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).
