Supplements

[curlycue]

Hi ladies I have a question..................... Has anyone tried Glucosamine chondroitin and MSM!

[jen48446]

Both my husband & I used to use a supplement that had those herbs among others in it & it helped our arthritis tremendously. I can't say what it was on the message boards due to the guidelines but will tell you if you e-mail me!

[sunshine_77us]

I didn't know where to post this but I have a question. Does anyone have to take potassium and does it bother your bladder. For some reason my potassium is low and I'm going to have to go on medications right away. I also have been taking prescription Vit. D because it is low. I'm not doing anything any different and I don't know what is making everything so low. Thanks for your help.

[green_the_fish]

Ruth, I took about 4000mg of MSM from about April 2005 to July 2005. I stopped taking it because it didn't seem to be doing much. On the plus side, it didn't hurt or give me bad side effects, and it was inexpensive.


Pam, I believe that taking a specific kind of potassium actually helped my IC. I took 2160mg of Potassium Citrate, sold under the name Urocitk, from about August 2005 to October 2006. I think that, along with Hydroxyzine and Elmiron, it is one of the meds that helped me get the point that I'm at at now; low-level symptoms only.

This seems to be kind of a controversial topic here on the boards, though. Some people think that taking any form of potassium is a bad idea for ICers. It is true that many cases of IC are diagnosed through the potassium sensetivity test, which measures IC in terms of how badly the patient reacts to potassium. I don't think that the potassium in Urocit-k is the exact same type as what they use in the PST, but I'm not really sure. I thought that there were small amounts of potassium in everything, but I have since been told that this is not quite true. I'm not exactly sure how it works; the whole thing is complicated, and chemistry is not my thing.

What I do know is that Urocit-k alkanizes the urine, and this can help relieve bladder symptoms in some ICers. While it is not a good idea to make the urine too alkaline, some IC patients have said that they felt better after making their urine slightly more alkaline. This is the same premise behind the old trick ICer's trick of drinking baking soda mixed with water; it makes the urine more alkaline, and therefore, less acidic.

To complicate things, though, I'm not really the "average" IC patient. I'm not as sensetive to diet as most people here. I can eat pizza, tomatoes, limes, etc and not have flares. The only diet flares I've had have come from drinking too much energy drinks, green tea, cranberry juice, dandelion tea, alcohol, or coffee. As long as I don't have those, diet doesn't seem to affect me nearly as much as, say, hormone fluctuations or stress.

I guess my point is this: I feel this med helped me back when I needed it, and if you have to take potassium anyway, you might as well talk to your dotcor about Urocit-k. It's possible that this is not the "correct" type of potassium for your condition, but hey, it never hurts to ask

[sunshine_77us]

I should get the prescription in the mail today. I guess I can ask the pharmacy when I stop. It makes me nervous about taking it but I have to have it. I'm been doing pretty good with my IC the last couple of months and I sure don't want to flare.

[curlycue]

Green the FIsh
I am going to try it! I dont think it can hurt like you stated. Thanks for the info.

[loro]

Glucosamine I take 700 mg 3x day it takes a while for it to help. It has been 4 months and I am just now starting to feel it. I just bought some shark cartliage but i haven't started it cause I am on my period. I have never tried MSM.

[ABliske]

I also wonder about the MSM and gulcosamine. Are gulcosamine and glusocamine chrondroitine the same. I noticed there is some glucosmine in the Cysta-Q which seems to have helped me a little.
I also take Urocit-K or I should say I was. I just started taking an over the counter possatium pill. So far, I haven't noticed any difference between the 2. The pharmacist said it was the same as Urocit-K but less soluble. Would that make a difference?
Hope you all have a nice day Thanks for listening!

[loro]

sometimes they combine the gulcosamine and the chondroitin but they aren't the same. You will see them in joint formulas.

[curlycue]

Hi ldies................... My husband has taken shark cartlige and he claims it helps his knee, he was in a car accident awhile back and he knee hurts him from time to time.

[miz_sunshine87]

I started taking the msm, glucosamine, and quercetin (non-citrus source, important) about a month ago.

I heard about these supplements from "trying_to_cope's" post under "success stories". I figured I had nothing to loose by trying them. I've researched them all and they seem very safe, and they aren't very expensive.

I think they may be helping, but there are no major changes yet. I'm staying hopeful. I just wrote a really long-winded post about my experience thus far with the supplements. Check out my comment under trying_to_cope's post.

P.S some people mentioned that chondriotin caused them to flare. It's purpose is to allow the msm to absorb better, but it is no good if it causes a flare! I would suggest trying the msm without chondriotin first.

Also, I first bought a bottle of msm/glucosamine together, and the pills were so huge I kept choking on them. I'm used to taking pills, but these were just too much! In addition to the IC and migranes I was having terrible heartburn from these. After that bottle was done with I got the msm and glucosamine separate, and they were a more manageable size.

[curlycue]

Hi Ladies......... I bought a bottle of Glucosamine Chondrotitoin and msm started taking it yesterday and I have been up all night peeing! do ladies think I should continue taking them! I really need them,but I dont want to be getting up any more time that I have to.

[ICNDonna]

I take a physician ordered potassium supplement and have for several years. My deficiency was discovered when I had a pre-surgery blood test and it was discovered my level was dangerously low. I was actually given IV potassium before it was safe to proceed with the anesthetic.

I think of it this way: If you have a scratch on your hand, you would not rub salt on it because it would cause pain --- but if instead you put that salt on some food and eat it, there would be no pain on that scratch. By the same token, if you instill potassium directly into an already injured bladder, it can be painful --- but if you eat something containing potassium it's entirely different.

Just remember that potassium is an essential nutrient and potassium deficiency can be extremely serious.

Donna

[sunshine_77us]

Thanks Donna,
I started taking prescription yesterday. I had called my uro and he said it would not bother my bladder. I don't know what is making is go low. I've never had problems with it but I know it's dangerous and the dr. said I had to start taking it immediately. Thanks for your replies.

[miz_sunshine87]

curlycue,

It could be the Chondrotitoin that is flaring you. You can buy the msm and glucosamine without chondriotin in it.

I even buy the msm and the glucosamine in separate pills because they are too big for me to swallow together.