Do you agree that we anonymously record your surfing behavior to improve it?medizin-transparent.at uses cookies to give you the best possible surfing experience.In order to continue to improve our website, we anonymously analyze the surfing behavior of our users.You can adjust this at any time in the privacy settings.We verify claims you found.Pain in the knee or hip, typically when climbing stairs or during sports: This is how osteoarthritis first becomes noticeable in many sufferers.Painkillers are used to treat joint wear and tear.Exercise can also help.But all this does not cure the disease.The level of suffering is therefore quite high for many people with osteoarthritis.So it is hardly surprising that there are a lot of dietary supplements and other remedies that are said to help against osteoarthritis.This also includes products with pine bark extract.They are available through internet shops and pharmacies.We received an inquiry from a reader about one of these remedies with the brand name “Pycnogenol”.The extract comes from the bark of the French maritime pine.It grows in southwest France and belongs to the genus Pinus.The so-called "pine bark extract" is obtained from this coniferous tree - even if this name is not entirely correct.After all, it is a pine tree.The so-called procyanidins are contained in pine bark extract.They have an antioxidant effect.This means that they can render cell-damaging oxygen compounds ("free radicals") harmless [1].It is precisely these oxygen compounds that are said to be associated with premature aging of the articular cartilage and joint wear.The theory: if procyanidins from the maritime pine scavenge the free radicals, joint wear and tear should slow down and thus alleviate arthrosis [1].In addition to a nice theory, well-done studies with human subjects are also needed.Only they can provide reliable information about the benefits and possible harm of these extracts in osteoarthritis.We were actually able to evaluate three such studies with almost 270 people on the treatment of osteoarthritis with pine bark extract.Here, the drug "Pycnogenol" was specifically examined.The studies are summarized in a systematic review [1].(We did not find any meaningful studies on other products with pine bark extract.)Participants had been randomly assigned to receive either a dummy drug (placebo) or Pycnogenol for three months.For both groups, the study team documented the pain and limitations in mobility as well as the use of painkillers that were permitted as concomitant treatment.However, no reliable statements can be derived from the available studies: Because the drug with pine bark extract called Pycnogenol was only examined with relatively few patients overall.The studies sometimes come to contradictory conclusions and have significant methodological shortcomings.For example, data from individual participants is missing in the evaluation, and the publications do not contain enough details on the measured values, for example on the scatter.The results of the studies cannot be summarized.Therefore, we cannot assess the value of Pycnogenol compared to a placebo in the treatment of osteoarthritis.We also have this uncertainty when it comes to statements about possible side effects: side effects were only examined in two of the three studies and more detailed information was only found in one.However, no statements can be derived from this about possible undesirable effects of the bark extract.Osteoarthritis is one of the most common joint diseases.It is mainly a disease of older people.About half of women over 70 and a third of men in this age group are affected by "joint wear".Osteoarthritis usually develops in the hip or knee joint.But it can also appear on the shoulders, fingers, and toes.To date, there is no drug available to cure osteoarthritis.But there are measures to alleviate: exercise, painkillers and losing weight if you are overweight.In the case of arthrosis in the knee or hip, there are aids such as walking sticks to relieve the joint.If joint wear is far advanced, an artificial joint replacement can help [2,3].You can find more scientifically proven information on the subjects of arthrosis, knee arthrosis and hip arthrosis on the gesundheitsinformation.de website.During our research we came across a methodologically high-quality systematic review [1].It includes a total of three studies in which osteoarthritis patients were treated with a bark extract from maritime pine, which bears the brand name Pycnogenol.We did not find any studies on other extracts from pine bark (vulgo: “pine bark extract”).The systematic review [1] only considered studies up to 2010.When we searched for more recent studies, we did not find anything.We therefore assume that the systematic review represents the current state of science on this question.The three studies each included between 37 and 156 participants, with a total of 293 patients.They were around 50 years old and they had osteoarthritis in their knees.No data is available on other forms of osteoarthritis, such as in the hip or hand.In addition, all studies excluded people who had previously had knee surgery or a new joint for osteoarthritis.In all studies, the participants were randomly assigned to a group: half received a drug with Pycnogenol in a daily dose of 100 to 150 milligrams.After three months, it was then checked how pain, mobility and the use of painkillers had developed.Apart from the contradictory results, the problem with the studies is that all of them had serious shortcomings: data from participants were missing in the analysis or not all of the results were fully reported.[1] Schoonees et al. 2012 Study type: systematic review Studies included: 3 studies with a total of 293 osteoarthritis patients Question: What is the benefit of pycnogenol in chronic diseases?Conflicts of Interest: None according to the author teamSchoonees A and others Pycnogenol® (extract of French maritime pine bark) for the treatment of chronic disorders.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012;:CD008294 Abstract[3] UpToDate (2019) Management of knee osteoarthritis, retrieved on 10/16/2019 (subject to charge)We follow the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information.A project by Cochrane Austria at Danube University Krems