Silly or Sensible? Cortaflex question...

[Joules]

Sensible!!

About 4 years ago my horse broke his pelvis. He came back in to work after a recovery and healing process that took over a year. Not surprisingly he suffered a few lame days and the odd stiff morning.

But when it got to the point where he was pretty much lame 100% of the time, someone told me to try cortaflex... now he is never lame (touch wood) and is back competing BSJA at the age of 20!!!!

I would recommend it to anyone and I can safely say he will be on the stuff until his final day!

I would recommend shopping around as I pay about £50 for four months supply!! If anyone knows of anywhere that I can get it for cheaper please let me know !

 

[puddicat]

That's interesting - so you're saying your horse had a fracture so that's damaged bone. Someone recommended a product that, if it does anything acts on cartilage in joints, but it cured your horse. Hmmm what d'you reckon - you may have just witnessed a miracle. I found a perfect image of the Virgin Mary in a bag of pork scratchings once.

 

[pootler]

Puddicat, you have lots of very valid points but please tone down the sarcasm! Not everyone has your scientific background, please be gentle with the souls you are trying to enlighten. People will be much more likely to listen to you then.

 

[spaniel]

Just to further complicate the conversation....I presume you all realise that Cortaflex contains neither glucosamine or chondroitin dont you.

It seems rather blinkered to be compaaring it to a product which does contain these ingredients.

 

[LauraBR]

Eh? Says so on the tub?!

 

[puddicat]

Just to further complicate the conversation....I presume you all realise that Cortaflex contains neither glucosamine or chondroitin dont you.

OMG !!!! d'y... d'you mean I've been spending all this thread thinking there was something in the product that might do something and there isn't ????? Oh no, so what's in the damn stuff then???

 

[rforsyth1984]

It contains precursers to glucosamine and chondroitin, doesn't it?

 

[puddicat]

Apparently yes, because the absorption rate of G is so low in horses (2.5%) probably because its such a big molecule, they've gone for the smaller molecules that the big one is made from. There's some assumptions in that line of thinking that are so big they'd obscure and elephant but hey... I talked to the guy that owns the company that makes cortaflex - or at least that's what he told me. There was a big poster on his stand that said "clinically proven in a double blind trial". It turns out Hiliary Clayton's outfit at Michigan State did a study on it but they presented it as a US conference so the study is pubished in conference procedings. I tried to explain to the bloke that conference procedings are either not refereed or refereed to a lower standard than normal journals but he wasn't desperately bothered. He wouldn't say what exactly is in it or how much (?!) Opinion amongst vets I talked to varied between extremes of whether it worked or not. Ironically it turns out the someone I know is the UK distributor for the stuff and even more ironically I ended up with several free samples of the stuff which I've only just managed to hand off!

 

[Lucy_Ally]

There is a paper in EVJ that has compared the joint supplements and the composition and amounts of the active ingredients in them and compared that to the amounts stated on the label. Makes quite interesting reading! I can't remember which issue its in though.

 

[spaniel]

Oh Lucy....wrack your brains woman...Id really like to read that.

 

[lordflynn]

[ QUOTE ]
There is a paper in EVJ that has compared the joint supplements and the composition and amounts of the active ingredients in them and compared that to the amounts stated on the label. Makes quite interesting reading! I can't remember which issue its in though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Jan 06

well, pretty sure!

 

[Lucy_Ally]

Yes I was pretty sure it was this year, the EVJ website however is crap! Will have to wait till I am in work to check as it is on my desk.

 

[Lucy_Ally]

Spaniel, it doesn't however "name and Shame" the supplements sadly so you cannot work out whihc commercial ones they are, but there are some discrepencies between what was measured and what was claimed to be in them!!

 

[spaniel]

I was more interested to find out just whats supposed to be in them rather than compare one brand to another. However, as you say, the EVJ site is a bit useless so will have to be patient!

 

[Lucy_Ally]

Here it is:

Equine Veterinary Journal Article

Title:
Evaluation of glucosamine levels in commercial equine oral supplements for joints.

Authors:
Oke, S., Aghazadeh-Habashi, A., Weese, J. S. and Jamali, F.

Year:
2006
Reference:
Equine vet. J. 38, Pp93-95

Keywords: horse; glucosamine; osteoarthritis; nutraceutical; label claims

 

[spaniel]

You star

 

[rforsyth1984]

the Clayton trial was hardly perfect.... looked at effects over 2 (or 4? a short time anyway!) weeks in about 6 horses... not a dig a Hilary Clayton or Michigan by the way, Im sure they would recognise the limitations to their own trial!