Short-term effects of highly-bioavailable curcumin for treating knee osteoarthritis: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled prospective study

Nakagawa Y, Mukai S, Yamada S, Matsuoka M, Tarumi E, Hashimoto T, Tamura C, Imaizumi A, Nishihira J, Nakamura T · Journal of Orthopaedic Science

Knee pain VAS at 8 weeks was lower with Theracurmin than placebo except in patients starting at a VAS of 0.15 or less, and the Theracurmin arm needed significantly less celecoxib. The authors describe the potential as modest.

Population

Adults over 40 with Kellgren-Lawrence grade II-III knee osteoarthritis, Japan

Intervention

Theracurmin (submicron-dispersed curcumin) delivering 180 mg curcumin/day for 8 weeks

Comparator

Placebo

Limitations

n=50 over 8 weeks; the benefit is conditional on baseline pain, rescue-medication use is a soft endpoint, and Theravalues (the Theracurmin manufacturer) authors are on the paper.