Nutraceutical/Alternative Remedies in the Management of OA

Opinion statement

Treating patients with osteoarthritis requires careful individualization in order to achieve patient-specific goals, which may vary from obtaining short-term pain relief to achieving long-term maintenance of function or even preservation of cartilage. In response to specific patient goals, the provider makes use of a toolbox of physical, adjunctive, alternative, pharmacologic, and operative interventions. Among the alternative category are the nutraceuticals, which will be reviewed here with particular attention given to those agents with randomized control trial (RCT) data showing statistically significant benefits. Some of these can be used to minimize patient symptoms with very low risks. The safety of these agents is particularly important in treating patients with osteoarthritis as many of the patients are older with significant comorbidities. Further, it is very likely that it will be necessary for the patients to continue treatment for many years.

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