The Fiber Supplement That Helps vs Arthritis

We’ve written before about arthritis management in general, so before we get into the main part today, let’s take a moment to drop some links for anyone who’d like a quick recap first:

• Avoiding/Managing Osteoarthritis
• Avoiding/Managing Rheumatoid Arthritis

There are also lots of supplements that enjoy popular claims of helping vs arthritis; not all of them actually do, but here are some good evidence-based ones: Five Supplements That Actually Work Vs Arthritis

Now we’re going to add another one to that list!

More than a gut feeling

It’s about inulin, a prebiotic fiber that can come from many plants, though when it’s made into a supplement it’s usually from chicory root.

This discovery came about because a team of researchers (Dr. Afroditi Kouraki et al.) investigated whether it could reduce pain and improve physical function in people with knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Note: the principles will be the same for any form of OA; knee OA is just the easiest to study and the form of OA that has the most existing research already, which makes it easy to compare and contrast what things have what effects.

See also: Drug-Free Knee Pain Therapies: Which Ones Work? ← this is, once again, specifically about knee OA.

Back to Dr. Kouraki and her team: the trial included 117 participants, of whom 58.1% were women and their average age was 67.5 years.

Participants were randomly assigned for 6 weeks to one of 4 groups:

• Inulin: 20 g/day of prebiotic fiber
• Digital physiotherapy-supported exercise (PSE): using a standardized “Joint Academy” program
• Inulin plus PSE (as above)
• Placebo: 10g/day maltodextrin (a plant-based starch that, in the quantities involved, the researchers are confident isn’t going to change anything biochemically).

The results, type by type:

Gut health changes: only the inulin groups showed increases in:

• Butyrate, a beneficial short-chain fatty acid produced by gut bacteria
• GLP-1, the now well-known gut hormone that’s also involved in pain regulation and muscle health

Pain reduction: both inulin and digital physiotherapy significantly reduced knee pain compared with placebo:

• Inulin reduced pain by an average of 1.11 points more than placebo on a 0–10 pain scale.
• Physiotherapy reduced pain by 1.55 points more than placebo.
• Combining the two treatments did not yield additional pain relief beyond their independent effects.

Physical function: digital physiotherapy improved lower-body function:

• Faster Timed Up and Go (TUG) performance
• Better 30-second sit-to-stand results

Unique benefits of inulin: unlike physiotherapy, inulin also:

• Increased grip strength
• Reduced pain sensitivity by increasing pressure pain thresholds
• Reduced temporal summation, suggesting less amplification of pain signals by the nervous system

The strength thing might not seem immediately intuitive in terms of cause and effect, and indeed the mechanism of action there isn’t known for sure, but the researchers hypothesize that it may have to do with the gut influences muscle function specifically—in the sense that the muscles may not actually be stronger than they technically were before, but the body’s use of them was previously being limited by poorer gut health.

To read the paper in full, enjoy: Effect of Prebiotic Supplementation With and Without Physiotherapy on Pain and Pain Sensitivity in People with Knee Osteoarthritis

And for more ways to help your gut to help you vs arthritis, we recommend swinging by; How to Prevent (or Reduce) Inflammation

Want to learn more?

For specifically the pain management aspect, you might like to consider:

• Before You Reach For That Tylenol…
• How To Stop Pain Spreading
• How To Dial Down Your Pain
• Managing Chronic Pain (Realistically!)
• Get The Right Help For Your Pain
• The 7 Approaches To Pain Management
• Science-Based Alternative Pain Relief (When Painkillers Aren’t Helping, These Things Might)

Take care!