Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The OZONE Experiment

So two weeks ago, I tore the anterior capsule in my left knee. Fortunately, this is a "minor" injury compared to ligament or cartilage damage, but it was still painful and temporarily debilitating. Not a good situation in light of the fact that the BEAR 100 is only 4 weeks away! I went to my doc, who happens to be a very progressive D.O. and a fellow athlete for some advice. He suggested injecting Ozone (yes, three oxygen atoms) into the knee. Apparently, this technique has been pioneered in Europe and used to treat similar injury in Professional Football (Soccer) players.

Ozone injection has been investigated and shown to have therapeutic effects on inter-articular joints affected by Rheumatoid Arthritis, and the effects are apparently similar with injured health joints. Today was the first time I've run since the injection four days ago, and I have to admit I'm extremely impressed with the results. I did a short five mile run to "test" it out, and I had no pain, no discomfort, and no post-run swelling.

I'll do seven miles tomorrow and see how that fares, and then ease into my normal training program and build up to the Bear with hopefully minimal degradation in my performance... here's to progressive medicine!