Could Arthritis Supplement Glucosamine Extend LIfespan?

First Posted: Apr 10, 2014 12:20 AM EDT
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A recent study examines the arthritis supplement glucosamine, which is commonly used to help prevent joint degeneration and delay cancer. A recent study found that it may even have reduce the metabolism of nutritive sugars that have been tied to shortening the lifespan of roundworms.

According to lead study author Michael Ristow of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, roundworms that received the supplement lived around five percent longer than roundworms who did not. Findings also showed that aging mice who were 100-weeks-old, also known as the equivalent of a 65-year-old human put on glucosamine, lived 10 percent longer than those in the control group who did not receive the supplement. According to background information from the study, a 10 percent extension for mice is close to eight additional years for humans. Not only did glucosamine extend lifespan, but it also improved elderly mice's glucose metabolism, which protected them from diabetic conditions.

"I have started taking glucosamine myself...[However,] diabetics should perform tight blood glucose control, especially during the first weeks," said Ristow, via a press release. "Unlike with our longer living mice, such an association is no definite proof of the effectiveness of glucosamine in humans. But the chances are good, and since unlike with most other potentially lifespan-extending drugs there are no known relevant side effects of glucosamine supplementation, I would tend to recommend this supplement."

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the study "D-Glucasmine supplementation extends lifespan of nematodes and of ageing mice," was published in Nature Communications.  

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