arthritisA prospective cohort study, appearing in Public Health Nutrition (doi: 10.1017/S1368980010001783) looked at osteoarthritis in the knee and the effect of vitamin C supplementation. At the start of the study the 1,023 participants were taking part in the Clearwater Osteoarthritis Study from 1988 to the present. The subjects, all aged 40 or more at the start of the study, were x-rayed and their knees evaluated using the Kellgren-Lawrence ordinal scale to determine osteoarthritis. The subjects who took vitamin C supplements had an 11% reduced risk of developing osteoarthritis in the knee when compared with subject who did not take vitamin C supplements. The authors concluded, “…after controlling for confounding variables, these data suggest that vitamin C supplementation may indeed be beneficial in preventing incident knee OA. Given the massive public health burden of OA, the use of a simple, widely available and inexpensive supplement to potentially reduce the impact of this disease merits further consideration.”