Effect of a Mediterranean Type Diet on Inflammatory and Cartilage Degradation Biomarkers in Patients with Osteoarthritis

Dyer J, Davison G, Marcora SM, Mauger AR · The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging

In the 54 completers with blood samples (29 diet, 25 control), IL-1alpha fell about 47% in the diet group with a group-by-time interaction at p = 0.019; serum COMP, a cartilage-degradation marker, fell 8% within the diet group (p = 0.014) but the interaction with the control group was p = 0.057, and both markers were higher in the diet group at baseline. Knee flexion and hip rotation improved; the AIMS2 pain and function scales did not differ; the diet group lost about 1.5 kg. Biomarker, not clinical, endpoints.

Population

Adults with osteoarthritis (124 recruited, 99 completed; 83% female, aged 31-90), 16 weeks

Intervention

Mediterranean-type diet (n=50)

Comparator

Usual diet (n=49)

Limitations

Unblinded dietary trial; surrogate biomarker endpoints measured in about half the completers; modest size; no structural imaging. Funded by Arthritis Action, whose dietitian delivered the intervention; the authors report grants from the charity.