CAMERON  VETERINARY

Arthritis & degenerative joint disease are some of the most commonly diagnosed and treated problems of horses. Treatment of is often done with non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAID) such as phenylbutazone (“bute”), Banamine (flunixin), Equioxx (firocoxib), Surpass (diclofenac) and/ or steroids, hyaluronic acid (HA, Legend) or polysulfated glycosaminoglycans (PSGAGs, Adequan). These medications may be given orally, in feed, topically, intraarticularly (IA, into a joint) or systemically by intramuscular (IM) or intravenous (IV) injection.

 

Perusing periodical targeted at horse owners, you will find a few advertisements for the above-mentioned drugs and many more ads for “joint supplements.” These compounds are touted as miraculous, joint preserving, career saving, winner- making compounds that you can order without a prescription. They may claim to have no side effects and be 100% safe.

What are joint supplements? How do they work? DO they work? How do you choose which product to select? All good questions, many without solid answers.

Most joint supplements contain some combination of glucosamine, chondroitin, methyl-sulfonyl-methane (MSM), avocado/ soybean unsaponifiables (ASUs), omega-3 fatty acids, yucca extracts and a variety of other ingredients.

These compounds are thought to be the building blocks of healthy cartilage, synovium (the tissue surrounding the joint) and synovial fluid (the lubricating fluid in the joint). They are thought to be small enough molecules that they will be absorbed from the intestine into the blood and distributed into the joint tissue where they are used to keep the joint healthy, limiting the arthritic process

Joint supplements are considered “nutrient supplements,” not drugs. A drug has to pass FDA criteria for safety, efficacy and consistency of product. In other words it has to be shown cause no harm to the animal that it is administered to, to have the effect that the manufacturer claims, and to be consistent in what it contains and provides the animal.

A nutrient supplement does not have to meet any of the above criteria. It is completely untested and unregulated. As many of you have heard me say, you and I could go sweep the porch, put the contents of the dustpan into a capsule and call it a joint supplement

Some research has been done that shows in general these compounds can get from the GI tract and into the joints. If they make it to the joint, they can modify the arthritic process and provide for a healthier joint

However, most of the joint supplements on the market have absolutely no research into their formulation to back up the claims made on their label about how well absorbed they are or how well they work.

The problems are consistency of quality and function of the commercial products. Since commercial joint supplements do not have to prove their consistent quality, the commercial products can vary greatly from brand to brand and even from batch to batch within a brand, depending on the source that the manufacturer uses for ingredients.

Because the manufacturers do not have to meet any requirements for the efficacy of the product, they do not have to back up the claims made in their ads.

How do you decide which joint supplement to use? You have to do the research. Ask friends which products they have used on their animals and which products they feel have worked. Ask the staff at the feed store which products are more popular and sell more. Maybe these are the products that work

The drugs Adequan (a polysulfated glycosaminoglycan or PSGAG) and Legend (hyaluronic acid) are larger molecules that are made up, in part, of the molecules that are glucosamine, chondroitin or MSM. Adequan and Legend are considered drugs and therefore the companies that make and market them have to demonstrate their safety, consistency and efficacy. In other words, the products have to do what their maker claims they do-- protect the health of the joint

While Adequan and Legend are expensive, if you compare what you would spend in a month on either of them to what you would spend in a month on an oral joint supplement, you will probably find that the cost difference is not significant, especially when you consider what we know about the drugs efficacy but don’t know about the supplements.