Credit: MWW Group

Friday Sep 12, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- A third clinical trial published in the August 2008 issue of the Journal of Phytotherapy Research confirms that pycnogenol, a pine tree extract, can not only lower joint pain, symptoms associated with knee osteoarthritis , but also keep the therapeutic effect after the treatment was discontinued.

This study showed Pycnogenol, bark extract from the French maritime pine tree, reduced overall knee osteoarthritis symptoms by 20.9 percent and lowered pain by 40.3 percent and the therapeutic effect was significant even two weeks after the cessation of the treatment.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 27 million women and men in the U.S. had osteoarthritis in 2005 compared to 21 million in 1990.   The condition affects 34 percent of all adults over the age of 65, the CDC says.

Conventional treatments include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or analgesics, which help reduce pain and maintain joint movement. In severe cases, cortisone shots and joint replacement surgery are used.   But many people are seeking non-conventional medications to help ease their pain and reduce use of the conventional drugs.

Dr. Peter Rohdewald, one of the researchers of the study, of Slovakia's Comenius University School of Medicine said "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."

"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," He added.

The study conducted at Slovakia's Comenius University School of Medicine involved 100 patients with stage I or II osteoarthritis who were randomly assigned 150 mg Pycnogenol or placebo each day for three months.

During the three-month supplementation, arthritis pain and joint function were surveyed biweekly.   The final survey was conducted four weeks after cessation of supplementation.

The researchers found that "the overall score, summarizing pain, stiffness and daily activities, improved statistical significantly by 20.9 percent in the Pycnogenol group," according to the press release by the MWW Group.

They found that the joint pain was reduced by 40.3 percent at three months of supplementation with Pycnogenol and by 36.1 percent two weeks after discontinuation of using the medication.

Of those who were on Pycnogenol, 38 percent of osteoarthritis reduced use of NSAID's or other analgesic medication for joint pain.

On Sep 11, another study conducted by Canadian researchers and published in the Sep. 11th issue of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine showed a commonly used surgery procedure called arthroscopic surgery neither provides any pain relief nor improves knee function in patients with knee osteoarthritis.