Fish Oil & Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM cap troubles

Thanks to having lost some weight my energy level is up and I've been getting more and more active - which is great for the shrinking - NOT so great for the joint pain. Like many of you one of the issues I have is a lot of joint and spinal issues. I have Degenerative Spinal Disease, 3 Impinging Discs, torn miniscus in both knees, and torn rotator cuff in shoulder, as well as arthritis in pretty much all of my joints. Pre-surgery in addition to my regular meds and vitamins I was on a daily routing of Fish Oil capsules as well as Glucosamine/Chondroitin, and MSM. They really made a huge difference for me. Since surgery I had stopped taking them and have only been taking the multi vitamin, additional iron, vitamins b & d, and citracal's every day.

Recently I tried taking some of the fish oil and G/C/M capsules. What a mistake! The pain was awful! I swear I felt each and every one of them pass thru my system. And what's worse I know I didn't get much benefit from them as a couple of the 're-appeared' later!!

Does anyone know of a liquid or chewable form of these? And have any of you had similar experiences? As always your knowledge, support, and caring are greatly appreciated!
:-)

 Here's just a sample of what Nordic Naturals has. My son takes the chewable ones for ages 5 and up. He doesn't have a problem with them. You can click through the other options at the bottom. Nordic Naturals is a great brand or you could do MegaRed. It's a tiny pill.

http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Naturals-Omega-3-Gummies-gummie s/dp/B002CQU57S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1334335844&sr=8-2 

Thanks! I'm gonna check it out.
:-)

 Before you do that you should know that in spite of promising early data, glucosamine, alone or in combination, has not been shown to have any positive effects on joint health, cartilage repair or osteo arthritis symptoms.

A recent meta-analysis performed by the well-respected Cochrane Review showed no statistical improvement over placebo.

Fish oil, however, does have some solid data behind it for easing osteo arthritis symptoms, so stick with that!

MSM has NEVER had reliable data showing any improvement over placebo - most studies have been poorly designed and conducted.

Have you ever heard of "Joint Juice"?  I buy it at Sams by the case for my DH.  He has elbow pain that has been hanging around for years and when he started drinking this about 6 months ago, it has really helped.  You may want to give it a try.  It comes in small 8 oz. bottles and it's Pomogranate flavor.  He drinks one with his breakfast every day and gets his glucosamine in...I actually found out about it at my VSG Support group from the head nurse in my docs practice.  She brought in a case of it for us to try.  It's definitely drinkable - room temp ok, but better cold.

Deb

Here is another liquid option for you, I found it and Joint Juice at Coscto. Frankly I think any studies that show no effaccy of this stuff on joint pain, had to be done by companies like Advil, Alieve etc because this stuff works, I have over 10 years of experience of being off Advil with thier use..

Key Highlights:

• 2000 mg of Glucosamine at EXTRA STRENGTH levels protects and rebuilds cartilage tissue to keep your joints flexible and your body active.†
• 1200 mg of Chondroitin, which naturally occurs in the connective tissue to cushion and lubricate cartilage for ease of joint movement.†
• 500 mg of MSM (methylsulfonylmethane): An organic form of sulfur vital in nourishing and maintaining healthy connective tissue in joints for flexibility and elasticity.†
• NEW Improved natural berry flavor.
• Sugar Free
• Research has shown that nutrients from liquid sources can be more easily absorbed than from solids
  

 its actually the other way around - the studies that show benefit with one exception are all poorly conducted studies by people with an interest in selling the supplements. In fact, glucosamine became popular after a book was written in order to sell the supplement.

Cochrane Reviews are meta analyses - no special interest or funding from anyone is involved.  Meta-analysis involves reviewing published scientific data from multiple studies.

Only one quality study showed benefit greater than placebo and only for one brand which suggests that there was either some funny business involved in that study and not revealed or it has a significantly different ingredient profile than any other brand.

Cochrane reviewed 25 studies involving almost 5000 patients and found no significant improvement over placebo. The placebo effect is incredibly powerful. 

You and I are just going to have to agree to disagree.  Studies can be like polls they can be steered the direction you want them to go and they are not all initiated for unbiased reasons.  ie; pick participants that have pain from a problems these are not known to help, or surgical complications etc etc.    If the studies Chochrane Reviews chose to review, had a bias, they wouldn't tell them or you.  Your free to accept their results of their reviews, however, I am not relying upon anybodies studies but 13+ years of my own actual use and experience that took me off the use of ALL over the counter NSAID pain relievers ...gone... and dozens of other folks I have led to their use...  That being said, they don't cure every pain in the body.... but they also don't cause ulcers in the stomach or other issues from the use of NSAIDS....  And I am talking about pain....I'm not saying they regrow new joints, new knees, I do think they help stop or slow damage to joints and along with other supplements like Hyralonic acid, they help rehydrate whats left of the cartilage and help reduce pain....

25 years ago, every white lab coat doctor was taught that vitamins and supplements are scams and chiropractics were quacks and you get all your vitamins and minerals from food, 25 years ago, Doctors as a group had the lowest age mortality of any group looked at...Then they were educated about depleted soils and testing for vitamin levels and started taking their head out of there backsides....   Google the presentation; Dead Doctors Don't Lie by a Veterinarian, he documents how young doctors died in spite of being healers, they could heal themselves.  He also talked about how Vets were using Glucosoammine and Chondrotiun for many decades in animal husbandry, commercial Vets working for large corporate animal farms...it was a cheap, effective treatment for animal joint issues (tape is probably 15 years old) This stuff is well known and has a long history......  Some folks try it for a few days and say it doesn't work because they think its suppose to be like Advil or Morphine or that they will get a new knee by taking it, its takes some time to build up in your joints but these supplements are not on a level with placebos, no matter what Cochranes review would state... LOL, there only getting more popular in acceptance and use and they are not all created equal either so there might be some bad products but by and large they are getting more popular for good reason, not from mass delusion...

 true - I'm not going to argue with someone about the utility of a Cochrane meta-analysis who appears fundamentally uninterested in understanding who the Cochrane Collaboration is and why its the worldwide gold standard for scientific review.

FWIW - glucosamine has only ever been recommended for osteo-arthritis. NSAIDs are recommended for inflammatory arthritis, not degenerative (ie osteo). Even the original boosters of glucosamine have never claimed it was at all effective on inflammatory arthritis.

NSAIDs have always been known to have limited efficacy of pain relief in treatment of degenerative arthritis, so if that's what you have, its unsurprising that OTC NSAIDs would have had little effect.

I never said they were good for every condition or anything about which condition, I shared my experience of using them and getting off of all NSAIDS as a result, for over 13 years.... its the truth and no study, or a review of studies, will change my experience.   And yes, I have very little faith in many of the studies I hear about and even less faith in morality, integrity or of the politics and practices of the  Pharmacological industrial complex!!!