GLUCOSAMINE. Save £60 a Year

Seren_2

I don't think there is such a thing as inexpensive and good quality where health tablets are concerned, the cheap ones have powder etc., in them. Have you looked at Solgar, they are expensive but effective,and the highest quality you can get. Holland & Barrett do not stock Solgar, they say theirs are just as good, this is not true.

Ted_Hutchinson

Seren wrote:

I don't think there is such a thing as inexpensive and good quality where health tablets are concerned, the cheap ones have powder etc., in them. Have you looked at Solgar, they are expensive but effective,and the highest quality you can get. Holland & Barrett do not stock Solgar, they say theirs are just as good, this is not true.

But what evidence do you have for this statement.
If you have completed a scientific analysis of the different glucosamine in one suppliers tablets and compared that with the same scientific analysis of others then and only then can you say that the more expensive tablet is better.
I've bought ZIPVIT CARNITINE at £7.45 500mg for 90
and Holland& Barrett Carnitine a £18.99500mg for 60
and the Zipvit's are as effective as the H&B as both contain the same amount of Carnitine. I cannot see any justification in paying 250% more for the same chemical constituent. Asprin is Asprin is Asprin and it's simply hogswash to imply that one bottle of asprins is different from another.
Can you really tell the difference between Tesco's Table Salt and Sainsbury's Table Salt it's codswallop to say that because one lot of salt or sugar is more expensive it must be better.
That's not to say that everything is always comparable. Sometimes the strength/amount of active ingredient is different, sometimes the actual chemical nature of the ingredient is not comparable Vitamin d2 is NOT the equivalent of Vitamin D3 and should not be used as a supplement though both are sold as Vitamin D. Clearly Time Relese formulations are sometimes worth paying more for (particularly vit c) sometimes the way the supplement is formulated makes it more absorbable, but really ALL the claims made by the manufacturers have to be taken with a pinch of salt and double checked by using Pubmed or Google Scholar to see if there is actually any scientific support for the claims that are made. MOST often there is NO support at all for the hype the Vitamin Supplement makers claim however much they charge.
An example is Grape seed Extract H&B Price: £12.99 100 Zipvit £5.95 90 Solgar £21.09 30 (double strength)
The point is IF THERE IS NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE AT ALL EVER that this has any beneficial efect whatsoever there is no point in buying it at ANY price whether cheapo Zipvit or Goldplated Solgar. If it don't work it don't work.

Seren_2

My local health store will only stock goods that he has researched and is completely satisfied with the way it is made.
Everything is organic, he will not sell it if he is not sure, i.e. he will not sell a particular carrot juice as he is not completely happy about the process, he will not sell any products with trans fats I notice H&B do, (although it is not banned yet) He will sell Solgar products, this is why I recommended them,but I am not an expert on this subject.

Ted_Hutchinson

Healthspan Discount Code until APRIL 30TH 2007 is CAR-AM gives you £2 off £15

Jake'sGran

phague wrote:

Hello,

Thank you for this.

Does anyone know if any of these sites are on any cashback schemes, such as rpoints or greasypalm ?

Thanks.

Not Zipvit but they are a nice company to deal with and once when I asked for my vits to be del'd in bags and they had run out and I got tubs they sent a free pill organiser to say sorry. I don't use Glucosamine. It did absolutely nothing for me...like many other people I know. This week in The Times there was an authoritative article to the effect that we are all wasting our money. You can read it on their web page, do a search for Health articles.

The only thing I believe is genuinely helpful is essential fatty acid. I take a large dose of Omega 3 and also GLA every day and have exceptionally good skin for my age. The fish oils are cheap from Zipvit too but lately I have noticed H&B are competing like mad. I take about three different supplements for my heart but when my head is ruling I tell myself that when your heart is damaged (valves) there is no vitamin supplement that will change that! Ted Hutchinson is a great exponent of Vit D and I really agree with that - the real stuff I mean, from sunshine.

Ted_Hutchinson

Jake'sGran wrote:

Ted Hutchinson is a great exponent of Vit D and I really agree with that - the real stuff I mean, from sunshine.

Winter means none is available from sunshine. 92.4 percent of African-American newborns and 66.1 percent of white babies studied had insufficient [URL="javascript:KeywordSearch('KEYWORDS=vitamin+D&period=all&inner=1');"]vitamin D[/URL] levels at birth.......Our best estimate is that the body uses 4000 iu per day and the dietary reference intake for women up to the age of 50 is 200 iu per day."
..two recent studies concluded that increasing the daily intake of vitamin D to 2000 International Units could halve the risk of developing breast and colorectal cancer
Really just meant to point out that Quidco offer 24% from Healthy Direct But you do have to check that the price you are paying at HD even with the potential cashback, is in fact cheaper than the special offers at H&B or Boots or the prices normally charged by the likes of Zipvit/Simply Supplements/Healthspan.
However as JakesGran points out there's no moneysaving in buying stuff that doesn't work. I base my purchases on the list at Direct ms org which is based on scientific research providing you also check at Pubmed that there is evidence they are appropriate for the purposes you are intending to use them for.

eryn_kathleen

Seren wrote:

the cheap ones have powder etc., in them

Nearly all tablets and pills have powder in them. My husband works for a pharmaceutical company which also makes supplements (it's quite common for them to do both) and he often measures out three grains of active ingredient into a capsule and then fills it up with talc or another 'bulking' agent.

The powder, talc, sugar, or whatever is used is tested to the same standards as the active ingredients.

Jake'sGran

This is to Ted H. I am just curious Ted. Do we really not get any benefit from the sun in winter?. Recently we have had some very nice sunny days and I am always out in the garden when that happens. Reading your post made me think of the people I have come across who are in poor health who make the effort to go to Spain at this time of the year, presumably for the sunshine. I have been wondering if I should do the same even if the foreign airports are difficult for me. If the sun in Spain does help in winter maybe the bones would not hurt so much!

Ted_Hutchinson

Jake'sGran wrote:

This is to Ted H. I am just curious Ted. Do we really not get any benefit from the sun in winter?. Recently we have had some very nice sunny days and I am always out in the garden when that happens. Reading your post made me think of the people I have come across who are in poor health who make the effort to go to Spain at this time of the year, presumably for the sunshine. I have been wondering if I should do the same even if the foreign airports are difficult for me. If the sun in Spain does help in winter maybe the bones would not hurt so much!

You can see from the reading shown here that UK doesn't get sufficient sun from October to March to generate Vitamin d3
Health Secrets - - "O" One Hour of Sunshine Mercola discusses the issue here. He lives in Chicago lat 42 about the same as Rome but he still goes south for the Winter. He was in MAWI lat 25 from Jan Feb and March (clearly can pay for his holiday as a works expense as he continued with his email newletter from there, hence the ghastly shirt selection) He reckons you need about an hour a day for 3 weeks in tropical sun to top up during the Winter.

I don't really understand anyone's reluctance to use Cholecalciferol supplements The Vitamin D council links page has the best cheapest source. Far easier and more moneysaving than a holiday or sunbed use depending on the strength you use it would only be £2 or £8.50 for the whole winter. Risk assessment for vitamin D -- Hathcock et al. 85 (1): 6 ... shows toxicity at the level needed isn't an issue.

Ted_Hutchinson

I've spent a bit of time tonight answering a PM about buying Glucosamine and as it's a bit of a waste just providing this information to one person I thought I might summarise it here.

1. The effective dose according to the research is 1500mg a day.
2. Only 3% of users have trouble digesting this amount (though that may not include the ones who find the larger size tablets difficult to swallow.
3. The half life of glucosamine when in the blood is 70hrs.
4. the veggie form of glucosamine hydroxide isn't as well absorbed so not really an option.

The cheapest option therefore is to use 1500mg tablets, if you have no problems swallowing them, or half tablets if you split them in two. The point about time release formulations really doesn't apply with a 70hr half life. With vitamin c where the half life is just 30mins it's critical to ensure your levels are raised by having it arrive in small amounts through the day but if once it's absorbed it hangs around for 3 days then it's not going to make any difference taking it once a day or 3 times daily.
So if you go for the 1500mg size which Zipvit say is smaller and has a break point allowing you to divide it in two if youfind it hard to manage they charge £12.95 plus £1 P&P but if you order something else to bring the price over £16.95 it P&P free.
However Healthspan Glucosamine Sulphate Tablets 2KCL - 750mg - 360 tablets £7.95 X 2= £15.90 -£2 (CAR-AM gives you £2 off £15) =£13.90 Simply Supplements are £14.99 but as they offer a ‘Lowest Price Guarantee plus 10% "we will refund the difference plus 10%" it will be worth your while ringing them up and seeing if they will knock 10% off the Healthspan's or Zipvit prices. When I tried this they were very good and did it immediately no questions asked but when I tried using ZIPVIT's price pledge it was a more hassle than it was worth, one excuse after another and lots of timewasting delay.