Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. 204 patients with arthritic hand pain found that arnica topical gel, when applied to painful arthritic hands for 21 days, was as effective as ibuprofen in reducing hand pain and improving joint function.
Arthritis in the hands is estimated to affect as many as 13% of men and 26% of women (1), with swelling, redness, pain and increasing functional impairment as the primary symptoms (2). Topical use of ibuprofen and a prescription medication called diclofenac provide consistent relief (3) and avoid the digestive problems common with oral use of ibuprofen and diclofenac (4).
For those seeking a more natural approach to relief from arthritis hand pain, arnica is an option. A 2007 study (5) involved 204 patients (57 men, 147 women) aged 53 to 75. They were given either a gel preparation of arnica (50 grams Arnica/100 grams of gel and a drug-to-extract ratio of 1:20) for 21 days.
Before and after the study, the patients reported overall hand pain and morning hand stiffness on a 100-millilmeter line (called a Visual Analog Scale), with the 0-mm mark being no pain and the 100-mm mark being worst imaginable pain. Hand function was also evaluated with HAI (Hand Algofunctional Index) assessment (6).
After 3 weeks, those in the arnica group had a 40.3% decrease in their visual analog scale (66.9 to 40.0) compared to a 35% decrease in the ibuprofen group (68 to 44.2) (p ). In addition, those in the arnica group had a 27.3% decrease in the number of pain joints (11 to 8) compared to a 22.8% decrease in the ibuprofen group (11 to 8.5) (p < 0.05).
Finally, those in the arnica group had a 37.2% improvement in hand function (11.3 to 7.1) compared to a 38.1% improvement in the ibuprofen group (12.1 to 7.5 to ) (p < 0.05). Regarding adverse events, both treatments were “well tolerated” by patients, with 6.1% of ibuprofen patients experiencing an adverse event compared to 4.8% of arnica patients.
For the researchers, “our results show that short-term use, up to three weeks, of arnica gel improves pain and function in hand arthritis, indistinguishably from ibuprofen gel” and that “Topical application of arnica gel can be regarded as an alternative to ibuprofen gel when treating arthritis of the hand joints.”
Source: Widrig, Reto, et al. “Choosing between NSAID and arnica for topical treatment of hand osteoarthritis in a randomised, double-blind study.” Rheumatology international 27.6 (2007): 585.
© Springer-Verlag 2007
Posted February 2, 2016.
Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com.
References:
- Zhang Y, Niu J, Kelly-Hayes M et al (2002) Prevalence of symptomatic hand osteoarthritis and its impact on functional status among the elderly: the Framingham Study. Am J Epidemiol 156:1021–1027
- Hochberg MC, Vignon E, Maheu E (2000) Clinical assessment of hand OA. Osteoarthr Cartil 8(Suppl A):S38–S40
- Moore N (2003) Forty years of ibuprofen use. Int J Clin Pract 135(Suppl Apr):28–31
- Heyneman CA, Lawless-Liday C, Wall GC (2000) Oral versus topical NSAIDs in rheumatic diseases. Drugs 60:555–574
- Widrig R. Choosing between NSAID and arnica for topical treatment of hand osteoarthritis in a randomised, double-blind study. Rheumatol Int. 2007 Apr;27(6):585-91. Epub 2007 Feb 22
- Dreiser RL, Maheu E, Guillou GB et al (1995) Validation of an algofunctional index for osteoarthritis of the hand. Rev Rhum Engl Ed 62(6 Suppl 1):S43–S53
