Glucosamine to wear on joints in fingers?

Question:
It’s has been determined that my mother suffers from wear in her joints in her fingers by means of an x-ray done in the hospital (she’s 60). Now I wonder if she can start using glucosamine in order to counteract it, or is Arthro-5 more effective in this case, or a combination of glucosamine and chondroitin?

Answer:
Glucosamine and chondroitin are substances that have been tested for their effect in osteoarthritis. In many cases, the pain and stiffness in the joint will decrease. Also, the thinning of the articular cartilage is inhibited, or may even completely come to a halt.

Glucosamine and chondroitin are less effective in the fingers than the knees for instance. However, improvements occur in many cases.

Arthro-5 contains glucosamine and chondroitin. It also contains 3 other ingredients that are found to be active in osteoarthritis. Our experience is that Arthro-5 clearly more effective than glucosamine in combination with chondroitin. Unfortunately it is also a lot more expensive to use.

The ingredients glucosamine, chondroitin and ASU are medically known as symptomatic slow-acting drugs for osteoarthritis. In other words, these substances act slowly in reducing the symptoms of osteoarthritis. It often takes about 3 months until the effect can be clearly noticed.

In some cases we’ve even seen regrowth of the cartilage (not with finger osteoarthritis. Such re-growth has been established over a period of about two years.