Cucumber Extract, A Natural Prevention and Treatment of Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is an inflammatory disease mostly caused by work-related occupations and working environment, affecting the muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments, and nerves, over time.

The disease is most prevalent in the US. Approximately 10% in men and 13% in women over the age of 60 years suffer from the condition.

In general population, OA affecting over 25 million people in the United States alone.

And, the numbers are increasing at an alarming rate due to the aging of the population and the obesity epidemic.

Most common symptoms of OA include pain in the joint(s), reduced movement of the joint(s), joint(s) tenderness and stiffness, particularly, the loss of flexibility and bone spurs.


If you have experienced some of the symptoms that do not get better in a short period of time, you may have OA.

Believe it or not, patients with OA are associated with the complications of a rapid, complete breakdown of cartilage, bone death (osteonecrosis) and stress fractures.

As of today, there is no cure for the condition, Treatment of OA conventionally are focusing on reducing the pain and progression of the disease and improving quality of life.

If you are taking medication for the treatment of OA, please make sure that you know all the side effects
Prolonged use of Acetaminophen has been found to cause liver damage.

In the prevention and management of OA, some researchers suggested
* Prevented recurrent injury to damage menisci
The meniscus is an important issue because if its function in shock absorption and load distribution in the healthy knee joint(111). A meniscal tear can lead to knee osteoarthritis (OA), but knee OA can also lead to a spontaneous breakdown of meniscal tear and damage to meniscal structure(112). Meniscus damage or recurrent injury might be considered as a signifying feature of incipient OA in middle-aged and elderly people(113).

*. Take precaution if your occupation is at increased risk of osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most important diseases as it frequently affects the active age group of the population contributed to the loss of working hours and of disability(114)(115)(117). Compressive, torsional, pulling and angular movements common in certain occupations or sports may result in injuries of soft tissue, thus increasing the development of OA(116).

* Muscle strengthening and aerobic exercises
Enhanced muscle strengthening with neuromuscular electrical stimulation(118), aerobic exercises(119) and exercise(220) are effective in reducing pain and improving physical function in patients with mild to moderate OA of the knee(220).

* Maintain a healthy weight(117)
Increased BMI and obesity are associated with more severe cartilage degeneration(121)(123) as assessed by both morphological and quantitative MRI measurements(122).

*Avoid dehydration
Dehydration has shown to reduce the mobility of collagen amino acid residues and carbon sugar ring structures in glycosaminoglycans, according to University of Michigan(124) of that may affect the functions of cartilage and induce the risk of OA(125), but dehydration effects are reversible, through the restoration of molecular structure and mobility(124).

* Avoid intake of inflammatory foods
Loading up on junk foods and fast foods contains a high amount of trans fat of that increases the risk of inflammation(126) exhibit pro-inflammatory effects(127) causes of osteoarthritis (OA)(128). Red meat, eggs, and wheat products all contain a high amount of arachidonic acid, too much arachidonic acid may be worsen the inflammation process(129), etc.

* Eat your fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables containing high amount of nutrients and antioxidant(130), can enhance immune defense system(131)within the joint through direct influences of transferrin performance for reduction of inflammation(131)(132) as well as suppressing free radicals and the chain of free radicals reaction cause of elevating the swelling and promoting degeneration(133)(134).

* Replace regular beverage with green tea
Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, a green tea polyphenol(135)(136), was found to be effective in reducing inflammatory cytokines induced inflammatory diseases(137)(138).

The cucumber plant is a species of Cucumis Sativus, belongings to the family Cucurbitaceae and native to Western Asia. It is a creeping vine with roots in the ground and grows up with the support of frames.

On finding a natural compound for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA), age-related disease researchers compared the efficacy of Q-Actin™, an aqueous extract of Cucumis sativus (cucumber; CSE) against GC in the management of moderate knee OA.

The randomized double-blind, parallel-group clinical trial included 122 patients (56 males and 66 females) aged between 40 and 75 years with moderate knee OA took place in three different centers

Participants were divided evenly into 2 groups (n= 61) the GC group received orally the generally prescribed dose of 1,350 mg of GC twice daily and the CSE group received orally10 mg twice daily of CSE in a 180-day intervention.

According to the results from the Western Ontario McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), the WOMAC score of CSE group was decreased by 22.44% and 70.29% on Days 30 and 180, respectively, compared to a 14.80% and 32.81% to the decrease in the GC group.


Similarly, the GC also showed a decrease of pain score compared to the CSE group without inducing any adverse effect.

Based on the finding, researchers said, "The use of 10 mg CSE, twice daily, was effective in reducing pain related to moderate knee OA and can be potentially used in the management of knee pain, stiffness, and physical functions related to OA".


In order to reveal additional information about the anti-inflammatory properties of cucumber, researchers examined the antioxidant effect on cucurbitacins (Cub), a major compound found in the fruit.

Compared to grape-seed extract, wheat, alfalfa, and ginkgo biloba extracts, CuB showed a broad spectrum radical-scavenging capacity.


CuB exerted a similar activity to that of the aforementioned study by inhibiting the expression of TNF in macrophages and lymphocytes and the expression of pro-inflammatory mediators such as nitric-oxide synthase-2 and cyclooxygenase-2.

Collectively, Dr. Adebowale Bernard Saba, the lead scientist wrote," It is general knowledge among researchers working with natural medicinal products that any of the cucurbitacins have the attributes or the potential to become fully patented as anti-inflammatory...drug".

Taken altogether, cucumber processed abundantly amount of CuB may be used for the treatment of osteoarthritis, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of CuB in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Effectiveness of Cucumis sativus extract versus glucosamine-chondroitin in the management of moderate osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial by Nash RJ1, Azantsa BK2, Sharp H1, Shanmugham V. (PubMed)
(2) Search for a novel antioxidant, anti-inflammatory/analgesic or anti-proliferative drug: Cucurbitacins hold the ace by Adebowale Bernard Saba and Olayinka Oridupa. (Research Gate)
(3) Most Common Disease of Elder: The Clinical Trials and Studies of musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) - Osteoarthritis: The Do and do not’s list by Kyle J. Norton.