Glucosamine, a good medicine for joint repair, or a useless placebo? How to eat right?

Aunt Zhang, because when she woke up in the morning, she always felt stiff, stiff and restricted in her joints, so she went to the hospital for a check and was diagnosed with early osteoarthritis.

The doctor prescribed glucosamine sulfate for Aunt Zhang's condition. This reminded Auntie Zhang of an imported health product that her good sister had also sent her before, the main ingredient of which was also glucosamine.

This made Aunt Zhang curious, what is this glucosamine? Is it really that effective for osteoarthritis? Should I take the health care products my sister bought, or the medicine prescribed by the doctor?

1. Osteoarthritis has a high disability rate, ranking second in the world

The incidence of osteoarthritis is very high, especially in middle-aged and elderly patients. It is estimated that the total number of patients with osteoarthritis in China has exceeded 150 million .

In simple terms, osteoarthritis is an inflammatory disease that occurs in human joints and their surrounding tissues and is caused by factors such as inflammation, infection, and degeneration . Its disability rate is extremely high, ranking second in the world . When the disease occurs, patients not only have to endure severe pain, but their normal activities are also restricted, and life treatment is greatly reduced.

What is even more troublesome is that although osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease, it has been younger in recent years, especially women, who are more likely to suffer from osteoarthritis, which is about 1.85 times that of men.

This is mainly because women's estrogen levels drop significantly with age, especially after the age of 45, resulting in gradually obvious osteoporosis, uneven load on the inside and outside of the knee joint, and eventually articular cartilage damage. Osteoarthritis.

2. Glucosamine is a "lubricant" for joint repair?

At the current medical level, the main treatments for osteoarthritis are to relieve pain symptoms, to minimize the progression of the disease, to correct the deformity with surgery, or to restore joint function. Among them, glucosamine is the most commonly used drug.

Glucosamine, the full name of glucosamine, is an essential nutrient for the formation of cartilage cells, and is also a natural tissue component that constitutes articular cartilage. If it is lacking, it will easily lead to articular cartilage wear, loss of synovial fluid, and induce osteoarthritis and other diseases .

Common glucosamine preparations include glucosamine sulfate and glucosamine hydrochloride, which can be used as medicines and health foods in China.

However, it should be emphasized that glucosamine health products cannot replace drugs, but can only be used as dietary supplements . Blind use may cause side effects such as nausea, constipation, abdominal distension, and diarrhea. Therefore, it is recommended to take it under the guidance of a doctor.

Does taking glucosamine really relieve the symptoms of joint pain?

The National Health Research Institute of the United States has done a set of randomized controlled trials for this purpose, recruiting 662 participants, and letting them take 1500mg glucosamine or 1500mg glucosamine + 1200mg chondroitin every day for 6 months.

After 2 years of follow-up, it was found that the knee pain symptoms of these volunteers were slightly relieved, but the effect was not as good as the placebo group, especially in patients with moderate to severe joints, the difference was more obvious.

Therefore, patients with osteoarthritis can try to take glucosamine , but consult a doctor before taking it. If you cannot see the effect after taking it, it is not recommended to continue taking it. For people without joint problems, supplementation is not recommended. Glucosamine is not recommended for the elderly to take glucosamine to prevent osteoarthritis.

3. Joint pain, is it enough to eat glucosamine?

At present, the treatment of osteoarthritis mainly includes basic treatment, drug treatment, surgical treatment, etc. Among them, the drug treatment should follow the step-by-step principle. Wang Jian, deputy director of joint surgery of the Southern Hospital of Southern Medical University, reminded: the degree of pain is different, and the drugs used are also different. Pay attention to individualized medicine.

① Step-by-step medication

The use of painkillers in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis is mainly to relieve pain and reduce inflammation. Only by eliminating inflammation can it help relieve the pain symptoms of patients.

Medication is mainly divided into 3 stages: acetaminophen - NSAIDs - opioids .

**## ② local analgesia in joints

The use of drugs with analgesic effects, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug emulsions, ointments, patches, and capsaicin , can effectively help quickly relieve pain.

It should be noted that in order to achieve analgesic effect, the dosage should be sufficient, but it is generally not recommended to use it for more than 12 hours.

③Injection into the joint cavity

There are generally two options: one is hormones plus a small amount of anesthetics, that is, "blocking"; the other is sodium hyaluronate, "lubricating joints."

**## ④Chondroprotective agent

Including glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, doxycycline , etc., so in general, glucosamine is mainly used to improve and protect articular cartilage clinically, but to relieve joint pain, targeted medication is required.

**In addition, the daily care of osteoarthritis is also very important, usually do the following 2 points:

1. Maintain a healthy weight and diet

If you are overweight, the load on the joints is also relatively large, which can accelerate the progression of osteoarthritis. Therefore, if you are overweight, you should lose weight by exercising and adjusting your diet in time.

In terms of diet, try to achieve a balanced diet, eat more fruits and vegetables, eat less animal oil, internal organs, and limit the intake of sugar.

2. Actively participate in sports

This also helps to strengthen the muscles around the joints, blood flow, which protects our joints. However, exercise is also about methods. Try to avoid long-term running, jumping, squatting and other movements, such as long-distance running, square dance for a long time, and horse stance, so as not to increase the load on the joints.

In addition, when exercising, you can also use auxiliary facilities such as knee pads and handles to assist joint movement, thereby protecting our joints.

3. Pay attention to cold protection and keep warm

Especially in summer, don’t stay in an air-conditioned room for a long time, and don’t often eat cold foods such as cold drinks, because cold and humidity will also accelerate joint degeneration, so it is very important to properly keep warm if you want to protect your joints.

In addition, when carrying heavy objects, pay attention to keep it at the height of the waist, and it is best not to move things up and down the stairs.

Summary: Osteoarthritis has a high incidence and has a great impact on the patient's life after the onset. Therefore, once the onset of the disease, timely treatment is critical. The treatment of osteoarthritis requires targeted medication, rather than simply using glucosamine. In short, everyone should follow the doctor's advice.

References:

[1] "The total number of sick people exceeds 150 million! Don't Procrastinate Osteoarthritis". Service Number of Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University. 2021-11-06

[2] "Joints are not good, is "glucosamine" useful? 》. Nutritionist Gu Zhongyi. 2020-11-05

[3] "Ladder drug treatment of osteoarthritis, a comprehensive interpretation of the article! ". Bone language has cloud. 2022-02-21

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