Testing
Dr.
Theo is frequently sending products for testing at independent laboratories. (View
current results). At this time, only the following
products can be recommended:
Recommended:
In
our previous testing, only 4 out of 14 brands actually met label
claims. The number two and three sellers were especially deficient,
with some having less than 5% of the amounts listed on the label!
Warning-Caution
Please be advised: the products that have labels which appear
to resemble the cover of Dr. Theo's books besides (Dr.
Theo's Official Products) and say they are featured in "The
Arthritis Cure" or "Maximizing The Arthritis Cure" are absolutely
NOT recommended and may even be fraud. At least one such product
was tested multiple times using multiple batches and it averaged
less than 19% of what was claimed on the label!
Even though a product may state on the label that it has 1,500
mg of glucosamine or 1,200 mg of chondroitin, it does not mean
that is actually in the bottle. Three independent reviews of products
showed that over 80% provided false information on their labels.
Some companies may use 1,500 mg of glucosamine sulfate, but adds so much sodium or potassium salt to it that the actual quantity of glucosamine is below 1000 mg (a dose to vote to have significant benefits.) the only glucosamine alone product that has sufficient evidence for recommendation is the specific brand made by the Italian pharmaceutical company RottaPharm. the product is called Dona, and it is a special crystal than form of glucosamine sulfate available in powder packets as well as tablets.
Chondroitin is expensive, so many companies
really skimp on it. Some may use 1,200 mg of 30% chondroitin,
for instance or 1,200 mg of shark cartilage. This results in only
about 200-400 mg of actual chondroitin - far too low to do any
good.
** Twinlab's Joint Fuel has irrelevant levels of chondroitin (about
17 mg per tablet). It should not be considered a true combination
product since you'd need to take about 70 capsules per day to
get 1,200 mg of chondroitin.
Special Note:
There's a bad rumor circulating that chondroitin
is too large to be absorbed and is not necessary. This is false. In an animal study and now in the largest human study (GAIT), the combination of glucosamine and chondroitin was better than either supplement alone. In fact, as Dr. Theo theorized over 10 years ago, this combination had a synergistic (1 + 1 = 3), and not just additive effect.
This
is addressed further in the Q&A section.