While enthusiasm for vitamin Ds potential for managing osteoarthritis (OA) pain has grown, a recent study presented at the European Congress of Rheumatology found that the supplement did not ease OA knee pain when measured using the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC). The two-year, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study known as VIDEO (Vitamin D Effect on Osteoarthritis) showed that in patients with symptomatic knee OA and low vitamin D levels (baseline serum vitamin D levels of about 43 nmol/L), replenishing the vitamin D had no effect on the loss of cartilage volume. Previous research has shown that vitamin D may offer a marginal benefit on bone marrow lesions, which represent a bone stress response from thinning cartilage and pain assessed using a visual analog scale.
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