Glucosamine & Chondroitin Sulfate Usage for Knee Pain
A teaching brief written about a study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine evaluated different methods of treating knee osteoarthritis. For 24 weeks, patients were either given Glucosamine, Chondroitin Sulfate, both Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate, celecoxib(Celebrex) or a placebo. The goal was to achieve a 20% reduction in pain, and for mild knee pain they found that glucosamine(64.0%), chondroitin sulfate(65.4%), and both(66.6%) worked a bit more often than the placebo(60.1%), but it wasn't a statistically significant amount. What is notable is that for moderate to severe knee pain, the combination of the two worked 79.2% of the time, versus 54.3% with the placebo. This is a significant result that hopefully will provide the incentive for further studies of these two nutritional supplements.
Dec 02, 2007 | /Chiropractic/ | permanent link