Deer Antler Velvet Studies
The numerous minerals and chemical compounds contained within deer antler velvet have an amazing range of health benefits. From helping to reverse proportionate dwarfism to helping to increase your vitality & stamina in the bedroom, there are so many medical issues that deer antler velvet can be used to help treat. It's understandable that there have been many deer antler velvet studies conducted to see just how many medical conditions it can help treat or reverse using this potent supplement. Let's take a look at a couple of those studies.
Deer Antler Velvet & Arthritis
Whether you're male, female, senior, adult, or child, you are at risk for developing the autoimmune disease known as arthritis. The crippling symptoms of arthritis are suffered by over 40 million Americans. Of those 40 million Americans, over a quarter of a million of them are children. Worldwide, that number multiples nine fold up to 350 million people who suffer from this joint disorder. What makes this disorder so difficult to treat is that there is more than one type of arthritis. The three most common forms of arthritis are osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis.
Osteoarthritis is the most prevalent form of arthritis. It occurs from years of wear and tear on overused supportive joints. This wear and tear happen naturally with age, but it can also occur due to joint injuries or from being obese. Obesity causes osteoarthritis to set in earlier than usual because of all of the stress and damage that the extra weight puts on your joints. Your weight-bearing joints such as the knees, hips, spine, and feet/ankles are the first places to become affected by osteoarthritis. The difference between osteoarthritis and other forms of arthritis is that osteoarthritis does not cause you to become fatigued or feel physically ill. Its only symptom is pain and discomfort in your joints.
This joint disorder causes you to lose the shock absorbing cartilage between the ends of your bones. Cartilage is a strong fibrous tissue which coats the rounded ends of your bones that are connected at your joints. The cartilage which forms at your joints is called articular cartilage because this cartilage forms at places where your bones articulate (meet) to form a joint which allows smooth movement and provides shock absorption as you move. Obesity worsens the erosion of your joint cartilage due to the fact that the extra weight applies extra pressure onto your cartilage.
The cartilage is continually squeezed between your bones with that added weight every time you stand up, walk, run, or do any physical activity involving your weight-bearing joints. Eventually, the cartilage becomes damaged and erodes leaving no cushioning for your joints. This is when your osteoarthritis pain begins. The bones will rub together instead of being cushioned by cartilage. This will cause a grating or scraping sound when you move as the bones rub together. The constant scraping of your joint bones will then cause painful bone spurs or bumps to form on the ends of your bones.
Deer antler velvet can help promote articular cartilage regeneration. Articular cartilage cannot regenerate on its own because it has no blood supply access, so the cartilage must rely upon its host ingesting a steady supply of nutrients present in a healthy diet, daily exercise, and the removal of free radicals from the body to prevent a build-up of toxins and pollutants to remain healthy and functional.
The articular cartilage itself is surrounded by a layer of synovial fluid. Beneath this layer of synovial fluid is a cartilage matrix which is a compound of proteoglycans, elastic fibers, and collagen fibers. Deer antler velvet helps promote articular cartilage regeneration by providing your articular cartilage with healthy doses of proteoglycans in the form of chondroitin sulfate. Collagen is another compound present in deer antler velvet which helps to assist in cartilage regeneration by replacing lost or damaged collagen fibers. The growth factor-1 present in deer antler has also been shown to help reduce the number of severe cartilage lesions in animal knee joints.
In a study conducted in 2006, a team of researchers studied the effects of chronic IGF-1 deficiency on the severity of osteoarthritis. A total of 35 test subjects were divided into 4 treatment groups. One group of subjects had normal levels of both IGF-1. The other three groups had genetic mutations resulting in deficiency. Over the course of 64 weeks, the groups of subjects were given varying dosages of IGF-1 or were given none. Once the study was concluded, the results indicated that the group of subjects with the deficiency who were treated with the injections for the entire 64 weeks had significantly less severe articular cartilage lesions than the other experimental groups.
Sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17133593