Food supplement study offers encouraging results for osteoarthritis sufferers
glucosamine sulphate can help to reduce the long-term suffering
associated with osteoarthritis,...
Scientists have produced evidence that the food supplement glucosamine sulphate can help to reduce the long-term suffering associated with osteoarthritis, the BBC reports. Led by Professor Jean Reginster, researchers at the CHU Centre Ville Liege in Belgium, gave patients with osteoarthritis a daily 1,500 mg dose of a form of the compound, or a placebo over a period of three years. The researchers took radiograph images of the patients' knees while lifting a weight after one and three years. They found that the space between the joints of the knee narrowed significantly over time in the 106 patients who received the placebo. After three years the average loss was 0.31mm. There was no such narrowing among patients on glucosamine sulphate. Those patients who completed the full course of treatment showed a 20-25% improvement in their symptoms, compared with slight worsening of symptoms in the placebo group. A larger scale study is currently being undertaken in the US.
