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December 30, 2008, 6:36 pm
Flag as Inappropriate Philbo  

My wife suffers from arthritis and everyone I know recommends that she takes glucosamine to help. There is only one problem most glucosamine that we find is derived from shellfish and my wife happens to be allergic. Are there any good effective sources of the stuff without the shellfish.

I never knew this about the shellfish, you would think there would be other choices for something like this. This sounds really odd but what exactly does arthritis feel like?

Arthritis is inflammation and swelling of the joints. It can occur in any joint in the body and can be very painful. The joints can be hot to the touch and stiffen. Some types of arthritis can be deformative.

Philbo, have you checked with any of the sites for naturopathic medicines. These are natural remedies. One company that you might check out is Standard Process.

I will run through various naturopathic sites to see if they carry something that they will guarantee is sourced from something other than shellfish. Allergic reactions aren't anymore fun than the arthritis.

The other thing to consider with this is that, I believe it can affect your blood sugar. Therefore if you are already pre-diabetic, or insulin resistant, it can push that further along.

Glucosamine has been proven by studies to not affect blood sugar levels or insulin resistance in most people at least. They are doing studies now to see if it may affect obese patients in that way so if you are obese and at risk of diabetes, you may want to be careful. There is little likelihood of glucosamine triggering an allergic reaction because the allergen in shellfish is not contained in the shell but in the flesh.

I have to strongly disagree with Cranberry's last statement about the likelihood of glucosamine triggering a shellfish allergy. Reason is that we did not know my wife was allergic to shellfish because for religious reasons we do not eat shellfish at all. Our first and only encounter with her allergy was the glucosamine. We did not even know what the problem was until a specialist identified the allergen.