Add findings from a recent study in Arthritis & Rheumatology to the growing body of evidence indicating that glucosamine and chondroitin supplements have no measurable impact on relieving knee osteoarthritis (OA). These findings add support to existing guidelines that recommend against the use of these supplements for OA treatment (see related OrthoBuzz article).
Utilizing a so-called “new user” design, researchers analyzed four-year follow-up data on more than 1,600 people who were not using glucosamine/chondroitin at baseline. In addition to measuring joint space width, researchers captured knee symptoms with WOMAC pain, stiffness, and function scales. They also employed marginal structural models to control for time-varying confounders. In the end, there were “no clinically significant differences” between supplement users and non-users, and the study authors claimed that, in addition to being consistent with meta-analyses of glucosamine/chondroitin, these findings extend the data set to include “a more general population with knee OA.
[…] Our OrthoBuzz report of the “near-death” of glucosamine/chondroitin may have been premature, according to a recent study published online in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. The randomized, double-blind study assigned 606 patients with knee osteoarthritis and moderate-to-severe pain to receive either glucosamine (500 mg) and chondroitin (400 mg) three times a day, or one daily dose of the COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib (200 mg). […]