I'm commenting to hear what people have to say.  I have not tried MSM myself, and I will go look it up now.  Seems like the best thing I have been able to do for joint pain has been to stabilize the joint with exercise.  For my elbows, lifting weights was tried but didn't work.  I have found that sun salutations done with precise alignment and muscle activation in mind have helped the elbows and standing poses have helped the knees.  I tried sun salutations (& other postures) without proper guidance a number of years ago for quite some time (from badly trained but well-intentioned teachers) and that was very unhealthy for the joints.  I would recommend Iyengar yoga for healing & therapeutics.  All the other types of yoga I have tried have been interesting explorations of types of exercise and much better for my general health than stasis, however, they were ultimately not sustainable because my joints are too loose/flexible.  I'm not sure if the loose joints are characteristic of people with UC & autoimmune problems.

I just looked MSM.  It looks like it can be used topically, too, to help the joints in a form called DMSO.  Curious if anyone in this group has tried that and what were the results?