By Previnex®
Whether you’re a runner, soccer player, football star, or dancer, supporting your joints is key to optimal athletic performance. One of the ways to support your joints is with a high-quality joint health supplement. So, let’s look at the most effective joint supplements to support your athletic lifestyle.
What Supplements Do Athletes Take for Joints?
As an athlete, your joints are being used 100% of the time. Maintaining healthy joints as an athlete is important for better performance, reducing injury risk, and preventing long-term issues. Proper joint mobility and care also allow your body to support more muscle mass, which helps your athletic performance in the long term. Optimal joint health also prevents and decreases inflammation in the body (which can also impact your long-term performance). Basically, supporting your joints is a top priority when you’re an athlete because everything you do comes from your joints!
Common Supplements for Athletes
For joint health and overall athletic performance, taking supplements can help with athletic success. Some of the most common supplements for athletes are:
- Creatine - this can increase strength and power.
- BCAAs - more formally called branched-chain amino acids, help increase muscle growth, decrease soreness, reduce fatigue, and prevent muscle breakdown.
- Vitamin D helps regulate calcium in the body, which contributes to bone health.
- Iron - especially for athletes that do higher intensity workouts, iron can help with oxygen transport, energy production, and muscle function.
What Is the Most Effective Joint Supplement?
To ensure you’re getting a high-quality joint health supplement, you want to look at ingredient sourcing, make sure the supplement is third-party tested, and research the efficacy of the product/brand you’re purchasing from.
Most Recommended Supplements in the Market
Finding a joint health supplement can be overwhelming, especially since there are so many to choose from. Here are some of the most recommended joint supplements in the market:
- Garden of Life Quercetin Recovery - this is one of the best joint health supplements that is specifically tailored to athletes. It supports post-workout muscle and joint recovery, promotes a healthy inflammatory response, and is third-party tested.
- Previnex Joint Health PLUS® is also tailored to athletes and those with joint health issues. This supplement contains a powerful blend of NEM® and Boswellin®, two ingredients that have been clinically studied and proven effective, and is third-party tested.
- Thorne Joint Support Nutrients - this supplement combines potassium, MSM, glucosamine, boswellia, curcumin, and bromelain to provide joints with support, decrease soreness and stiffness, and improve mobility.
What Do Runners Take for Joint Pain and Joint Inflammation?
Runners face numerous challenges, both physical and mental. Those challenges become even more difficult to overcome when you’re a runner who struggles with knee pain, arthritis pain, or other joint pain issues. Some of the unique joint issues that impact runners are:
- Bursitis - this is caused when the small sac of fluid—also called the bursa—that lubricates muscles and tendons around your hip gets inflamed.
- Patellofemoral pain - also called “runner's knee,” is when the patella (the area behind the knee cap) becomes uncomfortable due to repetitive contact between the underside of your patella and your femur.
- Patellar tendinopathy - this is inflammation of the tendon running from the kneecap to the top of the tibia.
- Torn meniscus - the meniscus is the cartilage around your entire knee, and it acts like a bumper between the femur and tibia. As you age and are more active, the meniscus becomes thinner and more susceptible to tears and other damage.
- Achilles tendinopathy - basically, inflammation of your Achilles heel.
- Bunions - this is when your big toe joint moves out of place, swells, and causes a painful protrusion on the bone.
- Joint cartilage breakdown - as you run, it’s natural that the cartilage and connective tissue around your joints may break down. Enter Natural Eggshell Membrane (NEM®). A recent study found that taking 500mg of NEM® every day for two weeks protected the cartilage from exercise-induced breakdown.
Supplements Specifically Beneficial for Runners
There are a few joint supplements that runners report as effective for relieving joint pain. Most commonly, runners take supplements like omega-3 fatty acids, hyaluronic acid, glucosamine, and curcumin—all of which are great for supporting and maintaining joint health! In addition to these, it’s important to take Vitamin D supplements (it can contribute to better endurance), introduce magnesium into your regimen (it helps regulate energy levels and muscle contractions), ensure you’re getting enough calcium (it supports bone strength), and maintain a high protein intake.
Lifestyle Tips for Joint Health in Runners
As a runner, whether you struggle with joint pain already and want to decrease the effect on your joints or you’re trying to prevent struggling with joint pain, there are some lifestyle tips to help you do that!
Wear the Right Shoes
The shoes you wear as a runner can make or break your experience (and your joint health). Some things to consider are:
- Cushioning. Are the shoes able to absorb impact as you run?
- Stability. Does the arch in the shoe support your unique foot shape? Is there motion control? Ankle support?
- Space. Is there enough room in the toe box for your toes to spread naturally?
- Fit. You want to make sure your shoes are snug but comfortable and give your feet enough room to move freely.
Cross Train
While running is an amazing workout in and of itself, it’s important to do other physical activities like swimming, yoga, and strength training to help with pain relief. Strength training, in particular, is a beneficial form of cross-training because it builds the muscles around your joints.
Take Supplements
Taking a high-quality joint health supplement is a great way to support your joints in both the short- and long term.
Eat a Well-Balanced Diet
If you deal with inflammation, eating an anti-inflammatory diet is important. Doing this helps keep the inflammation in your body under control and, thus, allows your body to more adequately fight inflammation. If you do not deal with inflammation, eating a well-balanced diet of protein, healthy carbs, and healthy fats is important to keep your bones and joints strong!
Is Turmeric or Glucosamine Better for Joints?
Two of the most powerful and beneficial joint health supplements are Turmeric and Glucosamine.
Turmeric
Coming from the Curcuma longa root, turmeric has been used historically to treat skin disorders, upper respiratory issues, joint pain, and the digestive system.
Benefits and Studies of Turmeric
Early indicators suggest that turmeric has anti-inflammatory properties, which can help relieve pain associated with joint issues. These anti-inflammatory properties can be attributed to the active component in turmeric called curcumin. When dosed properly, curcumin can be a more effective anti-inflammatory than common medications such as Ibuprofen.
Side Effects of Turmeric
As long as turmeric is taken at a healthy dose (8 grams per day, up to 3 months, or 3 grams per day up to 3 months), there are no notable side effects of turmeric! When taken at higher doses, however, some mild side effects may include stomach upset, nausea, dizziness, or diarrhea.
Glucosamine
Already a natural chemical compound found in the cartilage of your body, glucosamine can also be found in supplement form. There are multiple types of glucosamine:
- Glucosamine sulfate
- Glucosamine hydrochloride
- N-acetyl glucosamine
As a supplement, glucosamine is harvested from shells of shellfish or man-made in a lab. Most commonly, glucosamine is used to treat osteoarthritis or other joint pain conditions.
Benefits and Studies of Glucosamine
Glucosamine sulfate is typically used to treat knee osteoarthritis pain. Some research shows that glucosamine sulfate may also help slow knee joint degeneration associated with osteoarthritis. Early research suggests that glucosamine hydrochloride may be effective in reducing pain related to rheumatoid arthritis, but more research is needed to truly prove its ability to reduce inflammation.
Over time, the results and effectiveness of glucosamine and chondroitin have been relatively mixed, but those differences can be attributed to varying supplement types and doses used by researchers.
Side Effects of Glucosamine
Generally, glucosamine has been proven to be fairly safe as long as you stay in the recommended dosage. Some mild side effects may include upset stomach, heartburn, drowsiness, diarrhea, constipation, skin reactions, and headache. However, there may be interactions with blood thinning medications, so consult your healthcare provider before taking glucosamine.
Previnex: High-Quality Joint Health Supplements
As an athlete, it is important to support your joints and maintain that joint health long-term. In addition to lifestyle, regular exercise, cross-training, and diet, taking a high-quality joint health supplement is a great way to support your joints. Previnex Joint Health PLUS® combines NEM® and Boswellin®. Boswellin® is a powerful, clinically proven anti-inflammatory and pain reliever. NEM® is clinically proven to reduce joint pain and stiffness, improve flexibility in as little as 7 days, and protect cartilage from breakdown as you exercise. And Joint Health PLUS® is third-party tested! Get your bottle today.
