Glucosamine Chondroitin

What is Glucosamine + Chondroitin Sulphate?

Glucosamine Chondroitin Combination provides clinically studied qualities of these nutrients for optimizing joint health.

Glucosamine Sulfate is an essential component of joints and intestinal tissue and is involved in the production of synovial fluid, which lubricates the joints. Sulfur is also utilized in the production of cartilage tissue.

Chondroitin Sulfate stimulates the synthesis of hyaluronic acid which is the lubricant for joints as well as a major component of connective tissue in the skin.

This substance looks beneficial for osteoathritis, but will it do anything for an athlete's stiff joints?

Without question, one of the hottest nutritional supplements on the market right now is chondroitin sulphate (CS).

The popular stuff is supposed to help individuals who suffer from discomfort in their joints, including people plagued by osteoarthritis and - allegedly - hard-training endurance athletes.

Why could chondroitin sulphate be useful for joint troubles?

To answer that question, let's think about your knee joint for a moment. The ends of the two key bones which meet at the knee - the femur and tibia - are covered with a material called hyaline cartilage.

Hyaline cartilage contains living cells called chondrocytes which are surrounded by a tough yet somewhat flexible 'matrix'. The matrix itself contains a mixture of important things, including collagen fibres (the same steel-like strands of connective tissue which toughen tendons and ligaments), elastic fibres to promote flexibility, and chemical compounds called proteoglycans.

These proteoglycans have a protein 'trunk' to which are attached 'branches' of sulphated mucopolysaccharides (mucopolysaccharides are merely complex carbohydrates which bind with water to form a somewhat jelly-like substance).

One of the most important mucopolysaccharides in the human body is chondroitin sulphate.

As it turns out, chondroitin sulphate is a highly 'electronegative' structure, which means that it has an extremely powerful capacity to attract and retain water molecules.

The resulting ample presence of water within chondroitin-sulphate-rich cartilage guarantees that it will be elastic and yet highly resistant to friction and impact forces.

In fact, that's why cartilage is so good at protecting bony tissue from damage during movement. Ultra-hard bones can not grind away at each other when they are 'capped' properly with cartilage, and the cartilage itself is usually not damaged because of its flexibility and resiliency.

Unfortunately, in osteoarthritis the cartilage matrix is disturbed, and those key molecules of chondroitin sulphate begin to break down, causing the cartilage to lose its water-retaining properties and overall protective function.

Of course, that's why many doctors, researchers, and arthritis patients are attracted to CS supplementation, believing that dietary CS might replace what is being lost in the joints as part of the disease process.

Scientists are also encouraged by the fact that there is experimental evidence that CS actually increases the activity of the living cartilage cells, stimulating them to manufacture more matrix.

Finally, several studies indicate that CS can also reduce the activity of elastase, an enzyme released by white blood cells in inflamed joints which breaks down elastic fibres and thus reduces the resiliency of cartilage.

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