Glucosamine is a precursor for glycosaminoglycans, a major component of joint cartilage. Supplementing with glucosamine may help to prevent cartilage degeneration and associated arthritic pain..

Note that you will need to take glucosamine for weeks to months before improvements in symptoms are noticed. So when you trial glucosamine to see if it works for you may need to keep taking it for three months to get optimal results.

Glucosamine Dosage

A typical dosage of glucosamine is 1,500 mg per day.

Glucosamine should be considered a very good alternative to NSAIDs in moderate to severe arthritic joint pain given its safety and low side effect profile. Taking paracetamol with Glucosamine may enable you to avoid taking NSAID’s like diclofenac, naproxen and ibuprofen that have risky safety profiles.

Glucosamine not only safely and effectively eases the joint discomfort of arthritis but may actually slow down the progression of the disease.
Adverse effects, which are usually mild and infrequent, include stomach upset, constipation, diarrhea, headache and rash.

Glucosamine is usually derived from the shells of shellfish and therefore it is not recommended that you take this product if you have a shellfish allergy. That said the allergen connected to a shellfish allergy is within the flesh of the shellfish. Therefore it is probably safe even for those with shellfish allergies but we recommend you trial glucosamine under professional supervision initially and that you do not change brands.

Results from GAIT (Glucosamine / Chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial)

• Results revealed that the combination of glucosamine and chondroitin is better than placebo but the benefits seem to depend on severity of pain.
• In patients with moderate-to-severe osteoarthritis knee pain, 79.2% taking glucosamine/chondroitin combination experienced pain relief.

Glucosamine