Joint Health Combination Products

Winners Explained

 

SC Quality Benchmark for Joint Health Combination Products   Products should provide at least two ingredients which have some (or preferably substantial) evidence of benefit in maintaining joint health. Furthermore, these ingredients should be provided at levels which are likely to deliver the intended benefit with the recommended daily dosage.  For Glucosamine / Chondroitin and Omega-3 combination products, this means that the target benchmark would be 1500mg Glucosamine Sulphate / Hydrochloride, 1200mg Chondroitin Sulphate and a minimum of 450mg EPA / DHA.

 

Glucosamine, Chondroitin and the fish oil-derived Omega-3s EPA and DHA are all nutrients with substantial evidence of benefit in maintaining joint health, and so when combined together in one product offer a potentially effective and convenient product; this would be a preferred alternative to taking several individual products.

Further to this, other nutrients with some evidence of joint health support function, such as MSM, Turmeric or Vitamin D, could also be of use if added in.

However, in many cases, adding these nutrients together is not easy and the key point to watch out for is whether the combination product delivers the recommended minimum amount of any of the primary nutrients. If the levels of nutrients are insufficient, the product may perform less well than the individual nutrients taken alone at the correct dose. For instance, a product delivering 300mg of Glucosamine with 100mg Chondroitin and 100mg EPA / DHA may prove less effective than a single tablet supplying only 1500mg of Glucosamine Sulphate per day, or a simple fish oil product providing a minimum of 500mg EPA / DHA per day.

Quality

All but 2 of the 15 products reviewed here contained combinations of Omega-3 with Glucosamine and / or Chondroitin. The ideal daily amounts for each nutrient would be:

• 1500mg Glucosamine Sulphate / Hydrochloride
• 1200mg Chondroitin Sulphate
• A minimum of 450mg EPA / DHA.

None of the combination products delivered these levels of all nutrients; however, JointCare Max (Seven Seas) delivered 1500mg Glucosamine and 325mg EPA / DHA. This said, the best product was JointWise (VeryWise Nutrition), which delivers a high level of all three major nutrients (1500mg Glucosamine, 300mg of Chondroitin and 1000mg EPA / DHA at the highest recommended dosage) and is also very good value. As such, it is our category winner. Both of the products referred to are very pleasant tasting syrups.

Other high quality products of note are:

• Glucosamine and Omega-3 (Healthspan)
• Jointcare (Superdrug)
• JointCare Advanced (Seven Seas)
• Healthy Joints (Sainsburys)
• Omega-3 Glucosamine Chondroitin (Tesco).

Value range

Relative value is difficult to assess with these combination products, with some products being inexpensive but having little chance of demonstrating expected benefits. As such, more emphasis in this category should be placed upon the SC quality rating of the products. Nevertheless, on the basis of cost per daily dose the value range lies between £0.08 and £1.10 per daily dose.