Herbal stuff in general has more feels to it than science. This has been true of supplements since time immemorial, as the science behind any of it is sketchy on a good day.
re: my post about injuries...
MCL dude was 100% told not to lift heavy shit while it was healing, such as squats or anything else. If he says anything else, I am gonna go ahead and say that he's a liar. Doctors will never say it is OK to continue to engage an injured area beyond normal usage. They want him to be mobile yeah, so it doesn't tighten too much and become a stiffness issue later. But they are definitely not telling him to continue doing whatever it was that injured it in the first place. Which was my point about lifting injuries. If you injure yourself in an area, you don't do light work or anything else with it until it heals; you let it heal. You guys taking medication for joint issues (which, if they are related to something other than lifting, I apologize and rescind) that occur while lifting so that you can keep lifting? Is what I was referring to. You have a clear physical issue with what you are doing, and you are taking medicine to continue to do so, and your livelihood doesn't depend on it. That's what I was getting at; the use of chemicals to continue doing something that your body has already said is harmful. That's what I take issue with from an overall health stance.
And as the last few posts have pretty much proven, there is a decent amount of discussion involving chemical enhancement. I didn't say that anyone was pushing it, simply that it comes up a lot and given my overall knowledge of the forums (we might have 1-2 lifters who do competitions, but certainly not the vast majority of posters in this thread) that it always surprises me when people talk about using chemical enhancement methods with known side effects when they aren't being compensated for the effects of those chemicals, ie a pro bodybuilder or fitness model or something.
It just seemed like you were responding to issues I didn't actually have without touching on the ones that I mentioned. Just clarifying!