A recent study in the British Medical Journal compared the effect of treating patients with osteoarthritis of the hip or knee with glucosamine/chondroitin, or placebo. The results showed that there was no difference in outcome in the two groups. Arthritis Research UK has commented that there is ‘insufficient evidence to justify prescribing what are, after all, nutritional supplements – not drugs – for all our patients with osteoarthritis’.

No doubt there will be more comments from opinion leaders in the months ahead…..