My suspicions were aroused when by the box ad at the bottom of the page, just above the article citations, telling how to order this new product with special limited time 48-hour "significant discount". Implying that my local drug store may not be able to stock the product in the foreseeable future because of the high demand. But with the special code, if I call after 8:00 AM (date not specified) I am guaranteed my order will be delivered directly to my home.
I googled for Trigosamine and found the company's website and pages of hits. Most of these hits seemed to be drug sales sites offing the product. Eight pages into the google hits I found this short article, Is Trigosamine® Really an Effective Drug for Joint Care? About the only none sales related hit I found. I then looked for FASEB J and found the Journals website. No articles on Trigosamine® or on Hyaluronate-13 published in 2004.
The one scientific sounding reference in the company's literature is bogus. Assume the other information if not wrong is misleading.
The Glucosamine Sulfate is known to help degenerating joints so maybe the product will help some people. But eating a joint lubricant, hyaluronate, isn't going to lubricant my joints any more than eating steaks, bovine muscle, is going to add more muscles to my abs.
While writing this blog I attempted to link to the article in the Auburn Journal but their search engine didn't find their own article. Hmmm??? Going back to the newspaper clipping I see in a smaller type along the top of the page that the "article" is a paid advertisement run by Universal Media Syndicate, Inc. for the product manufacturer. To quote Universal Media Syndicate's website, "Media buying is not just what we do, it's who we are".
Dr. Joseph Dietz, PhD works for the manufacturer. The other scientist quoted in the article, Dr. Philip Howren, is a medical consultant to the manufacturer, PatentHEALTH.
I will NOT include the URL for the product here because I do not want to endorse it or add search-engine-credibility to the company.
7 comments:
Thank you so much for doing the 'foot work' on this product. I saw a similar ad in my local paper. My google search pulled up your blog.....
Again, my thanks......
My husband suggested that I read this article in the Detroit Free Press, about relief for joint pain. Well it wasn't an article, it was an advertisement. I got suspious right away. When I read the following sentence, "One of the key ingredients is hyaluronate, which is a building block of "human joint oil" and known by medical professionals as synovial fluid", I really didn't believe it. My question is, if it's the key ingredient, where do they get it from? Are they removing it from dead human bodies? I don't think so. This is obviously a scam. Thank you for your smoke and mirrors blog. You have helped me confirm that this is just a bunch of con artists trying to sale a bogus product to people who are in pain, and desperate for any relief they can get. Keep up your research. It is appreciated.
From Wikipedia:
Functions
Until the late 1970s, hyaluronan was described as a "goo" molecule, a ubiquitous carbohydrate polymer that is part of the extracellular matrix.[7] For example, hyaluronan is a major component of the synovial fluid and was found to increase the viscosity of the fluid. Along with lubricin, it is one of the fluid's main lubricating components.
Hyaluronan is an important component of articular cartilage, where it is present as a coat around each cell (chondrocyte). When aggrecan monomers bind to hyaluronan in the presence of link protein, large highly negatively-charged aggregates form. These aggregates imbibe water and are responsible for the resilience of cartilage (its resistance to compression). The molecular weight (size) of hyaluronan in cartilage decreases with age, but the amount increases.[8]
Hyaluronan is also a major component of skin, where it is involved in tissue repair. When skin is excessively exposed to UVB rays, it becomes inflamed (sunburn) and the cells in the dermis stop producing as much hyaluronan, and increase the rate of its degradation. Hyaluronan degradation products also accumulate in the skin after UV exposure.[9]
While it is abundant in extracellular matrices, hyaluronan also contributes to tissue hydrodynamics, movement and proliferation of cells, and participates in a number of cell surface receptor interactions, notably those including its primary receptors, CD44 and RHAMM. Upregulation of CD44 itself is widely accepted as a marker of cell activation in lymphocytes. Hyaluronan's contribution to tumor growth may be due to its interaction with CD44. Receptor CD44 participates in cell adhesion interactions required by tumor cells.
Although hyaluronan binds to receptor CD44, there is evidence that hyaluronan degradation products transduce their inflammatory signal through Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), TLR4 or both TLR2, and TLR4 in macrophages and dendritic cells. TLR and hyaluronan play a role in innate immunity.
High concentrations of hyaluronan in the brains of young rats, and reduced concentrations in the brains of adult rats suggest that hyaluronan plays an important role in brain development.[10]
This product DOES in fact work for a lot of people who take it. There are no smoke and mirrors from the website. All information provided is correct, or else the company wouldn't be in business too long because the FCC would be all over their call centers (which is where the majority of the profit this company makes stems from). They use a very advanced method of advertising where they want as many people to call their call centers as possible, in hopes to sell them on their product. They offer fair prices. You can get each bottle after your first bottle at 19 a piece, free shipping. It may be a little misleading at first, but if you read the whole article everything is clearly stated.
Don't let a blog make up your mind for you. Look at the reviews on Anazon.com They are very positive.
LaDonna, hyaluronate comes from rooster combs. It is the same thing we find in our bodies that lubricates our joints. Like all things in nature, we find it in many places.
A quick google search and a little reading provided this link from wikipedia... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyaluronan
Or you can go on thinking that they mean it comes from dead human bodies, whichever you want to do is cool with me.
PS. My parents use this, and with VERY positive results on top of that.
In Newsday where they carried the ad designed to look like a news article, six "advertisement" words appear above the article. Below the article is the disclaimer "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intendted to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease."
As someone who is familiar with the rigorous clinical trial system, a line like " 'In all my years of clinical research, I've never seen that type of a response before' " is a red flag telling me that the entire article is bogus.
I too saw the newspaper article and it sounded to good to be true. My friend once said “if treatments like this worked, they would be sold by the large pharmaceutical companies. “ I thought that this was a good point. I need a hip replacement and I was hoping that this would buy me some time.
This blog post is about a misleading advertizing technique.
As for the benifits of glucosamine I used it successfull for years until it became ineffective.
I recommend glucosamine to friends in the early stages of degeneration and encourage them to determine for themselves if it helps. But you don't need a snake oil salesman, ask your pharmacist for help selecting a product that meets your needs.
Post a Comment