Monday, July 20, 2009
Most recently, a friend of the family and I had a discussion about her
battle with arthritis. She is having much joint pain in her shoulders,
ankles and knees. When asked what to do about this from a natural
approach- I suggested she start to take glucosamine and chondroitin to
help ease her pain and help repair and rebuild the potential damage
that is the source and root cause of her pain.
If you are an
athlete or have been athletic in your past, you may also want to look
at takng glucosamine and chondroitin in your daily supplementation
routine.
I stumbled across a great source for arthritis sufferers from the
Osteoarthritis Resource Center and wanted to share a great article about the
benefits of glucosamine and chondroitin.
Using
glucosamine and
chondroitin
in combination may be synergistic. Recently, more and more clinical
trials have begun to support the benefits of glucosamine and
chondroitin for overall joint health and resilience. One study
appearing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (February 2003)
found that general mobility improved over time in both a placebo group
and the experimental group that was taking glucosamine. The results
began to manifest after about four to eight weeks of use. The most
significant benefits, according to the study, were in
reducing the amount of perceived pain.
What Exactly is Glucosamine?
Glucosamine
is an amino sugar necessary for the construction of connective tissue
and healthy cartilage. It is the critical building block of
proteoglycans and other substances that form protective tissues. These
proteoglycans are large protein molecules that act like a sponge to
hold water giving connective tissues elasticity and cushioning effects.
This also provides a buffering action to help
protect against excessive wear and tear of the joints.
Without glucosamine, our tendons, ligaments, skin, nails, bones, mucous
membranes, and other body tissues can not form properly.
If Glucosamine is a Natural Product, Why Do We Need Extra Quantities?
Good
question. Normally we generate sufficient amounts of glucosamine in our
bodies to form the various compounds needed to generate connective
tissue and healthy cartilage. But gradually the rate at which our
bodies use glucosamine begins to gradually change with our increased
athletic activity, injuries, burns, arthritis and other i
nflammatory disorders,
age and other chronic degeneration. In such situations our bodies may
not be able to keep up with the demand for glucosamine, leading to a
decrease in the amount of proteoglycans produced. This can lead to a
decrease in the amount of protective lubricating substances like the
synovial fluids, which cushion our joints, and protects them from
damage. In a nutshell, more glucosamine is needed but less is produced.
This
is why researchers began to suggest extra dietary supplements
containing glucosamine. Their studies showed that oral glucosamine
could be easily absorbed and lead to the stimulation of healthy new
cartilage and other protective molecules. The studies also showed that
oral glucosamine carried this benefit without any toxicity,
contraindications, or other harmful side effects. This is a stark
contrast to dangerous COX-2 medications such as Celebrex or Vioxx.
Vioxx was removed from the market in Septermber 2004 and which may have
been implicated in tens of thousands of heart attacks and strokes.
How Should Glucosamine Be Taken?
Glucosamine
must be taken every day. This is a slow acting supplement that may take
a month or more to show any effect. Dosage in most studies was 1,500 mg
of glucosamine per day. The product is available in powder, pill and
cream form. Glucosamine in a cream form may be nice for your skin, but
there's no evidence suggesting that Glucosamine alone can be absorbed
through the skin. Anecdotal evidence suggests that liquid glucosamine,
in fact, is the best form to take.
Chondroitin Sulfate
exists naturally in your cartilage. It’s thought to draw fluid into the
tissue to give our cartilage more elasticity and to slow cartilage
breakdown by protecting it from destructive enzymes. As a supplement,
it is exclusively derived from cattle sources and is often taken along
with Glucosamine to assist with maintaining joint health. The combined
use is known to produce a "synergistic" effect. It’s been prescribed
for pain relief in osteoarthritis in some parts of Europe where it is a
prescription drug for decades. If glucosamine is your #1 joint friend,
chondroitin is #2.
Although Chondroitin alone hasn't been proven to help with or
reverse cartilage loss, in some studies it appeared to help
improve function and ease pain.
In one placebo-controlled study, joint narrowing in the knee became
stabilized in patients who were put on Chondroitin (Uebelhart)
supplement. Another controlled study looked at osteoarthritis of the
finger joints for a period of three years. Among the group that took
chondroitin, there was a significant decrease in the number of patients
with new erosions in their finger joints (Verbruggen).
Chondroitin
in fact is a glycosaminoglycan (think long chains of glucosamine) that
is concentrated in joint cartilage. Like glucosamine, chondroitin helps
produce substances needed for the formation of connective tissue. In
addition chondroitin (unlike glucosamine) may also have the ability to
protect existing cartilage from prematurely breaking down by inhibiting
cartilage-destroying enzymes.
How Does Chondroitin Work?
Chondroitin sulfates provide the structural components of j
oint cartilage,
inhibit some free radical enzymes that degrade joint cartilage and
collagen, and facilitate the entry of glucosamine into the joints. Like
glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate attracts water into the cartilage
matrix and stimulates the production of cartilage. It also appears to
have the ability to prevent enzymes from dissolving cartilage. Recent
studies have shown extremely good results from long-term use of
chondroitin sulfate (alone and in combination with glucosamine) in
increasing range of motion and overall joint health. Both glucosamine
and chondroitin should be used together, however, to produce the best
results.
How It’s Used
We
suggest you take chondroitin as a liquid at the dose of 120mg a day,
which does not need to be divided into two doses. It’s most often taken
in combination with glucosamine, as a synergistic complex.