Joint Health Supplements: Glucosamine and Chondroitin.

Anyone who's done even a week of BJJ certainly knows the hell we can put our joints through in training. When the object of the game is 'submission', and the majority of these come through the near hyper-extension of the major joints of the body, joint health takes on a whole new meaning.

Some drug stores and nutritional centers contain near sections entirely devoted to joint-care products. Within these one can find bottles with everything ranging from the overly simplistic "Joint Health Formula", whatever that means, to the more specific, but often cryptic, scientific names. The two most commonly used, clinically tested, and promising substances are Glucosamine and Chondroiton, which are usually combined together with additional sulfur-type substance, such as MSM.

Glucosamine and chondroiton occur naturally in the body, that means your body can make them on their own. They play a major role in cartilage health, and are widely available in just about every shop selling vitamins and or other homeopathic health supplements.

Although they both occur naturally in the body, there are no dietary food sources for them, so the only way to theoretically increase their levels in your system is through taking supplements. The supplements are mostly made from the hard shells of shellfish, although those made from plant sources are also available but not nearly as common.

Glucosamine, and to a lesser extent Chondroiton, got attention as an alternative treatment for osteoarthritis. This is the type of arthritis that results from long term wear and tear on joints, usually the 'weight bearing' joints of the knee and hip. Tons of clinical trials were done but success wasn't 100%. So, in other words, taking the supplements helped take away the pain of arthritis in some, but not in others. The best happened to people with the most severe symptoms, i.e. really, really bad joints, and those that were taking the supplements Glucosamine and Chondoiton together along with some type of sulfur additive, as opposed to taking any of these in isolation. But, remember, it helped some but not all.

Now, unless you're like Kimbo Slice (who for those who watched the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show will know that he was diagnosed with arthritis in his knee), most BJJ'ers will not be suffering from arthritis. BUT, most of us have experienced some kind of major or minor joint injury that may or may not still be bothering us. These are the kind of people that may benefit from these supplements. Also, if you train BJJ or any other type of 'submission' oriented grappling, the extra wear you put on your joints will most likely put you at a higher risk for arthritis in the future. It should also be noted that as a preventative measure for delaying the onset of this painful condition, these supplements have also shown promise. But, as I cautioned before, this is not 100% certain yet.

After a brief scan through relative BJJ and MMA related online forums discussing the above supplements, many posters claimed to have noticed a significant relief in nagging joint injuries after taking these supplements. Injuries listed were constant popping of knees, cartilage damage, and just general joint soreness. But, once again, some posters said that they felt no difference.

Now, if you are interested in giving these a try, I will now move on to recommendations for dosage.

Firstly, purchase a combined Glucosamine/Chondroitin supplement. Although most contain an additional amount of sulfur added to the pills, your body gets sulfur from protein rich foods. So, if you are getting your recommended daily amount of protein, which is roughly 1 gram per pound of body weight or 2.2 grams per kilogram, then you should be getting plenty of sulfur naturally. It should also be added that the cartilage in your body is basically made of sulfur and Glucosamine and Chondroiton are tools in turning sulfur into cartilage.

The pills usually come in around 500mg doses. Most credible recommendations are for taking around 1500mg a day for at least 30-90 days. So that means one pill three times daily. Because there are basically no side effects related with these supplements, you can also take three pills together in the morning for one big dose, but stretching out the dosage over a full day is always preferable because it will be digested more efficiently. After this initial loading period, you can lower the dosage to around 1000mg a day or two pills. If you have any stomach or other digestive problems after taking the pills (which is very rare as far as I could find), take them with food.

Now, notice how I wrote that you must take the stuff for at least 30-90 days at first. This is not a wonder drug, or a steroid with immediate effects. It is a natural supplement that takes A LOT of time to build up to effective levels in your symptom. The absolute earliest I ever read about someone feeling better was after two weeks, but most people will not notice any difference until at least after a month. So, as I've written before, YOU MUST BE PATIENT! Natural supplements will not generally work overnight. So, once again, with all things BJJ related, the only key to true success and improvement is patience and perseverance. No one, and I do mean NO ONE, becomes good at BJJ overnight. And in turn, no one truly benefits from natural supplements either.

Lastly, unfortunately, glucosamine and chondroiton are not the cheapest supplements in the world. The cheapest I have been able to find a bottle of 180 or so 500mg pills in Hong Kong is for around HK$240. So, if you're on a tight budget and don't have any really painful joint injuries, you just might want to save your money. Also, taking these supplements has not helped everyone, so they are definitely not sure to work for all.

Good luck, stay healthy, and C U ON THE MATS!

Lexical Bundles

Lexical bundles are sequences of words that co-occur very frequently: Would you mind…, I think that…, etc. Teaching commonly recurring lexical bundles to students is good practice, even if you tell them a thousand times that in English the phrase “go shopping” is used as opposed to “go to the shopping,” and they still continue to write the later on their papers. At least you tried.

Traditionally, an analysis of English would focus on the zillions of one-word items making up the language, such as is listed in a dictionary. However, thanks to computer assisted corpus linguistic studies, we now know that language is also made up of ‘chunks’ of words, or phrases, and not just a series of single-word items. Thus the dividing line that had traditionally been drawn between vocabulary and grammatical rules was an artificial one, and instead we see the two acting together. For example, how does one explain the fact that certain verbs tend to go with that-clauses, such as think, know, believe, etc, and other verbs seem to go with to-clauses, such as want, like, try, etc? The simple answer seems to be that certain words have an affinity to certain grammatical structures. This blows the lid off of the original hard-line thought of Chomskian grammar which was that syntax is strictly rule governed. So if the latter is true, then how can the above example be explained? Well, it appears that syntax is more semantically driven then what linguists first thought.

So to get back to the practical matters of EFL/ESL, we now know that it is probably futile to believe that there is an actual grammatical rule that can explain the placement of every word in every utterance in every situation. So why rack your brain over trying to figure out some abstract rule for which preposition goes with what in whatever situation, blah, blah, blah. It’s collocations, baby. You’re just going to have to start memorizing some lexical chunks. Hey, nobody said language learning was easy.

So feed your students little phrases to use all the time, but don’t overdue it. The mind, and especially a feeble one such as mine, can only take so much information at a time. But, every class-meeting try to write a few phrases in the corner of the board, and even better yet, if possible, develop a list of them that can be left permanently in the classroom as the term goes on. And get out of the habit of just writing single words on the board in isolation. For example, instead of just writing down “go” and “shopping” write down “go shopping” or “have a moustache.” And encourage, or assign, your students that when they make a word list, to also try to include the other words (collocations) that go with it. Also, when writing full sentences or clauses down on the board, get into the practice of underlining and pointing out collocations. Eventually some will sink in, and maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll be priming their brain to listen for these chunks in conversation or wherever they might come across English, and they will finally absorb them into their own inter-language – the ultimate goal.

Un-standard English

Even though there is no official institution that regulates the usage of English (unlike other languages, such as Japanese), there is still a widespread and prevailing belief that there is some uniform, unchanging ‘standard English.’ An all purpose form that can (and should some would argue) be used to effect under any circumstance and in any geographic location. This is the variety codified in dictionaries, grammar books, and usage manuals. Furthermore, this idea of an unchanging, uniform standard often leads to the belief that one form of a grammatical feature is correct, but this just simply is not the case. One of the beauties and social necessities of language is that it is flexible. Nonetheless, attempt to explain this to the local non-native English teacher whilst abroad, and just see how far you get.

I am often approached by the Thai English professors at my place of work (and usually while I’m in the middle of something at least I deem to be important) about some completely obscure grammatical feature, such as advanced model usage, and which of two highly similar choices is correct. Of course, I am then expected to deliver an immediate unambiguous response, thus clarifying all prior confusion for the teacher. Then I lay this crap on them above because it is the cold-truth about language usage in the real world, and the vexed professor then leaves my desk in a state of ire and even higher confusion, probably secretly cursing the useless, overpaid foreigner on staff. The funny thing too, is that these inquiries will often relate to correct answers for a test the local teacher will give. It is at this point when I want to exclaim, “Now, if you the English teacher, had to consult me about which is supposedly the correct modal to use in this artificial situation you’ve just conjured up, and you are thus unsure, then how in the hell can you justify testing and thus potentially marking you students down over the same feature?” It is times like these when I really need a coffee break.