Glucosamine/chondroitin
Glucosamine, a natural compound found in cartilage, is often combined in a pill with chondroitin, a natural compound found in connective tissue. A new epidemiological study looking at all-cause mortality suggests that, even if glucosamine/chondroitin pills don’t alleviate arthritis pain, they may help you live longer.
Dana King is a doctor specializing in Family Medicine. He’s also a professor at (and chair of) the Department of Family Medicine at the West Virginia University School of Medicine. Knowing well the relationship between physical fitness and longevity, King is active — he’s a cyclist — and he takes a daily glucosamine/chondroitin supplement daily.
“There’s no definitive evidence that glucosamine/chondroitin supplements are effective against arthritic pain,” he admits. “Still, I’ve been taking them for a while and many of my cycling friends do, as well.”
That’s probably all for the better. In its November/December 2020 issue, The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine published the results of a study that King did in collaboration with West Virginia University health data analyst Jun Xiang. That study matched 1999-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data as reported by nearly 16,686 adults over age 40 to mortality data from 2015. Of the survey participants, 658 (or 3.98%) indicated that they’d been taking a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement for a year or longer. The mortality data showed that those 658 participants had an all-cause mortality rate that was 39% lower than that of other study participants. For cardiovascular-related deaths (including stroke, coronary artery disease and heart disease), the glucosamine/chondroitin group’s mortality rate was 65% lower.
The data were adjusted for age, sex, race, education, smoking status, and physical activity.
What dose were the participants taking? What brand? How faithfully?
“This was an epidemiological study that was a series of cross sectional studies,” King pointed out. “So we have limited data on dose and brand/formulation.”
Epidemiological studies like this one factor in remembered behavior, and memory can be fallible. The studies’ conclusions, therefore, often benefit from support by prospective studies — ones that control variables and watch for specific outcomes. That is an approach that King endorses.
King and Xiang’s paper points out that a 2019 UK epidemiological study tied glucosamine supplements to reduced death from cardiovascular causes, and a 2012 epidemiological study led by researchers in Washington state showed reductions in cancer and respiratory disease deaths in participants who had regularly taken glucosamine/chondroitin supplements.
“A good next step would be a study that enlists a very large group of people and, over a long period, records their supplement use and their health outcomes,” King observed.
