The Facts about Glucosamine
What is Glucosamine?
Glucosamine is made of an amino acid and a sugar molecule and is a raw material for making connective tissue in joint cartilage. In supplement form, it is derived from chitin, the hard material in crustacean shell. It can also be made from plant material such as corn, known as vegetarian glucosamine.
How does it work?
Glucosamine feeds and stimulates cartilage repair. It’s one of cartilage’s key building blocks and also encourages self-repair by stimulating the process that creates moisture-holding molecules.
Uses for Glucosamine
As we age, the body’s ability to produce glucosamine can decrease and this causes joint cartilage to lose it water holding capacity. The cartilage breaks and becomes less effective as a shock absorber, leading to joint stiffness. Supplementing the body’s natural glucosamine production has been shown in clinical trials to repair and rebuild worn or damaged cartilage. As the condition of the joint cartilage improves, pain is reduced and mobility increased.
What are the key benefits?
- Helps repair and rebuild damaged cartilage
- Can improve joint mobility and flexibility
- Symptomatic relief of osteoarthritis
- Helps reduce further cartilage damage
- Temporary relief of joint inflammation
- Temporary relief of joint pain
How does it compare?
Conventional osteoarthritis treatment involves anti-inflammation medicines. While they can be effective in relieving pain, they do not address the cause of the problem. Unlike these medicines, glucosamine has been demonstrated to effectively act on the cause of osteoarthritic pain – cartilage breakdown. By addressing the root the problem, osteoarthritis joint pain can also be relieved.
Where’s the evidence?
Given glucosamine works mainly as a structural compound to maintain cartilage, it’s more sensible to measure changes in joint structure, than pain reduction, to quantify glucosamine’s effectiveness. A review of a number of clinical trials that used X-rays to measure improvement concluded glucosamine can reduce the risk of osteoarthritis progression by 54%.
Glucosamine has also been shown in some clinical trials to work as effectively, if not better than some other commonly used arthritis medicines. Some studies show that it relieves pain and this is more marked in people with moderate to severe symptoms.
Does it really work?
Aside from the functional evidence above, thousands of glucosamine users are benefiting from the effects of glucosamine with about 400m tablets a year being consumed. In fact Choice Magazine found about 75% of their online members who were arthritis sufferers claimed they were experiencing a benefit from using glucosamine.
