Gelatin for Osteoarthritis pain.

wknight, there seem to be a lot of people on this site only too happy to go under the knife....I'm not one of them. I consider surgery to be a LAST resort always. 

For thumb arthritis the recovery time is up to a year ....that's two years out if my life. There can be so many unintended consequences of surgery. You only have to read the forums to see how many people have had bad results. 

My sister is a nurse for an orthopedic surgeon...she agrees with me...she has seen too many surgeries go horribly wrong. 

You came out ok but not everyone does. I'll put your question back onto you...why would anyone want to take the risks and recovery time of surgery when there are non invasive alternatives? 

I tried all the alternatives and none worked.

I have had 3 surgeries on my hands all have been very successful. 

The problem with forums is the 10 people who were good never posted the news, the one that failed posts. Ask your sister who is the nurse how many surgeries out of 10 are successful and the answer is at least 9. 

There are huge risks driving a car, they kill people every day, but bet you still drive your car. 

I don't want to take pain meds with all the associated problems that go with that when surgery makes me pain free forever. The recovery for thumb surgery is not that long, its only a couple of months.

The opposable thumb joint is somewhat different from finger joints.  I could imagine that having a less mobile finger probably wouldnt disadvantage me too much but the surgery I was offered for my thumbs would have meant a very different life ahead with severely restricted movement in the joint.  Less pain yes, but a complete rethink of my independence.  No thanks.  I, like caringbah, will continue to explore ways to relieve pain whilst retaining the mobility I need to manage on my own.

My surgeon told me a year for full recovery for each thumb. I'm virtually pain free now and I didn't have to have any surgery. What's not to like? 

9 out of 10? I wouldn't take on anything that had a 10% chance of disaester. 

My sister is an intelligent health professional of many years experience.  She has come to her decision from years of observation

Constance I'm no expert but from all my reading they say best results are obtained from grass fed beef Gelatin. 

I've just been doing a bit of reading up on gelatin for joint problems.  The majority of articles do say that any edible gelatin is effective.  Quite understandable that maybe specificallly beef gelatin would have greater content of active ingredients but as a vegetarian that wouldnt be suitable, so i'm very happy to discover that any form of gelatin could be helpful. I'm going to give it a try - nothing ventured nothing gained eh.

There are so many suggestions out there from Turmeric, ginger, devil's claw, Limbrel, Vitamin C, pineapple, and gelatin had been added can one person take all this stuff? Soon the medicine cabinet will look like a health food store! Has someone found one regimen that they feel works! Does it take all these to help pain and stiffness?

Hi Daphine....I'm still using Gelatin, and arthritis cream. I have now added compression gloves. 

I have been six months now without pain killers. However just because it works for me, doesn't mean it'll work for you. 

I would suggest that you try them one at a time for at least three weeks to see if it works for you. If you take them all together you won't know which one if any will work for you. 

Im not pain free but can manage ok without pain killers. When and if they stop working I'll try stem cell treatment. My absolute last resort will be surgery. 

you're so right daphine, the list is absolutely endless.  I guess everyone is just desperate to find a real solution for the pain when pharmaceuticals either dont work or just cause too many additional problems.  I've spent a fortune on one 'snake oil' remedy or the next.  For me the things that definitely dont work or cause issues are glucosamine, devil's claw, flexiseq (now that definitely IS a quack remedy), magnesium, vit D (my doc confirmed my Vit D levels are 'normal' so I didnt need to supplement), gelatin didnt work either unfortunately.  I have definitely found a lowering of pain from cutting down on Nightshade foods and my thumb joints benefit from ginger, but that's about it.

Thanks Loxie.

I'm very glad that you've got your hand working again hope4. The surgery worked and you had a good outcome and that's great but I can understand why you've had enough of surgery. 

Let me tell you why I don't trust everything that doctors tell me. I used to have atrial fibrillation and I have a pacemaker. My heart specialist at the time put me on a drug called Amiodorone. I google ALL new drugs that doctors give me. I looked up this drug and was shocked to see it described as a "drug of last resort" and that it can cause fibrosis of the lung which is always fatal. It also said that anyone takeing this drug should  have a chest x ray. My specialist mentioned none of this. I printed the report and took it to my GP who sent me for an x ray which showed up Lymphoma of the lung. (Not caused by Amiodorone) 

Anyway, I had 4 months of chemo and all good. I have a similar story of urologists and prostate but that's for another time. 

I firmly believe that we should all research our own condition and not believe everything the good doctor tells us without independent verification. 

I forgot to mention that of course I didn't take the Amiodorone but found out a new process called Cather heart ablation. I had it done by this beautiful young heart surgeon (she can mop my fevered brow anytime 🙂. 

It worked like a charm and no more atrial fibrillation. 

DO YOUR HOMEWORK PEOPLE.