Consumption of glucosamine may decrease the risk of mortality by an even greater degree than regular exercise, a new epidemiological study has found. 

“We analyzed data from a national US study of adults that tracked people from 1999 to 2015. The average follow-up time was about nine years,” Dana King, one of the authors of the study, tells NutritionInsight.

 “We found that people who had been taking a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement daily for at least a year were less likely to have died and less likely to have died of cardiovascular causes.”

“This held true after taking into account other factors that might explain the findings, such as age, race, sex, educational status, smoking and exercise,” she explains. 

Participants taking regular doses of glucosamine had a 65 percent lower mortality risk than those who didn’t.Glucosamine: A lifesaver? 
Data was taken from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), an annual US study on public health, disease rates and risk factors.

Researchers at West Virginia University (WVU) merged statistics on daily use of glucosamine supplements with rates of mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD). 

Information on 16,686 adults from NHANES was taken by WVU and merged with a 2015 public mortality file. 

Of the survey participants, 686 (4 percent) reported taking glucosamine supplements for a year or longer. After the follow up, there had been 3,366 deaths, 20 percent of which were due to CVD. 

Use of glucosamine was associated with a 39 percent lower mortality risk after adjusting for age and other confounding variables. It was also associated with a 65 percent lower risk of CVD-related death specifically. 

Weighing up exercise benefits
To highlight these results’ significance, King points to the ratios connecting regular exercise with mortality risk; those that exercised had only a 42 percent lower death rate than those that did not. 

However, King emphasizes that these results are limited in being epidemiological and require further research. 

“Readers should know that this was a cohort study and not a randomized clinical trial. It demonstrates a significant association, but it does not prove a causal relationship,” she states.  

“Researchers should consider more prospective studies looking at the relationship between glucosamine and inflammation, and between glucosamine and the heart. Longer-term studies to examine mortality would be possible but challenging.”

Glucosamine for the heart
Glucosamine is a natural compound found in bone cartilage, which is usually harvested from shellfish for human supplements, although vegan alternatives exist.

Its potential to ward off CVD may be significant. CVD kills one US citizen every 36 seconds and accounts for one-fourth of all US deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

King says consumers and industry should consider the results for supplementation. 

“These study findings should spur conversations between patients and their physicians to consider whether this supplement might be worth considering. In the study, individuals took different doses and different over the counter brands, so we cannot come to any conclusions regarding dosing or specific products,” she says. 

“Patients may want to consider discussing the study findings with their physician to help them decide whether starting this supplement might be worth a try.”