Deca doesn’t really fix anything anyways, just masks it by loading the joint up with fluid. Then when you come off you feel twice as bad at first as your body rebounds.
I know pentosan sulphate increases the fluids in your joints and cleans out the capillaries in the bone joint ends so you get improved blood flow in the joint.
It actually is supposed to work better than deca.
Of course if you don’t take supplements to support this nothing will happen. So glucosamine, beef broth and such on a regular basis. Taking collagen is essential as well.
I do heavy labour as well. I’ve taken glucosamine, msm, chrodtrin for 20 years daily. I’ve just started to take collagen daily. I have no joint issues.
Biggest thing is being hydrated, make sure you drink a gallon of water a day.
As an example of the effectiveness of pentosan, my 14 year old cat used to be lame. Laid around on the same bench never moving, I started to give her weight adjusted weekly injections and now she has a limp, but is moving and playing again.
It will not show up on a blood test.
There are a ton of studies on google, it is a harmless product, but not patentable so no drug company will bother getting it approved for humans for joint issues. It original use was for painful bladder syndrome.
Btw, I had the bottle of pentosan for my wife, her knee made a bad grinding noise as she climbed the stairs, pentisan for 3 months and collagen and as long as she keeps using collagen it makes no noise. She originally took the liquid collagen for cosmetic reasons, to reduce wrinkles.
Good luck.