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[RC] Cosequin - Ridecamp Guest

Please Reply to: ti tivers@xxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Regarding Cosequin, It is the only Glucosamine HCL/Chondroitin Sulfate Product
which has been scientifically tested and proven to be safe, absorbable and
efficatious. >

That may have been true several years ago, but not so now. Simply go to Pubmed 
and search "glucosamine" and you'll see that hundreds of studies have been done 
on this single component. Similarly with chondroitin sulfate. Less so with 
powdered HA, but then I doubt that the HA version of Cosequin has been studied 
yet.

You have to take manufacturers' statements with a grain of salt. The fact that 
this company financed a single research project using their own product, a mix 
of the individually studied components, does not mean that all the other mixes 
have no validity. It may noit even mean that the Cosequin study has validity. 
There may be far better mixes out there, unstudied academically but working 
just fine nonetheless.

The study that was financed by Cosequin was a part of a marketing strategy to 
sell the product only through veterinarians, adding to the cost to the consumer 
for this "exclusive" marketing channel. If that gameplan worked, more power to 
them. It's a marketing plan that I tend to avoid simply because it limits 
access to a useful product and boosts the retail cost.

Meanwhile, vets already have a monopoly on selling drugs--and Cosequin's thrust 
was to make such a mix into a "drug" that could not be sold over the 
counter--giving Cosequin a monopoly. While that part of the plan hasn't come to 
fruition yet, they're still lobbying heavily to make all other such mixes 
illegal.

In the marketplace of consumable nutritional products, it is best that the 
consumer have the option to find the best product at the lowest possible price. 
It does the manufacturer no good at all to make a single sale to a given 
consumer--that's not profitable. What counts is repeat sales, and those will 
come only if the consumer is happy with the actual results--no matter what the 
claims. A monopoly simply eliminates this acid test of efficacy--what works is 
real, what doesn't is plain bullshit in a nice package.

The good thing about this particular type of product is that you can see 
results relatively quickly (two weeks to reduced lameness).

ti


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