Research & Technical Articles Enzymes for Athletic Injuries Current Practices One of the most widely recognized problems in rehabilitation therapeutics is the need for an effective non-toxic aid to control inflammation caused by athletic injuries. The ideal therapeutic aid in such cases should accelerate both the rate of recovery from the injury and the reduction of the pain phase of the inflammatory process that results from the tissue damage of the injury. In current sports injury therapeutics, the most popular aids to recovery are non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID). By inhibiting various natural physiological mechanisms, these NSAID agents tend to reduce the immediate inflammatory response and, thus allow the athlete to enter a physical therapy program more rapidly. However, there are some serious concerns over the current widespread use of NSAIDs, including serious gastrointestinal side effects (The common saying among athletes is "those pills tear up your stomach.") and the very real possibility that by inhibiting natural physiological processes, the NSAIDs actually slow down recovery from injury. An Attractive Alternative Of increasing current interest in sports medicine are the possibilities offered by proteolytic enzymes to accelerate the recovery process. Proteolytic enzymes offer a possible alternative to the present extensive use of NSAIDs. The mode of action of these enzymatically active agents appears to be that they rapidly hydrolyze the waste products that collect in the injured tissue and, thus, facilitate both removal of these waste products and improved access of natural healing agents to the tissue. There are a number of inherent advantages afforded by this approach, including: (1) proteolytic enzymes tend to enhance, rather than suppress, physiological mechanisms, thus, improving the possibility of true recovery from the injury, (2) except for pre-existing conditions, such as ulcer or gastritis, proteolytic enzymes do not produce negative gastrointestinal side effects (by enhancing protein digestion, they may actually be beneficial to the GI tract), and (3) enzymes, in general, are rapidly degraded and, thus, do not pose a threat in terms of long-term toxic build-up. European Practices Proteolytic enzymes have been investigated for several decades. In spite of this, the progress of the investigation and use of this very promising approach in the United States has been very slow, although isolated reports from several investigators have been generally highly favorable. It is suspected by many observers that this slow progress may have much more to do with economics than efficacy, since the proteolytic enzymes generally fall into the category of naturally-occurring substances for which it is difficult to obtain patents and, thereby, achieve market protection. This makes for an unattractive situation for pharmaceutical firms, which are the most frequent sponsors of medical research into new therapeutic agents. > Enzymes for Athletic Injuries continued Home | Product Line | Endorsements | FAQs | Research | Order Products VITAL PRODUX™ 44 Mine Rd. Suite 2, PMB 209 Stafford, Virginia  22554  USA 540-286-2400 – FAX: 540-752-4765 E-mail: info@VitalProdux.com Copyright © 1996-2003, VTI, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Text, graphics, and HTML code are protected by US and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted, or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit permission. Vital Produx™ is a trademark of VTI, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.