benefit from glucosamine sulfate

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Postmenopausal women can benefit from glucosamine

sulfate

 

Evidence from two three-year studies indicates that

glucosamine sulfate reduces osteoarthritis (OA)

progression in postmenopausal women with knee

osteoarthritis.

 

A study, reported in the publication Menopause,

consisted of a combination of two three-year,

randomized, placebo-controlled independent studies,

which evaluated the effect of glucosamine sulfate on

symptoms and structure modification in postmenopausal

women with knee OA.

 

Minimal joint space width was determined at the

beginning of the studies and at the end of the

three-year period. Symptoms were scored by the

algo-functional WOMAC index. The self-administered

WOMAC index measures three dimensions of pain,

disability and joint stiffness in knee and hip OA.

 

Of the 414 participants randomized in the two studies,

319 were postmenopausal women. For three years the

women were given glucosamine sulfate or a placebo. At

the end of the three-year period, postmenopausal

participants in the glucosamine sulfate groups showed

no joint space narrowing. Participants in the placebo

group, however, experienced narrowing of the joint

space.

 

According to researchers, “This analysis, focusing on

a large cohort of postmenopausal women, demonstrated

for the first time that a pharmacological intervention

for OA has a disease-modifying effect in this

particular population, the most frequently affected by

knee OA.”

 

Menopause 11(2):138-143, 2004