Osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis affecting hundreds of millions of people, currently only has limited, suboptimal therapies, making it a key target that dietary supplement companies specializing in ingredients with inflammatory-modulating properties hope to achieve benefits in.
 
According to a placebo-controlled clinical trial, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, turmeric (an extract of the curcuma longa plant) was efficacious as a therapy for osteoarthritis, in a population of 70 participants experiencing symptomatic knee arthritis and knee effusion-synovitis, and was able to reduce a number of symptoms.
 
The participants each were administered either a twice-daily dose of turmeric or a matching placebo, and were measured over a period of 12 weeks both with MRI readings, as well as secondary outcomes which were measured by the Western Ontario and McMaster Univserities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) pain and cartilage composition values.
 
According to the study, osteoarthritis pain as measured by the visual analogue scale was reduced significantly in the knee osteoarthritis patients, but remained unchanged in the effusion-synovitis group. The supplement also improved WOMAC knee pain, but not lateral femoral cartilage T2 relaxation time.
 
The authors of the study concluded that the turmeric supplement used in the study were more effective than the placebo for knee pain, but did not affect knee effusion-synovitis or cartilage composition. The preliminary findings warrant multicenter trials with larger sample sizes in order to assess the clinical significance of these findings, the authors concluded.