Originally published January 22 2006
Supplements that some claim relieve arthritis pain spawn debate in the medical community
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
When taken in combination, glucosamine and chondroitin are supposed to relieve moderate to severe arthritis pain, a claim that was supported by research done by the National Institutes of Health, but that study has by no means settled the debate over the effectiveness of the supplements as a pain reliever.
When a major study by the National Institutes of Health found the dietary supplements glucosamine and chondroitin eased the pain for people with moderate to severe osteoarthritis, it should have been cause for celebration.
In Europe, the pills have been sold as drugs for decades, but in the United States, glucosamine and chondroitin are dietary supplements and are regulated differently than drugs.
Still, the combination is widely promoted in the United States as pain relief for osteoarthritis of the knee.
"It's one of the top-selling supplements, certainly because it's effective," said Stephen Bernardi, of Johnson Drug in Waltham, Mass.
But little scientific evidence existed to back up claims of its effectiveness -- until the NIH Glucosamine/Chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial (GAIT) study.
They found that for the entire group, a combination of glucosamine and chondroitin had no more effect on pain than a placebo.
But when researchers narrowed the findings to the participants with moderate to severe pain, the results were much different.
Seventy-nine percent of participants who took the supplements reported pain relief compared to 69 percent who took Celebrex and 54 percent who took a placebo.
But many doctors say the narrowed findings don't tell the whole story.
"The results just really weren't that impressive -- not impressive enough for me to suggest another pill to a patient who probably, given the population that has arthritis, is already on a lot of pills," said Dr. Elinor Mody, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
"I definitely think this medication has helped me, but the reality is, I've also had to do those other things in order to help my symptoms.
So I think it's a combination of the different therapeutic interventions," Rockett said.
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