Another Epidemiological Study Finds Glucosamine Associated with Reduced Mortality

Glucosamine (credit: AndresJS)

 

Sometimes I lurk on various life extension message boards and am perplexed that many (most?) people do not list glucosamine in their pro-longevity 'stack' even though its use is associated with reduction in all-cause mortality. Glucosamine is cheap and relatively well-tolerated. While association does not mean causation, the relationship has been found in several large epidemiological studies and holds up when controlling for various demographic factors; similar associations have not been found for other supplements - not even fish oil or vitamin D. There are some plausible mechanisms, which I don't have time to really get into, unfortunately. In brief, glucosamine inhibits glucose metabolism (see Ristow interview linked below) - which could have direct effects and also effects via the gut microbiome, increases hyaluronic acid production, and may have other effects relating to O-GlcNAcylation (that's what I'm most interested in).

News article on the most recent study: https://www.bicycling.com/health-nutrition/a34854230/glucosamine-supplements-may-reduce-risk-of-early-death-study/

The research article: https://www.jabfm.org/content/jabfp/33/6/842.full.pdf

An interview with longevity researcher Michael Ristow on glucosamine: http://geroscience.com/glucosamine-the-new-metformin-interview-with-dr-michael-ristow-part-ii/

Dose makes the poison, don't OD: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101027111349.htm

Glucosamine is typically derived from shellfish and may not be appropriate for people with shellfish allergies. I had to stop taking it when I started having MCAS / 'histamine intolerance' symptoms as it seemed to make my symptoms worse (creatine did the same).

Would it be good or bad for Parkinson's disease? Can't even speculate - especially since I need to read more on the O-GlcNAcylation thing. The Mischley et al. (2017) study did not list glucosamine among the supplements: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2017/6405278/tab3/

There is an in vitro research study proposal on N-acetyl-glucosamine for PD: https://www.scholars.northwestern.edu/en/projects/development-of-glcnac-as-disease-modifying-treatment-for-parkinso-2  

Updates

[2021-1-8]

Very nice review published in October 2020 -

Glucosamine and O-GlcNAcylation: a novel immunometabolic therapeutic target for OA and chronic, low-grade systemic inflammation?
https://ard.bmj.com/content/79/10/1261

[2021-02-02]

A recent study found that glucosamine acts as a calorie restriction mimetic in senescent rats via mitohormesis - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33478352/

 

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