My Schiff Glucosamine 2000 Mg Review – What’s Behind?

 

It’s time for my Schiff Glucosamine 2000 mg review, a supplement that seems promising at first sight. It contains a higher dose of glucosamine than most and it’s pretty cheap. In fact, it looks like a great choice for osteoarthritis.

However, the other ingredients aren’t that impressive as glucosamine.

So is this product a good choice if you have weakened joints? Does it work for real or it’s just a scam? It’s time to dig deep into this product and find out the truth about it.

Note: This review is based on my experience with this product, so it may or may not agree with other reviews you find. I am not trying to praise/criticize the product or the company, I am simply telling my experience with it

 

So Let’s Get To The Review

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Full Name: Glucosamine 2000 mg Joint Supplement from Schiff

Quantity : 150 capsules

Best Actual Price: $12.08

Where I Bought It From: Ebay

Worth The Price?: Pretty much no, because it’s not as good as I first thought. There’s only glucosamine inside, but it’s not the best form of it

My Rating: 3.25 / 10.00

 

What I Liked About It

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• It contains a higher dose of glucosamine than most supplements (2000 mg, which is really impressive)
• I started to notice an effect after about a month (but unfortunately my pain only decreased with 2 numbers on the pain scale)
• It’s extremely cheap, considering how many pills there are in one bottle

What I Didn’t Like

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• It doesn’t contain glucosamine sulfate, which is the best form of glucosamine. Instead, it contains the hydrochloride form, which is very that effective
• I wish it had some chondroitin instead of hyaluronic acid. According to studies, glucosamine works better if it’s combined with chondroitin
• In my case, it took a long time until I noticed an effect (about one month). Besides, it only decreased part of my pain
• Though it’s not expensive, I don’t think it’s such a good deal because you’re not getting the sulfate form

 

 

What’s So Special About The Ingredients?

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If you take a look at the ingredient list, you won’t be impressed by names. The only impressive thing is their number: 2.

Out of these, only one is a common remedy for joint pain. I’m talking about glucosamine. The other one, hyaluronic acid, doesn’t have any impressive results in clinical trials. At least this is what I read, so if I’m wrong, I apologise.

So I can’t say this is the best ingredient list I have seen. There’s no chondroitin, MSM or other useful substances. However, it can compensate that.

But let’s take a look at the exact list:

• Glucosamine (2000 mg) – This dose is much higher than in most supplements I tried. The average dose is somewhere around 1000 mg, and I’ve seen a few products that had up to 1500 mg. However, no supplement I came across had such a high quantity (this is a big advantage)
• Hyaluronic Acid (3.3 mg) – This substance isn’t famous for healing joint pain, but a lot of producers started to add it because it manages to lubricate the joints

So what I really like about this product is the high dose of glucosamine. That’s what brings it in the spotlight, because you can’t find many supplements with such a high dose. 

But other than that, its ingredients are more than basic. There’s not even the classic chondroitin. Combined with it, glucosamine proved to work much better on the long term.

Instead, the producers chose hyaluronic acid, which doesn’t bring any big benefits, in my opinion. I personally would have preferred classic ingredients instead. Combined with so much glucosamine, I think they would have made the difference.

 

Why I Don’t Think Hyaluronic Acid Helps

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Here’s the first thing I didn’t like in this supplement’s description. According to them, hyaluronic acid supports joint lubrication and smooth movement.

Well, that’s a true fact, but there’s one thing you should know. In order to treat the joints, hyaluronic acid must be injected directly. Those benefits only appear when you’re using it as injections.

However, if you want to get the same benefits with pills, things change. According to a 2012 study, you need to take about 200 mg of hyaluronic acid per day. That if you want to get the same effect as with injections.

That’s because of absorption issues. When you’re injecting it, the whole substance gets to the right joints. However, when you’re taken it by mouth, only part of the substance is absorbed by your body.

So given these numbers, you can judge by yourself. Compared to 200 mg, 3.3 mg per day is extremely little. In fact, I don’t think it changes anything when it comes to pain.

It’s almost 2% of the necessary quantity, so that’s why I believe this dose is way too little to do any good.

 

 

I Wish There Was Glucosamine Sulfate, Not Hydrochloride

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What really impressed me about this supplement was the huge dose of glucosamine. I had never tried a product with such a high dose, so that’s what convinced me to try it. 

However, I didn’t pay much attention at the ingredient list and I didn’t notice one thing. It didn’t contain glucosamine sulfate, but hydrochloride.

Why does this matter?

Well, there are 2 forms of glucosamine: sulfate and hydrochloride.

Most supplements with glucosamine contain the sulfate form. If you ever heard of the benefits of glucosamine, it’s because of it. On the other hand, studies show that glucosamine hydrochloride doesn’t have incredible effects in osteoarthritis or chronic joint pain.

Guess which of these form is inside this supplement?

Unfortunately, it’s the hydrochloride.

This means that no matter what a high dose there is, hydrochloride will never work as well as sulfate. The S form help rebuilding the cartilage, while the H form does not. At least studies didn’t conclude that yet.

How did I notice that? Well, I didn’t. I simply read other reviews and noticed that some people were angry because of this misleading fact. After taking a more careful look, I realized they were right. The back label says there’s glucosamine hydrochloride, not sulfate.

For me, this thing pretty much canceled that extra point for the high dose of glucosamine. What’s the point of having a higher dose if it’s not the right substance?

 

I Wish There Was Also Chondroitin

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Glucosamine may be the best substance for osteoarthritis, but it doesn’t work that good alone. Just like turmeric needs bioperine, glucosamine also need chondroitin to make the best of its healing power.

In fact, almost every supplement for osteoarthritis contains a combination of both, besides the other additional ingredients. So Schiff’s supplement only has 2000 mg of glucosamine hydrochloride inside. The hyaluronic acid is way too little to do anything, it doesn’t have any other ingredient and there’s no chondroitin.

Unfortunately, it would be pretty hard to get some relief only with glucosamine. I’m talking especially about people with chronic arthritis, like me.

Yes, you can experience some improvement, especially if your pain isn’t very severe. But otherwise, it’s hard to think that a supplement like this can help you tremendously.

For this reason, I tried not to make great expectations from this product. At least after finding these things out, because I really believed in it before. After all, you don’t see such a high quantity of glucosamine everywhere.

 

My Experience With This Supplement

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Despite all my beliefs about this supplement, I still had to try it for real.

I followed the exact schedule that they recommended and I took 2 pills per day, one in the morning and one after dinner.

However, I did notice that they would make me a bit nauseous if I didn’t eat consistently before. Whenever I eat meat and other proteins, I was totally fine taking the pills. But taking them after drinking a cup of tea or a soup didn’t feel that good anymore.

Week 1: Nothing changed after the first few days. My knee pain was as severe as before (about a 6.5-7) and the pills didn’t seem to be doing anything. Not even bending down my knees was any easier, though most supplements did help me at this chapter.

Week 3: I skipped the second week because the results were the same as before, no improvement in pain or in flexibility. However, in the third week I started to experience a minor relief. My legs weren’t as stiff as before, especially in the morning. My pain was also a bit better, but it wasn’t an incredible change (about 0.5 on the pain scale).

Week 4: That was when I got the peak of my relief. After about a month with this supplement, my pain got to a 5-5.5. That was almost 2 numbers less on the pain scale, which was pretty good, considering I didn’t expect anything from it. But that was the end of good news.

Week 6: I continued with the pills but my pain didn’t decrease any further. It was still at a 5, but it never got any less. The pain was still present as often as before, but it was the intensity that changed. Now I could stand for several minutes and I could walk from one room to another.

But that was pretty much it. In the next month, I didn’t get any other improvement, so at one point I gave up and went back to my daily supplements.

 

 

 

It’s Not Expensive, But I’m Not Going To Try It Again

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After trying this product for real, I would definitely not buy it again. Though it’s really cheap compared to others, for me it wasn’t worth the money.

There’s no chondroitin, no MSM, no anything. The few milligram of hyaluronic acid don’t do much, and not even those 2000 mg of glucosamine come in the right form.

So overall all I got was a supplement with a basic type of glucosamine. There’s no surprise my chronic pain didn’t get any better. Yes, if I had a different type of joint problem, it might have helped, but I’m not completely sure. Only glucosamine sulfate helps with cartilage damage, the hydrochloride form doesn’t. So I’m not very sure it would help any joint issue.

As for me, I’m definitely not buying this supplement again. I really think that if it had the sulfate form, things would have been much better.

 

My Final Verdict – I Don’t Think It’s Worth It

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As long as I’m concerned, this product isn’t as good as it could be. I cannot criticize it for not improving my pain, because that’s only my case. It may have worked for others. 

The only thing I don’t like is its ingredient list. 

There’s no chondrotin, the dose of hyaluronic acid is pretty low and the quality of glucosamine is under average supplements. So despite being really affordable, I’m not satisfied with it.

Overall, if you have a recent joint problem, you can try this product, as it’s pretty cheap and you’re not wasting much money. It may not work even so, but it’s better to start with something cheap instead of spending your money on a $50 supplement.

But if you have more severe pain, I don’t think it will help you a lot.