Anyone ever use Sam-e ??

Oh, my aching joints! so I was at Costco today and saw this stuff, I read the box and decided it might work for me before I saw the price... But by then I was willing to try it.
The article below has me more convinced that there might be some relief in sight.. The first part is about how it enhances mood and the 2nd page is about joint pain relief.

What do you guys think anyone tried it?

http://chronicfatigue.about.com/libr.../aa121599a.htm



I'm typing this with splints on both hands and feet that are mad everytime I walk..

[Tomteriffic]

I've not used Sam-e per se, Surreal, but I have and still do use a lot of the ingredients in it. Particularly the Glucosamine and Chondroitin combination. Over time (it takes a month or two to get going), I've noticed a definite improvement in my Carpal Everything Syndrome, as I like to call it, basically pain from my shoulder blades to my wrists.

The real culprit here is the nerve sheathings getting inflamed, and, in my case, bursitis under my shoulder blades which pinches three nerves that cross right there. But the repetitive stress in the joints from computing and guitaring, particualrly where the nerves pass through those joints is what really aggravates things.

Some of the herbal stuff beyond that, I dunno. But I use a few of them tucked in a multivitamin, and I think it helps one's mood and outlook. Nothing scientific, mind you, but my energy level seems better, and my stress level lower since I got into this regimen about 9 months ago.

My boss is referred to (behind his back) as Big Ogre. and either he's gotten a whole lot easier to deal with in the past couple of months, or I'm just getting less stressed about it, I don't know which

The stuff ain't cheap, especially the Glucosamine/Chondroitin combination but, so far, it's been well worth it to me.

Just one person's very subjective experience

I started doing the Glucosamine and Chondroitin combination too.
And nope it's not cheap the Sam-e is about twice the Glucosamine and Chondroitin combination.
But what the heck, I quit smoking... gotta blow my money on something!

[capybara]

i also use glucosamine /chondroitin plus also MSM for achy joints. sam-e: wanna try it, but the price seems high for my middle class salary.

Well, I got mine at Costco and it was 45 dollars for 80 200mg pills.
A dose for joints is 400 mg so about a buck a day.

If this works it is worth 3 times that much. I work at Home Depot and am on my feet on concrete when I'm there. I have spent almost 200.00 on shoes (2pair) in the last 6 weeks.

I can't hardly walk at times, if I'm sitting for a bit, I hobble till my feet get going, they feel like one giant bruise on the bottom and they hurt when I try to sleep. My hands are swollen and I have no grip or strength in them and just using my keyboard is painful.. So wed. nite when I had to close and stock a pallet of mini blinds and verticals it was tough. I won't wear my wrist braces to work. I don't want them to know. It's tough getting a job in this town I don't want to loose it..

Advil or something like that is expensive too taken in the doses I need and it can't be good for you to take it for long periods of time...
So since I'm now saving 4 bucks a day on smokes! I want to get going and get over this.. did you see that rock in my back yard? I want to climb it one day

rock in my back yard

[Tomteriffic]

Surreal,

Like you really need to spend more money, but.... I don't have the link handy, but do a Google on E. T. Wright shoes.

They're expensive as hell, handmade and have an arch support system that is completely unlike any other and it flippin' works!

My combat boots were made by E.T. Wright and I could walk 30 miles in 'em. I'd be dog tired but my feet, legs and back were not at all in the kind of pain you might expect. When I was in the hospital biz and on my feet for 12 hours nonstop, I wore Wrights and never regretted it. I still have a 20 year old pair of loafers that I'm half a size to big for now, and the soles are peeling off and worn through, but I still wear them when I'm puttering around the house.

They went under for a while, but are back, making the same kind of shoes the same way. The bottoms of your feet will toughen up with time, but the skeletal and muscular abuse that your body takes can largely be ameliorated by the right support for your arches, and the E.T. Wrights are truly the shiznit. When your feet are right, the rest of it all kind of falls in line.

I'm saving for a pair myself, now that they're back.

[caddmannq]

I dunno about that expensive glucosamine & chondroitin stuff...sounds a bit over-priced to me. But I'll tell you my recommendation for pain:

Vodka + ibuprofen. The vodka by itself works OK, but if you take two ibuprofen with it you can cut the vodka down by 2/3 and it works twice as well.

Or as they say..."Works for me."

CaddmannQ, my licence plate says a saying I picked up meeting with friends ...

ESYDZIT.... means I don't drink

E T Wright, yeah I remember them, my x used to get all his shoes from them.. Uh they don't make em for girls..

Have you gotten a pair from them lately?

*edit, just searched the site and nothing small enough for me.

[crazyray]

Cadd said:

Vodka + ibuprofen. The vodka by itself works OK, but if you take two ibuprofen with it you can cut the vodka down by 2/3 and it works twice as well.

Ibuprofen (Motrin, et al) is a Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug, also known as an NSAID. These drugs, including the newer Celebrex and Vioxx you see heavily advertised, are notorious for destroying stomachs. Alcohol greatly increases the risk!

NSAID's kill more people in the US every year than all illegal drugs combined. Most common problem: gastrointestinal bleeding.

While these drugs are useful for short-term use, they are very questionable for long-term use. They are of limited help in Rheumatoid Arthritis ("RA") and they DO NOT change the long-term course of the disease. These drugs can offer some relief for osteoarthritis ("wear and tear") but there is evidence that they may actually speed up the joint destruction associated with that disease.

Glucosamine may be helpful for osteoarthritis. The evidence for chondroitin is less good. The studies where it seemed to help used injected forms; there is reason to question its absorption when taken orally. Regardless, the so-called "arthritis cure" is definitely not a cure but again MAY be helpful.

Surreal...do you have RA?

[caddmannq]

<-stomach lives on rolaids anyway