Vitamin C and osteoarthritis research

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(this is about a year old, but am just posting for information ~

Gretchen)

From Ugeskr Laeger. 2003 Jun 16;165(25):2563-6.

Reduced pain from osteoarthritis in hip joint or knee joint during

treatment with calcium ascorbate. A randomized, placebo-controlled

cross-over trial in general practice

Jensen NH.

INTRODUCTION: Although vitamin C is essential for the formation of

collagen and proteoglycan and has been shown to minimise surgically

induced arthritis in guinea pigs, no controlled trial has examined its

effect on human osteoarthritis.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The trial was a multicenter, double-blind,

randomised, placebo-controlled, crossover-trial performed by ten general

practitioners. The Declaration of Helsinki and the European guidelines

for good clinical practice were strictly followed. One hundred and

thirty-three patients with radiographically verified symptomatic

osteoarthritis of the hip joints and/or the knee joints were treated

with one gram of calcium ascorbate or identically looking placebo

tablets. The calcium ascorbate tablets and the placebo tablets should be

swallowed daily for 14 +/- 3 days respectively, separated by 7 +/- 3

days wash out. The main outcome measure was difference on the 100 mm

visual analog scale (VAS) score for pain in a preselected joint. The

secondary outcomes were Lequesne score for function and patient

preference.

RESULTS: Calculated on an intention-to-treat principle, calcium

ascorbate reduced pain significantly compared to placebo (p = 0.0078 by

analysis of variance between groups (ANOVA) for difference in VAS, mean

difference 4.6 mm (95% CI 1.2-8.0). Similar superiority was found for

Lequesne index (p = 0.036, difference 0.56 (95% CI 0.04-1.08) and for

patient preference (p = 0.012).

DISCUSSION: The demonstrated effect is less than half as pronounced as

commonly reported for NSAID etc. If the finding can be reproduced with a

smaller, acceptable intake of vitamin C this would be of importance

considering the large prevalence of osteoarthrosis.