Health Report: Strain
Some swear by the relief a pill or potion gives to painful, creaky joints, while others declare them a waste of money. With the joint supplement market worth millions in the UK, Gill Cox asks if they actually work.
Ingrid Millar swears by her
daily concoction of glucosamine, chondroitin, green-lipped mussel
extract and cod liver oil. Rigorously downing her self prescription
of five capsules plus a multivitamin and normal painkillers when
necessary, Ingrid, 54, believes the cost - upwards of £30 a
month - is worth it.
"I've had painful thumb joints for the last ten years or
so, but about five years ago both knees became incredibly painful.
My father had osteoarthritis in his knees and my mum had it in her
hands, so I accept that it's hereditary. I'd asked about
joint replacement before but was told I was too young, as the
replacement joints only last ten to 15 years. Then, after my right
knee gave way a few times causing me to fall, the problem
progressed rapidly and I was left with pain like red-hot razor
blades in the knee."
An X-ray and MRI scan last December revealed Ingrid had no
cartilage cushioning her joints, so that her bones were, in effect,
grating against each other. She was finally granted a knee
replacement operation.
"Thankfully I've got a date for the surgery in the next
three weeks. I'm not looking forward to it, but I couldn't
go on with constant pain. For years I've taken glucosamine,
chondroitin and cod liver oil to manage the pain, and I've no
idea what I'd be like without those. I also dabbled with
others, such as green-lipped mussel extract. I've taken
anti-inflammatories sometimes when I can't get started without
them, but they upset my stomach lining and have caused the start of
an ulcer. For my thumbs I've ended up having steroid injections
into the joints. This was painful but worth it. Although the
effects are only temporary, the three months they worked were
bliss!"
Whether you're troubled by achy knees, creaky hips or painful
thumbs like Ingrid, joint pain - or osteoarthritis (OA) to give it
its proper name - currently affects over 7.3 million people in the
UK.
And it is these millions of consumers who are proving to be a
godsend to the supplement industry, which is raking in a cool
£158 million each year selling 'relief' in the form of
pills and capsules where conventional medicine fails. Yet these
supplements are rarely subjected to the clinical trials that are
required of conventional drugs, and often there is little or no
proof that they do what they promise.
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