Hi Eric,

Ashley seems to have a few injuries and mainly they seem to be calves, heels and he sprained his wrist last week.  It does often coincide with increased doses.  He is on dexamethasone temporarily to control hormones.

I myself use glucosamine and find it very good.  I have taken it in combination with MSM and now I take it along with quercetin and bromelain complex because they both  have many qualities that can help with inflammation and swelling in joints and tissues.  The bromelain increases the uptake of glucosamine or indeed any vitamins that along with it, and it does this not only at digestive level but at blood and tissue level also.    Bromelain is a protease enzyme from the pineapple stem which has  been proven to pass to the blood and has the effect of thinning the blood like aspirin (but without the side effects of aspirin on the stomach if you take a sensible dose) and it especially increases circulation to smaller type capillaries and tissues that feed cartilage.  There is a poor blood supply to cartilage as it is when it’s c0mpared to other tissue of the body so thats why it can take much longer to heal than damage to muscle say.  

In taking glucosamine with something like quercetin and bromelain you get a double wammy because quercetin and bromelain are anti inflammatory, anti histamine, anti fungal, anti viral and great to take when your feeling ill because they will help to digest your supplements and have been known to increase the actual up take many times. I’m also posting about adhesions as they form after injuries sometimes, a bit like scar tissue, they form wherever things are inflamed.

Here are two studies:

1: Planta Med. 1990 Jun;56(3):249-53. 
                                                                                    
On the pharmacology of bromelain: an update with special regard to animal              studies on dose-dependent effects.

                  Lotz-Winter H.

                  Bromelain, a standardized complex of proteases from the pineapple plant, is absorbed unchanged from the intestine of animals at a rate of 40%; in
animal experiments it was found to have primarily anti-edema, antiinflammatory, and  coagulation-inhibiting effects. These effects are due to an enhancement of the serum fibrinolytic activity and inhibition of the fibrinogen synthesis, as well as a       direct degradation of fibrin and fibrinogen.  Bromelain lowers kininogen and bradykinin serum and tissue levels and has an influence on prostaglandin synthesis, thus acting anti inflammatory. In in vitro and in animal studies, experimentally induced tumours could be inhibited by bromelain. Although many studies do not give extensive statistical data, the effects of bromelain in animal studies seem to      be dose-dependent. Further investigations have to be carried out.

                  Publication Types:
                      Review
                      Review, Tutorial

                  PMID: 2203073 [PubMed]

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 Eur J Surg Suppl. 1997;(577):10-6. 
  

Biochemical events in peritoneal tissue repair.

                  diZerega GS.

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Livingston
Reproductive Biology Laboratory, University of
                  Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, USA.

The increased incidence of postoperative adhesions and their complications have refocused attention on our understanding of adhesions, their clinical consequences and prevention. Postsurgical adhesions have four major negative impacts on health
care outcomes. First, adhesions cause significant morbidity, including intestinal
obstruction, infertility and pelvic pain. Second, adhesions are associated with multiple surgical complications.  Third, these complications lead to greater surgical    workload and utilization of hospital and other health care resources. Fourth, all these negative impacts result in significant economic burden to  society. The complexities of adhesion formation and imitations in their understanding and research have hampered the development of satisfactory preventive treatments. Adhesions are highly differentiated, formed through an intricate process and        associated with a complex organ, the peritoneum. The surface lining of the peritoneum is the key site in adhesion formation and prevention. Two unique properties of the peritoneal surface play key roles in these processes: its delicacy and its uniform, relatively rapid rate of re-epithelialization, irrespective of the size of injury. A suitable barrier that separates damaged peritoneal surfaces for the entire five to seven days of re-epithelialization is likely to prove  effective in reducing adhesion formation.    Postsurgical peritoneal repair begins with
coagulation, which releases a variety of chemical messengers that bring about a cascade of events. Some of the principal cellular elements in this cascade are leukocytes, including polymorphonuclear neutrophils and macrophages, mesothelial  cells, and fibrin. Following surgical injury, macrophages exhibit increased phagocytic, respiratory burst and secretory activity, and after day 5, are
the major component of the leukocyte population.   Macrophages also recruit new mesothelial cells onto the surface of the injury. These cells form small                   islands throughout the injured area which proliferate into sheets of mesothelial cells and accomplish re-epithelialization, usually five to seven days after surgical injury. The progenitor to adhesions is the fibrin gel matrix which develops in several steps.
These include the formation and insolubilization of fibrin polymer and its interaction with fibronectin and a series of amino acids. Protective fibrinolytic  enzyme systems of the peritoneal mesothelium, such as the tissue plasminogen activator (tPA)      system, can remove the fibrin gel matrix. However, surgery dramatically diminishes fibrinolytic activity.   This occurs in at least two ways: first, by
increasing levels of plasminogen activator inhibitors and second, by reducing tissue oxygenation. Peritoneal re-epithelialization and adhesion formation thus                   can be seen as alternative pathways following peritoneal injury. The pivotal events determining the pathway are the apposition of two damaged surfaces
and the extent of fibrinolysis. Development of strategies to separate damaged peritoneal surfaces and to foster an appropriate degree of fibrinolysis              appears to be among the most promising avenues of adhesion prevention research. Hopefully, these  efforts will lead to adhesion-free peritoneal healing
following abdominal surgery.

                  Publication Types:
                      Review
                      Review, Tutorial

                  PMID: 9076447 [PubMed]

Have to have surgery myself soon via laparoscopy so will be trying that out for myself both leading up to the op and after wards, but I have heard that scar tissue (adhesions) forms when you injur muscle etc a lot of the time and that it helps to prevent that from happening if you take bromelain at the time of the injury whilst recuperating.