– Feeding the supplement to mice extended their lifespan by almost 10%, reflecting around 8 additional years of human lifespan. Moreover, glucosamine improved glucose metabolism in elderly mice indicating protection from diabetes, a life-threatening disease most prevalent amongst the elderly.
– Additional analyses revealed that glucosamine feeding promotes the breakdown of amino acids in both worms and mice. Amino acids are key components of proteins, and they become preferentially metabolized in the absence of carbohydrates. As Ristow points out, “this reflects the metabolic state of a low-carb diet due to glucosamine supplementation alone — while these mice ingested the same amount of carbohydrates as their unsupplemented counterparts.” This implies that glucosamine would mimic a low-carb diet in humans as well — without the necessity of reducing the uptake of carbohydrates in our daily diet.
* Sandra Weimer et al.: D-Glucosamine supplementation extends lifespan of nematodes and of ageing mice. Nature Communications, 2014, doi: 10.1038/ncomms4563