Podcast Interview:
RC: Hello, everyone. This is Liz Harvey, 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 U.S.
In today’s episode, we are speaking with Dr. Warren Bleiweiss about the exciting field of regenerative medicine. He is a graduate of New York University 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 multi-disciplinary pain management centers in New Jersey. Dr. Bleiweiss also pioneered the treatment of oxygen ozone disc injection therapy in the United States, which is a powerful regenerative treatment.
He has been successfully treating patients for over 30 years. Dr. Bleiweiss specializes in minimally invasive alternative treatments that heal patients without surgery or potentially harmful 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.
We previously discussed oxygen ozone treatments with Dr. Bleiweiss. Today we are focusing on other aspects of regenerative medicine, and we are discussing the exciting, rapidly evolving medical field of regenerative medicine.
Hi, Dr. Bleiweiss. How are you today?
Dr. Warren Bleiweiss: I’m good, how are you?
RC: I’m doing great. Thanks so much for joining me.
I know you stay informed about the rapidly developing science of regenerative medicine. Could you please give us an overview of some of these exciting scientific breakthroughs?
Dr. Warren Bleiweiss: Yes, I’d be happy to, I’m always happy to discuss this amazing field of medicine. I’d like to first point out some of the differences between regenerative medicine, and traditional, what we call modern medicine. So, modern medicine manages diseases and attempts to heal diseases by various modalities such as, giving antibiotics for bacterial infection, providing medications for conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes. Or, in the case of severe joint problems such as severe osteoarthritis, we have the joint replacement procedures that surgeons perform.
The goal of regenerative medicine is to restore structure and function of damaged tissues and organs in the body. The body has the innate ability to heal itself, and regenerative medicine harnesses this capacity of the body and uses it to actually help heal conditions.
I’ll give you an example. I mean, these are things that I’ve just thought about in the past. Have you ever thought back to when you were really young? I actually don’t know how young you are, but let’s talk about when we were teenagers, or in our early 20s. You twist your knee, let’s say, playing basketball or football, or whatever sport you do. Or you fall off your bicycle and slam onto the ground. Or you twist your knee and fall off your bicycle the same day and slam onto the ground. You know, it hurts, and you’re sore. Very rapidly, whether it’s today or two days, you feel better and it becomes a non-event. Most likely the next week or two weeks later, you don’t even remember. You’re out playing football or basketball, or riding your bike and you’re not even thinking about the fact that you hurt yourself a couple of weeks ago.
As we get older and we age, that doesn’t happen quite the same way. So, injuries start taking longer and longer to heal. In our later years, we start accumulating, I call it accumulating injuries. Certain injuries just might take years to heal, or they don’t heal at all. That’s because of the body. Like I said, the body has the innate ability to heal. We have a vast reserve, a reservoir of stem cells, and there are other healing qualities a body has.
Let’s talk about stem cells. Those cells are activated, and if we have an injury and they migrate to the injured tissue and they nurse the injured tissue back, sometimes they might even replace the injured tissue. As we get older, it doesn’t really break down, but it becomes less active. At some point, we start losing the battle between normal cell death which occurs every day. Every day we lose like somewhere around 300 million cells in our body to death. It’s just a normal thing. We always keep pace with it, but as we get older and older and it’s different for each individual. Let’s just say in the late 40s, we start losing the balance between replacing those cells and losing the cells, the balance shifts over where we lose more than we replace.
Regenerative medicine is a medical field that activates the dormant stem cells in our body with various treatments such as injecting new stem cells, or harvesting stem cells from our body and re-injecting it into an injured area or using biologics act to reactivate these stem cells. It reactivates the normal healing systems in the body. So, regenerative medicine is called regenerative because it helps regenerate. Now, it’s not going to make us all 20 years old again but it does help heal structures that are injured over time.
How are you able to stay on top of such a rapidly developing medical field?
Dr. Warren Bleiweiss: It takes a lot of work, and a lot of time, but it’s something that I’m just so fascinated by and I love. So, I’m very happy to spend the energy to stay on top of this. As in any field, whether it’s a medical field or you’re an engineer, or you work in electronics or whatever it is, we have to keep up with the published literature. There’s a vast amount of literature that’s published. When I say literature, I’m talking about research publications on new developments. I regularly keep up with the literature.
I also regularly go to conferences with experts in the field. In fact, I just came back from one very interesting conference. Not only do we at these conferences get to present the new findings and go over old techniques, but it creates an environment where professionals get together and discuss various treatments, and how to improve them, et cetera. I also talk on a fairly regular basis with the experts in the field, because most know each other and have each other’s contacts. If there’s any new developments or if I think of something really exciting, I could call one of the researchers and discuss it with them.
I’m also a member of the Academy of stem cells Physicians. We have weekly conferences. It’s done over the internet where we all get together and discuss issues. So, I’m very on top of the field.
What are some of the clinical applications of this new medical field?
Dr. Warren Bleiweiss: The clinical applications are almost unlimited. I want to again stress that these treatments are regenerative and they restore structure and function. It’s a cellular rejuvenation and replenishment phenomenon as opposed to just managing something for example, with medications.
It helps the body heal. For example, if we have a joint problem like osteoarthritis of the knee or the shoulder, or the hip. The regenerative medicine treatments could help restore the structure and function of the joint. It could help skin to rejuvenate. It could help hair follicles to reproduce more hair and thicker hair. If the follicles are dead, like if someone is totally, totally bald like, very shiny skin with no follicles, it’s not going to just regrow a head of hair. If you have thinning hair with follicles left, the treatments will induce those follicles to produce larger amounts of hair, and thicker hair. There’s a lot of promise that it helps to improve brain function. For example, in various forms of dementia and early Alzheimer’s.
So, those are just a few applications, but there’s a vast amount of applications.
How would a typical patient benefit from these treatments?
Dr. Warren Bleiweiss: So, a typical patient would feel less joint pain, feel younger, look younger, have increased vitality, and have improved brain function, if brain function is diminished. It’s not going to turn all of us into little Albert Einstein’s, but if it’s diminished it could help. So, it’s a very good thing.
I’ll give you another example, comparing, I don’t know why I think back to when I was younger, when I think of this regenerative medical stuff. The other day I was stuck in traffic and it took me about an hour and a half to get home. I get out of the car, and my back’s a little stiff, and my joints are a little stiff, and it takes me walking a little bit to get back to feeling good again. I was thinking that when I was younger, I went to college in Boston and I lived in New York, on Long Island. One day a friend of mine called me up and said, “Hey, let’s drive up to Boston today and visit our friends. We haven’t seen them, it’s the summer time. We’re not going to see them for a couple of months.” So, we got in his father’s Chevy Impala and we drove to Boston, and we had dinner, and we drove back to Long Island in one day. I don’t remember feeling stiff when I got out of the car. I mean, I don’t remember any of that.
So, these are aspects of aging that could really be helped with these regenerative medicine treatments.
RC: Okay. Well, thank you Dr. Bleiweiss. We know you’re busy, so I just want to thank you for your time and your help today.
Dr. Warren Bleiweiss: Thank you very much.
RC: For our listeners across the country, if you are interested in speaking with the doctor, please visit www.alternativedisctherapy.com or call (973) 403-3334 to schedule an appointment.
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.
