Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Please see my lengthy review posted under Instaflex Joint Support, 90 Count in which I used myself as a human guinea pig over an 8-month period in an effort to find a less expensive effective alternative to the very pricy Instaflex. I compared Source Naturals Hyaluronic Joint Complex, 120 Tablets, Solgar, Glucosamine Hyaluronic Acid Chondroitin MSM (Shellfish-Free), 120 Tablets, Flexacil Ultra, and Osteo Bi-Flex MSM Advanced Formula Smoothcaps, 120 ct. Flexacil was my personal winner and the one I have been using since August (plus the several weeks in the Spring of 2012 when I was testing it on myself). You can find the long review by either clicking on the Instaflex link above or on my name which will retrieve all my reviews. Look for the one entitled "It Works Well But There Are Less Expensive Substitutes." ("It" referring to Instaflex.) I added the following two updates to my long review of the five products on the Instaflex review page: UPDATE (6/9/13) == An unintended guinea pig experience just befell me during the last few weeks. About 3-4 weeks ago I was a little lax in reordering my Flexacil Ultra thinking I had another bottle beyond the one I was close to finishing. I didn't. I was off my product for about 8 days before the next shipment arrived. By the 4th day I had begun hobbling around due to the increased pain in my left knee. Once I started taking Flexacil again it took almost two weeks before the pain went away. A nice reaffirmance for me that for me Flexacil makes the difference and a reminder to everyone: Whichever product you find to be your favorite joint supplement DON'T FORGET TO CHECK YOUR SUPPLY AND REORDER BEFORE YOU RUN OUT. You will regret it if you don't. Maureen Kenney's 2/23/15 comment asking me for an update on my condition in the two years since the 2013 update was posted prompted me to provide this: UPDATE (5/25/15) == My wife and I take walks down the hill from our home to the beach a half mile below. Even though I wear a McDavid brace with a patella opening and side pads on the walks I was experiencing significant pain on the downhill portion of the walk to the point of having to gingerly do the downhill while placing the majority of my weight on my right foot and carefully bringing my left along. (Yes, I guess it's called "limping.") I was considering whether I needed to update this review to confess that perhaps joint supplements lose their effectiveness over time. However, before doing that I put my thinking cap on. I considered that I experienced no pain in the knee walking back uphill and that I experienced no increased pain when walking on level ground without a knee brace. That in turn led me to the conclusion that the downhill pain was not caused by ineffective joint supplements but by the stress that downhill walking puts on the patella tendon. Easy solution: switched out my open patella brace for a patella tendon strap that puts pressure directly on the tendon (located just below the kneecap [patella]). So, happy to report that Flexacil Ultra is still working for me three years after this and the Instaflex reviews were posted.