I use vegan glucosamine.
I particularly like two products:
Mega flax joint: a flax powder with added joint-health ingredients, including glucosamine.
Vegan Joint Supreme is a capsule (I open them up and put the innards in my morning smoothie) that contains vegan glucosamine, hyaluronic acid (helps lubricate the joints), MSM (beneficial on its own, but also makes whatever it is added to be absorbed more effectively into the body) and Avocado/Soy unsaponifiables (no idea!).
There's also a brand that combines Vegan Glucosamine and CMO (no idea), but it's a tablet, and I prefer vegan capsules that I can open up.
I get these at
www.veganessentials.com (a great store, with fast delivery and a good selection of vegan stuff).
Although you say you refuse to do so, I would recommend backing off from step right now. You aren't doing your body any good by continuing to do something that it is telling you is not beneficial to you right now. And taking all the glucosamine in the world won't help if you keep abusing your knees.
Think in the long-term: you want to be healthy and exercising for year to come, right? And not screw that up by doing more damage to your knees, to the point that you won't even be able to walk without pain.
When you get back into it, be careful of torquey moves (like transitions between a move on the side of the step and a move behind the step, that I find Cathe likes to do, and which, if I don't take care in how 'wide" or "far back" I step, can be tricky for the knees. She steps wide/far back enough, but doesn't cue it.).
Also, don't step more than 3 times a week, with a day off in between. Your knees might not even be able to take that much.
I also find that avoiding moves like ricochets and 360-degree moves has helped my knees tremendously.
What I would highly recommend is some kind of rehab/muscle balance workout, like some TLT workouts. They will help strengthen the important stabilizer muscles, and perhaps help you reduce the knee pain. Doing some "quad sets" may help : lie on floor with one leg bent, one leg straight, flex the quad of the straight leg--feeling the muscle on the inside of the knee to make sure it's engaged--and keeping the flex as you raise the leg about 6 inches, hold, then lower slowly. These are often used in knee rehab when there are tracking problems (often due to muscle imbalance).
Knee braces may help, but they only treat the symptom, and don't adress the cause (perhaps muscle imbalance, perhaps tracking problems).
