Glucosamine: arthritis pain's natural foe just got more street credibility at the American College of Rheumatology's annual scientific meeting.(Brief Article)

No matter how active we are, even the fittest person can have a bad day or two, thanks to joints that make moving a knee, hip or shoulder a pain. Luckily, despite some recent conflicting reports, glucosamine researchers keep proving that this shellfish-derived supplement can be useful against arthritis.

During the American College of Rheumatology's annual scientific meeting in November 2005, two major glucosamine studies had people buzzing. First, Spanish researchers called glucosamine "the preferred symptomatic medication" for knee osteoarthritis (OA), based on a trial involving 318 patients who were randomly assigned to take 1,500mg of glucosamine daily, or 3,000mg of acetaminophen daily or just a placebo. After six months, the glucosamine users had significantly less pain in their knees than those taking either the placebo or even acetaminophen.

The other, larger study was ...