What is Glucosamine Sulphate?

After hearing or reading about the term “glucosamine sulphate”, you might be wondering what is glucosamine sulphate? It is necessary to know that it is a natural substance produced in humans and mainly found in or around the tissues forming joints in human bodies. This is not the only source of glucosamine as it can also be synthesized artificially in a laboratory.

Glucosamine is present in many combination products coupled with sulfates, N-acetyls, and hydrochlorides, but the most looked-into product is glucosamine sulphate. Glucosamine is a major ingredient in everyday dietary supplements and is usually paired with Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) and chondroitin sulfate. This leads to the debate over glucosamine sulphate vs. glucosamine chondroitin.

What Is Glucosamine Sulphate Used For?

In the glucosamine sulphate vs. glucosamine chondroitin debate, it is worth noting that most of the products available in the market suffer from false labeling as the concentration of glucosamine is incorrect in most, or it is glucosamine chondroitin labeled as glucosamine sulphate.

The essential use of glucosamine sulphate is to provide effective relief from joint and bone pain. Such pains can be due to a physical injury or another underlying condition of the body. But it is mainly known for its efficacy in providing relief to patients suffering from osteoarthritis.

Owing to a broader spectrum of conditions being helped by this product, it is available in both pills and creams. Pills are taken orally while the cream form of glucosamine sulphate is applied directly to the affected joint.

Does Glucosamine Work?

Glucosamine sulphate is prescribed to relieve pain in joints, especially in the knees as a result of osteoarthritis. The pain-relieving effect of glucosamine is similar to other over-the-counter pain relievers but it takes almost twice as long to start showing results. So the question is how differently does glucosamine work?

As compared to other pain relievers, glucosamine sulphate preserves the joint and also prevents further progression of the disease. Other over-the-counter painkillers usually work to alleviate the pain sensation only, thereby keeping osteoarthritis unchecked. In the case of chronic osteoarthritis, glucosamine loses its pain-relieving effect.

Mostly, glucosamine sulfate is available combined with chondroitin sulfate, although, there has been no research into the efficacy of these combined products over the stand-alone glucosamine sulfate products. Combination products come with a bigger price tag but this does not always mean that the product is more effective than the stand-alone varieties.

What Are The Benefits Of Taking Glucosamine?

Once you know how glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate works, you may ask what benefits these products can provide to the body. There are the 7 advantages of using glucosamine such as:

Relieves Pain in Osteoarthritis

Glucosamine is recommended for people suffering from osteoarthritis mainly when the knees are the most-affected joint. Some patients with bone disorders have reported that glucosamine works as well as any other over-the-counter drug, such as ibuprofen, but the onset of relief from pain was found to be slower than ibuprofen.

Glucosamine usually takes as long as 8 weeks to become effective against joint pain experienced in osteoarthritis. Even when the management of pain is being done by glucosamine, people have reported taking other pain relievers in order to tackle the occasional flares.

The plus point of glucosamine products like MSM Glucosamine Gel is that if taken regularly for long periods of time, they relieve pain as well as protect the joints from further deterioration and slow down the disease’s progression.

Alleviates Joint Pain Due to Hormonal Imbalance

Loss of normal estrogen levels in women suffering from hormonal imbalance can cause pain in joints. Scientific studies have shown that glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate in a combined product can be helpful in mitigating pain arising from estrogen imbalance in women suffering from breast cancer, if they follow a daily regime of 2-3 doses a day, which is continued over a span of 6 months.

Glaucoma

Glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM are effective in overcoming the symptoms of glaucoma and provide active relief from the symptoms.

Jaw Pain

Glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM helps in providing relief from mandibular pain in the same way as ibuprofen, but even after patients stopped taking glucosamine, the pain relief effects of glucosamine were noticed for a further 3 months. A daily intake of 1.2g of glucosamine plays a major role in decreasing the incidence of jaw pain and also helps in the movement of the mandible.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

A daily dose of 1g of glucosamine for 24 weeks significantly helps patients suffering from MS and in some cases, it also helps in preventing a relapse of this disease.

Knee Pain

An effective knee pain relief remedy consists of products such as MSM, and natural extracts from various barks and roots along with glucosamine sulphate, to provide relief in patients with knee pain, as it helps in mobility of this joint. Some sportsmen have reported positive results from this combination while others seem to think that for them it does not help in relieving the pain.

Joint Pain

The same combination of products along with glucosamine sulphate for knee pain relief can be used generally for any joint, and so far studies have reported effective relief from joint pain using substantial doses for 32 weeks; however, It does not help in making the joints easier to move without pain.

Other benefits are also achieved by continued use of glucosamine and chondroitin combination drugs and they include weight reduction and bladder syndrome relief. In the case of bladder syndrome, a sustained dose maintained for over half a year is sufficient to address the symptoms.

Glucosamine Sulphate Side Effects

Being natural in origin, glucosamine sulphate side effects are not very serious but there are contraindications in users with pregnancy, asthma, diabetes mellitus, deranged liver function and renal function, or hypertension.

Glucosamine is also not recommended when a patient is anticipating surgery, as glucosamine sulphate upsets the normal blood sugar levels in the body.