Posted on 07/08/2022 7:28:29 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Injections of hyaluronic acid (known as viscosupplementation) to treat knee osteoarthritis make almost no difference to pain and might raise risk of adverse events, suggests research.
Knee osteoarthritis is a chronic disease that involves inflammation and structural changes of the joints, resulting in joint pain and limitations to physical movement. It is a leading cause of disability among older people.
National and international guidelines vary in their recommendations, but most advise against the use of viscosupplementation. In England, guidelines recommend against its use, but health care systems in other countries including the U.S. still offer it to patients.
An international team of researchers therefore set out to review existing studies on the subject carried out during the past 50 years to evaluate just how effective and safe viscosupplementation is for pain and function in patients with knee osteoarthritis.
They identified 169 trials involving 21,163 patients with knee osteoarthritis that compared viscosupplementation with placebo (dummy) treatment or no treatment.
The main analysis of this review, which included a subset of 24 large trials of higher methodological quality involving 8,997 randomized patients, found that viscosupplementation was associated with a small reduction in pain compared with placebo, but the difference was tiny and was described as "clinically irrelevant."
The authors say that based on their analysis of the studies between 2009 and 2021 alone, more than 12,000 patients were arguably unnecessarily subjected to these injections in viscosupplementation trials, which raises ethical concerns.
As such, the authors conclude: "There is strong, conclusive evidence that among patients with knee osteoarthritis, viscosupplementation, compared with placebo, is associated with a clinically irrelevant reduction in pain intensity and with an increased risk of serious adverse events.
"The findings do not support broad use of viscosupplementation for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis."
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
If you are looking for something to help knee arthritis, consider taking 6 - 12 mg of boron a day. I have previously posted the studies on this within the thread entitled “Nothing Boring About Boron.” A study showed that among severe osteoarthritis sufferers, most had all stiffness removed and 75% dropped all pain medicines, by the two month point. The specific form was calcium fructoborate, but other forms should work.
What about PRP injections
I’ll look into boron, my sacroiliac joint is arthritic from an injury when a drunk driver ran over me while on my motorcycle. Open book pelvic fracture.
What about oral chondroitin sulfate for arthritis? My professor from graduate school said it was helpful for animals with arthritis. At the vet school the doctors used Cosequin, but that was years ago:
No, Pabst Blue Ribbon wouldn’t do nothing for your joints. besides you’re supposed to drink it, not inject it.
At age 77 I had sprained by knee badly by twisting it while walking on a sandy beach.
The knee was hugely swollen and painful. Doctor sent me for x-rays and then told me I had bone rubbing on bone in knee.
After steroid shots and rest my pain was gone along with most of the swelling. I decided against knee replacement after talking to cousin who had both knees replaced.
Now 5 years later I have no issues in the knee. All I did was mild treadmill 5 times every week. Not only my knees got better, my body got stronger with better balance and much more stamina, enough to mow lawn during hot summers in Florida with a push mower. Exercise is the best healer.
I don’t know about injections, but I recall a study done on Japanese people whose diet was high in Hyaluronic acid - I think it largely came from some kind of yam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzurihara
(It’s pretty good as a topical skin treatment, too.)
I take boron every day and it doesn’t do anything for my knee pain. Not that I’m doubting that it helps some people. It’s the likely reason that is more of a concern. (Men should take it anyway just for prostate cancer prevention.)
Boron’s method of action regarding hormones is not fully understood AFIAK, but boron appears to raise sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) levels, changing the levels of free floating hormones in your blood. I’m betting this is one of the reasons people are seeing a change in knee pain.
The moral of the story is everyone get your hormone levels checked and manage them yourselves because 90% of doctors are retarded on the subject.
As to HYA and knees...I have no experience with the injections, but I do have experience taking high doses orally, which DID seem to help as part of a whole protocol to decrease pain in my decrepit, cracking, aging gym rat knees. That’s my clinical study of one guy...make of it what you will. It’s kickass for your skin too. How can billions of Asian women possibly be wrong? :-)
Ozone injections (Prolozone) are what I suggest looking into.
As far as supplements, getting your NAD+ levels up does a lot. Supplementing collagen is helpful.
If you’re a male on hormone replacement, ask your doctor about adding low dose Nandrolone to your protocol, as it helps quite a bit with collagen synthesis and joint pain.
I do all of those things and my knees no longer make popcorn when I climb the stairs and no longer feel like they might give way going down them. A win as far as I’m concerned.
May I be on your ping list? I’ve been meaning to ask for some time now.
I was scheduled for a knee replacement and gave hyaluronic acid a try. After the first injection I stopped taking pain killers and NSAIDs. Three years later and without another hyaluronic acid injection, I’m still pain free and still walking on the factory original knee.
I’m getting a second opinion on the treatment of knee osteoarthritis now that I’ve moved to a new town, I need a new doctor. I had the hyaluronic acid shot two years in a row. It’s been more helpful moving into a senior living center, using a mobility scooter, walking the small distances in an apartment area instead of my previous house, with a staff PCP doctor monitoring my pain meds.
“,,,but do it because it’s good for them”
And “them” would be the Dr.
Boron is amazing. I use the life extension brand. Tried one other that didn’t work, but that was just that one perhaps. 3 yrs ago, fell, broke my left wrist, x-Ray showed significant arthritis in my thumb. Honestly lol, I didn’t have any pain until the PA said something. I researched boron...esp some guy in Australia. It really helps my thumb pain.
My 93 yr/o dad tried the hyaluronic injections for his shoulder, but it didn’t help. He had surgery.
Son’s gf has degenerative disc disease and the hyaluronic acid helped her a lot.
I wonder if taking it orally would help.
I’m sorry about your accident and stupid drunk driver.
Thanks for the joint pain info.
I had HA injections twice , the first set worked better than the second set. The studies show it reduces pain But the meta analysis says the pain reduction doesn’t meet some vaguely defined level of significance . The alternatives are nsaids which cause ulcers and surgery which does nothing and costs 20000 dollars. Knee replacement can cause ossification of the muscles and tendons which makes the patient unable to walk ever again. I know someone who had a knee replacement at HSS in NY and is still in a wheelchair.
I can say one thing about Hyaluronic acid, almost every competitive cutting horse in the world has had it injected into their rear hocks when they get sore. It sure solves that problem, and it’s injected with a long needle in between the bones of the joint.
Most trainers inject their young horses in training before they get real sore, since if they do, the horse will avoid hard stops which is the ends a competitive career.
By the way, I have good knees, 65 still run even after having large numbers of horses on top of me. I’m also not very big which helps and never quit doing a daily workout.
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