Duuhhhh! Any real physician with half a brain has known for years that glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate "natural supplements" are a completely worthless joke. Only FDA-immune infomercial scam artists, "Holistic Practitioners", and the desparately stupid still believe that these expensive "sugar pills" are anything other than a huge unethical rip off. So just go and pour yourself another pitcher of "Supple".......and enjoy the great weight removed from your wallet!

I hope that people don't let this report scare them away from using Glucosamine where it really does work, and that is for Osteoarthritis in the knees. I am 60 and have OA in both knees, and I can say that over the course of the last 3 years, my pain got less and less and is finally gone. I can still irritate it by torquing my knees the wrong way, but in general, Glucosamine is successful over time taking it twice a day, along with a calcium supplement. I have been using the triple strength Move Free or Flexamin. By the way, it was a medical doctor who originally recommended it for me, not a health foods quack.

Glucosamine what? European studies have already shown that glucosamine hydrochloride is no more effective on joint pain than sugar pills. They have also shown that glucosamine sulfate is effective. I believe that the sulfate is all that you can buy over there. Health food stores in this country are still allowed to sell the hydrochloride. I tell my relatives that it's a waste of money.

I have to say that I use MSNBC every day for my news. However, I am always disappointed at the bias the website has against nutritional supplementation. Most of the studies they utilize in their articles are not using the amounts of supplements necessary for any effect on the patient. I have to say that this article does not supply the link to the study, nor explains the actual amounts of the supplement, form used, and what other adjuncts were used. I really do believe that MSNBC is bought out by pharm companies to help push their products and stop people utilizing other techniques. In my experience Glucosamine has great benefits for arthritis in hands and knees, plus some benefit to the lower back. I cannot fault that this particular study may be right in that glucosamine is not the best choice for low back pain, but the way it is worded makes it seem as if the product is completely worthless. My advice would be to find a good glucosamine supplement that is not from your local drug store but available only through health care practitioners. One in particular is Ultimate Glucosamine which is in the form called N-actyl-D Glucosamine. It is better absorbed by the body and has a significant dosages to actually have an effect on the body. And no I was not paid by them to state this, just someone who has had wonderful results with the product and would like to help others with chronic joint pains.

"pain Specailist" How do you become one ?and what is it you do? Because a "Specialist never seems to cure pain Only cause more

I'm a Hurricane expert Really than when will the next one hit and where? How do we prevent them? Without Satilles weather planes maps computers You don't know a lot for an"EXPERT "Specialist"?

I have arthritis mid-back caused by lifting years ago. VA certified with x-rays, scans, etc. Before I took this useless supplement, I had to search for a position comfortable enough for me to fall asleep in bed. Four quack doctors recommended it to me, but I waited a year before taking it...now I play golf twice a week with no pain...must be space aliens who caused my pain to abate. That said, I'm sure others don't get the same results...so, what is the "truth?"

I asked a very respected orthopaedic surgeon if this had any value. He looked me right in the eye and said " not unless you own the company. It has never been proven to do anything. The last study I saw showed the placebo with better results".

Before and after I have wondered how these supplement companies were able to get away with this. Big $ for a bottle of pills that claim to be a wonder drug. With one little disclaimer on the bottle. "The Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated these statements". Many of these things have been on the market for years.

What ever happened to "Truth in Advertising"? More milking of the American consumer compliments of our bought and paid for Congress. Cut funding for oversight departments to the bone so they can not do their jobs. Allow Big Pharma and others to write legislation and control tests/studies. Only results favorable to them will ever see the light of day.

And now with an activist right wing Supreme Court that puts business concerns above individual rights.....LOL consumers.

Only in America.

that's just amazing. of course doctors don't want you to get well, otherwise how could they bilk you out of all that money and be so tight with the drug companies... that's who they're sucking up to, the drug companies and the insurance companies who along with the military and the gun companies are scaring the daylights out of you and holding the country hostage with their pre-occupation with war, death and disinformation! eat that repo man you clown!

Many good friends, including my wife, not just swear by glucosamine, but depend upon it to function. On bad days, they double the dose for a few days/ weeks.

Thus one must ask, WHO PAID FOR THE STUDY???? Unless they can prove unconditionally that NO drug company money was involved, then the study must be considered suspect, if not fatally flawed.

I was poisoned by the big pharma and the drug companies when I was young and now I'm being poisoned by the cell phone carriers with their base stations and masts everywhere and big time on my roof...that's the next big tragedy yet to unfold...americans killing americans, great just what bin Laden wants...

and can you tell me...where the heck is bin Laden? and where the heck is Bush! two people just right for each other!

i had chronic knee pain from overuse during my twenties and thought i was going to be headed under a knife. a guy in my gym recommended i get glucosamine chondroitin msm. in 3 weeks the pain was totally gone and never returned. it's like it put oil on a rusty joint. when people have ever mentioned knee pain to me, i always first recommend that. some people it helps, some it don't.

For the knees glucosamine worked wonders for me. Several years ago my knees were hurting so much that I couldn't kneel down for more than 10 seconds or so. I looked around on the internet for info about knee pain and I saw a ad for glucosamine sulfate. One morning after about a month of taking I found myself staying down in a kneeling position. I didn't know what to expect from glucosamine sulfate but this was the result for me. I'm in my fifties and had been a runner for about 25 years. I'm not really a big person (6-1, 190lbs) but I imagine running probably took a toll on my knees.

I have never taken vitamins and I never will.. it is all a bunch of money making hocus pocus crap as far as I am concerned. Dr. Dean once said that if you have any cancer cells the vitamins will actually feed them and make them grow!!! Eat right and exercise.. that is all you need.

America and its Knees: Pardon me for assuming too much, but a brief review of the Advertising industry, showed that the pharmaceutical industry spends 55 Billion dollars on advertising compared with 32 Billion dollars on research. These amounts, with the aid and support from Congress could mean that real campaign contributions will follow through in the election. Reassuring just in case, we should run short of corporate contributions this year.

Also, if you do not have enough pain already, this may help relieve it, the USA imports 280 Billion in Oil every year, which should hurt? More painful than that is the estimate that Corporations spend on media and advertisement a whopping 400 Billion dollars /year.

Your family is safe knowing that Imported Oil and Media Advertising are worth $6,000 year/family.

(USA has about 113 million households)

Maybe it's not really for pain....

"Glucosamine is a compound found naturally in the body, made from glucose and the amino acid glutamine. Glucosamine is needed to produce glycosaminoglycan, a molecule used in the formation and repair of cartilage and other body tissues."

Pain relief is perhaps as a result of re-generated cartilage......BUT, before using it I would read everything I could find on it. I have seen a warning, I believe it was for those who have kidney problems not to use it.

Probably didn't work because it cannot be patented and big pharma can't make big bucks on it.

I have osteoarthritis in my knees. Trust me, no one could have been more skeptical of the benefits of glucosamine than I was when my orthopod suggested it. However, speaking only for myself, I can tell you that glucosamine with chondroitin completely eliminated the discomfort I regularly experienced after a long workout. I take it twice a day now and you couldn't get me to stop. If you're wondering whether it can help you, give it a try. It might work for you, it might not. Who knows? But what have you got to lose?

My husband since he was young could tell you when the weather was changing and if it was going to rain from the pain in his knees. Glucosamine works for him and I never have to hear him complain. I take it for my ankles and knees and unless I'm really overworking it helps a great deal.

Hey RheumMD, you are so wrong!Glucosamine and Chondroitin works great for me! they've helped me through the tough times over the years. This is a good thing since NSAIDS are highly pushed for arthiritis and I'm alergic to NSAIDS> No Aleve for me!

Works for arthritis in my hands. Stopped taking it because I don't really like to take meds of any kind, and now I can really tell the difference. Will start taking it again. Also, a Pharmacist I know, said that all older adults should take a baby aspirin and a Centrum multi vitamin daily.

I have been taking glucosamine/chondrotin for 5 years, and it helps me a lot with my arthritis pain. If I forget, my hip hurts, if I remember, there is no pain. It works for me.

I take MSM/Glucosamine and it helps me. I do back exercises all the time and I thought I would stop and see if I didn't need it anymore. The first place I started having pain was my ankles and knees. My neck is also bothered if I don't continue taking this supplement. I do half the dose, though and do not take as much as they say. I figure there will be enough time to get there as I age.

I learned it helps by forgetting to take it. So how could it be a placebo affect when I wasn't even aware helping my pain, until I sat down and really thought back on it?

I take other vitamins periodically that I feel are important. As most people I don't eat a balanced diet and this is important.

Doctors have their use and place. But mostly they are on the payroll of big pharma. The selling and giving away of freebies to doctors and hospitals is relentless and constant. You need to work in that industry to see it. Rheumatologists, aside from injecting synvisc into the knees, push pain pills, as do Pain Management MDs. The pills manage the pain, but the patient gets worse and worse, and dopey from all the opiates. I don't even want to think about the side effects on the organs such as liver and kidneys.

Thank God for the pain pills though because the alternative is pure torture to those suffering from advanced osteo-arthritis.

I am in total disagreement with the comments made by RHEUMMD. I worked on offshore production platforms for 27 years, and during the last five years I started having so much pain in both my knees I was wearing stretchable braces on both knees to deal with the pain. Working on these platforms requires a lot of climbing up and down stairways every day. I saw the commercial about Glusocamine-Chondroitin on tv and tried it. It is not a "work right away" type procedure. Given time to work my pain in both knees went away completely. I have been retired since 1999 and had quit taking the capsules. Two years ago my pain returned in my left knee to the point where I was limping with every step. I resumed the dosage I had been taking and guess what? NO MORE PAIN. I can't promise it works for everyone but it certainly works for me.