According to a new epidemiological study conducted by West Virginia University, glucosamine/ chondroitin supplements may reduce overall mortality rates just as efficiently as regular exercise. The study appears in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
 
“Does this mean that if you get off work at five o’clock one day, you should just skip the gym, take a glucosamine pill and go home instead? That’s not what we suggest. Keep exercising, but the thought that taking a pill would also be beneficial is intriguing,” Dana King, professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine, who led the study, said.
 
Glucosamine is an amino sugar, one of the most abundant monosaccharides. Millions of Americans take glucosamine supplements, predominantly for arthritis pain relief, due to its role as a precursor to the formation and repair of cartilage and other tissues.
 
While researchers have not yet substantiated clinical significance in glucosamine/chondroitin’s ability to reduce arthritic pain, several studies have surprisingly found significant reductions in mortality rates across populations observed.
 
King and his research partner, Jun Xiang, a WVU health data analyst, assessed data from 16,686 adults who completed the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2010, which was merged with 2015 mortality figures. All of the participants were 40 years old or older. 658 of the patients identified reported that they had taken glucosamine/chondroitin for a year or longer at the time of enrollment. Of the participants, there were 3,366 total deaths, 674 of which were due to cardiovascular disease.
 
After controlling for various factors, such as age, sex, smoking status, and activity level, researchers found that taking glucosamine, or chondroitin, a larger molecule also found in cartilage every day for a year or longer was associated with a 39% reduction in all-cause mortality. It was also linked to a 65% reduction in cardiovascular related deaths, which is the sum of deaths from stroke, coronary artery disease, and heart disease.
 
“Once we took everything into account, the impact was pretty significant,” King said. He noted that because the study was an epidemiological observational study rather than a clinical trial, it doesn’t offer definitive proof or insights into a protective mechanism explaining that glucosamine/chondroitin makes death less likely.
 
While an explanation behind the protective effect of this supplement remains to be found, the authors described some theories as to how the reduction in mortality risk might be occurring.
 
“Inflammation and cytokine effects have been suggested as one of the possible mechanisms for the effects of glucosamine and chondroitin on mortality,” the authors said. “In a double-blind, randomized, crossover study in adult men and women, Navarro and colleagues found that serum C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations were 23% lower after glucosamine and chondroitin compared to placebo […] other investigations have found an association between suppression of certain phosphorylation pathways and the anticancer effect of glucosamine. Still other studies have found that glucosamine can reduce kidney injury in rats through attenuation of oxidative stress. Glucosamine has also been found to influence LDL cholesterol size and binding capacity in a study of aortic smooth muscle, a mechanism that could potentially reduce the development of atherosclerosis and subsequent cardiovascular disease.”
 
The authors said that because this study was controlled for several other leading factors influencing all-cause mortality, the association between supplementation and mortality risk could be due to another factor, but that it’s not likely.