The effect of a garlic supplement on the pro-inflammatory adipocytokines, resistin and tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and on pain severity, in overweight or obese women with knee osteoarthritis.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Copper (Supplement) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The aim of this study was, therefore, to assess the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of a garlic supplement on serum resistin and TNF-α concentrations and on pain severity in overweight or obese women with knee OA.

Why It Was Studied

The adipocytokines, resistin and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), might play a role in OA pathogenesis and outcomes.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults and older adults, women only.

In this study, 80 post-menopausal overweight or obese women (25 ≤ BMI ≤ 40 kg/m2, age 50-75 years) with mild to moderate knee OA were enrolled.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and parallel-group.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Copper (Supplement) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Copper (Supplement), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Copper (Supplement) could be set against what happens without it.

The Copper (Supplement) group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-design trial.

The primary outcome measures were fasting serum concentrations of resistin and TNF-α, and pain severity (assessed using 0-10 point visual analogue scale (VAS)).

What Was Measured

The adipocytokines, resistin and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), might play a role in OA pathogenesis and outcomes.

The subject headings attached to it are Adipokines, Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Antioxidants, Dietary Supplements, Garlic, Obesity and Osteoarthritis, Knee.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Inflammation and Joint pain.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Copper (Supplement).

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2018 (Phytomedicine : international journal of phytotherapy and phytopharmacology), a journal based in Germany.

More context: the Copper (Supplement) compound page, all human trials.