#21

What’s your take on the ozone injection?

1 Like
#22

Agreed that rapamycin is not a cure all. Many conditions it will do nothing for, or even make worse, like possibly diabetes; in studies on genetically obese/diabetic mice db-db, rapamycin shortened their lifespan - clearly rapamycin tends to disregulate glucose governance; it looks like it might make lipids worse too, at least for some. That said, I remain somewhat optimistic that rapa might help with disc degeneration, based on studies like the one I linked to in my previous post. It’s no guarantee, obviously, and there may be significant limitations like perhaps once the degeneration has set in to any appreciable degree, rapa is of no help. But to the degree that there are any rapa benefit reports, they do seem to center around the muscosceletal system, lean mass, oral bone health and so on. In any case, I figure it can’t hurt, though obviously it’s not going to be very fast acting compared to some of the other interventions.

And full agreement on working out with weights, under the guidance of a competent PT. YMMV.

#23

Interesting topics on your website, I’ll have to explore later. Like the quote of vascular surgeon: “Your only as old as your arteries”. One of my favorites from neuropathology: “When the nervous system is through, so are you.”

1 Like
#24

Had an L4 disk extrusion and a labral tear. These helped:

  1. MacKenzie exercises
  2. Dead hang from a chin-up bar.
  3. BPC-57 and TB-500
#25

Platelet rich plasma in the epidural space has some evidence in lumbar disc herniation. Injected above and below the area of concern using xray. Better than steroids in the studies.

#26

I have multiple HNP’s a couple of them severe, from an aircraft accident many yrs ago. I have had epidurals and they helped but the issue is you can only have so many in a year. (at least back then, about 10 yrs ago and i quit as 3 a yr wasn’t enough) maybe the protocal has changed since then.

#27

It is crucial to understand the PAIN GENERATOR. In many cases, it may not be the disc, or only in part, may be the disc. Also, the herniation of the disc may or may not be the issue, but could be related to disc degeneration. Surgery should be the last option. I have had some success with helping people with painful disc degeneration, and separately from patients with painful facet joints (which is what the nerve ablation was likely tried for). Where were the stem cells delivered? There have been largely poor responses to stem cells injected in the discs. There is reason for this: discs are made of two types of tissue. The cells that make the outer cartilage cells (the tread of the tire) are in the bone edge (aka the endplate). The best results come from supplying (by injection) regenerative biologics (such as stem cells and/or stem cell derived exosomes) to the bone (yes, under twilight sedation) which reactivates the cartilage producing chondrocyte cells. As an example, the French have published their 15 year follow up in doing this in knees a few years earlier. The bone injections were superior in results (length of benefit) when compared to meniscus injection. We extrapolate this to the spine and are achieving results. Best of luck to her!

2 Likes
#28

As a follow up to this thread - after much research on the options presented here, my wife opted for the ozone injection into the herniated disc. We felt this was the most targeted approach, huge shout out to @Joseph for recommending. Results have been excellent, after years of pain she is finally feeling relief. She was doing back bends in her yoga class the other day, something she hasn’t done in a long time.

Very impressed by the results, would recommend to anyone with a herniated disc

5 Likes
#29

Where are you located that offered this treatment?

#30

She flew to New Jersey to have the procedure performed by Dr Bleiweiss:

3 Likes
#31

Being old and having been around the block once or twice, I am surprised that I haven’t heard of this before. Since I suffer from the typical age-related lower back pain, I will be looking into this.
There is little downside to this treatment unless it is cost-prohibitive.

“A meta-analysis by Steppan et al. (2010) evaluated the effectiveness and safety of ozone treatments for herniated lumbar discs. The study included almost 8,000 patients and found a mean improvement of 3.9 points on the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain and 25.7 points on the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) for function. The likelihood of showing improvement on the modified MacNab scale was 79.7%, and the complication rate was extremely low at 0.064%.[1]”

Did your insurance pay for this, if not, could you share the approximate cost of the treatment?

What is the effectiveness of ozone therapy for the treatment of a herniated disc?

https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.jvir.2009.12.393

3 Likes
#32

It’s too bad those studies do follow up for such a short period of time. Most treatments for low back pain show improvement in the short term. It’s with longer time periods that treatment vs non treatment become similar in results.

Looks like this study had longer duration with good results.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965229921000650

3 Likes
#33

An excellent choice as a very good friend{an MD] of mine knows him personally both professional and personal for decade’s.

1 Like
#34

Unfortunately wasn’t covered by insurance. I believe the procedure cost was around $3500.

1 Like