CHICAGO (Reuters) - Though many swear by it, the dietary supplement chondroitin is no better than a placebo at easing the hip and knee pain of arthritis and its use should be discouraged, European researchers said on Monday.
Chondroitin sulfate, one of the building blocks of cartilage, is widely sold in the United States in combination with glucosamine as a treatment for the aches and pains of osteoarthritis. The supplement has annual U.S. sales of about $1 billion a year.
In Europe, the supplement is typically sold by itself for arthritis relief and in Switzerland is featured on a list of insurance-approved treatments.
Despite its popularity, studies have differed over whether chondroitin relieves arthritis pain.
Researchers at the University of Berne, Switzerland, did a wide-reaching analysis of published research and found that in the biggest and most carefully conducted studies, chondroitin probably has no effect at relieving osteoarthritis, a painful degeneration of the cartilage in the knee and hip joints.
"Currently, we do not have any evidence to suggest that chondroitin helps decrease pain more than placebo," said Peter Juni, an epidemiologist whose study appears in this week's Annals of Internal Medicine.
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