The Clinic for Molecular Orthopedics

Personal Testimony from J. D. Parker

Dr Baltzer of The Clinic for Molecular Orthopedics has suggested that I share my experience with you about the Orthokine treatments I recently received for the osteoarthitic condition of my left knee, right hip and my lumbar and cervical spine.

I have received two rounds of the treatment spaced one year apart and I am doing great. No pain, no more limp and my mobility is restored. Best of all, I’m not taking any drugs.

Last June I traveled to Düsseldorf, Germany to undergo six days of this unique treatment. I heard about Orthokine from a Hollywood producer for whom I was writing a script. When I complained of pain in my hip while on the set, he told me about a treatment that had allowed a well-known actor to avoid a second hip replacement surgery. He later gave me the name of a Los Angeles doctor who could describe the treatment more accurately.

I remember thinking this sounds “too good to be true,” but was overcome by a strange intuitive feeling (especially since Düsseldorf is only 30 minutes away from my wife’s hometown which we visit every summer). This seemed too much of a “coincidence.” Had it not been for this odd bit of fate I probably would have gone ahead with hip replacement by now and likely regretted it due to the multitude of potential problems linked to this surgery that more people rarely hear about.

Why “Medical Tourism” Is Becoming Popular

Although medical tourism is becoming increasingly popular, I realize that for most Americans flying to a foreign country for medical treatment would require a huge leap of faith. Usually this is frequently done for complex and advanced conditions. Farrah Fawcett, for example, recently flew to Germany to receive a very advanced cancer treatment that’s unavailable in the US. But I’m certain this type of travel will become more common as the quality of healthcare in the US continues to slip and more countries surpass us. With regard to orthopedics and cancer treatments, Germany has already been in the lead for about 20 years.

Still, I had some doubts on my way across the Atlantic. The skeptic in me kept nagging that this might be a “scam.”

But from the moment my wife and I stepped into the clinic, I knew it was the real McCoy. First of all, the clinic’s location, on famous “Königsallee” (meaning “street of the Kings”) in Düsseldorf—one of Germany’s most prosperous cities—is a testimony to its success.

Equally impressive are the interior spaces which occupy the entire second floor of an exclusive high-rise building. The walls are bright white and decorated with tasteful modern art. The staff is extremely friendly and polished, with several members being fluent in English, other European languages, Russian and Arabic, reflecting the clinic’s diverse clientele. For instance, we shared time and fresh-brewed espresso with a sheik from Qatar in the clinic’s private waiting room. Also, knowing how highly-regulated medical practices are in Germany (far more strictly than in the US), I now felt assured that we were dealing with an obviously prospering clinic rather than any kind of scam. (At this point I began to wonder if I’d be able to afford the bill).

One of the World’s Most Advanced Clinics

When I met Dr. Baltzer, I grew even more confident. A man in his forties, he exudes intelligence, positivity and real compassion, as well as professional competence and self-assuredness. After a brief, yet comprehensive consultation, I was escorted off to a thorough diagnostic intake which utilized a battery of sophisticated equipment, including MRI, CT, x-ray and nerve testing technology. Unlike the custom here in the States, all this equipment is either owned or leased by the clinic and under one roof, so I merely had to walk from one room to another.

The entire testing was finished in less than an hour and shortly afterward Dr. Baltzer sat me down for a head-to-toe analysis of my condition. He concluded that I probably would need several surgeries in the future since, in addition to the OA in my knee and hip, I suffer from stenosis in my cervical and lumbar vertebrae which have caused me a lot of pain and immobility. In December 2007 I required back surgery to repair a prolapsed disc, and despite the generally successful outcome, I was faced with further loss of my mobility. (To avoid unnecessary aggravation and discomfort, I recently gave up tennis, a sport I was passionate about for many years.)

Dr. Baltzer described several very advanced surgical techniques for which I am likely to be a future candidate. He also discussed stem cell therapy to encourage the regeneration of lost cartilage, as well as laboratory-grown cartilage transplantation. No US doctor has even offered me those options. But for the present time, even though I have Stage Three osteoarthritis, with quite a bit of cartilage already lost, he was confident that the Orthokine injections would improve my condition significantly. (I asked him for a cost estimate which came in surprisingly affordable, by the way, and decided to go ahead.)

I received my first treatment an hour later. I was pretty amazed because, like most American patients, I am accustomed to waiting, driving around to different diagnostic centers and then waiting some more. In contrast, I had arrived at the clinic around 2 PM and left at 5 PM for dinner with my in-laws after having been thoroughly examined and having received a total of 12 injections—four into my cervical vertebrae, six into my lumbar spine, and one each into the right hip and left knee.

How Orthokine Works

The Orthokine process was a bit of a mystery to me at the time, but since then I’ve completed two rounds of treatment and an in-depth investigation, and now have a better understanding of how it works.

An all-natural approach, Orthokine involves no steroids or other drugs, yet is patented and fully approved by the Commission E—Germany’s equivalent of our FDA. The treatment has a 70% success rate in clinical trials and performed even better in individual case histories. This is what happens…

At the start, doctors drew a certain amount of my blood into specially-treated syringes containing glass beads. The glass beads serve to increase the surface area that the blood is exposed to which mimics the effects of an injury and thus triggers the immune response of designated blood cells. As part of the response, the cellular production of natural anti-inflammatory “growth factors” –specifically interleukin-1 Ra and anti-TNF—increases to reach concentration levels of up to 150% of those in untreated blood samples.

These inflammation-controlling growth factors are normally present in the body, but they easily can be overwhelmed and rendered ineffective by enzymes called cykotines (namely interleukin-1 or IL-1 and tumor necrosis factor-a or TNF-a), which are present in the inflammation fluid that surrounds injured tissues. The cytokines not only cause inflamed joints to hurt, but when unchecked they also perpetuate inflammation to a chronic stage, eventually breaking down previously healthy cartilage and bone tissue to the point of joint impairment. Controlling these harmful cytokines is the key to minimizing arthritis pain and symptoms. This is exactly what the Orthokine injections accomplish by increasing the availability of the body’s own cykotine antagonists—the growth factors IL-1Ra and anti-TNF.

The Body “Learns” to Produce Its Own Supply

After the initial exposure to the glass beads and the boosting of growth factors, the blood samples are spun in a centrifuge to separate the red blood cells from the plasma liquid containing the growth factors. The resulting serum is then carefully injected into the arthritic joint sites with the help of computed tomography scanning (known as CT) which is a kind of real-time x-ray and ensures accuracy of the needle placement.

Once delivered to the problem area, the “good guy” growth factors occupy the pain receptor sites located along the inner membrane of the synovial sac which surrounds articular joints such as the hip and knee. This not only diminishes the sensation of pain in affected joints and spinal areas, but also exerts an immediate and long-lasting anti-¬inflammatory effect. In other words, the growth factors in the Orthokine serum neutralize the inflammation by blocking receptor sites otherwise targeted by the inflammatory cykotines. At the same time, the increased presence of growth factors stimulates the body to set a higher target level for the naturally-occurring production of these substances—a “learning” process which is optimized by six consecutive days of treatments.

A Painless Procedure With Great Results

I found the injections to be painless. The needles used are extremely thin, comparable to those applied in acupuncture, and the doctors who insert them are extremely skillful. Once the needles are in place, a syringe containing the serum derived from your own blood samples is attached and injected. The entire process is very swift.

After the initial three days of my first series of treatments in June of 2008 the pain in my hip, lower back and knee receded completely, and by Day Six I had lost my limp. I was even encouraged and able to follow each procedure with a light afternoon workout.

Improvement Continued Back Home

Upon returning home, I gradually started playing singles tennis again which made me quite happy. My coach was duly impressed and observed that my movement on the court was better than ever. My game improved considerably because of my new mobility and I thankfully no longer need to reach for pain or anti-inflammatory medications between sets.

Naturally, I began spreading the word about my successful treatment to my tennis buddies and others. I referred a friend to the clinic who is an avid hiker and hunter being kept from his most favorite activities because of severe knee pain. Based on my recommendation and the improvement he witnessed in me, he decided to give it a try as well. He emailed me the following message from Düsseldorf:

“Hi Jim: This is an amazing and effective treatment. After 10 days I’m largely pain free and mobility in my knee is improving every day. Thank you—mission accomplished!”

Where to Find Orthokine

The Orthokine process and treatment is franchised and offered by a number of orthopedic physicians throughout Germany, and the parent company is working on approval in other EU countries. In my opinion though, the best place to go is the Clinic for Molecular Orthopedics in Düsseldorf which is operated by Dr. Axel Baltzer, a co-inventor of the process.

Dr. Baltzer was an early pioneer in the development of Orthokine treatment for humans as well as expensive racehorses which notoriously suffer from debilitating osteroarthritis. Currently, in addition to his German patients, his clinic treats professional athletes, Hollywood celebs and well–informed arthritis patients from every country.

Unfortunately, foreign insurance plans are not accepted and the clinic bills non-nationals for the full cost of diagnostics and treatments in Euro at the time of completion.

Orthokine is best suited for patients afflicted with Stage One to Stage Four osteoarthritis where the disease progression has left a certain amount of remaining cartilage. In a few cases though, Dr. Baltzer has had success even with patients who had lost almost all joint cartilage.

A Full-Service Orthopedic Clinic

As I mentioned, the clinic staff is flawlessly professional and fluent in English and several other languages. If so desired, they will meet patients at the airport, arrange for lodging and generally take care of you in every way so you feel comfortable and at home. I expected the costs to be somewhat astronomical, but was pleasantly surprised when my entire bill came to just under US $10,000. Given my results, would have paid three times that and considered it well worth it. (I received a total of 73 injections over 6 days plus advanced diagnostics unavailable in the US.) My friend’s bill amounted to about US $5000.

I’ve been telling all my limping tennis buddies about this treatment but not everyone is prepared to fly off to Europe for medical intervention. Unfortunately, Orthokine is presently not available in the US–and might never be, considering its potential to reduce the vast profits of orthopedic surgeons and drug companies specializing in painkillers anti-inflammatory medications. In my experience it is a fabulous treatment and I feel extremely fortunate to have learned about it in time to make all the difference in my life.

Back for Round Two

I recently returned from another six-day treatment with Dr. Baltzer in June of this year. After my first round of injections in 2008, I felt so good that I seemingly overdid it on the tennis court by playing 12-14 hours each week. After eight months of time my old pains began to return. I eventually hurt badly that I scheduled myself for hip replacement surgery. But since my wife and I were planning to visit her parents in Germany in early June, I decided to extend our stay to try another round of Orthokine injections before submitting to a hip replacement.

My results were just as successful this year as they were last year. This time though, I’m not going to set myself back—I have given up tennis in favor of yoga and tai chi. I want my improvement to last as long as possible. I realize that I will probably need some type of surgery down the road but for now I will continue with the Orthokine injections to postpone more invasive treatment of any kind.

Should the day arrive when surgery is inevitable, Dr. Baltzer will be the only one I’ll trust to operate on me even though I have excellent health insurance allowing me to choose among the very best orthopedic hospitals in America. He is one of Europe’s pre-eminent authorities on OA and boasts a record of thousands of successful orthopedic surgeries.

In addition to being an accomplished outstanding surgeon, he is a teaching professor and a research scientist.

His mission in life is to find a permanent cure for OA rather than treating patients with run-of-the-mill procedures that earn him a great living but deny the deeper satisfaction of being able to diminish their suffering. In addition, I really trust Dr. Baltzer.

Dr. Baltzer’s credentials are impeccable. His clinic is on the cutting-edge of new advances in orthopedic medicine. His team already performs cartilage transplant (using either cartilage tissue harvested directly from the body or grown in-vitro from patients’ own cell culture), stem cell transplants and partial resurfacings which replace only worn-away joint components. They also apply newly developed gene splicing techniques to various conditions.

It is hard to believe just how behind the curve American orthopedic physicians and hospitals are once you have witnessed the advances being made in Europe. Furthermore, hospital staph infections are nearly unheard of throughout Europe in contrast to their frightening near-epidemic rates in our clinics.

And if I can answer any questions and provide more information please ask me.