Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate

[sunshinegal]

Does anyone know a good vegan or even vegetarian alternative? I have joint issues and want to take something like this to help keep my joints strong. I know Flax Seed Oil can help with this too, but I want to try something like Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate. Here is what I found about it, looks like it is taken from animals: glucosamine from crab, lobster or shrimp shells; and chondroitin sulfate from animal cartilage. I would rather not go this route as I don't want to be harming animals, but at the same time Flax Seed Oil isn't helping much. My knee flares up alot (I am very active) and I stop when it happens, but I would like my knees to just be stronger in general. I also have shoulder issues (tendonitis and inflammation of the biceps tendon) and have had this for about 4 years now. The doc said this should have gone away within a few years, but lucky me it hasn't. I already went in for an MRI, no tears or anything...just weak joints I am thinking. Any input on this? :help:

Here is the link on where Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate comes from and what it does:
http://www.arthritis.org/conditions/alttherapies/Glucosamine.asp

Thanks!

[Sauteedbeans]

Hi:
Do you have a Trader Joe's near you?
I thought when I was looking through their joint supplements, that there is one that does not contain shellfish.
But sorry I don't have much else.

[Tesseract]

I recommend this (http://www.vegetarianvitamin.com/shop/index.php/action/item/id/8/prevaction/category/previd/featured/prevstart//). I took it for a month and it helped me.

[IamJen]

You can get vegetarian Glucosamine from GNC. AFAIK, there is no vegan (or vegetarian) variety of Chondroitin.

[sunshinegal]

I recommend this (http://www.vegetarianvitamin.com/shop/index.php/action/item/id/8/prevaction/category/previd/featured/prevstart//). I took it for a month and it helped me.

Wow, that is awesome! A vegetarian vitamin site! Thanks for all of the input. I think I am going to up my flax oil intake, get some of those glucosamine tablets (thanks Tesseract!) and see what happens. For now I will rest my knee until the inflammation goes away and I can get those tablets ordered!

Thanks for all the suggestions! :D

[Gita]

I really feel for you. I had a very badly broken leg (a comminueted tibia/fibula fracture) with extensive cartalage and soft tissue damage nearly a year and a half ago. The Glucosamine, chondroiten and msm I took helped with the healing quite a bit. It seems that both Glucosamine and Chondroiten seem to do similar things. I took MSM by itself for a while. Here is another link to the vegetarian glucosamine. This might be cheaper. It started as a pet medication.

http://www.countrysidepet.com/prod.itml/icOid/2139

[sunshinegal]

I really feel for you. I had a very badly broken leg (a comminueted tibia/fibula fracture) with extensive cartalage and soft tissue damage nearly a year and a half ago. The Glucosamine, chondroiten and msm I took helped with the healing quite a bit. It seems that both Glucosamine and Chondroiten seem to do similar things. I took MSM by itself for a while. Here is another link to the vegetarian glucosamine. This might be cheaper. It started as a pet medication.

http://www.countrysidepet.com/prod.itml/icOid/2139

Hi Gita! :hi:
Thanks for the input. Is this what you took? It still looks like it is for pets, just want to make sure it is safe for human consumption. Does the dosage need to be changed for the size of the pet or a human?

Thanks!