New `miracle` pill could help ease arthritis pain

London: Researchers believe that a pill costing just 14p a day may help millions of people beat osteoarthritis pain.

They believe that drug called spironolactone offers a cheap and safe way to ease patients' suffering without any dangerous side-effects, the Daily Express reported.

The drug had been developed more than 40 years ago to treat high BP and heart failure but recent research suggests that it may provide a breakthrough in the treatment of osteoarthritis.

Professor Marion McMurdo, head of ageing and health at the University of Dundee, carried an initial study earlier this year to see if taking 25mg of spironolactone daily for five months helped osteoarthritis sufferers.

Professor McMurdo and her team are recruiting 86 patients aged 70 or over, who are suffering from severe knee pain to take either spironolactone or a -placebo every day for 12 weeks.

Later, their pain levels are going to be assessed and the inflammation in their joints are going to be measured before and after the trial.

The findings have been published in the American Journal of Medicine.