BEIJING,
April 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Although it is widely used as a dietary supplement,
chondroitin may not help kill arthritis pain, according to an analysis of
20 studies published in Tuesday's issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.
Swiss researchers combined results from recent
large-scale studies on chondroitin's effectiveness. They found that people
taking chondroitin had no better improvement in joint health or pain relief than
those taking the placebo.
"The longer you look and the more rigorously you
look, the less effect you see," said Dr. Peter J¨¹nii, an epidemiologist at
Switzerland's University of Bern and an author of the new study. "We shouldn't
expect that this is a magic bullet - it isn't."
This review came after another recent study that
looked at chondroitin in conjunction with different supplement, glucosamine. The
two are frequently sold in combination.
The study found neither chondroitin nor glucosamine
alone, nor the two in combination were better than a placebo for arthritis pain.
As to why many patients swear by chondroitin as a
treatment, J¨¹ni suggested that osteoarthritis -- the degenerative joint disease
seen especially in older people -- is a condition that does not progress
invariably toward more severe symptoms.
Chondroitin, a cartilage extract, is sold across
America in health food stores, pharmacies and online. It is often combined with
glucosamine, an amino sugar. Experts estimate that U.S. sales of
chondroitin-glucosamine supplements now top 1 billion U.S. dollars per year.
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