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Its "just" in Athritis, but there might be some relevance for MS too, as Glucosamine might offer a potential future treatment for MS
In favour of the supplements it has been noticed that the placebo group had some hard to explain "clinically important reduction" in loss of cartilage.

Link

--Frank

Here's the actual story which mentions that treatment for certain groups showed "a trend toward improvement" and that only 1.5g a day of glucosamine was used. I should think a great deal more might be better but then I just love piling down the pills!
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/jour ... 7/abstract

Since we're talking glucosamine, I'll repost one of the abstracts from the ECTRIMS et al conference a couple of weeks ago:


Effects of glucosamine sulfate on multiple sclerosis progression: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial

V. Shaygannejad1; F. Ashtari1; M. Janghorbani2
1. Isfahan Neuroscience Research Center ( INRC), Isfahan, Iran.
2. Isfahan University of Medical Sciences ( IUMS), Isfahan, Iran.

Glucosamine, a natural glucose derivative and an essential component of glycoproteins and proteoglycans, has been safely used to relieve osteoarthritis, but there is no evidence to support its use in multiple sclerosis (MS).

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of glucosamine sulfate in the prevention of progression of MS.

One hundred and twenty definite MS patients age 17 to 55 years were randomly allocated to receive a 6-month treatment course of either oral glucosamine sulfate (1500 mg/day) or placebo. Response to treatment was assessed at 6 months after start of therapy.

The results of the study demonstrated that a slight but significant improvement in relapse rate occurred in the glucosamine sulfate group. Of the 60 patients treated with glucosamine sulfate, the mean (SD) of relapse rate decreased from 1.2 (0.7) at baseline to 0.5 (0.6) at the end of the study period (P<0.01). Correspondingly, in the 60 patients treated with placebo, the mean (SD) of relapse rate did not change. After 6 months, 53.3% of patients receiving glucosamine sulfate remained relapse-free compared with 48.3% of those given placebo. The average Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score at the end of trial did not changed between glucosamine sulfate and placebo group (mean difference, 0.2; 95% CI, -0.4, 0.8).

Thus, this study suggests that treatment with glucosamine sulfate significantly reduces relapse rate in patients with MS. No significant differences were seen between glucosamine sulfate and placebo on the mean (SD) EDSS.

If you do a search on the word "glucosamine," you will find MANY threads devoted to the topic. I have chosen to post in this one because I'm sure that Dignan will welcome all points of view. It appears this article would contradict the preceding article's statement "that treatment with glucosamine sulfate significantly reduces relapse rate in patients with MS."

If excess insulin is involved in initiating MS, one would expect that taking glucosamine would worsen MS while worsening insulin resistance (a.k.a. hyperinsulinemia), as this 2007 article states – "at risk for worsening insulin resistance and vascular function" (CCSVI?)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17570985

Once again, I suspect that insulin is at the root of many problems; perhaps the caustic hormone is damaging the blood vessels which results in CCSVI.

Just wanted to share my finding.