University of Arizona study examines natural alternatives to arthritis drugs

• As painkilling arthritis drugs prove increasingly unsafe, the largest study ever done of popular, natural alternatives - glucosamine and chondroitin - shows they can significantly reduce moderate to severe joint pain.
• Used widely in recent years to battle osteoarthritis - the "wear and tear" form of arthritis afflicting more than 20 million Americans - the glucosamine-chondroitin combination of over-the-counter nutritional supplements is coming under heavy scientific scrutiny.
• However, this latest study - involving patients at the University of Arizona - is proving highly controversial, with some evidence suggesting the supplements actually did no better than inactive placebos for arthritis sufferers.
• "The primary outcome of the study was negative - it was not a ringing endorsement of glucosamine and chondroitin," said Dr. Jeffrey Lisse, interim director of the Arizona Arthritis Center, where some 30 patients were enrolled in the nationwide study.
• "But when you look only at those patients with the worst pain, in the moderate to severe range, then glucosamine and chondroitin did better than placebo, or even Celebrex.
• Taken together, they not only ease pain, but actually repair damaged, thinning cartilage that causes the pain, according to Theodosakis.
• At first, most physicians derided these claims as unproven "snake oil."
• The supplements have become increasingly popular as prescription painkillers known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) - most notably Vioxx - were yanked off the market, blamed for causing heart attacks, strokes and death in regular users.
• That is why the results of the largest study ever done of glucosamine and chondroitin - the nationwide Glucosamine/ Chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial - have been so eagerly awaited by patients and physicians wanting to know what really works on this painful disease that affects so many.