No, red wine does not cure osteoarthritis

The effectiveness of (moderate) consumption of red wine in combating osteoarthritis is a widely held belief. To be convinced, you only need to look at the results when you type “osteoarthritis + red wine” into a search engine. The study, which appears on Wednesday, August 14 in the journal PLOS (Public Library of Sciences) Medicine So this will disappoint a lot of people: no, red wine does not cure osteoarthritis.

Two French researchers tested the virtues of resveratrol, a molecule contained in red wine that had everything going for it: anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and analgesic. Three properties that are apparently effective in combating knee osteoarthritis, a painful disease that affects ten million French people and for which there is no effective treatment. The two doctors therefore gave resveratrol pills or a placebo to volunteers. Result: the food supplement did reduce pain, but by only 15%, and the placebo had exactly the same effect.

“The effect is significant, but if I gave you a placebo it would be the same. What we need to see now is whether the effect is amplified if we increase the dose two times, three times, six times…”

One of the authors of the study, rheumatologist François Rannou

to franceinfo

While waiting to test other doses of resveratrol, the researchers are continuing their trials. They have two other promising avenues for combating knee osteoarthritis: a vaccine against the hormone involved in the destruction of cartilage, and embolization of the tiny arteries that supply the knee.