Glucosamine Benefits - Scoring a Knock-Out over Osteoarthritis

Glucosamine Benefits and Your Joints

Before we get into our discussion of glucosamine benefits though, let's take a look at what glucosamine is. Let's take a look at what osteoarthritis is as well.

Glucosamine is an aminomonosaccharide. A "what" you say? Yeah, me too! Let's do it this way...

All of the tissue in our body has glucosamine as a component. In fact, our bodies manufacture glucosamine although as we get older our production of glucosamine drops off significantly..

Glucosamine is also a component of our cartilage and is responsible for stimulating the growth of new cartilage.

Cartilage is a tough, fibrous and elastic connective tissue found throughout our bodies. Cartilage acts as a shock absorber or cushion between the bones of our joints. For instance, cartilage is what keeps the bones in our knees from grinding together as we walk.

Having the role of stimulating the growth of new cartilage, glucosamine benefits us by rebuilding the cartilage that we lose through normal wear and tear. Losing that cartilage and the pain associated with having our bones grind together is what results in the condition known as osteoarthritis.

Glucosamine Sulfate not Glucosamine Hydrochloride

When we talk about glucosamine benefits throughout the rest of this discussion, we will be referring to glucosamine sulfate supplements (as opposed to glucosamine hydrochloride or the other forms). This is the form with the most research behind it and the form with the most promising results. Glucosamine sulfate is registered as a drug for the treatment of osteoarthritis in many countries.

As we mentioned above, your body manufactures glucosamine. Unfortunately, as we get older, our body's production of glucosamine declines significantly.

Without glucosamine, our body loses its ability to repair our cartilage that gets worn down. A lot of times, this is felt first in the load bearing joints like our knees and hips. Supplemental glucosamine benefits us by providing the glucosamine necessary to repair our cartilage and slow the progression of this painful and debilitating condition.

Glucosamine benefits have been studied in hundreds of scientific investigations. Also a search at the Journal of the American Medical Association turns up over twenty clinical trials using glucosamine sulfate.

Glucosamine sulfate has been used successfully to alleviate the pain and significantly slow the progression of osteoarthritis in between seventy to ninety-five percent of the cases studied. And a remarkable eighty percent success rate for osteoarthritis of the knee!

Examples of Studies on Glucosamine Sulfate

One of these studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association is titled, "A 57-Year-Old Man With Osteoarthritis of the Knee."

It states: "One 3-year, prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled study assessing the long-term effects of glucosamine sulfate on OA progression found that 1500 mg/d of oral glucosamine sulfate reduced the tendency of further joint space destruction, limited pain, and enhanced function compared with placebo."

Another study in the same journal titled "Efficacy of Glucosamine and Chondroitin for Treatment of Osteoarthritis," tells us that "...both glucosamine sulfate (GS) and chondroitin sulfate (CS) are likely to be effective therapies for the symptomatic treatment of osteoarthritis (OA)."

And still another study reported upon in the Physician's Desk Reference states that "Recently, a long-term, randomized placebo-controlled trial of glucosamine sulfate's effects on osteoarthritis ended with the conclusion that the supplement halts progression of structural joint damage and reduces symptoms of those with osteoarthritis of the knee. The study involved 212 patients 50 years or older who received 1500 milligrams of glucosamine sulfate daily or placebo."

Glucosamine benefits have been shown to be more effective at relieving the pain of osteoarthritis than nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID). NSAIDs are routinely and commonly used to treat osteoarthritis and are known to be responsible for significant toxic effects especially in older folks. Glucosamine sulfate has been shown to alleviate the pain without the harmful side effects.

Some folks take a glucosamine chondroitin supplement. To learn more, click on over to our glucosamine chondroitin sulfate studies page!

As you'll learn on the glucosamine chondroitin supplement page, most folks take glucosamine along with chondroitin. This combination seems to be most effective wihen helping folks deal with the pain of osteoarthritis.