Glucosamine and Chondroitin may Fight Cancer and Extend Lifespan!

Hi All,

With all of the different sources of information (actually, mostly misinformation) coming from all quarters in the media, it’s often difficult for people to decide if a supplement is safe and effective.

This is certainly true for glucosamine and chondroitin. I am personally a big fan of these two molecules and use them whenever I have certain kinds of joint pain for two reasons: 1) there is good research to show that they help accelerate the repair of joint tissue by providing the raw materials that joints need and 2) because years ago, when I used these supplements for long-term tendonitis in my left elbow joint that had lasted for 18 months, they worked miraculously quickly and the pain never came back. This second reason is not very “scientific” but when your training has been affected for a year and a half and you’ve been in pain and discomfort and then the only thing you do differently for 10 days is take a supplement and the joint completely heals, the only logical conclusion is that it was the supplement that was responsible.

The only question about these two ingredients that hadn’t been fully established is: “are they completely safe”? It is possible that, for instance, they could cause stiffness or lack of elasticity in muscles - especially muscles in the heart and blood vessels, which could lead to blood pressure issues via arteriosclerosis? Or any number of other possible unintended side effects? Ideally, to confirm their safety, we would need to see a study, which followed a large group of people taking glucosamine for a long duration and see if those people suffered from higher rates of certain diseases or had shorter lifespans.

Well, such a study has recently been published in the "European Journal of Epidemiology". It showed that when a very large group of Americans who took glucosamine and/or chondroitin for eight years were compared to those who didn’t, the results suggest that it was not only safe but they seemed to decrease the risk of cancer, respiratory disease and death!

Now this doesn’t "prove" that these supplements caused these effects but it is strong evidence that, if anything, they are healthy...and maybe very healthy! So with this last piece of the puzzle having been looked at, not only would we now unreservedly recommend these two joint supplements for knee, elbow and certain other joint complaints, but it may even be a good supplement for overall health!