That is a good goal.  Unfortunately, there is little science to look at.
Glucosamine and Chondroitin have been fairly well studied, but those studies
were done before politics changed things.  A Medline search should produce
plenty of hits for you.  But, since DSHEA removed the U.S. requirement for
pre-market efficacy and safety studies for nutritional supplements in 1993,
there has been little incentive to do them.

The so-called "German Studies," which form the basis for almost every text
on the subject, are now over a decade old and are not complete or
comprehensive.  But they are the best that is available.

The primary limitation of relying on these studies is that they assume that
the supplement you purchase will contain what the manufacturers says it
contains.  Unfortunately studies by consumer groups and university
researchers continue to show that this assumption is false.

Without independent manufacturing standards (again thanks to DSHEA), the
industry has utterly failed to police itself and continues to market
supplements in the U.S. and abroad that don't contain the ingredients that
are on the label, or don't contain the amounts that are on the label.  The
recent superior court decision striking down the FDA's ban on ephedra will
simply embolden the industry to further abuse the consumer.

So, there it is in a nutshell.  Due to U.S. politics, the world's suppliers
of nutritional supplements, almost all of which are based in the U.S., are
playing fast and loose with the consumer.  So look for research if you want,
but don't be surprised when what you buy at the store doesn't do what the
studies say they should do.

Walt Hanks

I think this is a good link it has references after each supplement
and seems to give an honest review.
http://www.supplementwatch.com/supatoz/

Visit my website:
http://www.mzuschlag.com

Walt is right. In the meantime there are two sites
which will give you some more reading material.

he gives a table of brands which, at the time he had
them tested, actually contained what they said they did.
http://www.drtheo.com/

This guy used to post here quite a bit. Now out playing
with his dogs :)  This is his own research and his
travels through the internet. :)
http://home.gci.net/~cushman4/oa-gcs.htm

What does your doctor say about G & C?  Lots of our
doctors feel they do work well for osteoarthritis. I
tried it for a few months for my RA and didn't notice a
thing.
Duckie