
An anti-inflammatory drug that has been around for over 2,000 years might help delay a very modern problem: hip and knee replacements. That’s the suggestion of a new study finding that older adults who used the drug — called colchicine — were less likely to need hip or knee replacement surgery over the next two years, versus those given placebo pills. The study, published May 30 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, does come with a big caveat, researchers noted: The patients were part of a trial testing colchicine for warding off heart trouble — not joint replacements. So the findings do not prove the medication actually stalled the progression of knee or hip osteoarthritis. That’s the common, age-related form of arthritis where the cartilage cushioning the joints gradually breaks down. But the results do make a “strong argument” for studying colchicine as a treatment for osteoarthritis, said lead researcher Michelle Heijman, of Sint Maartens Clinic, in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Until then, she said, the drug cannot be recommended as a treatment for the joint disease. As it stands, medications for osteoarthritis offer pain relief, but there are none that can slow the underlying joint destruction. Colchicine is an oral drug that has long been prescribed for a different form of arthritis called gout. Doctors also sometimes use it to treat pericarditis, where the sac… read on > read on >