Vitamin C 200mg
– This is 222% of your daily dose and a deficiency can lead to joint issues, so
it’s not a terrible inclusion on the face of things. The problem is that Primal
Harvest is looking at vitamin c from an injectable standpoint. Vitamin C
injections have been shown to improve osteoarthritis symptoms [2] at this dose,
but unfortunately the efficacy doesn’t apply to oral consumption. So enough to
make sure you hit your RDI would be good, but taking up this much capsule space
is largely a waste.
Magnesium
97mg – As magnesium oxide isn’t the most bioavailable form, coming in at only
22% of the RDI it’s not the best inclusion. Again it can have some benefit for
joint health and low magnesium has been connected to OA progression [3]. So, it’s
not a bad inclusion, but the reason combined supplements don’t often contain magnesium
is that the versions your body can actually absorb are very large and usually
only contain 15% magnesium. As such you normally need a full capsule just for
the magnesium to be in an affective dose.
Biocell collagen
500mg – This is made up of type ii collagen, chondroitin and hyaluronic acid,
and whilst type ii collagen has been shown to be effective [4], hyaluronic acid
only works via injection [5] as the stomach breaks it down and chondroitin is
simply a supporting ingredient which increases the effectiveness of
glucosamine, which isn’t actually present in Primal Flex.
Turmeric 100mg
– Turmeric is actually a good ingredient for a joint supplement, the problem as
we mentioned in the intro is quite simply that there is nowhere near enough of
the active ingredient curcumin to be effective here. [1]
Eggshell membrane
100mg – Eggshell isn’t the worst ingredient, and recent meta analysis has shown
that it has resulted in statistically significant increases to mobility for joints
vs placebo’s [6] however, once again with Primal Flex we have an issue of
dosage as this is about 10x lower than what is recommended.
Boswellia 100mg – Boswellia is a pretty common inclusion in joint supplements,
and it’s been shown to be effective at 100mg as an anti inflammatory and for
joint pain relief, so no issues with this one. [7]
Black
Pepper 10mg – Black pepper or bioperine has been shown to improve the
absorption rate of nutrients so it’s generally an ok ingredient for most
supplements.
Ashwagandha
2mg – Ashwagandha does have some anti inflammatory properties, but the smallest
amount that has ever shown results in a clinical trial is 250mg [8]. As such it’s
not going to do anything in a 2mg dose.
Astaxanthin
2mg – And once again we have another ingredient that could work for
osteoarthritis progression specifically if it was correctly dosed (at 10mg/lb of
body weight) and it is nowhere near that. [9] Even with that in mind the
research is relatively new and there hasn’t been much evidence since a study
conducted in 2019, so again a good idea, but poor execution from Primal Flex.
References
1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7812094/
2 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8543556/
3 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4444049/
4 – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7222752/
5 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9135165/
6 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7989856/
7 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7368679/