Overview
- The study, published June 9 in Nature Metabolism, used deidentified UF Health records from 2012–2024 and found about 8% of roughly 24,000 dementia patients reported taking glucosamine.
- Researchers reported that people with mild cognitive impairment who took glucosamine had a 25% higher likelihood of progressing to dementia within five years.
- Among patients already diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or related dementias, glucosamine use was associated with a 25% higher 10‑year mortality risk in survival analyses.
- Laboratory work in Alzheimer’s model mice and spatial analysis of postmortem human brain tissue showed glucosamine crosses into the brain, raises N‑glycosylation (sugar tagging of proteins), worsens memory in mice, and that blocking the pathway improved memory.
- Authors stress the human findings are observational and do not prove causation, call for validation and studies that track outcomes after stopping the supplement, and say clinicians should discuss glucosamine use with patients who have cognitive impairment.