No changes of cholesterol levels with a commercially available glucosamine product in patients treated with lipid lowering drugs: a controlled, randomised, open cross-over trial

Controlled, randomized, open, crossover pharmacodynamic study in two primary health care centres. Patients were treated with Artrox？ (glucosamine) 625 mg twice daily and control (a commercially available multivitamin tablet Vitamineral？). The study started with a run-in period of four weeks followed by control or active treatment with randomization of sealed envelopes. Each treatment period was four weeks and the treatment with simvastatin or atorvastatin was unchanged during the study (12 weeks). 34 patients were treated with a stable dose of simvastatin (n=21) or atorvastatin (n=13) for at least three months. Assessments of total s-cholesterol, s-HDL, S-LDL and s-triglycerides were performed in the morning with the patients in a fasting condition. T-tests for paired samples were used for statistical analyses and a p-value <0.05 was considered significant. Endpoints were the differences in lipid values at week 8 and week 12.All patients completed the study. No significant changes were seen on any of lipid levels in the simvastatin group.The actual glucosamine product did not change lipid levels of patients treated with simvastatin. Atorvastatin group was too small for safe calculations but was also without changes.EUDRACT2006-001458-28There is a widespread use of natural health products [1,2]. It is also known that some of these products can interact with several prescribed drugs [3], causing increased levels for example of cholesterol and other lipids [4,5] when interacting with the metabolism of simvastatin and atorvastatin [4,5]. One drug that is commonly used of patients suffering from osteoarthritis is glucosamine, which is found naturally in the body and also is used by the body as one of the building blocks of cartilage. Some case reports have found increased values of cholesterol and other lipids in patients treated with simvastatin and glucosamine [6] but no prospective studies have been conducted to confirm these data. One long-term study of glucosamine e