John Arts Abundant Living www.johnarts.co.nz

A quick review of New Zealand-made joint supplements found none with the recommended levels of Chondroitin Sulphate. I did find two quality US-made supplements for sale in here in NZ that do meet this standard, as does my joint supplement.

The international research and recommendation of CS for osteoarthritis more than a decade. There are numerous overseas companies that manufacture supplements that have therapeutic levels of CS.

This begs the question as to why not in NZ? What could be the reason NZ companies exclude therapeutic amounts of CS? A quick check on the most extensive online supplement store found that most NZ-made joint supplements, including the biggest selling products, had, on average, only 200mg of CS. Typically these are marketed as a ‘one-a-day' products that are mostly glucosamine with little or no chondroitin.

The only reason I can conclude is the cost of chondroitin. I've just purchased a new batch of high-grade avian-sourced CS and the cost is about nine times that of glucosamine. If you took the top-selling joint products and reduced the glucosamine from (around) 1500mg to 800mg and added 800mg of chondroitin, the consumer price would likely need to double or the profit would more than halve.

I have no doubt that most of the benefits people get from my supplement are from the chondroitin. Scientists have identified about 30 benefits adding therapeutic levels of chondroitin has on the chemistry and function of joints and the joint capsule. While some of these are complex, the benefits are mostly to improve the function of cartilage-secreting chondrocyte cells and by regulating destructive enzymes and joint capsule inflammation. The bottom line is less pain and more mobility. For more information, give me a call or email: john@abundant.co.nz You can read my newsletter at: www.abundant.co.nz

John Arts is a qualified nutritional medicine practitioner and founder of Abundant Health. Contact John on 0800 423 559. To read more go to www.sunlive.co.nz