Metformin, a drug long used to treat diabetes, may also significantly reduce the risk of developing osteoarthritis, according to a large study of British adults. The research indicates that the medication could lower the risk of knee and hip osteoarthritis by 24 percent.
Scientists hypothesize that metformin functions by reducing inflammation within joints and by promoting the release of enzymes that offer protection against damage to cartilage, the body's natural shock absorber. Osteoarthritis, characterized by the wear and tear of joints, affects approximately 10 million people in the UK. Annually, the National Health Service (NHS) performs over 200,000 hip and knee replacement surgeries, while millions more rely on daily painkillers or regular steroid injections to manage pain.
The study, conducted by researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, analyzed over a decade of anonymized medical data from 350,000 individuals in the UK Biobank database. The findings revealed that patients taking metformin for diabetes were substantially less likely to develop arthritic joints later in life. Notably, the researchers observed that the drug's protective effects appeared to extend even to individuals without diabetes.
Published in the journal Clinical Rheumatology, the study's authors stated, "We found metformin was associated with a significantly lower risk of osteoarthritis of the knee or hip. We think it may protect against the disease in the general population."
Metformin costs the NHS about 1.7 pence per pill, or 50 pence for a pack of 28 tablets. Professor Lucy Donaldson of Arthritis UK described the evidence as "encouraging" and called for "high quality clinical trials to establish whether it could be part of future prevention strategies."