Some eat shark cartilage, while others prefer chick cartilage. Gin-soaked white raisins also supposedly do the trick. And while it may kill you, ingestion of bee and snake venom has its proponents.
These are just some of the things people will eat to get temporary relief from arthritis.
According to the Mayo Clinic, Americans spend upwards of $1 billion a year on these and other non-traditional arthritis treatments.
But 43 million Americans afflicted with this debilitating disease may soon be able to numb their pain with a drink -– and it won't even give them a hangover.
U.S. ski team surgeon and orthopedic specialist Kevin Stone has developed a new elixir called Joint Juice. It contains glucosamine, a natural dietary supplement that has been available over the counter to arthritis sufferers since the mid-1990s. Joint Juice is currently available online and at Albertson's supermarkets and Costco stores in California.
"As doctors, we pooh-poohed it," Stone said. "But by 1998, The Wall Street Journal reported that over 1 billion pills of glucosamine had been sold in the U.S., and then we started to take it seriously."
Since then, there's been some preliminary evidence to indicate that glucosamine can help maintain existing cartilage and stimulate the growth of new cartilage.
Stone's Stone Foundation for Sports Medicine and Arthritis in San Francisco continues to study the efficacy of Joint Juice in people with arthritis and athletes with sports-related joint pain.
Although glocosamine was originally used to treat joint disorders in animals, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has published research that shows it's also effective in humans.
Lancet, another well-regarded medical journal, concluded that glucosamine slows the progression of knee osteoarthritis.
But until now, the only way for arthritis sufferers to get their full daily dose was to take three large 500 milligram capsules a day.
A single serving of Joint Juice contains 100 percent of the recommended daily dose of glucosamine and Vitamin C. And it comes in three "delicious and refreshing" flavors –- lemon, orange-tangerine and tropical, all of which will be available already bottled or in a liquid concentrate pouch.
"It took three years to develop because (glucosamine) tastes so bad," Stone said.
In clear bottles with cool graphics, the "revolutionary" elixir will be marketed as a "new, edgy drink," along the lines of Quaker Oats' Gatorade and Pepsi's SoBe, whose new-age beverages -- including Lizard Fuel, Orange-Carrot Elixir, Zen Blend –- have attracted a cult following.
Radio and magazine ads promoting Joint Juice will begin next month, with the first celebrity athlete endorsement from mountain-biking downhiller Marla Streb.
While sports drinks with health benefits are nothing new, Joint Juice may be the first to claim it effectively relieves and prevents a serious health condition. Its backers include Peter Mattson, chairman of Mattson & Company; and W.F. Rick Cronk, president of Dreyer's Ice Cream.
Since people have been taking glucosamine supplements without noticeable side effects for years, doctors say swilling Joint Juice won't hurt you, and it just may be good for you.
"There appears to be some legitimate claims for glucosamine in a tablet form, but I'm not sure anyone has scientifically looked at it in a drink," said James Gerrick, an orthopedic surgeon and the head of the center for sports medicine at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco.
While he agrees there's probably nothing wrong with getting glucosamine in a beverage, Gerrick said there is a slight possibility that other ingredients in the drink may reduce its therapeutic effect. He also said that all the studies on glucosamine have been carried out on people already suffering from arthritis, so there's no proof that taking it can be preventative.
And even if Joint Juice is as effective as it claims to be, it'll be a while before its claims can be backed up by outside research in the medical community.
The Northern California Chapter of the National Arthritis Foundation wouldn't comment on Joint Juice or other alternative therapies for arthritis that haven't been scientifically proven effective.
"It took years for studies to show (glucosamine) is effective in tablets," Gerrick said, "and it'll probably take longer to prove it in a liquid form."
