Request Clinical Starter Kits for Your Patients Today! Request Now

Are you a clinician?

This is a clinician-only website.
By entering, you acknowledge that you're a clinician.

Superba™ krill oil improves joint pain and flexibility in adults with mild knee pain, study shows

Highlights

  • Superba™ krill oil reduces knee pain while sleeping or standing and improves range of motion of both knees
  • Supplementation increases plasma EPA and EPA/AA ratio
  • Effective dosage is 2g/day (providing 240 mg/day EPA and 110 mg/day DHA)

Summary

This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was designed to investigate the effect of Superba® krill oil on joint pain and range of motion in adults with mild knee pain.

For this study, researchers enrolled 50 otherwise healthy adults, aged 38-70 years, with mild knee pain not severe enough to require pharmacotherapy. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups for 4 weeks: 2 g/day of Superba™ krill oil or safflower oil (placebo), taken in a divided dose at breakfast and dinner. The daily intake of Superba ™ krill oil provided 240 mg/day EPA and 110 mg/day DHA, while placebo was free of EPA and DHA.

The primary outcome measure was the improvement in subjective symptoms of knee pain as assessed by the Japanese Knee Osteoarthritis Measure (JKOM) questionnaire (25 questions) and Japanese Orthopaedic Association score  (JOA). Secondary outcomes included blood and urine biochemical parameters.

A total of 47 participants (47/50; 94%) completed the study (41 women; 6 men). All dropouts were in the placebo group and unrelated to treatment.

Results indicate that Superba™ krill oil significantly increased plasma EPA (P<.05) and EPA/AA ratio (P=.003). Controlling for confounding variables (e.g., age, sex, weight, smoking and drinking habits, use of anti-inflammatory analgesics), Superba® krill oil significantly (P<.01) reduced knee pain while sleeping or standing, compared to placebo, as well as significantly improved (P<.05) the range of motion of both right and left knees, compared to placebo.

These findings indicate that supplementation with Superba™ krill oil (2 g/day for 4 weeks) offers clinical value for relief of mild knee pain in otherwise healthy adults.

Superba™ is a trademark of the Aker Group.

Reference

Suzuki Y, Fukushima M, Sakuraba K, Sawaki K, Sekigawa K. Krill Oil Improves Mild Knee Joint Pain: A Randomized Control Trial. PLoS One. 2016;11(10):e0162769.

PMID: 27701428
"