The National Institute for Health (NIH) has just completed its GAIT study (Glucosamine/chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial) and the results are encouraging. The patients in this study were given either: Placebo, Celebrex, Glucosamine alone, Chondroitin alone, or Glucosamine/Chondroitin together.

For those who reported only mild knee pain, none of the natural combinations showed benefit over placebo. Celebrex did show a benefit for this group. The story for those with severe arthritic pain was different. The glucosamine/chondroitin group had the best results compared to either placebo or Celebrex. 79.2 % of the glucosamine/chondroitin group had pain reduction as compared to only 69.4% for Celebrex. Glucosamine or chondroitin by themselves showed no real benefit over placebo.

Every company selling glucosamine/chondroitin will start a marketing campaign promoting the results of this study. Here is what you will not hear anywhere else except from Zimmer Nutrition. The type of chondroitin you choose makes all the difference in the world. The NIH study used an extremely high quality chondroitin unlike almost all others found on the market today. The problem is that this high quality, small molecular weight chondroitin is more expensive than the type found in run of the mill store/internet bought products. The chondroitin used in the NIH study is from the company that supplies our chondroitin as found in ChondroFlx by Orthomolecular. If you have arthritic pain, it pays to buy high quality chondroitin.