Question:
I read somewhere that glucosamine and chondroitin should not be ingested together at the same time every day. That it would be better to take glucosamine in the morning and chondroitin in the evening, because otherwise they would be less effective. Is that right?
Answer:
There is no evidence that ingestion of glucosamine and chondroitin together would be less effective. The opposite is rather expected, although it cannot be said with absolute certainty, while as far as we know no specific research was done into the effects of times of ingestion.
However, from the large-scale American GAIT study it appeared that there is a stronger effect when glucosamine and chondroitin are used together than if each of these supplements are used separately. During the research the supplements were ingested at the same time of day (3 times daily glucosamine and chondroitin).
Question:
I’ve been using glucosamine since 1993. I’ve had knee surgery in 1988 in my left knee (meniscus) and in 1995 on my cruciate ligament in the same knee. A week ago some meniscus has been removed again. They said that the cartilage has been somewhat affected..
I am using your product, 2 capsules of each every day. Now my question is if it’s better to take 4 capsules of each every day. I use my knees a lot at work and hobby (skiing). I train a lot with my bike and power training for my knees
Answer:
Higher doses of glucosamine increase the effect. Unfortunately, the risk of a deterioration of the insulin sensitivity also increases. That’s why we don’t recommend it. Only very active people who aren’t built too lightly (and don’t have a ‘belly’) could consider a third capsule.
When it comes to chondroitin we doubt if a higher dosage would be more beneficial. It would be better to use other active substances in addition to that.
People that still use ASU Forte aside from glucosamine and chondroitin usually notice the extra effect. In France, ASU as a medication against osteoarthritis is available on the market.
Since 2009, we carry the combination product Arthro-5. Besides glucosamine, chondroitin and ASU it also contains MSM and hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid has been used against osteoarthritis by means of an injection for years. In recent years it’s been proven that hyaluronic acid in pill form is also effective. That is why we have added as an ingredient in Arthro-5. The dose is similar to that in the study.
The feedback about Arthro-5 is very positive. For anyone who wants to achieve a maximum effect, I recommend Arthro-5.
Question:
According to my doctor I suffer from retropatellar chondromalacia. I want to see if your products can help with my condition, because now I’m only limited to 500 meters and that’s it. I was able to ride my bicycle, but not anymore. So maybe you can help me.
Answer:
We only have a little bit of experience with patients who suffer from retropatellar chondromalacia. In particularly in young women (20 to 30 years). The condition was not treatable with glucosamine. ASU Forte led to some improvements in some of them. With Arthro-5 we have no experience regarding this symptom.
In young women, the soft cartilage behind the kneecap is often the culprit for the pain. It could be that the ASU component in ASU Forte caused the improvement in patients. Research has shown that ASU strengthens cartilage by increasing the regeneration of collagen in it.
It could be that the cause of your pain doesn’t correspond with the cause in these young women. If a poor tracking of the patella is the cause, it is questionable whether ASU will help you.
Any damage and irritation of the cartilage may possibly diminish with our supplements. Arthro-5 for this is the best candidate for this. This supplement also contains the aforementioned ingredient ASU.
Question:
A while back I read in the news that the Consumers Association sounded the alarm with regards to high dosages of vitamin B6 in multivitamins. I’ve ordered Natural Multi (containing also 2.36 times the RDA) several times and I wonder if it’s harmful or false alarm?
Answer:
Many supplements contain as much as 50 to 100 milligrams of synthetic vitamin B6 per daily dose (synthetic vitamins are dirt cheap to make). The use of high-dose supplements has led to noticeable nerve damage in a small group of people.
The risk of B6 has been known for some time. Only until recently the safe upper limit for vitamin B6 intake is set at 25 mg.
Natural Multi only contains 3.3 milligrams per daily dose. This is a safe dosage.
Question:
What advice can you give me regarding supplements? I’m 60+ and I usually order Arthro-5, Omega-3 and Natural Multi. I wonder how complete this is, because before I found out about you I used several other supplements from various brands.
It took me quite some time to figure it out, because a lot of synthetic vitamins and all kinds of additives are used (so I’m happy to have found honest products!). It would be nice to reduce the amount of supplements to a minimum without having essential shortages. In particularly I was thinking about vitamins C, D and B12 (we mainly eat organic, especially fruits, vegetables, whole grains, little meat – about 200 grams per week.).
Of course, everyone has different needs, depending on several factors, but perhaps you can still give your recommendation. In a nutshell: what else could I do aside from the aforementioned supplements?
Answer:
With Natural Multi you have a fair amount of complete multi vitamins. The supplement does not contain vitamin B12, however. We have not been able to find a supplier of a natural vitamin B12 rich compound. Since you eat little meat, it’s perhaps wise to supplement B12 separately.
Then that has to be a synthetic variant, but that shouldn’t be a problem when it comes to vitamin B12. Perhaps the better forms of synthetic vitamin B12 are hydroxocobalamin, methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin.
You can also choose to occasionally eat a bit of liver or liver sausage. It contains a lot of B12. Liver is also very rich in other nutrients. Many people rather do not eat liver because they are afraid of remaining toxins in this organ meat. Liver, however, is precisely one of the cleanest meats you can eat.
Natural Multi contains 1,000 units of vitamin D. This is sufficient for most people. From 2,000 units per day we recommend to check the vitamin D blood levels.
The multivitamin contains the 100% RDV of vitamin C. It is sufficient to prevent a deficiency. Extra vitamin C isn’t a bad idea when you have a cold or are stressed (another 100 to 200% of the RDV). Because you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, I think you’re good.
Question:
After sifting through your site I can’t seem to make a choice (Arthro-5, ASU Forte?), and I hope you can help me after reading some information.
I am a woman, 56 years, on the skinny side, love hiking and cross-country skiing (of course only during vacations) and lead a normal active life: I bicycle every day, do yard work, play tennis once or twice a week, and I am a flutist in a symphony orchestra.
Six years ago a cyst formed in my knee, which disappeared on its own. Ever since then I get fat knees after pressure in the mountains. At first only after 5 to 6 days, now it’s after 2 to 3. I don’t feel any pain, but when I get up after a break (especially a squat), I can stretch my knees again after stumbling for fifteen minutes. It’s like a bunch of rubber bands are very tight in both of my knees. At night my knees are fat with fluid, in the morning it has dwindled down again. I can’t figure out if it has to do with climbing or descending or both. I’ve been walking with canes for 5 years now. This winter I made a cross-country trek, this sudden overload caused fat lower legs after a week. After a few days of rest everything had shrunk again.
On the advice of a physiotherapist I have taken glucosamine and chondroitin for some time, I can’t really say if that worked. A visit to an orthopedist wasn’t helpful.
So wear, menopause, lack of exercise? Your products sound like wonder drugs, it would be great if my knees can take me through the mountains for a few other years (I really enjoy it). Therefore, I hope that my story gives you a clear enough picture for a confident advice.
Answer:
Chances are great that the problem lies in the knee cartilage getting worse. This could lead to fluid in the knee when there’s too much pressure. Also cyst formation may occur.
The best ways to keep the quality of the cartilage up to date and improve the load capacity are glucosamine, chondroitin and ASU. These supplements are slow acting. With knee osteoarthritis it often takes 2 to 3 months to note the effect on the pain. Sometimes may take a little longer. The load capacity of the joint may also improve. This may occur after a week, but it could also take many months. This depends whether the improvement of the joint lubrication helps with the load capacity, or wait for structural improvements in the cartilage.
The pain doesn’t go away with everybody. But there are indications that some of the people that still experience pain the cartilage remains protected. Unfortunately it is difficult to use something and not notice any results. Thankfully ASU helps in about half of the people that don’t notice the effect of glucosamine, but still feel a reduction in pain.
ASU Forte is a good supplement, but Arthro-5 is significantly better. Even if you don’t notice much from glucosamine and chondroitin, Arthro-5 is the best supplement to use. There are few people who do not notice anything. We know a few people who’ve been taking glucosamine and chondroitin and with some the joints improved and others the joints remained painful. After using Arthro-5 for about 6 months they were completely free of pain. Arthro-5 is the closest thing to a wonder drug, but unfortunately its effectiveness differs from person to person.
Question:
I am interested in your product, but which one is the question. I am 51 years old, avid runner (5-6 times per week, competition runner still at 37-38 min at 10km). I have familial osteoarthritis to my right (lost 1 cm of cartilage) but the wear process slows by exercising. Every year an x-ray is made. I want to increase my exercise again by running for 35 min.
Answer:
Exercising indeed inhibits osteoarthritis. It is true that running is increasingly stressful as you get older. That’s because the muscles and tendons become less elastic. The shock at each landing has more impact on the cartilage than in a younger runner.
You run a lot of kilometres. With such a massive load it’s best to choose the strongest supplement: Arthro-5. Also, given the obvious wear this seems like a good choice. Try it for about three months. There’s a good chance that it’ll benefit you. The maximum effect is achieved somewhere between 3 months and 2 years.
Question:
Someone told me that a fish oil capsule that comes out of the freezer overnight like a hard rock of crystal isn’t good. Is that true? And what about your fish oil?
Answer:
How fish oil reacts to cold doesn’t say anything about the quality. We notice that a very pure fish oil, like our Marinoil fish oil, crystalizes very quickly as opposed to a standard fish oil of a lesser quality.
We even had a customer that put our capsules in the freezer and deemed the quality as ‘not good’ because they were frozen. Her conclusion: there is no oil in it, but water. She’d read it ‘somewhere on the internet’. Apparently a baseless story that good fish oil should not crystallize or freeze in the freezer wanders around somewhere out there.
Question:
Yes, the fish oil-freezer story raises questions. I’ve been using fish oil from an expensive brand for three years. These don’t crystalize. A jar of a cheaper brand does, however. Is there scientific evidence for this? Or is it an urban legend?
Answer:
The crystallization (or solidification) of the oil has to do with the fatty acid composition. Fish oil contains omega-3 fatty acids aside from other fatty acids. The shorter fatty acids and the monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids solidify quicker than the omega-3 fatty acids with their long chains and poly-unsaturated compounds.
Solidification also occurs with extra virgin olive oil. If you put it in the fridge you’ll get flocculation. This is also solidification of a portion of the oil to fat.
Now you may wonder why one type of fish oil has it and the other doesn’t. On the one hand it depends on the natural variation of the type of fish and the origin of the fish (cold waters versus warm waters).
But the predominant reason is that some oil is processed extensively. All fish oil with a Omega-3 content above 50 to 55% has that higher percentage due to chemical processing. The fatty acids are first cut loose from the oil, after which a selection takes place. After that the desired fatty acids EPA and DHA are put back. Now you have an oil with a lot of EPA and DHA and a very low solidification temperature. This is not natural oil anymore. Sometimes the DHA fatty acids are replaced in the wrong positions in the oil. This may complicate the digestion.
With supplements with an extremely high EPA and DHA value (more than 80%), one can no longer speak of an oil. The fatty acids are then not put back (to glycerol). Then you end up with a so called ‘free fatty acid supplement’ or a supplement that contains ethyl esters of fatty acids. These kinds of supplements have an even greater negative consequences for digestion. In some countries they are prohibited.
Because consumers like numerical thinking, and a higher percentage simply sounds better than a lower one, these highly processed fish oil supplements are brought on the market. It is a way to distinguish yourself from the competition. A smart marketing person has come with the idea to incorporate the difference in solidification temperature with quality. It must have been someone from the company Fraud & Deceit.
Question:
I doubt what works best for me. My main issue is the cervical vertebrae, it’s wearing out. Also I have problems with my hips and lower back. My age is 72, I do not know if that matters. Which product do you recommend?
Answer:
Our experience is that osteoarthritis in the intervertebral discs can recover, however it is a very slow process. We have lots of experience with spinal arthritis in the lower back, but not really in the neck. And results were achieved in people aged 35 to 55 years. We have no feedback yet from someone your age.
In practice we see that people with low back pain usually notice a decrease in pain after more than a year. And that’s when they use 1,500mg glucosamine and 1,200mg chondroitin every day. With only glucosamine we haven’t seen it yet.
As said, we don’t know if a comparable recovery will occur in the neck. It is not unlikely, although there’s a high probability that the discs no longer contain active tissue at a later age. That means that they are completely degenerated and no longer respond to the supplements.
Your pain symptoms can also largely come from the facet joints and muscles. The influence of the supplements on the facet joints is not clear. I don’t exclude a positive effect.
What could play an inhibitory role is high muscle tension. High muscle tension poses excessive pressure on the intervertebral discs and possibly the facet joints. This pressure obstructs the formation recovery of the intervertebral discs.
What could possibly help against excessive muscle tone is massage and trigger point massage, and an absorbable magnesium supplement, heat and meditation. For massage you could see a physical therapist.
For hip osteoarthritis glucosamine often works quite well. Also chondroitin makes the effect a bit stronger. You can expect the greatest effect from Arthro-5. Aside from glucosamine and chondroitin it also contains 3 other ingredients. The effect on the hips can usually be felt within 3 months. Both with glucosamine as Arthro-5.
Question:
I’ve ordered Arthro-5 in Italy, because that’s where I live. First off, a compliment regarding the site. Everything is very easy to do and understand.
My problem is my knee that has to be immediately replaced by a prosthesis according to doctors! I’m not looking forward to it, that’s why I want to try this product. I’m 66 years old and still working in an office. I am a bit overweight perhaps, but I have trouble losing the extra weight. I swim a lot, but walking is very difficult. What else can I do to get good results from this treatment?
Answer:
We really hope that Arthro-5 works. Lots of exercise is also important. Even if you exercise without putting a lot of pressure on your joints will benefit the recovery. The so-called ‘air cycling’ works to feed the cartilage. These motions allow for the exchange of substances between the cartilage and surrounding tissues.
With air cycling you lay on your back and make a cycling motion with your feet in the air. A few times a day for about 1 minute is beneficial. A large circular motion is more effective than a smaller one. So try to do large motions.
What works well for many people to slim down is to go to bed early. Someone who goes to bed that early and wakes up without an alarm usually sleeps for more hours. Firstly, this means that there is less time left to eat. But it also means that the body is less stressed and you’ll have less of an urge to eat.
Another trick is to drink a glass of water before eating. It also helps to eat slowly. With a tendency to eat sweets, try to drink a glass of water.
