Has your friend considered taking a supplement called SAMe (pronounced "Sammy"), aka S-adenosylmethionine? It's not herbal or homone based, but is a molecule that all cells produce constantly. It is being used as a treatment for arthritis and also, curiously, depression.
It has only recently become generally available in the UK.
In dozens of European trials involving thousands of patients, it has performed as well as traditional treatments for arthritis and major depression, but without adverse side effects, even at high doses. Doctors have prescribed it successfully for two decades in the 14 countries where it has been approved as a drug.
In a dozen clinical trials involving more than 22,000 patients, researchers have found SAMe as effective as pharmaceutical treatments for pain and inflammation. But unlike the commonly use NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), SAMe shows no sign of damaging the digestive tract. And instead of speeding the breakdown of cartilage, SAMe may help restore it.
Oh dear, it's sounding like an advert...[&:] that's the danger of cut and paste!
No, I don't sell it, import it or have a business that sells it! - but my wife's been taking it and has seen quite an improvement.
You can download an e-book on it from the place we buy it from, on http://64.177.224.15/msg3.htm
L&L,
Chris