, and bitter orange, and other herbal weight lossrecommended by physicians for chronic lower back
solutions have been known to raise heart rates topain.