Glucosamine HCL

Glucosamine is one of the major building blocks utilized in the body's synthesis of the lubricants and shock absorbing mechanisms necessary to maintain and restore healthy joint performance. Glucosamine HCL supplementation enhances the body's ability to manufacture collagen and proteoglycans, which are essential for rebuilding joints, as well as synovial fluid which lubricate your joints.

What form of Glucosamine Should I take?

Pure glucosamine is very "hygroscopic" and degrades (breaks down) rapidly when exposed to moisture or air. To avoid this, glucosamine needs to be bound to a stabilizer to be sold commercially. The sulfate and the HCL forms are two of the most common "agents" that glucosamine is bound to to ensure its stability. After glucosamine is bound, it is stable and will not degrade before it can get to the store shelf. This is why you never find "just" glucosamine and instead find Glucosamine Sulfate or Glucosamine HCL. However some manufacturers play a trick on you. They replace up to 30% of a "1500 mg" mixture and replace it with plain table salt. This means you are only taking 1050 mg of "actual" glucosamine! What's worse is that this is entirely legal because they put the ingredients on the label and the product DOES contain 1,500 mg of glucosamine sulfate (NaCl or 2KCL). It's just that the NaCl and 2KCL that is added on is just filler.

These manufacturers take glucosamine sulfate and add potassium (KCl) or ordinary table salt (NaCl). They then co-crystallize the resulting mixture and wind up with the same weight of "total" glucosamine but stiff you on the actual glucosamine dosage! As usual, you get what you pay for as these are commonly found in "no frills" glucosamine brands, in a low priced pill form with no other synergistic ingredients. In our opinion, they are simply a waste of money.

Some Glucosamine Sulfate preparations even claim to be salt free when in fact they are actually just sodium free. They still contain up to 30% potassium chloride (KCl). Finally, an mg-to-mg comparison shows that the hydrochloride may provide more Glucosamine than the Sulphate salt, and this may be the reason why some people prefer to choose Glucosamine HCL. The jury is still out however as to which benefits you more and an easy fix is to just take both HCL and Sulfate forms.

When searching for products, you may wish to look for products that contain both glucosamine HCL and glucosamine sulfate, as people sometimes respond quicker to one form over another. While most of the clinical studies were done with glucosamine sulfate, this is because the early glucosamine sulfate for the studies was provided by a manufacturer that did not make glucosamine HCL. Since then, HCL has increased in popularity. Look for a supplement that contains both for maximum benefit but be sure to look out for any that contain the less effective NaCl or KCl forms.

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A review of the leading commercial products available today. Each product is evaluated by type, method of delivery, quality, any additional ingredients and price.