Rx for the aging epidemic

MANILA, Philippines – Since Time magazine labeled osteoarthritis as a “coming epidemic,” the disease that claims the joints of the aging population has gained global notoriety. Osteoarthritis is that kind of arthritis that results from the wearing and tearing of our joints’ lining, the cartilage. That is why no one is exempt from this condition, as one grows old. For the past three decades, glucosamine preparations have been positioned and marketed not to fight against this expected wear and tear, but to help the body recover from this daily pounding we subject our joints to. It is indeed a race between degeneration and regeneration.

Earlier studies have shown that glucosamine sulfate is effective in not only relieving pain and swelling but actually delaying the progression of the degenerative disease. Our drugstores have been flooded with different brands and preparations of glucosamine, but are all these preparations the same? 

A couple of years ago, this promise was challenged when an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) claimed that glucosamine, alone or in combination with chondroitin and aspirin, was found to be ineffective in relieving symptoms much less delaying the progression of osteoarthritis. What that particular study failed to stress is that they used glucosamine hydrochloride, and not the therapeutically approved sulfate form, in the testing of their almost 2,000 osteoarthritic subjects. 

Two landmark studies stand out in this distinction between glucosamine hydrochloride and glucosamine sulfate: the Glucosamine Arthritis Intervention Trial (or GAIT, as published in the NEJM) and the Glucosamine Unum In Die Efficacy (or GUIDE) Trial. The GAIT study made use of the over-the-counter hydrochloride form and concluded that the drug is not effective at all. 

Not only did crystalline glucosamine sulfate provide the most immediate and evident relief from osteoarthritis and its symptoms in short-term studies of six months, it also demonstrated the most consistent, safest, and most effective results in long-term studies (of three to five years) in terms of preservation of joint structure and disease modification.

Interestingly, crystalline glucosamine sulfate manufactured by Rottapharm has been consistently used in more than 160 pre-clinical and clinical studies, administered to more than 6,000 osteoarthritis patients.  Rottapharm crystalline glucosamine sulfate is the substance also referred to in over 90 percent of published scientific literature. Thanks to their patented method to stabilize glucosamine sulfate in crystalline form utilizing sodium chloride, the safer and more preferred stabilizing agent in glucosamine sulfate preparation.

It is this kind of evidence-based medicine that most medical practitioners hinge their reputation on. Indeed, not all glucosamine preparations are the same. This is the reason why the buying public should be more discriminating about the products they patronize on the market.

Rottapharm CGS is the original glucosamine sulfate prescribed for the treatment of osteoarthritis. Crystalline glucosamine sulfate (Viartril-S) is available in capsules and in powder form in sachets, and exclusively distributed by PL Asia Pacific (Phils) Inc. (call 887-2423), the licensed distributor of Rottapharm products in the Philippines.