Chondroitin Protects Adults from Colorectal Cancer; Memorial Sloan Kettering Led Research

Chondroitin protects adults from colorectal cancer; Memorial Sloan Kettering led research 

The supplements Glucosamine and Chondroitin have strong evidence that they reduce joint pain and stiffness, and can improve joint function as well as the prescription drug celecoxib (generic Celebrex), that they have a much better safety profile, and have the additional benefit of slowing down the degradation of joint cartilage; no drug has been found to have this ability. In fact a study from 2015 demonstrates that these supplements decrease generalized inflammation as measured by CRP levels in blood tests; Harvard School of Public Health, Vanderbilt University, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center published this research in the journal PloS One.

A team of academic research institutions led by Dr. Elizabeth Kantor from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan analyzed data from 68,466 female nurses from the Nurses Health Study and 27,934 male doctors, pharmacists, and dentists from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Crunching the numbers revealed that any use of Glucosamine in conjunction with Chondroitin lowers the risk of colon and rectal cancer by up to 25%. Using Chondroitin alone but not Glucosamine alone also lowered the risk. NSAIDs such as aspirin and ibuprofen have a known ability to lower the risk of developing colon cancer. However, even with the use of NSAIDs, Glucosamine with Chondroitin still offered the additional protection from colorectal cancer. Weight and the level of body fat, the amount of exercise nor lack of it, nor gender interfered with the supplements protective effects and the level of protection varied little between colon and rectal cancer; the supplement protected equally well against either. The researchers published their findings in the June 30th, 2016 issue of the International Journal of Cancer. The researchers are at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Harvard School of Public Health, The Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital,and the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Prevention.

Previously researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after reviewing data from the Vital Study reported that use of either supplement (Glucosamine or Chondroitin) could reduce the risks of lung cancer, colon cancer, and rectal cancer. Their report was published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center reported that use of Glucosamine over a 10-year period lowered the risk of lung cancer, even in smokers, by 33%, and this was not influenced by subsequent use of NSAIDs (drugs such as aspirin, Celebrex, ibuprofen, and naproxen) which are thought to have anticancer effects. If the research, which included data on 77,000 adults, was restricted to adenocarcinoma of the lung, Glucosamine lowered the risk by 51%.