Glucosamine Chondroitin SulphatePatients with joint cartilage problems, such as arthritis, have probably heard of glucosamine chondroitin. Glucosamine and chondroitin are supplements that are sold over the counter in pharmacies, grocery stores, and health food stores. The benefit of glucosamine chondroitin is still under debate, and many patients wonder if they should bother taking these expensive supplements.
Glucosamine and chondroitin are two molecules that make up the cartilage found within joints. Inside your joints, the cartilage undergoes a constant process of breakdown and repair. However, to be properly repaired and restored, the building blocks of cartilage must be present and available, together with plenty of oxygen and no doubt a myriad of other enzymmes, hormones, amino acids ... The theory behind the use of glucosamine chondroitin supplements is that more of the cartilage building blocks will be available for cartilage repair.
GLUCOSAMINEGlucosamine is sugar found naturally in the bones, bone marrow and cartilage of animals. In our bodies thus too.
Glucosamine is an important precursor in the body for the manufacture of substances called Glycosaminoglycans which link to proteins to form proteoglycans which are a major component of joint cartilage.
The beauty of these substances, due to their polar nature, is their ability to bind water (also polar) which is strongly attracted to them. Water, like all liquids, is incompressible giving cartilage its stiff, yet flexible properties. This makes it the perfect material for example from which to build the discs between vertebrae. So when you jump up and down, the water-filled, incompressible disc prevents the bone above from crushing the one below. The first sign on MRI that the cartilage is degenerating is loss of this water-carrying capacity. A healthy water-filled disc looks white on a scan. As cartilage degenerates, it loses this whiteness.
Notice how it is the degenerated (dark, waterless) discs that have slipped. Maintaining hydrated, water-filled discs is at the heart of Chiropractic.
Slipped disc symptoms. Hyaluronic acidHyaluronic acid is another glycosaminoglycan. It is the major component of the synovial fluid that bathes the cartilage, coating each cartilage cell and swishing about in the joints in your body. It lubricates the joint and binds water to the cartilage molecules.Without glycosaminoglycans we would be as stiff as the Empire State building. Stiff! A stiff?!!
Chondroitin sulfate too is a glycosaminoglycan sugar making up a different important component of cartilage, particularly giving it much of its resilience to compression. An important component thus of Glucosamine Chondroitin.There are many different types of cartilage in the body, so the mix of these subsances will vary from one to another. For example the cartilage in the joints between the ribs and the breastbone is different to the 'hyaline' cartilage that lines the ends of your long bones (eg in the hip)
However, alas research does not confirm things ...To test the effect of glucosamine sulfate on hip osteoarthritis:a randomized trial. The effectiveness of glucosamine sulfate as a symptom and disease modifier for osteoarthritis is still under debate.OBJECTIVE: To assess whether glucosamine sulfate has an effect on the symptoms and structural progression of hip osteoarthritis during 2 years of treatment. INTERVENTION: 2 years of treatment with 1500 mg of oral glucosamine sulfate or placebo once daily. (patients never knew whether they were taking the real supplement or the placebo.)
CONCLUSION: Glucosamine sulfate was no better than placebo in reducing symptoms and progression of hip osteoarthritis. International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number: ISRCTN54513166. There are numerous other similar studies with Chondroitin sulphate.
Whilst the Glucosamine Chondroitin theories appear neat and plausible, it seems that there are other ingredient(s) in the bones and cartilage of animals that are necessary for the proper uptake of these sugars and to turn them into healthy cartilage. Rather like natural Vitamin C is much more effective than synthetic Ascorbic Acid. My theory is that it is the gelatine (amino acids) found in bones that we know the glycosaminoclycans must bind onto to form the proteoglycans, the actually building block in cartilage. Thus the gelatine, glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate that you can extract in your own kitchen has proved far more affective in the treatment of arthritis than glucosamine and chondroitin on their own.
INTERESTING LINKS
|
