Re: [pct-l] knee problems

[Tom Rogers <tom-rogers@home.com>]

Randy Forsland wrote: 
> A friend of mine that loves to hike has had curtail most of his hiking in
> the last few years due to pain in his knees.

I used to experience severe knee pain while hiking.  During long
descents I felt like someone had driven spikes through both knees.  I
don't have knee pain any more.  I attribute this to a three pronged
approach:

1. Use trekking poles; and work at using them effectively.  The majority
of hikers I see on the trail with poles do not use their poles
advantageously to mitigate impact forces on the knees.

2. Get strong, stay strong, minimize body weight, and avoid impact
training.

3. Take a supplement.  I use Schiff "Pain Free", 500mg glucosamine
sulfate and 400 mg chondroitin sulfate in a single tablet.  I get mine
at Costco and they often have a coupon in their flyer.  When I started
using it about 3 years ago I had a pamphlet (don't know now where it
came from) that suggested taking 1500 mg daily (500mg 3 times a day) for
about 3-6 weeks (I saw some effect of the supplement by then), then
backing of to a maintenance dose of 500mg daily.  Actually, when I
started I took the glucosamine and chondroitin separately, 1500mg of the
former, and 500mg of the latter.  Straight glucosamine sulfate is much
less expensive than the blend or chondroitin alone, so you might
consider using 2 500mg tabs of glocosamine sulfate and 1 tab of the
blend daily for the first several weeks.

I hike pain free!!!

Hobbit
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