Taken to help relieve pain, pain relievers like Advil may make arthritis inflammation worse, according to a new scientific study. Be careful not to take it too often and for too long.
There are drugs that should not be abused and Advil is one of them. According to the conclusions of a new studywhich will be presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, painkillers, taken to help relieve pain, could worsen inflammation in arthritis, a condition that affects one or more joints.
To achieve this synthesis, a team from the University of California recruited 277 participants suffering from moderate to severe osteoarthritis of the knee. They had taken nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for at least a year. At the same time, they analyzed the data of 793 other participants who suffered from the disease but who, on the other hand, had not taken any medication.
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No long term benefit
All underwent MRIs of the affected knee at the start of the study and four years later. The results revealed that there seemed to be no benefit to taking Advil or any other such medication long term. Specifically, at the start of the study, joint inflammation and the quality of knee cartilage were worse in participants with medication. They had even deteriorated over time.
“The use of NSAIDs for their anti-inflammatory function has frequently spread in patients with osteoarthritis in recent years and should be reviewed as a positive impact on joint inflammation could not be demonstrated”, explained Johanna Luitjens, the main author of the study, while specifying that to date, “no curative therapies have been approved to cure or reduce the progression of osteoarthritis of the knee”.
As a reminder, arthritis can affect almost any part of the body but generally attacks the hips, knees, spine.
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