A One-Two Herbal Punch for Spondylitis

TLDR:

• Objective: The study aimed to assess how effective a bioavailable full-spectrum Boswellia serrata extract (F-BSE) and its combination with curcumin (C-BSE) are at reducing pain and stiffness in individuals with spondylitis or spondylosis.

• Methods: In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 105 participants were given a placebo, F-BSE, or C-BSE for 28 days. The researchers used both subjective questionnaires and objective clinical markers to measure the outcomes.

• Conclusion: Both F-BSE and C-BSE were effective in reducing pain and stiffness by day 14, with continued improvement through day 28. However, the combination of Boswellia and curcumin (C-BSE) showed superior results, suggesting a synergistic effect.
  
  

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Transcript:

Hey y'all, Dr. Wells here from Nutritional Physical Therapy. I'm here in St. Augustine Beach and if you're a Florida PT, you need continuing ed, sign up for our online nutrition courses today. As we talk about research, like what we're talking about today, which is a supplement that helps with spondylitis.

So we as PTs, we work with a lot of patients who have spondylitis and that's basically just inflammation of the spine, right? There can be several factors that lead to it, but it can cause some significant disability and a lot of pain and dysfunction. So what's the study? Well, it's Mamatha et al and Frontiers of Pharmacology, July of 25. And what they did is it was a randomized control trial, 28 weeks at a sample size of 94 patients.

And what they did is they gave one group 400 milligrams of Boswellia. So if you're not familiar with Boswellia, we talk a lot about this in our nutrition courses, particularly our third course. It's also known as Indian frankincense and it acts on inflammatory pathways.

It's a really, really great supplement for arthritis. And so I love that these authors kind of thought laterally and said, Hey, how does this impact inflammation on the spine? So they gave them 400 milligrams of Boswellia or the other group got Boswellia plus curcumin. If you remember what curcumin is, that's the active substrate in turmeric.

It's similar to like an NSAID. So it has almost like a cox-like inhibition of inflammation. Third group got a placebo.

So what did they find? Well, using the bath ankylosing spinal disability index, it's a mouthful, but it's basically an index that looks at patient's function and discomfort and things with their spine. They saw a 65% reduction in that score with Boswellia and curcumin. A 41% reduction with Boswellia alone, and then only a 5% with placebo.

What's more important to me as a PT is I don't really use that bath index for much, but I use the NDI. That's the neck disability index, right? So with the NDI, they saw a 53% reduction with the combination supplementation, a 40% reduction with just Boswellia alone. It shows you the power of the Boswellia, right? And then an 8% reduction on placebo.

So to me, that's a significant difference from placebo, and it really shows how combined effects are really powerful. And I've seen similar studies like this with joint osteoarthritis and things. Now, again, these patients had moderate symptoms.

So if you had someone with severe symptoms, they may not respond to this, right? Moreover, it was done for 28 weeks. We have to put that into perspective as well. But can you imagine if you had the PT component and you had the supplementation protocol, that patient could get really better, maybe faster, and also maybe not have a recurrence? One last thing I should say, this study was funded by Akay Pharmaceuticals, and they are the ones that produced this supplement.

So there is some potential for bias there. But overall, very promising three-arm randomized control trial. If you like this, sign up for our courses today, get some continuing ed in, and have a good one.