64% of Anti‑Aging Supplements Contain Almost Nothing

A Doctor on Hip Pain, NMN Lab Failures, and a Short List of Pills That Actually Help

Three years ago, I couldn’t get out of my car.

My right hip had been bothering me for weeks. The pain started as a dull ache when I stood up after sitting too long, and within a month, climbing out of my car after a twenty-minute drive required me to grab the door frame and haul myself upright while my hip screamed.

I’m a radiologist. I know what hip pathology looks like. I ordered X-rays, then a CT scan when the X-rays showed nothing. Both came back normal — no fracture, no obvious arthritis, no bone lesion. I should have gotten an MRI — it would have shown soft tissue inflammation, joint fluid, maybe marrow edema — but I started a regimen of supplements.

Instead, I bought a bottle of glucosamine-chondroitin sulfate tablets at CVS. The horse pills everyone’s grandmother takes cost fifteen dollars for a month’s supply.