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Glucosamine Shown To Have No Effect On Blood Sugar

by Dr. Jason Theodosakis, M.D.

When I wrote The Arthritis Cure treatment program in 1996, I thought there might be a theoretical relationship between taking glucosamine and one's blood sugar. Animals given huge doses of glucosamine by intravenous injections (up to 21,000 times the comparable human dose) did have an elevation of blood sugar. Of course, this large dose is never given to people, people take glucosamine by mouth on an intermittent basis, not by continuous IV infusion, and there was no evidence that the normal glucosamine dose had a relationship to sugar or diabetes.

Just to err on the safe side however, I just told people with diabetes to just watch their blood sugar measurements a little bit closer when taking glucosamine.

As you'll see below, I was being overly cautious. There is now good evidence that glucosamine does not affect blood sugar in people with diabetes.

A Little Background

My suspicion is that many people have confused "glucosamine" with "glucose." People hear "glucose" and think diabetes. Glucosamine and glucose are actually very different, they follow different pathways in the body once ingested. Even if they were equal, however, the daily dose of 1.5 grams (1/19th of an ounce) is less glucose than one would find in a single grape or thin slice of an orange. Some soft drinks contain over 30 grams of glucose per serving. So, an extra 1.5 grams of sugar per day would have no effect on a person with diabetes. Evidence against a relationship between glucosamine and diabetes appears in one of the large, three-year, placebo-controlled glucosamine studies. Study subjects using glucosamine actually showed a decrease in fasting glucose levels compared with those on placebo (fasting insulin levels were not measured, however). Nevertheless, there are some rat studies using continuous, high-dose, intravenous, glucosamine to increase insulin resistance. Humans take low-dose (1,500 mg), intermittent (one or twice-daily), oral glucosamine so these rat studies cannot be simply equated with people.

The first carefully controlled human study looking at the relationship between glucosamine in humans and blood sugar was published in the summer of 2003 in the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine (Volume 163: pages 1587-1590).

26 diabetic patients were randomly assigned to take a combination of glucosamine and chondroitin and 12 took placebo for a period of 90 days. The average age of the study participants was just under 70 years old.

Fasting blood sugar and a longer-term measure of blood sugar called hemoglobin A1c were measured at the start and after the 90 days of the study.

The results were very encouraging. There was no significant difference between those who took glucosamine compared to those who took placebo. In other words, glucosamine was determined not to adversely affect blood sugar in the short or longer term, in elderly diabetic patients.

Of course, it's always nice to have different researchers confirm these findings by performing further studies.

In the future, human studies using glucosamine will look for changes in glucose and perhaps insulin levels. Anecdotal reporting does have some value, it allows us to sort out which factors researchers should examine in future studies.

Stepping Back and Looking at the Big Picture

The single most important factor in controlling (and preventing) insulin resistance and adult-onset diabetes mellitus is exercise. Exercise is #1 for weight loss and weight control. Perhaps more important, however, exercise improves insulin sensitivity (a major problem in diabetes). People hampered by arthritis generally don't exercise enough. They often hurt and, as a result, often become sedentary. This lack of activity causes insulin resistance, obesity, elevated fasting blood sugar and even elevated cholesterol. Using The Arthritis Cure treatment program may get them back on track.

Also, since diabetics often develop kidney problems, taking anti-inflammatory pills (NSAIDs) for arthritis may be especially risky since NSAIDs themselves are a known cause of kidney disease in thousands of users. We know that using glucosamine (chondroitin and ASU) can reduce the need for NSAIDs and thus help spare the kidneys.

Concerns about glucosamine products raising blood sugar levels have not been substantiated. If you are diabetic and are concerned, consider increasing the frequency of blood glucose monitoring when starting the supplements. If the sugars elevate, check to see if stopping the supplements returns the blood sugar levels to normal. And always let your physician know about any medication or supplements you're using.

SOURCE: Dr. Theo Online (Drtheo.com)

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Glucosamine Shown To Have No Effect On Blood Sugar