glucosamine, chondritin, msm

Is it possible to take these supplements that are supposed to help with arthritis after wls?  How do you take them....open the capsules or grind the pills and add to food or water?   are they still as effective as pre wls?

I take MSM and I just swallow the capsule as I always did.  After a meal, of course.

for some reason, I thought that you couldn't swallow pills whole after wls...but maybe that is just during the healing stage post-operatively? 

Thanks for answering my question, Candy S.  I'm curious, if you don't mind sharing more details, how has wls impacted your arthritis, if at all?  I have degenerative disc disease arthritis in both of my hips and I'm hoping that wls will provide considerable pain relief by taking impact off those joints.

No problem.  I will share as much as I can to help someone else get out of pain.  My doctor had me wait about 10 days after surgery before I started taking MSM and my anti-inflamatories again.  When I did start taking them again, he had me take them with mylanta for about the first 2 months.  I have RA and have had it for almost 10 years now.  I have never reached the stage where I have any damage from it and have been able to control it with just anti-inflamatories.  I would have occasional flare-ups prior to surgery but it was pretty much under control.  Since pre-surgery and surgery 4 1/2 months and 78 lbs later, I have only had 1 flare-up and I feel so much better.  I do not have all of that stress on my joints that I had before.  I actually forget I have it and I feel "normal" again.  I would have bad days pre-surgery where it was hard for me to get going in the morning because of stiffness, but I haven't had that since I started losing weight.  I really hope I am not jinxing myself by talking about how well I'm doing LOL.  Seriously, I wouldn't change a thing.  My only regret is that I did not have the surgery sooner.  Which surgery are you contemplating?

Hi,

I drink Elations each day. It can be costly but I will gladly pay for my Elations each and every day to feel as good as I do. I began drinking Elations about 1 1/2 years ago. I DO notice a big difference between this past winter (2010/2011) and last winter (2009/2010). The weather was even worse this year!

Here's a great site you can get some good info from...

http://www.jointhealthmagazine.com/elations.html

Have a great day!

Jules

Agree. 

btw... I only recommend Dona brand glucosamine.  It is the brand which was used in the clinical trials for osteoarthritis which showed efficacy (in fact it is available by prescription in Europe).  It comes in powder mix in water form and a 2 pill taken once a day form.

The problem with nutrional supplements is that the FDA can not regulate them and many glucosamine products either have a lower than stated amount (some have even been proven to have no glucosamine in them at all), or a bad quality glucosamine.  You can get it at walgreens.com and amazon.com.

The problems with MSM and chondroitin is that the medical studies are very wishy washy for chondroitin.  In fact, last year at our EULAR meeting, there was an hour presentation going over studies which showed that it worked followed by another hour showing why it doesn't work and why researchers should stop wasting their money on chondroitin research (the jury is definitely still out on this one.)  The evidence behind MSM is even worse.