Another thing worthy of note is that soft tissue will not heal while it is inflamed, no matter what you throw at it. Reducing the inflamation is thus of prime importance. Devil's claw root has been used to that effect for more than 5,000 years, so I guess one might say it's a proven one. There's also a spice, but I forget its name. And of course some things the other guys mentioned might have some anti-inflamatory properties but I do know that glucosamine/chondroitin/msm don't.