Podcast Interview:
Liz Harvey: Hello, everyone. This is Liz Harvy, coming to you from our studios in New York City, where we are dedicated to bringing you top quality advice from many of the leading expert professionals across the US. In today’s episode, we are speaking with Dr. Warren J. Bleiweiss, a leader in the United States in the emerging medical field of oxygen ozone injection therapy for the treatment of herniated discs, joint and muscle pain, and injuries. Dr. Bleiweiss pioneered oxygen-ozone disc injection therapy in the US. He is a graduate of New York University’s School of Medicine, and is board certified in both Anesthesiology and Pain Management.
His long list of accomplishments includes leadership experience as a hospital Anesthesiology Department Director, the inventor of a patented medical device, and the founder of one of the first multidisciplinary pain management centers in New Jersey. He has been successfully treating patients for over 30 years. Dr. Bleiweiss specializes in minimally invasive alternative treatments that help heal patients without surgery or potentially hostile medication. His treatment protocols are specifically designed to activate the body’s innate ability to recover and regenerate. His practice has been producing excellent results by utilizing these alternative methods.
Today we are focusing on one of these alternative nonsurgical treatments, Ozone Injection Therapy, which is as important as stem cells, as part of regenerative medicine treatment for joints. Hello, Dr. Bleiweiss. How are you today?
Dr. Warren B.: I’m very good. Thank you, Liz.
Liz Harvey: We’ve discussed Oxygen Ozone Injection Therapy in another podcast, but for those listeners that are not familier with it, could you please start by explaining what Oxygen Ozone Injection Therapy is?
Dr. Warren B.: Yes. I’d love to. Ozone is a supercharged form of oxygen. It’s three oxygen molecules that are joined together. Medical oxygen ozone therapy is the process of injecting a very specific concentration of ozone in a pure oxygen environment into structures such as joints, spinal discs, or muscles, in order to harness the very powerful healing effects of ozone. It’s been used in Europe for over 75 years for a variety of conditions, and it’s been proven safe and effective in thousands of published research studies.
Liz Harvey: And how is Oxygen Ozone Injection Therapy essential to some autologous biologic treatments as part of a regenerative medicine treatment protocol?
Dr. Warren B.: It’s a very important aspect of regenerative medicine because it prepares the environment of the … We’re talking about joints today. We’ve talked about discs in the past. So it prepares the environment of the joint to be receptive to cell growth and to nurture the cell growth. It’s important to note that stem cells can mature into any type of cell in the body, for example, muscles, cartilage, bone, and there are many, many steps along the way to maturation. By injecting a stem cells into the joint, it just doesn’t automatically form a cartilage. It’s not going to automatically grow a new joint, so it has to be nurtured.
It’s kind of like an analogy would be in terms of cell maturation. If you want to produce an aluminum can, you just don’t take a piece of aluminum, and assume it’s just going to become an aluminum can. They’re both aluminum but there’s a process that they have to go through. So it’s the same with stem cells and the most important part is to make sure that the cells can live and survive and flourish in the environment and that they’re being injected into. And that’s exactly what ozone does.
I want to make another analogy, and I’m going to use this analogy. I don’t know a huge amount about the topic, but I happened to be reading a book about the history of human development last week, and it just pops into my mind. So let’s say we’re taking about 30-40 thousand years ago when humans were hunter/gatherers and they have to migrate to an area. If there’s a choice between a fertile valley with running water, an abundance of animals, and a stable climate versus a desert with just sand and no water or a harsh frozen tundra, the humans are going to migrate to the fertile valley because that’s where they could survive and flourish and it’s the same thing with regenerative medicine treatments.
It’s not only just injecting the stem cells, for example, into the joint. The body also has a supply of its own stem cells. So we know this because we harvest stem cells, from for example the bone marrow, or we harvest stem cells from fat and it’s a little controversial as to whether scientists should call the cells that are harvested from fat stem cells or mesenchymal stromal cells, but we’re not going to get into that. But we know they exist in the body. And stem cells exist all over the body, around blood vessels, and if there’s an injury, they could mobilize. They’ll get into the blood stream and go to where they want to.
So it’s analogous to the migration of early Homo sapiens. Where are they going to go and flourish? They’re going to be able to flourish in an environment that is conducive for them to flourish. So if you have a damaged joint, a damaged cartilage, that has been in a process that has occurred and is destructive for many many years, if you could reverse that destructive process and create and environment where the cells are actually flourishing then injectable stem cells are not only going to flourish but stem cells from other parts of the body can flourish and there’s a medical doctor who is very prominent in the field of ozone injection, ozone therapy in general, Dr. Brownstein, and he’s written several books.
At least two that I know of, but for example in his book, Ozone the Miracle Therapy, there’s something that he talks about that’s applicable to this discussion and he states that ozone injected into a knee or any joint can locally stimulate stem cells to proliferate, which means increase in number. In the presence of cartilage, ozone can stimulate cartilage cells to grow and actually in Dr. Brownstein’s book, he documents x-ray evidence. So Dr. Brownstein’s not talking about injecting stem cells, he’s talking about the natural stem cells in the body. So if ozone can stimulate the natural stem cells to grow cartilage, they can also help injected stem cells to grow cartilage.
Liz Harvey: Great. So now which joints and what type of joint injury benefit the most from oxygen ozone injection therapy treatment?
Dr. Warren B.: Actually any joint can benefit from oxygen ozone injection therapy but let’s use some examples that I’ve successfully treated over the years. I’ve successfully treated shoulder joints, elbows, hips, knees, and ankle joints for a variety of conditions such as arthritis, torn ligaments such as a torn ACL ligament, torn cartilage such as torn menisci, either medial or lateral menisci, and torn rotator cuffs.
Liz Harvey: Okay, and for new patients, what is a typical ozone injection therapy treatment session like? How long does it take and is there any recovery time and how quickly can someone feel the results?
Dr. Warren B.: Yes, it’s an office procedure. It typically takes less than 15 minutes, there’s no incision, there’s no sedation, and there’s no down time. Patients leave after procedure and drive home, they go to work, they go back to their normal activities. I don’t recommend that they exercise for a couple of days but they can go about their normal activities and daily living in work activities, and typically the results are seen within one day to two weeks period one day and two weeks are the outliers. That’s not the typical patient but I’ve definitely had patients that have improved in one day and I’ve had patients that have taken two weeks to improve. But the typical patient would take at least two to three days and possibly one week to improve.
Liz Harvey: Great, will thank you so much Dr. Bleiweiss. We know you’re busy so I just wanted to thank you for all of your time and help today.
Dr. Warren B.: You’re welcome.
Liz Harvey: And for our listeners across the country, if you are interested in speaking with a doctor, please visit www.alternativedisctherapy.com or call (973) 403-3334 to schedule an appointment and on behalf of our team, we want to thank you for listening and we look forward to bringing you more top quality content from our country’s leading experts.
