“Curcumin supplements reduce knee osteoarthritis pain.”
Curcumin supplements ease knee osteoarthritis pain a little, but the effect is small and the studies are not strong.
Curcumin can take a small edge off knee arthritis pain, but it is not a strong pain reliever and it does not fix the joint. It is an optional add-on, not a replacement for your usual osteoarthritis care.
If you try a curcumin supplement, give it about 12 weeks and stop if your knee pain has not clearly improved.
Safety note: Curcumin supplements can add to the effect of blood thinners such as warfarin and raise bleeding risk; in one reported case, a person's warfarin blood test rose to a dangerous level within weeks of starting a turmeric product. Liver injury has been reported, mostly with high-absorption products (for example, those with black pepper extract, piperine). Stop and get checked if you notice dark urine, yellow skin or eyes, nausea, poor appetite or unusual tiredness. Turmeric supplements may be unsafe in pregnancy.
Talk to a healthcare professional if: you take a blood thinner or other regular medicines, have had liver problems, or are pregnant.
Randomized trials and reviews find that curcumin products lower knee arthritis pain a little more than placebo. Confidence is limited because the effect is small, products differ a lot, and only a few of the reviews are high quality.
Curcumin supplements ease knee osteoarthritis pain a little, but the effect is small and the studies are not strong. They do not repair the joint.
In a 70-person, 12-week trial, a turmeric extract lowered knee pain by about 9 points on a 100-point scale more than placebo. That is a small change, and the extract did not reduce joint swelling seen on MRI or change the cartilage. The trial was partly funded by the extract's maker. A 2026 review of 10 reviews found pain and stiffness improvements across curcumin products, and some reviews report results similar to anti-inflammatory pain relievers, but those comparisons come from weak trials; only 3 of the 10 reviews were rated high quality, and products varied widely in what they contained.
- Wang Z, Jones G, Winzenberg T, Cai G, Laslett LL, Aitken D, Hopper I, Singh A, Jones R, Fripp J, Ding C, Antony B. Effectiveness of Curcuma longa Extract for the Treatment of Symptoms and Effusion-Synovitis of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2020;173(11):861-869. DOI: 10.7326/M20-0990. PMID: 32926799
- Shi C, Zhang T, Xie Y, Li J, Chen C, Liu J. Efficacy and safety of different curcumin formulations in osteoarthritis: an umbrella review of systematic reviews. Frontiers in Medicine. 2026;13:1801273. DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2026.1801273. PMID: 42254374. PMCID: PMC13233388
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Turmeric. Last updated April 2025
- Medsafe, New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority. Beware turmeric/curcumin containing products can interact with warfarin. Safety communication, published 30 April 2018