New observational study suggests links between glucosamine/chondroitin and reduced risk of coronary heart disease and other cardiovasculars

Many of us have heard of, or tried, the above supplements for joint pains, with varying results. 

A recent BMJ article provided the results of an observational study of over 500,000 British health service patients between 2006-10. Here is the NYT summary:

 From this NYT article:

Glucosamine, the dietary supplement widely used for arthritic pain, may reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease, researchers report.

Scientists looked at 466,039 British men and women, ages 40 to 69, who were free of cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. Participants completed detailed health questionnaires that included information on the use of dietary supplements. Nearly 90,000 of them, or 19 percent, reported regular use of glucosamine. The study, in BMJ, tracked the participants’ health for an average of seven years.

Compared with those who did not use the supplement, glucosamine users had an 18 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease, and a 15 percent lower risk of any cardiovascular event. There was a weak association with a lowered risk for stroke.

The study controlled for diet, physical activity, smoking, disease history and other characteristics.

Resuming regular posting!

I recently went through all of the materials we posted on this blog in 2019-2020 before Covid interrupted our regular meetings in Chiang Rai, Thailand. I was really stimulated by all the interesting opportunities for "positive aging", so decided to start posting anything else I come across in my daily researches and via my many Google Alerts. 

If anyone has ideas for other opportunities not yet noted here, feel free to propose them. I try to limit myself to ideas that have some controlled study backing or verification, rather than personal anecdotes. 

Notes from an Online Presentation to the OUTSEAD Alumni Group by Paul Hancock on Sun 11-Apr-21

I recently gave an online talk on "positive Aging" to an alumni group from my old business school, and thought the links might be of broader interest, so here they are:

I promised to send some follow-on materials for anyone interested in the research on which I based my talk. 

1) Here is the Zoom talk (54 mins), link here. 

2) Notes of the talk with many of the links I mentioned, link here

3) Slides I used, link here. 

4) Lastly, the blog site I set up for the monthly lectures and other notes from our Positive Aging Group can be found here. 

I'm very happy to correspond on any aspect of this subject - and please let me know if you have suggestions for improvement!

Look forward to the pleasure of being able to meet some of you soon.