What is Glucosamine?

Each person and animal produces a certain amount of glucosamine within their bodies. As you grow older, your body loses the capacity to make enough glucosamine, so the cartilage in your weight-bearing joints, such as the hips, knees, and hands is destroyed, then hardens and forms bone spurs, causing pain, deformed joints, limited joint movement and limping.

There have been many double blind placebo controlled trials and studies done on glucosamine. In many trials and studies, glucosamine has shown to be very effective.

• Glucosamine assists in osteoarthritis pain relief
• Glucosamine assists in articular joint pain relief
• Glucosamine assists in rehabilitating damaged cartilage
• Glucosamine assists in slowing deterioration of cartilage from osteoarthritis
• Glucosamine assists in improving mobility
• Glucosamine assists in stimulating the production of proteoglycans, glycosaminoglycans, and synovial fluid

With such great news spreading very quickly, the glucosamine industry became very large. Almost every major nutraceutical or vitamin company put out a glucosamine product, and today it can be bought in just about every food store, health food store, vitamin store, wellness clinic, and chiropractors office.

However, in the rush to gain market share with their glucosamine product, companies often put out products with little regard to the quality of the product being produced. They rushed to the market and did not take the time to do essential testing procedures like perform lab analysis on their products. They used medium or low grade glucosamine products to save money and they produced glucosamine in pill or capsule form.

All glucosamine products are not the same. There are six main factors that you need to analyze when selecting a glucosamine product. These are:

• Amount of glucosamine per daily dose
• Type of glucosamine
• Quality of Ingredients
• Delivery System
• Synergistic Ingredients
• Price Per Day

One of the most important of these factors is the system of delivery. In a rush to market these products in 1999, 2000, and 2001, the very large majority of companies simply put their glucosamine in pill or capsule form. However, with glucosamine and all other vitamins and supplements, it is well known that liquids are absorbed faster and more effectively than solids. Absorption is a very important to look at, simply because if you are not absorbing the glucosamine, you will not have any relief whatsoever no matter how much you take.