Recent clinical trials demonstrate the benefits of the novel dietaryingredient agmatine in accelerating neuropathic pain recovery and improving health-related quality oflife in people suffering from lumbar disc-associated radiculopathy, otherwise known as sciatica. Thepaper describing these clinical trials was published in Pain Medicine (Keynan et al., Pain Medicine11: 356–368, 2010) and was selected by the MDLinx editors as number 1, the most-read article by UShealth professionals on their PainLinx site for the week of March 17, 2010. These landmark findingswere communicated to the American Academy of Neurology meeting on April, 2010, in Toronto andchosen to be presented at the Highlights in the Field of Spine. Additionally, the editors of ACA News,the official publication of the American Chiropractic Association invited and published a reviewarticle on "Dietary Agmatine for Sciatica" in their recent July, 2010, issue.

The clinical studies demonstrate the safety profile of dietary agmatine, and its efficacy in peoplesuffering from sciatica due to herniated lumbar disc. The random, placebo-controlled trial wasconducted in a double-blind fashion and showed a significant accelerated improvements of neuropathicpain and health-related quality of life in those who took agmatine for 14 days (31 people), ascompared to the placebo group (30 people).

The studies were led by neuroscientists Gad Gilad and Varda Gilad and performed by orthopedicsurgeons Ory Keynan and Yigal Mirovsky of Tel Aviv University, Faculty of Medicine and wasconducted at the Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Assaf Harofeh Medical Center (IsraelMinistry of Health National Review Board Trial Number: 20060409), and registered withClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Registration System (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00405041).

Agmatine is a naturally occurring amino acid metabolite and is now available as a treatment modalitynot only for sciatica, but also for the various other neuropathies. Agmatine acts as a shotgun targetingmultiple molecular mechanisms critical for healthy nervous system functions including,

● Neurotransmitter receptors;

● Ion channels;

● Nitric oxide (NO) production;

● Polyamine synthesis;

● Extracellular proteins degradation.

These mechanisms are compromised not only as a result of nervecompression pathologies such as in sciatica, but also as a typical consequence of traumatic injuries,metabolic diseases (e.g., diabetic neuropathy), chemotherapy-induced neuropathies, infections (e.g.,post herpatic neuralgia (shingles), HIV), fibromyalgia and other neuropathies.
It is estimated that more than 20 million people in the United States alone suffer from neuropathy ofvarious causes for whom effective medication is still lacking. The present findings, therefore, havewide implications for multitude of people worldwide.

The study was sponsored by Gilad&Gilad, Reseda, California.