Knee osteoarthritis reduced by Pine Bark


Saturday 6th September, 2008

herbal medicineA new study has found that bark extract from the French maritime pine tree reduces the symptoms of knee osteoarthritis.

The study, published in the Phytotherapy Research journal, revealed the extract know as ‘Pycnogenol’ reduced symptoms by over 20% and decreased pain by over 40%.

This is the third clinical trial of Pycnogenol as a osteoarthritis treatment and this particular study looked at knee joint symptoms after the extract treatment had finished. Results of the trial showed that there was no relapse after two weeks.

Pycnogenol is an effective anti-inflammatory and its lasting effects that were discovered during the trial suggest it may help joints recover.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and is on the rise. Many people are now seeking out alternative medications that are non-conventional to help ease pain and reduce the amount of medication needed.

“The current study is in accordance with the two previous Pycnogenol studies for osteoarthritis,” said Dr. Peter Rohdewald, one of the researchers of the study.

“Again the pain is gradually decreasing during the course of three months treatment with Pycnogenol. An improvement is found after the first month and a further improvement is seen after two months, where values are significantly different to the placebo group.

“This study again showed that patients required significantly less analgesic medication while supplementing with Pycnogenol, whereas this was not the case with the placebo-treated control group.”

The study was carried out in Slovakia and involved 100 patients with stage 1 or 2 osteoarthritis. Patients were randomly placed in either a group taking the Pycnogenal extract or a placebo group.

Overall, pain and stiffness for daily activity reduced by 20.9 percent in the Pycnogenol group and the improvement achieved continued after Pycnogenol was discontinued for four weeks. The joint pain decreased by 40.3 percent after completion of the three months supplementation with Pycnogenol and two weeks later the pain was still 36.1 percent lower than at baseline. Furthermore, 38 percent of patients in the Pycnogenol group required less NSAID’s or other analgesic medication for joint pain.

“The anti-inflammatory potency of Pycnogenol explains the success in lowering joint pain and stiffness for arthritic joints,” said Rohdewald.

“After three recent clinical studies on osteoarthritis, Pycnogenol continues to demonstrate its effectiveness for osteoarthritis symptoms making it a viable, natural and safe alternative for individuals.”

Share


Share

Find a local practitioner
Search Therapist


Do not copy from this page - plagiarism will be detected by Copyscape. If you want to use our content click here for syndication criteria