Supplements and Knee Pain

There's another article I have found that I want to share with you. The title is "Supplements May Help Relieve Moderate-to-Severe Knee Pain". I think it has very interesting information. It says.....

A combination of the popular dietary supplements glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate appears to relieve knee pain associated with moderate-to-severe arthritis, according to a large federally funded study.
The results of the study of more than 1,600 patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, however, showed that the supplements don't significantly relieve knee pain and other symptoms suffered by people with milder arthritis.

The study's authors, led by Dr. Daniel Clegg of the University of Utah, cautioned that the 354 patients in the moderate-to-severe group was considered small and that a larger study of patients with more severe osteoarthritis would need to be conducted before concluding the supplements really work.
The study's results are being published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"This rigorous, large-scale study showed that the combination of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate appeared to help people with moderate-to-severe pain from knee osteoarthritis, but not those with mild pain," said Stephen Straus, the director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, one of the two National Institutes of Health units that paid for the study.

More than 20 million Americans suffer from osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease caused by the breakdown of cartilage in between the joints, and at least five million of them use glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate.
Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate are natural substances found in cartilage. The supplements are made from material extracted from shellfish and animal cartilage.

The study followed about 1,600 patients for six months. They were assigned to receive one of five treatments daily: glucosamine alone, chondroitin sulfate alone, a combination of the two supplements, a placebo, or Pfizer Inc's Celebrex. Researchers measured improvement as a 20% reduction of pain at six months compared to the start of the study.

The study found that, overall, there were no significant differences between the supplements and the placebo. Researchers found that those taking Celebrex experienced statistically significant pain relief compared to those taking placebo. About 70% of patients taking Celebrex reported pain relief compared to 60% in the placebo group. But researchers said 79% of the 72 patients in the moderate-to-severe pain subgroup who took the glucosamine combined with chondroitin sulfate reported pain reduction compared to 54% in the placebo group.

John Hathcock, the vice president of scientific affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a Washington group that represents supplement makers, said glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate are typically sold as a combined supplement by most large manufacturers. Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate products are among the top 10 nutritional supplements in terms of annual sales. Americans shelled out $734 million for the products in 2004, according to the Nutrition Business Journal.

Dr. Clegg said he and other researchers are conducting a smaller study to see whether glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate can stop or slow the progression of osteoarthritis. Results from that study should be available in about a year.

by JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN at the WSJ