United States: A medicine called semaglutide, which is sold as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss, has shown something surprising. A big study found that it helps reduce knee pain in people who are obese and have bad knee arthritis. 

The results were so amazing that even experts who weren’t part of the study were shocked! 

“The scale of change is of a kind that we haven’t witnessed with a drug before the last 12 months,” said Dr. Bob Carter, the deputy director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. “The improvement that they found was that they felt about 50 percent less knee pain.” That’s huge.” 

”This one really does change the landscape,” said Dr. David T. Felson, an arthritis specialist and professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine The pain relief is more than can be obtained with any other treatment short of knee replacement surgery, he said. The study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday. 

As reported by the nytimes, current evidence suggests that KOA is a common ailment; it occurs in about 15% of American citizens above 45 years. Obesity is also prevalent among those who are likely to develop it because overweight increases pressure on the knee besides obesity causes inflammation which leads to break down of cartilage. 

None of the medical treatments are good. Patients can still be advised to use other over the counter drugs such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen for pain relief. However, treatment with those agents for a long time has negative effects on vital organs. 

Finally, when the pain becomes unbearable many opt for a knee replacement. 

“To my way of thinking the good news is that surgery does work in the majority of cases.” The bad news is that it takes an awful lot of money, and it sucks off Medicare benefits. 

“It pains me to admit this, but we are crying out for a solution to the problem of knee pain,” said Dr. 

In 68 weeks, the Novo Nordisk semaglutide manufacturer conducted a study accompanied by 407 participants with obesity and knee osteoarthritis; 204 participants received Wegovy. All patients also were given exercise counselling and a low-calorie diet. 

Most of the participants were women. The men’s average age was 56 and their average body mass index put them squarely in the obese category at 40.3.