July 27, 2007 – Despite its growing popularity and the positive results of a few reviews of clinical trials, the efficacy of glucosamine in relieving the symptoms of osteoarthritis still lacks consensus in the scientific community.
Boston researchers just published the results of an analysis1 of 15 clinical trials. According to them, the conclusive results published to date would be skewed because they come from studies funded by the industry. Additionally, glucosamine hydrochloride is completely ineffective while glucosamine sulfate is said to be marginally effective at best, they claim.
Another sound of the bell
But the review Arthritis & Rheumatism, in which this study appears, also publishes, in the same issue, a contradictory article signed by Dr Jean-Yves Reginster, a Belgian rheumatology expert associated with the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the two articles agree on one point: the ineffectiveness of glucosamine hydrochloride.
Pharmacist Jean-Yves Dionne, a Quebec expert in natural health products (NHP), points out that glucosamine hydrochloride is rarely sold as a dietary supplement: “It has mainly been used, he points out, in so-called independent clinical trials (not funded by the NHP industry) that actually gave negative results. “
According to the Dr Jean-Yves Reginster, an industry-funded trial will not necessarily lead to skewed results. If this were the case, the majority of studies done by pharmaceutical companies on synthetic drugs would also have to be rejected, he argues.
Glucosamine or anti-inflammatory?
The authors of the American meta-analysis are also wrong to assert that glucosamine sulfate is only marginally effective, adds the rheumatology expert. Synthetic drugs did not perform better in the trials leading up to their approval as therapeutic agents for osteoarthritis, he says.
The Dr Jean-Yves Reginster underlines that at least two recent syntheses3-4 concluded that glucosamine sulfate was effective in relieving pain associated with osteoarthritis of the knee. This effectiveness would be greater than that of synthetic anti-inflammatory drugs since the relief provided would be more durable, specify the researchers of the study. In addition, glucosamine does not appear to cause any of the side effects attributed to conventional medications prescribed for this disease.
Note that glucosamine sulfate is considered a prescription drug to relieve rheumatic pain in all countries of the European Union as well as in about fifty other countries. In the United States and Canada, it is considered a dietary supplement.
Pierre Lefrançois – PasseportSanté.net
According to HealthDay News.
1. Vlad SC, Lavalley MP, et al. Glucosamine for pain in osteoarthritis: Why do trial results differ?Arthritis Rheum. 2007 Jun 28; 56 (7): 2267-2277
2. Reginster JY. The efficacy of glucosamine sulfate in osteoarthritis: Financial and nonfinancial conflict of interest.Arthritis Rheum. 2007 Jun 28; 56 (7): 2105-2110
3. Towheed TE, Maxwell L, et al. Glucosamine therapy for treating osteoarthritis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2005 Apr 18; (2): CD002946.
4. Richy F, Bruyere O, et al. Structural and symptomatic efficacy of glucosamine and chondroitin in knee osteoarthritis: a comprehensive meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med. 2003 Jul 14; 163 (13): 1514-22.
-1605199003.jpg)
