Vitamin D Supplements May Not Help Arthritis In The Knee

People with osteoarthritis in the knee who took supplements of vitamin D did not have improved pain relief or cartilage loss, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

A two year study of 146 people with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis involved participants taking a placebo or vitamin D daily. A number of factors were measured including loss of cartilage, knee pain, bone marrow lesions and knee function.

The group that took vitamin D did not experience more improvement in symptoms or advancement of arthritis than those who took the placebo.

“Additional results from epidemiological studies that emerged during the course of this study have been mixed demonstrating positive and negative associations,” the scientists explain. “Two studies appeared to show strong associations of bone density with the development of knee OA, but some of those investigators later published concerns about the possibility of such associations arising as a result of contingent confounding.

Therefore, together with the results of this clinical trial, the overall data suggest that vitamin D supplementation at a dose sufficient to elevate 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels to more than 36ng/mL does not have major effects on clinical or structural outcomes in knee OA, at least in a US sample.”