Background : The oral administration of Glucosamine and intra-articular (IA) injection of Hyaluronic Acid were used to treat osteoarthritis. Several studies supported that clinical pain symptoms could be alleviated, and activities of daily life improved after the completion of IA knee hyaluronic acid injections. However, the efficacy of oral administration of Glucosamine was inconclusive. In Taiwan, the Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) made the strict formulations for the both of ¡§oral administration of Glucosamine ¡§and ¡§IA knee hyaluronic acid injections.¡¨ But, there were no evidence to prove that whether the combined treatments from both oral administration of Glucosamine and IA knee hyaluronic acid injections were more effective than the treatment with the IA knee hyaluronic acid injections alone. Objectives : The porpose of this study was to examine whether the effects of treatment combined with both ¡§oral administration of Glucosamine and IA knee hyaluronic acid injections¡¨ on clinical pain symptoms and activities of daily living were better than ¡§IA knee hyaluronic acid injections¡¨ alone. Methods : We randomly assigned 60 patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis, at the department of Orthopedics, Kaohsiung Municipal Union Hospital, between 2008 and 2009, to receive oral administration of Glucosamine and IA knee hyaluronic acid injections or oral administration of Placebo and IA knee hyaluronic acid injections. In this study, clinical pain symptoms, and activities of daily living were assessed by using Lequesne's Index, visual analogue scale index, Berg Balance Test, and Biodex Balance Test before and after the treatment in 60 patients with the knee OA. Result : The mean age was 66.6 years, and 70 percent were woman. There was a significant efficacy before and after treatments both in the treatment group(p<0.001) and the placebo control group(p<0.001). In the other hand, there was not the statistical significance in the efficacy between the treatment group and the control group(p=0.869). Conclusion : The combined treatment with both oral administration of Glucosamine and IA knee hyaluronic acid injections was not significantly better than the IA knee hyaluronic acid injections alone in reducing knee pain or promoting the function of daily life.

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of glucosamine for knee osteoarthritis (KOA) through the examination of symptomatic and structural effectiveness of the compound, and to increase public awareness, especially in Hong Kong, about its potential benefits contingent upon the quality of the existing research. Methods, Results: All studies published between 1965 and 2011 in MEDLINE, and from 1980 to 2012 in EMBASE, which evaluated the effectiveness of glucosamine for KOA, were searched and identified using specific keywords. A total of 9 randomized controlled trials out of 672 articles from MEDLINE and 1712 articles from EMBASE were included in this systematic review. The included studies used different outcome measures to compare the effects of glucosamine with other remedies for treating KOA. Similar demographic and clinical characteristics of the subjects between the intervention and the control groups were recorded. The studies were from eight countries. The average age of the subjects in the nine studies were 55 years and they were generally overweight. Though there were discrepancies among the results generated in the included studies, the potential benefits of glucosamine could not be dismissed. Discussion: Factors about compliance, possible drug-to-drug interaction, unknown placebo, subject characteristics (disease progress and severity, age, gender, and occupation), as well as the dosage of glucosamine could have greatly affected the results of the included studies. Limitations on finding articles about the effectiveness of glucosamine for OA of different sites, the cost-effectiveness of the compound, the assumption of the language restriction, and the risks of biases were raised. More clinical trials with comprehensive considerations of all possible factors affecting the results, are necessary. Conclusion: Based on this systematic review, the potential effects of glucosamine for KOA remain unclear. More research of different ethnic groups, especially of people in Hong Kong, is needed to raise public awareness about the effectiveness of glucosamine for OA other than the knee globally as well as in Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

No description available.

Thesis (Master of Exercise Science)--Washington State University, December 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 32-38).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-182).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1948. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-100).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 216-219).

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has become very popular with populations internationally and in the United States. CAM is defined as “a group of diverse medical and health systems, practices and products that are not generally considered as part of conventional medicine”. CAM is described as having five specific divisions: whole medical systems, mind-body medicine, biologically-based practices, manipulative- or body-based practices, and energy medicine. Recent studies have shown that CAM use is increasing. In the US 33% of the population reported using CAM in 1990, but 1997 usage rates increased to over 41%. The popularity of CAM is one of the reasons for the creation of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) by the National Institutes of Health the Federal Government's lead agency for scientific research on the diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine”. NCCAM information was the foundation for this project. The goals of this project are to evaluate the interest of dietitians in Georgia in CAM and introduce participants of this project to a segment of CAM treatments. The primary research question is: Are dietitians in the state of Georgia interested in using CAM as part of their practice? There were three distinct portions to this project; the initial survey of the dietitian participants, the development and use of the introductory CAM lesson, and the evaluation of this lesson and final survey. The data from both the first and second surveys as well as the post test does support a positive answer to the research question, “Are registered dietitians in the state of Georgia interested in CAM? The results clearly indicate an interest from both the survey 1 and survey 2/ post test group. Some may ask, “Is this really of any importance to the dietetics profession?” The answer to this can be found in the nutrition literature. Conducting a topic search of “Complementary and alternative medicine” in three predominant nutrition journals: the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, The Journal of Nutrition and The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, revealed more than 17,000 articles. These articles range for original research to review of original research to commentary articles evaluating the use of CAM to the dietetics practice. A number of articles addressed the importance of CAM in dietetics education as well as its importance to the practice and reimbursement for services.

Amperometric dectection of heparin and glucosamine in flow injection analysis

This study was conducted to study absorption of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate and to measure any changes in blood concentration of these compounds following feeding them to horses in different amounts. Six mature mares were used in a replicated 3x3 Latin square designed experiment. The experiment consisted of three 15-day periods, which included 10 days of diet adaptation followed by a 5-day sampling period. Blood was drawn on one day during each sampling period. Horses were fed a control diet (40% hay, 60% concentrate) balanced to meet NRC (1989) requirements for maintenance of mature horses. In one experimental diet, 2.0 g chondroitin sulfate and 5.5 g glucosamine were added to the basal ration at each feeding. In the other experimental diet, 3.5 g chondroitin sulfate and 8.5 g glucosamine were added to the basal ration at each feeding. Following total collections, blood was centrifuged and plasma was harvested and data analyzed for the presence of each compound. Analyses for plasma glucosamine were performed in the Protein and Chemistry Lab at Texas A&M University using HPLC. Chondroitin sulfate in the plasma was analyzed using a color reagent, dimethylmethylene blue, followed by UV spectrophotometry. There were no significant differences (P<0.05) in the concentration of chondroitin sulfate or glucosamine concentrations in plasma when comparing the three different diets. This leads to a conclusion that these compounds were not absorbed through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream in the same form as they were fed. This poses a question as to whether or not oral forms of these compounds are absorbed and are able to migrate to joints through the blood to improve joint function. With the significant economic impact that products containing chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine are making in the animal nutrition industry, more research is needed to further elucidate actual efficacy of these compounds in diet supplements for horses.