My husband uses the Sam's brand of glucosamine and chondroitin as it is affordable and works well and you don't have to take as many tablets as you do of other brands. He has had good results.
Chiro can help with lots of structural issues in the body, but it does NOT cure everything. I have had chiros claim to fix/cure just about every possible thing and I run from those. NOTHING cures everything and those who claim that they can are either idiots or charlatans, in my opinion.
on the other hand, I had a chiro keep me from having more than 4-6 migraines a year for 3 years at one point. He also helped me put off my cervical fusion for almost 5 years and did more to deal with the pain than the medications did. After a while things did deteriorate to the point the surgery had to be done, but the longer they put it off, the better the long term prognosis. He also helped my mom avoid some surgeries and hold off on others for a long time. He helped my dad's shoulder problems more than the ortho and PT and medications combined. He showed my dad better ways to do the exercises than the way the PT had shown him. THe chiro's way kept the damage from getting worse. If my dad had followed the PT's way of doing things, he likely would have needed several operations because it was creating stress and tearing something in there that shouldn't be torn.
In my area there are a few really good chiros and a bunch who want to do things like foot baths that draw the toxins out. Supposedly you can tell the toxins are coming out because the stuff in the bath turns black. I know a girl who worked for one of these chiros who said that if you left the water in the footbath with the 'magic' ingredient that draws the toxins out (some 'proprietary' blend of herbs and minerals) for twenty minutes with-o anyone's feet or anything else in the tub, the stuff all turns black anyway. Many of them do other things too that are equally 'hocusy-pocusy' nonsense and just cost a bunch of $$ for no benefit or the placebo benefit. I hate that a few use this nonsense and claim to fix everything from structural issues to allergies to asthma to mental illness because they give the good chiros who know their limits and abilities a bad reputation.
Please know that I do NOT consider massage, acupuncture, or acupressure to be 'hocusy pocusy nonsense'. Those have been proven to be very beneficial esp when combined with chiro and common sense. I am referring to various things to draw out toxins, iris reading, reading the lumps on your skull and other quackery. Good chiros can help many issues and certainly are worth a try.
Getting old (or even middle-aged) is not for sissies.
