Home › Blog › A Nosespray may help your Knee Arthritis Symptoms!

Is there such a thing as a knee arthritis nose spray? A new nasal spray actually used for osteoporosis may significantly help knee arthritis. The nose spray contains Calcitonin (Fortical, Miacalcin), a hormone involved in bone and cartilage turnover. In this study, they gave knee arthritis questionnaires to patients getting the nose spray for brittle bones and saw significant reductions in knee arthritis symptoms. 220 post-menopausal women (between the ages of 55-65) were studied. The patients saw significant improvements after 3 months of the nose spray treatment and these gains remained consistent throughout 1 year of the treatment period. Participants experienced significant reductions in pain (-53 %), joint stiffness (-44 %) and limitations in physical function (-49 %) at one year. The need for pain meds that were taken when the pain was severe (rescue analgesics) were reduced by 60 % at the end of the 1-year treatment period. The upshot? Calcitonin looks promising to treat the symptoms of arthritis. I doubt it would be a good idea for patients without osteoporosis, but for women with brittle bones and knee arthritis, it may be worth moving from their existing osteoporosis drugs to this potential knee arthritis nose spray!

Chris Centeno, MD is a specialist in regenerative medicine and the new field of Interventional Orthopedics. Centeno pioneered orthopedic stem cell procedures in 2005 and is responsible for a large amount of the published research on stem cell use for orthopedic applications. View Profile