JointBrex vs Plain Turmeric: The Arithmetic

This is the method rather than the verdict. Once you have done it once, no supplement aisle is confusing again.

Step one: find the standardisation percentage

On the Supplement Facts panel, in brackets after the extract name. "Turmeric extract (95% curcuminoids)" is what you want. Multiply the extract weight by the percentage and you have the amount of active compound.

JointBrex: 30 mg × 95% = 28.5 mg. Plus a 75 mg entry stating a 4:1 ratio, which cannot be converted. Call the total 35 mg, generously.

Step two: multiply by servings per day

The panel states one capsule per serving. Note that the sales page says two — if that is correct, every figure below halves in duration and doubles in cost.

Step three: work out cost per day

Price divided by total servings. At $294 for six bottles of 30 capsules, that is 180 days at about $1.63.

Step four: cost per unit of active

The number that actually compares two products. $1.63 for 35 mg works out at roughly $4.66 per 100 mg of curcuminoids.

Step five: check against the research

Trials reporting joint benefit from curcumin generally used 500 to 1,500 mg of curcuminoids daily. A product supplying a tenth of that is not reproducing the conditions of those studies, however efficiently it delivers what it has.

Step six: check the label matches the advertising

Thirty seconds, and almost nobody does it. Read the advertised ingredient list, then read the panel. If ingredients appear in one and not the other, nothing else on that page can be trusted either.

What the method will not tell you

Whether the ingredient works. That is a separate question about the evidence, and reasonable people disagree about it. What the arithmetic tells you is whether a given product is a sensible way to buy the ingredient — which is a narrower question, and the one you can actually answer from a label.