Publication:

Prospective observational study on effectiveness of glucosamine, diacerein, and methyl sulfonyl methane on osteoarthritis

Background Some research studies showed that nutraceuticals like glucosamine, chondroitin, methyl-sulfonyl-methane etc, are showing effectiveness in treating osteoarthritis (OA). But there is no proper evidence that these drugs can treat OA because some research studies also showed, these nutraceuticals have little to no effect in OA. The main purpose of our study is to take a combination of nutraceuticals, which are glucosamine, diacerein and methyl-sulfonyl-methane and find the effectiveness of these nutraceuticals in treating OA.

Methods In this prospective study, 194 subjects were taken and conducted an observational study. Numerical pain rating scale (NPRS) was used to assess pain severity and X-ray is used to assess the joint space narrowing. Based on pain severity, subjects are divided into three groups i.e., mild, moderate and severe and given the treatment of glucosamine, diacerein, and methyl-sulfonyl-methane and reviewed.

Results From the analysis of NPRS score, on admission, patient severity was severe 97%, moderate 3% and mild pain was 0%, and after three reviews over a period of 6 months, the pain severity of patients was severe 8.76%, moderate 87.1% and mild pain was 4.12%.

Conclusions Based on our study we concluded that glucosamine, diacerein, and methyl-sulfonyl-methane can effectively treat OA by repairing the damaged articular cartilage. But these medications cannot produce new articular cartilage, they only repair the damaged articular cartilage.