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Chondroitin Stacks Up Against Celecoxib for Relieving Knee Pain

The dietary supplement chondroitin sulfate was just as good as Celebrex for alleviating arthritic knee pain. It also delayed deterioration of the cartilage.

A small study just presented at the American College of Rheumatology meeting shows that the dietary supplement chondroitin sulfate is about as effective as the drug celecoxib in alleviating the pain and stiffness of knee osteoarthritis.

Chondroitin Delayed Loss of Cartilage:

The high-quality chondroitin used in the study slowed the deterioration of the knee joint more effectively than celecoxib over the course of the two-year study. The researchers used MRI scans to assess the condition of the joints.

The principal investigator concluded that “chondroitin, in contrast to celecoxib, can reduce the loss of cartilage, at least in part, by reducing synovial inflammation.”

American College of Rheumatology meeting, San Francisco, Nov. 8, 2015

Although chondroitin is a very popular supplement that people take to ease pain from arthritis, most previous randomized controlled trials have not shown that it is better than placebo. In particular, the large trial funded by NIH called GAIT (Glucosamine/chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial) had disappointing results for the combination of glucosamine and chondroitin.

Although doctors are wary of chondroitin, with or without glucosamine, many veterinarians use it in their practice to treat dogs with osteoarthritis.

Questions about Supplement Quality:

It is certainly possible that the quality of the chondroitin sulfate supplement used in the study made a difference in the outcome. Chondroitin sulfate is prescribed in Europe and often administered by injection. Here in the US, it is considered a dietary supplement and oversight of product quality is lax, to say the least. It is little wonder doctors are skeptical.

There was, however, another study published early this year comparing supplementation with 400 mg chondroitin sulfate together with 500 mg glucosamine hydrochloride (in a European formulation called Sysadoa) three times a day to 200 mg celecoxib (Celebrex) daily. After six months the research, dubbed MOVES for Double-blind Multicentre Osteoarthritis InterVEntion Trial with Sysadoa, found that the supplement had equally good outcomes for inflammation and pain as the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, online Jan. 14, 2015).

 

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About the Author
Terry Graedon, PhD, is a medical anthropologist and co-host of The People’s Pharmacy radio show, co-author of The People’s Pharmacy syndicated newspaper columns and numerous books, and co-founder of The People’s Pharmacy website. Terry taught in the Duke University School of Nursing and was an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology. She is a Fellow of the Society of Applied Anthropology. Terry is one of the country's leading authorities on the science behind folk remedies..
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