Glucosamine gets new validation as a way to relieve arthritis pain

People with arthritis who take glucosamine have said it makes their joints feel better, and some studies have confirmed these reports. Now a three-year study at the Prague Institute of Rheumatology has confirmed that glucosamine appears to stop the narrowing of the space in the knee joint that typically occurs with arthritis.

More than 100 men and women with mild to moderately severe knee arthritis for at least a decade took 1,500 milligrams of glucosamine sulfate or a placebo once a day for three years. X-rays of participants’ knee joints, taken when they began the study and every year thereafter, showed that the critical space where the bones of the leg meet was more likely to narrow in those taking the placebo than in those taking glucosamine.

In arthritis, the cartilage that normally covers the ends of the bones is damaged so the bones can rub together. At three years, 14 of the 56 people taking placebos had severe narrowing, a sign that arthritis has become worse, compared with 5 of the 66 taking the supplement.

-- Dianne Partie Lange

Archives of Internal Medicine, Oct. 14, Volume 162, Pages 2,113-2,122.