Glucosamine not effective for lower back pain

A Norwegian controlled trial found that glucosamine the popular dietary supplement was little better than a placebo at reducing lower back pain that causes disability in people with degenerative lumbar osteoarthritis.

The report was led by Oslo University Hospital Department of Orthopedics investigator Dr. Philip Wilkens and will be published in JAMA.

Although OA is one of the most common conditions that doctors see in general practice, Dr. Andrew L Avins stated that treatment for non-specific back pain is usually ineffective and expensive.

Avins went on to explain how lower back pain is usually a clinical mystery with evidence on treatments dodged by many poor studies leading doctors without much to focus on.  This makes it impossible for them to develop rational treatment plans.  As a result, a large amount of patients turn to alternative and complementary therapies.

Glucosamine is made up of joint cartilage and is chains of polyscaccharides that are linked to proteins.

As an oral supplement that comes from fish and animal origin, glucosamine is used mostly by patients that suffer from OA because it is believed that cartilage degeneration can be reversed or stopped with its use.

Colleagues and Wilkens wrote in their report that there is little evidence that supports glucosamine actually is able to do this and thus they set out to see how it actually affects patients that suffer from lumbar OA or lower back pain.

In order to do this they set up a placebo controlled trial that included 250 people that were over the age of 25 with reoccurring back pain that lasted over six months.