Chinese herb as good as RA drug

A traditional Chinese herbal remedy used to relieve joint pain and inflammation works as well as methotrexate, a standard drug treatment that is frequently prescribed to control the symptoms of active rheumatoid arthritis (RA), reveals research published online in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. Furthermore, combining the herbal remedy with methotrexate — the disease modifying drug (DMARD) most commonly used to treat RA — was more effective than treatment with methotrexate alone, the findings showed. Triptergium wilfordii Hook F, or TwHF, is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat joint pain, swelling, and inflammation, and is already approved for…