Nutraceutical considerations for soft tissue injuries and osteoarthritis

In this clip, Leilani Alvarez, DVM, DACVSMR, CVA, CCRT, service head of the Integrative and Rehabilitative Medicine Department at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center in New York, New York, emphasizes the role of nutraceuticals in multimodal management, particularly for osteoarthritis and degenerative conditions. She advocates for supplements as complementary to primary treatments, highlighting their benefits for soft tissue injuries.

Alvarez recommends products rich in collagen and antioxidants, such as eggshell membrane, to support joint health beyond just cartilage, and stresses the importance of addressing the entire joint organ, including muscles, tendons, and ligaments, to manage oxidative stress effectively.

Below is the video transcript, lightly edited for clarity.

Alvarez: Hi, I'm Dr Leilani Alvarez. I'm the head of Integrative and Rehabilitative Medicine at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center in New York City.

Nutraceuticals can always play a role in your multimodal management. In particular, I would say this is important when you are dealing with osteoarthritis or a condition that is degenerative and is expected to continue to progress over time. Supplements are exactly what the word says: this should be supplemental in addition to your primary treatments. But they're very complementary, and I do almost always include supplements as part of my multimodal strategy.

When I'm dealing with a soft tissue injury, I really like to reach for products that help support that collagen and soft tissue supportive ingredients that will help tissues like tendons and ligaments to heal. Eggshell membrane is a really great example of that. For your osteoarthritic patients, I really like to include antioxidants in there, because they're aging patients, and that can be really helpful for them.

But I really like to choose supplements that go beyond the cartilage, because it's really about supporting the organ of the joint, not just the cartilage. So you want to include support for muscles, tendons, ligaments, and the oxidative stress that a joint is experiencing. And if you choose a product like that, particularly if it has sources of elastin and collagen, it will help your soft tissue injuries as well.