Herbal Turmeric Suppresses Osteoarthritis

By Kyle J. Norton

Osteoarthritis (OA) one of the most common forms of arthritis that affects over 25 25 million people in the United States is a chronic inflammatory disease of the joints due to wear and tear over time.

The characteristics of osteoarthritis are aching pain, stiffness, or difficulty of moving the joint or joints. The pain usually gets worse in a change of weather, at night and in the advanced diseases, the pain can occur even at rest. 

Conventionally, treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) focuses on pain relief and improved physical function through pharmacological, nonpharmacological, and surgical treatments.

Most common risk factors associated with the onset of OA include genetic preposition, being overweight or obese, previous joint injury and repetitive movements or injuries to joints (such as a fracture, surgery or ligament tears).

However, most people with some of the risk factors have never developed the disease.

Dr. Sally Thomas, the lead scientist in the treatment of OA patients wrote, "As current treatment options in OA are very limited, OA patients would benefit greatly from some ability to self-manage their condition".

And, "For overweight/obese patients, weight reduction, ideally incorporating exercise, is paramount. The association between metabolic syndrome, type-2 diabetes, and OA risk or progression may partly explain the apparent benefit of dietary-lipid modification resulting from increased consumption of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids from oily fish/fish oil supplements. A strong association between OA and raised serum cholesterol together with clinical effects in statin users suggests a potential benefit of reduction of cholesterol by dietary means".

In other words, depending on the causes, patients may be recommended to a specific treatment.

Turmeric is a perennial plant in the genus Curcuma, belonging to the family Zingiberaceae, native to tropical South Asia.

The herb has been used in traditional medicine as anti-oxidant, hypoglycemic, colorant, antiseptic, wound healing agent, and for the treatment of flatulence, bloating, and appetite loss, ulcers, eczema, inflammations, etc.

With an aim to find a potential compound for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA), researchers examined the Curene®, a bioavailable formulation of turmeric anti-inflammatory properties.

The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group included 50 subjects aged between 40 and 75 years who were suffering from unilateral or bilateral OA of the knee for greater than 3 months according to American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria.

The treatment group received 500mg Curene® once daily and the other group received a placebo.

According to the results from the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) score, Curene® treated group showed a statistically significant reduction of pain score compared to placebo without inducing any adverse effects.

In other words, Curene® 500mg not only reduced pain, stiffness but also improved physical functioning in subjects suffering from knee OA.

In order to reveal more information of turmeric anti OA activity, researchers investigated LI73014F2 is a novel composition prepared from extracts of Terminalia chebula fruit, Curcuma longa rhizome, and Boswellia serrata gum resin in the inhibition of 5-Lipoxygenase (5-LOX).

Where activated enzyme 5-Lipoxygenase (5-LOX), has been found to induce pain in patients with OA.

In a 90-day randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind study included 105 particpants divded into three groups: placebo (n = 35), 200 mg/day of LI73014F2 (n = 35), and 400 mg/day of LI73014F2 (n = 35).

According to the results from tested assays obtained from the baseline (day 0) and on day 14 ± 3, 30 ± 3, 60 ± 3, and at the end of the study (day 90 ± 3), all doses of LI73014F2 conferred a strong effect in pain relief, improved physical function, and quality of life in OA patients, compared to the baseline.

Dr. Karlapudi V, the lead scientist said, "preclinical and clinical data together strongly suggest that the herbal formulation LI73014F2 is a safe and effective intervention for management of joint discomfort, demonstrating efficacy as early as 14 days".

Based on the findings, turmeric processed a high amount of bioactive curcumin used alone or combined with other herbal medicines may be considered supplements for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA), pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of turmeric in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
Osteoarthritis
(1) A Randomized, Double Blind, Placebo Controlled, Parallel-Group Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Curene® versus Placebo in Reducing Symptoms of Knee OA by Panda SK1, Nirvanashetty S2, Parachur VA3, Mohanty N4, Swain T. (PubMed)
(2) A Placebo-Controlled Double-Blind Study Demonstrates the Clinical Efficacy of a Novel Herbal Formulation for Relieving Joint Discomfort in Human Subjects with Osteoarthritis of Knee by Karlapudi V1, Prasad Mungara AVV2, Sengupta K3, Davis BA4, Raychaudhuri SP. (PubMed)
(3) What is the evidence for a role for diet and nutrition in osteoarthritis? by Sally Thomas,1 Heather Browne,1 Ali Mobasheri,2,3,4 and Margaret P Rayman. (PMC)