Ayurvedic Plant may Benefit Women with Rheumatoid Arthritis

by | Apr 18, 2016 | 2009, Arthritis, Autoimmune Disease, Botanicals, Joint Health, Women's Health

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Of the 58 female patients with rheumatoid arthritic pain, those taking andrographics paniculata for 14 weeks experienced a 23.4% reduction in pain compared to 5.2% in the placebo group.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory condition that affects an estimated 1.5 million American adults (1), with women affected twice as much as men (2). The condition is characterized by painful erosion of cartilage and bone (3). Although there is no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, success has been observed in slowing its progression with early diagnosis and treatment with a class of medications called “disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs”, the most popular of which is methotrexate (4). But while methotrexate elicits benefits within 3 months, improvement plateaus after 6 months (5), leaving a desire to find an adjunctive treatment with methotrexate.

A 2009 study (6) involved 58 female patients aged 18 to 70 with rheumatoid arthritis who continued to take their arthritis medication and were also given either a placebo (28 patients) or a 300-milligram extract (100 milligrams taken 3 times daily) of a shrub used in Ayurvedic medicine called Andrographis paniculata (7, 8) (30 patients) which contained 30% of antioxidants in A. paniculata called andrographolides. This was taken 3 times per day for 14 weeks, after which there was a two-week “washout” period and the subjects switched treatments.

After 14 weeks, those in A. paniculata group saw a 23.4% decrease in pain scale (7.5 to 5.75) compared to a 5.2% decrease in the placebo group (5.8 to 5.5, p < 0.05). In addition, those in the A. paniculata group saw a significant decrease in the scores of health questionnaires measuring quality of life called the SF36 and HAQ (10) compared to the placebo group (actual data not provided, p < 0.001).

When suggesting how A. paniculata benefits rheumatoid patients, the researchers cited studies showing A. paniculata to decrease activity of an enzyme called MAPK (11) that is involved in increasing inflammation in the body (12). For the researchers, “A. paniculata could be a useful ‘natural complement’ in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis” but admit that “a larger trial and a more extended period of treatment is necessary in order to corroborate these results.”

Source: Burgos, R. A., et al. “Efficacy of an Andrographis paniculata composition for the relief of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms: a prospective randomized placebo-controlled trial.” Clinical rheumatology 28.8 (2009): 931-946.

© Clinical Rheumatology 2009

Posted March 24, 2015.

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:

  1. “Rheumatoid Arthritis” posted on the CDC website
  2. Alamanos Y, Drosos AA. Epidemiology of adult rheumatoid arthritis. Autoimmun Rev 2005;4:130–136
  3. O’Dell JR (2004) Therapeutic strategies for rheumatoid arthritis. N Engl J Med 350:2591–2602
  4. No authors. Guidelines for the management of rheumatoid arthritis: 2002 Update. Arthritis Rheum 2002; 46: 328–346.
  5. Borchers AT, Keen CL, Cheema GS, Gershwin ME (2004) The use of methotrexate in rheumatoid arthritis. Semin Arthritis Rheum 34:465–483
  6. Efficacy of an Andrographis paniculata composition for the relief of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms: a prospective randomized placebo-controlled trial. Clin Rheumatol 2009 Aug;28(8):931-46. doi: 10.1007/s10067-009-1180-5. Epub 2009 Apr 29
  7. Coon JT, Ernst E. Andrographis paniculata in the treatment of upper respiratory tract infections: a systematic review of safety and efficacy. Planta Med 2004; 70:293–298
  8. Poolsup N, Suthisisang C, Prathanturarug S, Asawamekin A, Chanchareon U. Andrographis paniculata in the symptomatic treatment of uncomplicated upper respiratory tract infection: systematic review of randomized controlled trials. J Clin Pharm Ther 2004; 29:37–45
  9. Felson DT, Anderson JJ, Boers M, Bombardier C, Chernoff M et al. The American College of Rheumatology preliminary core set of disease activity measures for rheumatoid arthritis clinical trials. The Committee on Outcome Measures in Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trials. Arthritis Rheum 1994; 36:729–743
  10. Kosinski M, Keller SD, Hatoum HT, Kong SX, Ware JE Jr. The SF-36 Health Survey as a generic outcome measure in clinical trials of patients with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis: tests of data quality, scaling assumptions and score reliability. Med Care 1999; 37:MS10–MS22
  11. Burgos RA, Seguel K, Perez M, Meneses A, Ortega M et al. Andrographolide inhibits IFN-gamma and IL-2 cytokine production and protects against cell apoptosis. Planta Med 2005; 71:429–434
  12. Chen JH, Hsiao G, Lee AR, Wu CC, Yen MH. Andrographolide suppresses endothelial cell apoptosis via activation of phosphatidyl inositol-3-kinase/Akt pathway. Biochem Pharmacol 2004; 67:1337–1345