Glucosamine and Chondroitin for Arthritis
Glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate work synergistically to reduce chronic joint inflammation such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Glucosamine Sulfate
Chondroitin Sulfate
Glucosamine + Chondroitin
Glucosamine - Clinical Applications
- Osteoarthritis
- Decreases pain, reduces tenderness, improves mobility and function in osteoarthritis.
- Provides clinical efficacy in the treatment of osteoarthritis equal to the symptomatic relief offered by NSAIDs but without significant side effects.
- Symptomatic relief persists for weeks after end of treatment period because cartilage has been rebuilt.
- Serves as a major component of a conservative approach to spinal osteoarthritis.
- Should be considered basic therapy for the management of primary or secondary degenerative osteoarthrosis disorders.
- Clinical efficacy documented far more substantially than glucosamine hydrochloride, N-acetyl glucosamine, and chondroitin sulfate.
- Rheumatoid arthritis with structural complications
What Is Glucosamine?
- Scientific name: 2-amino-2-deoxyglucose sulfate
- Supplemental form of building block for the polymeric connective tissue constituents known as glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) (also called mucopolysaccharides) and mucoproteins.
- Source: chitin, found in the exoskeletons of marine invertebrates (crustaceans)—shrimp, crab, lobster.
How Glucosamine Works
- Natural amino sugar, readily soluble in water and easily absorbed into the blood stream through the intestinal mucosa (90-98%) via active transport,
- Small molecular size allows it to cross blood-synovial barrier, diffuse through the cartilage, and enter the chondrocytes.
- Oral supplementation of glucosamine can provide the building blocks needed by chondrocytes and other cells to synthesize GAGs, such as chondroitin sulfate.
- Induces a dose-dependent stimulation of the synthesis of complete proteoglycans by chondrocytes under the conditions of chondrocyte productive deficiency associated with osteoarthritis.
- Stimulates chondrocytes to increase their production of glycosaminoglycans in vitro.
- Contains the sulphur moiety that is essential to the formation of appropriate cross-linking of connective tissue fibers, providing a strong and resilient tissue structure.
- Far better absorbed than chondroitin sulfate, which is only absorbed up to 13%.
Glucosamine Biochemistry
- Glucose synthesis is the rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of GAGs within the body.
- Synthesized by chondrocytes and other cells from the glycolysis intermediate fructose-6-phosphate.
- Endogenous synthesis declines with age; and chronic ailments, such as osteoarthritis, can arise from the deficit in glucosamine manufacture.
Glucosamine Dosage
- 500mg of Glucosamine Sulfate three times daily
- Obese patients may need to increase dosage due to excessive stress on weight-bearing joints: 20mg / kg body weight daily.
Glucosamine Side Effects
- Fully tolerated by 86% and sufficiently by 11.5% of patients.
- Tolerated better with fewer side effects than ibuprofen and other NSAIDs.
- No known interactions with any pharmaceutical or nutriceutical medicines.
Chondroitin - Clinical Applications
- Osteoarthritis
- Significantly superior to placebo with respect to the Lequesne index of arthritic symptomatic intensity.
- Shows at least 50% improvement in patient symptoms compared to placebo.
- Improves joint function and reduces need for anti-inflammatory medicine in knee joint osreoarthritis.
- Reduces pain significantly and increases overall mobility capacity in knee osreoarthritis
- Stabilizes the medial femoro-tibial joint width compared to placebo.
- Stabilizes biochemical markers of joint and bone metabolism.
What Is Chondroitin?
- A glycosaminoglycan (GAG)is a long, usually unbranched, hetero-polysaccharide chain if repeating disaccharide units of acidic sugar-amino sugar.
- Chondroitin sulfate (CS) is a GAG with disaccharide units comprised of N-acetylgalactosamine and glucuronic acid and sulfate in on either C-4 or C-6.
- Most abundant GAG in human body.
- Indigenous to cartilage, tendons, ligaments, aorta.
How Does Chondroitin Work?
- Binds cartilage collagen and other structures into a strong, tight matrix.
- The acidic sugars contain carboxyl groups that render the CS chain electo-negative at physiologic pH.
- The negatively charged chains repel each other and attract sheaths of water molecules that allow them to slip easily around each other.
- This arrangement provides the slippery, frictionless, lubricating phenomenon associated with synovial fluid and cartilage.
- Up to 13% absorbed through the gastrointestinal mucosa into the blood stream.
- Demonstrates tropism for knee cartilage tissue.
- More effective on cellular events in the inflammatory process than edema, compared to NSAIDs.
Chondroitin Dosage
800 mg TO 1600mg daily in divided doses.
Chondroitin Side Effects
- Well tolerated by patients with few, if any, side effects.
- No known interactions with any pharmaceutical or nutriceutical medicines.
Glucosamine + Chondroitin Dosage
- Glucosamine sulfate (from 469mg glucosamine sulfate: 2KCl), 375mg
- Chondroitin sulfate (90%), 300mg
Recommended dosage: 2 capsules 2 times a day
To order our natural agents for arthritis (osteoarthritis) or rheumatoid arthritis ("Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate") by phone, please call toll-free 877-347-8600.
