Seaweed identified as potential treatment for osteoathritis

A pilot study completed by NatMed-Research through the research cluster for Health and Wellbeing at Southern Cross University has demonstrated preliminary indications that seaweed may be as effective as conventional drugs in the treatment of osteoarthritis.

If the findings are proven through further trials then the treatment of the disease that affects around three million Australians could be radically changed.

The principal supervisor of the study, Professor Stephen Myers, Director of NatMed-Research, through the School of Health and Human Sciences at Southern Cross University said osteoarthritis treatment is often problematic so he is excited by the findings.

“The reason the research is exciting is twofold. One reason is that we gave people two different doses of the preparation. We gave one group 100mg and another group 10 times that dose or 1000mg and one of the things that we found statistically was that the two groups split apart significantly in a way that we wouldn’t have predicted beforehand," Professor Myers said.

“The group that took the 1000mg got in the vicinity of a 50 per cent reduction in their symptoms of osteoarthritis. This is the first natural product that I have seen that has the potential to rival standard medical therapy. At the moment nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are being used and they can be very problematic due to the side effects such as irritation and bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract and longer term renal and cardiovascular problems.

“So finding natural alternatives that don’t function on the same mechanism of action and don’t cause the same side effects is exciting and we are fairly sure that is the case with this seaweed from the work we have done in the laboratory.

“The other reason is that we have collected very rich data. So with these 12 people we actually got them to record their osteoarthritis scores every day for 84 days. Most clinical research on osteoarthritis gets them to measure once a week and their reporting can be clouded if they have had a bad couple of days prior to reporting.

“What we designed at Southern Cross University is a method for assessing osteoarthritis symptoms daily, called COAT, the Comprehensive Osteoarthritis Test, so we developed and validated this particular instrument five years ago which is what we used in this trial.

“It’s not what I consider to be first class evidence yet. Where we need to go from here is to a randomized control trial but before we can do that we need to work out the exact mechanism of action to ensure the best seaweed formulation and that is the next step we will be taking.

“The results are really exciting and having done lots of work in this area I haven’t seen a natural product with that sort of potential. I am candidly optimistic, but I am not unrealistic, that this is not a cure all at this stage. It is very, very encouraging preliminary science that we now need to build on,” Professor Myers said.

The study was a combined phase I and II open label study on the effects of a seaweed extract nutrient complex on osteoarthritis sponsored by Marinova Pty Ltd under contract to Southern Cross University and performed independently by NatMed-Research.

The study concluded that the observed pharmacological benefits of seaweed in the treatment of osteoarthritis now need to be demonstrated in a phase III randomized control trial.

Photo: The principal supervisor of the study, Professor Stephen Myers, Director of NatMed-Research, through the School of Health and Human Sciences at Southern Cross University.