In the Google search, pick the advanced option and then the scholarly
articles. There isn't much that is definitive, but there is some
articles showing some benefit.

Some more info that might help....   Harv

Crikeys - I hope this doesn't wake up you know who LOL!!!

Glucosamine is Associated with Improved Osteoarthritis Outcomes

Gillian A. Hawker1, Michal Abrahamowicz2, Roxane du Berger3, Annette
Wilkins4, Elizabeth Badley4. 1Women's College Campus of SWCHSC, Toronto,
ON, Canada; 2Department of Epidemiology and Biostatisitics, McGill
University, Montreal, PQ, Canada; 3Division of Clinical Epidemiology,
The Montreal General Hospital, Montreal, PQ, Canada; 4Arthritis
Community Research & Evaluation Unit, UHN, Toronto, ON, Canada

Purpose: To prospectively examine the effect of osteoarthritis (OA)
therapies on changes in OA pain and disability.

Methods: A prior study ('96-'98) established a population cohort of
2,411 individuals aged 55+ years with disabling hip/knee arthritis
(baseline). In '99, the cohort was invited to participate in a 5-year
follow-up study. Information was collected at baseline and annually:
age, sex, education, income, living circumstances, self-reported
comorbidity, use of therapies (NSAIDs, pain killers, steroid injection,
glucosamine, walking aids and devices), hip/knee joint replacement,
visits to arthritis health care professionals, and OA pain and
disability (WOMAC).

Three mixed regression models were used estimate associations between
current use of different therapies and repeated measurements of the
WOMAC, adjusting for sociodemographics, comorbidity and concurrent use
of other therapies. Model 1 assessed if individuals currently on a
therapy have better WOMAC scores across the repeated assessments than
those not using the therapy. Model 2 adjusted additionally for baseline
WOMAC values while Model 3 adjusted for the prior year WOMAC value to
investigate if change from last year is associated with recent use of
the therapy.

Results: 1,376 patients contributed a total of 4,119 assessments.
Baseline mean age was 72 years; 72% were female. The proportion using
glucosamine increased from 9% to 17% during the follow-up period.
Adjusting for sociodemographics and concurrent use of other therapies,
current glucosamine use was associated with lower WOMAC scores in all
models.

Across the repeated assessments, individuals taking glucosamine had a
mean WOMAC score 1.8 points lower than individuals with the same
characteristics and treatments who were not taking this therapy (95% CI:
0.5 to 3.0, p=0.005). This effect remained significant after adjusting
for baseline and final year WOMAC scores, which were on average lower by
1.5 (95% CI: 0.3 to 2.7, p=0.014) and 1.1 (95% CI: 0 to 2.3, p=0.05),
respectively.

No other therapy showed any association with improved outcomes. Other
significant predictors of lower WOMAC scores at follow-up were: younger
age, higher education and income, and male gender. Males had, on
average, WOMAC scores 4 points lower than women with the same
sociodemographics and treatments (mean 4 points lower; 95% CI: 2.6 to
5.4, p<0.0001).

Conclusion: Of the therapies considered, only glucosamine was associated
with an improvement in OA pain and disability providing support for the
benefits of this therapy in OA. The absence of an effect with other
therapies is likely due to confounding by indication, which is less
likely to impact non-physician-prescribed glucosamine use.

Hi Grinder

 I just tried Cushes site on Glu and arthritis and it is not working any
more.  Here is some information from another site.
Harv

Glucosamine Has a Disease-Modifying Effect on Osteoarthritis  CME

News Author: Laurie Barclay, MD

March 17, 2004 - Glucosamine has a disease-modifying effect on
osteoarthritis, according to the results of two three-year randomized
studies published in the March/April issue of Menopause.

"The management of knee osteoarthritis, recognized as responsible for
consistent pain and disability, is a major social and economic target
in health management," write Olivier Bruyere, MSc, from the WHO
Collaborating Center for Public Health Aspect of Osteoarticular
Disorders in Liege, Belgium, and colleagues. "For a few years,
glucosamine sulfate has been considered a potential disease-modifying
drug for osteoarthritis."

This study was a preplanned combination of two three-year, randomized,
placebo-controlled, prospective, independent trials investigating the
effects of glucosamine sulfate on symptoms and joint structure in
osteoarthritis. Of 414 subjects enrolled, 319 were postmenopausal
women. Demographics and disease characteristics were similar at
baseline in the glucosamine sulfate and placebo groups, both in the
overall study population and in the subgroup of postmenopausal women.

After three years, postmenopausal women who received placebo had joint
space narrowing on standing anteroposterior knee radiographs, but
those who received glucosamine did not. Joint space change was +0.003
mm (95% confidence interval [CI], -0.09 to 0.11) in the glucosamine
group and -0.33 mm (95% CI, -0.44 to -0.22) in the placebo group (P <
.0001).

The glucosamine sulfate group also improved in the Western Ontario and
McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index function scale (WOMAC)
reflecting symptoms (-14.1%; 95% CI, -22.2 to -5.9), while there was a
trend for worsening in the placebo group (5.4%; 95% CI, -4.9 to 15.7;
P = .003 between groups).

A potential study limitation is that symptom relief might improve
joint space narrowing as seen on standing knee x-rays, but the authors
found only a poor relationship between symptom relief and prevention
of joint space narrowing. They also found a significant difference in
joint space preservation between patients receiving placebo or
glucosamine when considering only those patients with symptomatic
improvement.

"This analysis, focusing on a large cohort of postmenopausal women,
demonstrated for the first time that a pharmacological intervention
for osteoarthritis has a disease-modifying effect in this particular
population, the most frequently affected by knee osteoarthritis," the
authors write. "Glucosamine sulfate, therefore, is the first agent
that meets the current requirements to be classified as a symptom- and
structure-modifying drug in women with knee osteoarthritis."