Lots of questions regarding joint supplements (yes, another post!!)

floradora09

floradora09

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I'm sorry as I know there are always lots of threads about this but I have a few questions that need answering rather than the old 'which supplement works best?' :P I'm going to put my 15 year old on a joint supplement now, to help prevent any future damage, as hopefully he will be doing some eventing (PC novice/intermediate) and I really want to look after him in his older years. However there are so many products, all claiming to be the best etc I have come up with a few questions that I need answers to!

1) What roles do glucosamine, chondroitin and manganese ascorbate play in the supplement?
2) MSM is mentioned a lot- what is this for?
3) Exactly how much of the above ingredients are needed to make a significant difference in a 15.2hh? I am concerned that some supplements do not contain enough of these key ingredients!
4) Is there anything else I need to be aware of when finding a suitable supplement- what ingredients does it need to contain, for example?

Thank you so much, your help is greatly appreciated- I feel like I'm going round in circles at the moment! :D
 
Yep, I've been looking into this too (my 12 year old TB has hock arthritis). Trouble is, I would like to give her every supplement on the market, but can't afford it!

So I've chosen a balancer with glucosomine: TopSpec Senior balancer.

Apparently, it's got all you need, multivits, hoof, joint ... blah blah blah. I spoke to Topspec on the telephone and they said "no chrondoitin as horses can't absorb it, don't quite believe this myself, but I think it's about the closest I can get to everything I want. It's £40 a bag and a bag should last about 40 days. When you think about the price of all the different supplements combined, I think it's the best option.

She gets this with mollichop calmer (Tb silliness) and kwikbeet with a touch of linseed oil to reduce inflammation and adlib hay (she drops weight easily). Works for us:).
 
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I think I found the study you mean. The Equiflex one? This doesn't prove chondroitin is absorbed, just that equiflex, (which happens to contain it plus lots of glucosomine), makes a significant difference to a placebo.

If the trial was comparing "equiflex" against "equiflex MINUS the chondroitin", and there was a significant difference in mobility in favour of the latter mix then that would prove the point, I think.

I think Cortaflex say that their chondroitin can be absorbed as its molecules are finer than in other similar compounds, though I don't know of a study to back up thiose claims, apart from the ones they themselves orchestrate.

Apols if I've looked at the wrong study.
 
heres one to get your teeth around

was posted by an earlier HHOer

http://jarvm.com/articles/Vol4Iss2/Rodgers.pdf

it only looks like they did this with 10 horses which doesnt seem enough however the principle of 10g ,10g 4g seems sound.

If your spending money on something with little of the ingredient its a waste.

Im currently trying riaflex as it has the required amount but cant say yet what the effect is

you can buy glucosamine and msm mix from natural horse supplies on ebay, but again you need to make sure the amount per day fed is enough
 
Thanks everyone! You see the thing is, I don't know what approach to take- Cortaflex seem to be saying that with most supplements the horse cannot absorb the glucosamine/chondroitin molecules, as they are too big. Their approach seems to be that they use finer molecules, with (I think!) amino acids, the building blocks for joints (or something like that, correct me if I'm wrong!). Then there are websites saying you need 10,000mg of glucosamine etc for it to be effective (maybe they work on the basis that if you feed lots then some must be absorbed?). Then gold label I think it is, are saying they use Glucosamine sulphate (rather than HCI/HCL I presume?!) which is the smallest glucosamine molecules available...

I think I might try one of the gold label joint supplements, they seem to have the right things in- but don't tell you anything about the amounts! Or try something like cortaflex, of Equiflex and feed MSM too???

It's a complete minefield!! Not helped by the fact that what works for one horse may not work for another!! :(
 
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