S-adenosyl-methionine, commonly known as SAMe has been shown to be EQUIVALENT in reducing pain as using the dangerous prescription Cox-2 inhibitor Celebrex. You will never hear of this study from your medical doctor simply because they have never seen it. The study shown below revealed that SAMe was not as good as Celebrex during the first month, but was equal to it after. The implication is that you have to take SAMe for at least 2 months to experience its benefits. After that time your doctor may be able to stop or greatly reduce your use of prescriptions. Here are some excerpts from the recent study:

S-Adenosyl methionine (SAMe) versus celecoxib for the treatment of osteoarthritis symptoms: A double-blind cross-over trial.
BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2004; 5: 6.
Published online 2004 February 26. doi: 10.1186/1471-2474-5-6.
Copyright © 2004 Najm et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.

Our results indicate that SAMe is equivalent in almost all measures to COX-2 inhibitors (celecoxib) in relieving pain and improving function in subjects with osteoarthritis of the knee. It is clear from our results that SAMe has a slower onset of action, requiring almost one month of treatment prior to achieving similar effect to celecoxib. COX-2 inhibitors and NSAIDs have a definite advantage during the first month of treatment.

During the second month of each phase of the study, the pain relieving effect is equivalent for both drugs. Of interest is that, while the pain relief of celecoxib was constant throughout the study, the effect of SAMe continued to increase with time. This raises the question whether the effect of SAMe would have continued to improve had the study been for a longer period of time? Hence a more extended study is needed to evaluate the long-term effect of SAMe and to assess the presence of a possible ceiling effect of this supplement. Another possible interpretation could be that the effect of SAMe slows the progression of the disease, hence the persistent effect after discontinuation. The same effect was not seen with celecoxib.