Fit or Fat - Diet and Fitness Blog

Arthritis patients, using dietary supplement chondroitin to relieve joint pain may be using it in vain because it is no better than a placebo for reducing pain.

Study, conducted by the Swiss researchers that published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, came out promulgating this fact after reviewing data from 20 clinical trials, which tracked more than 3,846 patients. During the course of study, experts found no evidence, showing chondroitin effective against osteoarthritis. This finding stands head to head to the assumption, under whose impel chondroitin is considered quite effective against osteoarthritis. Chondroitin is generally combined with glucosamine, which is also a supplement.

Interestingly, experts found no side effects in using this combination (chondroitin/glucosamine), therefore, patients who feel better after using this supplement could go on using it. Unveiling similar opinion, Dr. David Felson who is an osteoarthritis researcher at Boston University said:

If patients say they benefit from chondroitin, I see no harm in encouraging them to continue taking it.

Well, this finding can be good for patients who have been spending on this combination, despite the fact that it doesn’t help relieving pain but this revelation is really a bad one, especially for the producers of chondroitin/glucosamine combination, since it may hit their business hard, which is spiraling higher and higher as according to figures cited by the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), annual sales of the chondroitin/glucosamine combination were $810 million just in the year of 2005. According to experts, the demand for the chondroitin component of this pill alone constitutes a $1 billion-per-year market in the United States. Commenting on this spiraling business of combination (chondroitin/glucosamine) Andrew Shao, PhD, the CRN’s vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs remarks:

Sales continue to grow at a phenomenal pace.

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