Flexicose - Liquid Glucosamine, Condroitin and MSM Joint Complex Does Glucosamine Have a Placebo Effect?

Other wise known as “sugar pills,” placebo drugs are used to test the effectiveness of drugs against an inactive standard. By testing a known substance against an inactive agent (a placebo), if one groups starts to feel better (and the designers can later verify with statistics which group was on the placebo and which wasn’t on the placebo) then effects of bias can be filtered out. Glucosamine has long been known for its powerful effects, both clinically and anecdotally. Generally speaking, the only placebo effect you will get from glucosamine is from manufacturers who do not give you high quality glucosamine and do not give you the amount actually specified on the label.

In theory, in clinical trials, only the actual substance you are trying test for is actually being tested because even the doctors who are giving the medicine and placebo and making sure that proper dosages are being administered do not know which is which so they can single out the test substance. Glucosamine has endured many double blind placebo tests and in all clinical trials to date (over 20 years of trials) it has always been better than placebo. The evidence from these clinical studies and from many different doctors states that glucosamine absolutely has no placebo effect.

Essentially, glucosamine works for people and continues to work for people because it gives the body what it needs to do its job repairing your joints. Its most effective in osteoarthritis, and with capsules it can takes as long as a month to really start feeling relief. Only liquid glucosamine provides you maximum absorbabilily and complete relief. Some people report increased joint mobility and range of motion in addition to the pain relief effects that are commonly associated with glucosamine. More evidence against the placebo effect lies in the evidence that glucosamine continues working after you have stopped taking it. Many clinical trials reflect this fact, something that suggests that glucosamine is rebuilding cartilage rather than just masking pain like the detrimental NSAIDS.

Another concrete example of glucosamine’s effectiveness is due to the long history of use in animals. Animals do not know if they are taking a placebo or a real product and as such they will only respond to what actually produces results. Results you simply would not see in a placebo. Dogs that jump up stairs that were nearly lame before, cats who would no longer want to be picked up or move around because of their hip dysplasia. Some of the first animal uses of glucosamine were in thoroughbred horses - that can cost millions of dollars each. And there most certainly were results for them as well. The use of glucosamine in horses and the incredible results that were obtained made people wonder if in fact they could use it for their own arthritic joints. They were right, and glucosamine – still not in the limelight or commonly known about several years ago due to its short track record and classification not as a drug but as a supplement or nutraceutical – was quickly gaining notoriety and support.

Flash forward to today. There are many vendors of your generic run of the mill glucosamine. Many offer you just the simple Glucosamine and some also try and sell you on the potassium or sodium (KCl or NaCl) chloride salts, which means you are effectively paying for up to 30% of the bottle to be filled with cheap salt. Our suggestion is to find a reasonably priced (about a dollar a day) supplier with a track record and more than just a few ingredients. Avoid any product with Shark Cartilage, but get as many ingredients as you can for a reasonable price (no more than a dollar fifty a day.) Just think, if a supplier trying to prey off what you don’t know about glucosamine and is selling a cream based glucosamine (which cannot be absorbed into the skin) or the glucosamine salts (which give you 30% less glucosamine), would you trust them to put the appropriate dosages into their product in the first place?

At least as long as you are actually taking liquid glucosamine, you can rest assured its working because it’s actually boosting the natural processes at work all of the time that improve the health of your cartilage and joints. Unless of course, some cheap, no name manufacturer is selling you a placebo of their own. Flexicose is one of the highest quality and most effective liquid glucosamine products available today. To order Flexicose, click here!