Joint pain vitamins and supplements

This is another area of big interest for people, so i took some time out yesterday to look at the latest research.
And there was only one place to start.  Glucosamine and Chondroitin.
They are probably the most widely used supplements for osteoarthritis (condition where joints break down causing immense pain) and other types of joint pain.
So are they proven by research?
Well, i'll have to leave that question hanging for now.
The reason is no one really knows how they work.  They are still a mystery to science.
In all the recent research i looked at they achieved no spectacular changes to the affected joints.
So if you did an x-ray of the joint before and after the patient used glucosamine/chondroitin you didn't see any noticeable changes.  And pretty much in every other criteria examined there was nothing to separate them from placebo.
But, Consistently, patients who used these supplements reported better pain control compared to patients who didn't.  So there is something else going on that we don't understand.  And until we discover how they work we cannot pass full judgement on them or even use them properly.
So for now it's about patients giving them a trial with the supervision of their healthcare provider to see if it works for them.
Until next time.