Ep 13: WTH ?!? Stem cells and Brain Therapies with Regan Archibald, LAc

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Talk radio and on tunein.com ping fm and upsnap mobile Contact Talk Radio. Welcome to what the Health an independent approach to your health span. Have you noticed how our healthcare system may not have your best interest in mind? Join Dr. Eckel in this fun and sometimes disturbing exploration of the state of healthcare and what it means for you. Now, here's your host, Dr. Eckel.

All right, welcome back, everybody. This is Dr. Eckel and this is what the Health and I've got my esteemed colleague and great friend Regan Archibald on the show today. I really want to appreciate and say thanks, Reagan, for showing up today with us.

My pleasure. Good to be here.

You know, I want to give you this smashing introduction. You are a rock star out there making change in healthcare as we know it today in America. So I will try to do this justice. Right. He's founded some of the foremost cutting edge clinics in the country, if not the world, in integrative functional medicine, care and regenerative medicine. Founded in 2004, East West Health. And he's got four clinics in the Utah, state of Utah and use these clinics. I mean, I think I've known you for about a decade and you have used these as kind of clinicians, clinician, clinic to create healthcare at such an advanced level for folks that you created a whole nother entity called Go Wellness, which is training other providers on delivering this outstanding care. So, you know, Reagan is considered an expert in the field of regenerative stem cell therapy, lectures extensively on the topic. He has six books, has created 15 healthcare programs, loves mentoring and coaching healthcare entrepreneurs in addition to having a beautiful family and really being an inspiring leader out there in the field of regenerative medicine. He's got also Go Wellness Radio that he's interviewing and putting forth this vision for the future of healthcare. I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you're doing out there, Reagan. It's super inspiring and you're impacting so many people on the planet. There's my smashing introduction.

Wow. Well, that was impressive. I really appreciate that, Greg. I think if everyone can sign off now and they'll be good. The thing I love about you, Greg, is the innovation that you bring and the energy you bring to Go Wellness. Just the collaboration we've had has been phenomenal because you bring such a unique voice and unique insights, especially when it comes to brain health and rejuvenation. So thank you for creating this platform.

What the health, man, what the health. I know it really is there. And you know, it really came out of my desire to really address head on what is happening in this country. And you know, we see, you know, I was out lecturing today, this morning and you know, you talk about this pharmaceutical cloud that we all live in or inundated and if you don't actually explicitly state it, you could miss it because it's just so pervasive. Right. And so persistent that we think it's a normal state of being. And while we look at healthcare spending in the United States being the most expensive healthcare on the planet and our population being dead last, I'm wondering maybe today's agenda. What I have on the agenda for us is I wanted to talk about the regenerative therapies, I wanted to talk about brain health and some innovation. I want to talk about some of the books, maybe most recent book for the general public that you've written. And then I also want to talk about the future of healthcare and what your vision is with this whole network of providers which I'm so honored to be a part of, the GO Wellness affiliated network. And you know what's getting built there of some of the most heart centered, light beings that I know of out there that are really out, you know, advocating for people's wellness and creativity. And so you know, if we start, where do we start? That's a huge agenda for our hour here. Let's start with, you know, what you're doing. Let's start with the locality, so with East West Health and what you're doing there. I know that's your testing ground for these therapeutics and you've really designed a unique set of clinics where you've got, it's truly integrative. I mean you've got medical doctors and physician assistants and nurse, advanced practice nurses and acupuncturists and I mean, what are you doing there?

Well, you know, I saw the problem and I agree with you. It's like man, we have more resources at our disposal in the United States than any other country. Like the beauty of our free market system is we can actually practice this innovative medicine. Like regenerative medicine in Canada is basically non existent. You go down to Mexico, you go to Panama. Yeah, there's usually it's a healthcare entrepreneur from America who goes there and they set up clinics outside the United States. Even in Europe the practice of medicine is very heavily regulated. It's kind of this juxtaposition where we have this opportunity to really break through in medical advancements and technologies. But as you Said the pharmaceutical companies and pharmaceutical industry has put a bit of a cap on what we can do because they've got the lion's share of the marketplace. When I looked at East West, I said, well, what's missing in healthcare? Well, there's three T's that I always focus every patient who comes into my east west clinics, they get the right testing, and most people have to go to their doctor and beg for their doctor to run the labs. And you've seen this in your naturopathic clinic. Time in, time out, it's like, why didn't someone just check your thyroid levels? I mean, all they're looking at is tsh, and it's pretty irrelevant. We say, let's get the right tests. And those tests need to be focused on the five pillars. So gut health, genetics. You look at hormones, we look at brain health, and then we look at detoxification. And if you can just kind of get testing based on those things, you can really lead a person into a better place of health. And then treatments need to be. That's the second T. And so treatments that can be acupuncture, it can be ozone therapy, hbot. You know, you're using a lot of hyperbaric chamber. That's where we use stem cell therapy, regenerative medicine, prp. Then the third thing is teaching, and those are the three T's. Having a mentor in your health journey is one of the most powerful things you can have, because think of a mentor in your life, Greg. Can you think of a mentor you've had? Totally.

You're one of my mentors, mister.

You're one of my mentors.

No.

No way. But.

But.

Yeah. Well, let's. Let's talk about how we mentor each other, right? You bring me, you know, I'm freaked out about dmso, and you're like, hey, look, I happen to know a little bit about dmso, and I think you're exaggerating this, Reagan. And so you accelerated my knowledge about what DMSO can do and what it. You know, the reactions that I was afraid of, you just sped up my knowledge. I couldn't have found that on Google, by the way. So that's. You saved me years of having a false idea about something and helped accelerate my ability to help people with dmso. Sure. And I look at health. Just to use that as an analogy, is in health, people don't understand what to do with all the information they've got. You see, functional medicine practitioners, they run all the labs, and then they hand it off to the patient. And the patient is worse off than when they started because they don't know how to execute. And then they come to us and they bring in their. You've seen this with the folders of labs this thick, the suitcase full of supplements, and they're like, well, I'm on this for my mthfr, on this for my bacterial culture, and I'm on this for my cardiovascular function, and this is my liver detox. And now I'm fasting and not eating anything because I don't know what the hell to do.

Totally. Right? Yeah. Like those practitioners in the functional medicine space that treat labs. Right?

Yeah, exactly. Not the person. When I looked at East West, I said, well, we've got to have all those three components, the right test, the right treatments and the right teaching. And then we need a multiple dimension mindset approach. So you need to have western doctors looking at it through their lens, Eastern doctors through their own lens, and then have a health coach that takes that information from both sides of the medical spectrum, helps the patient implement that in a practical way. So in a nutshell, that's how we operate on every patient who comes in. That's our problem.

That is so lovely. And you're replicating that, right? In four clinics across Utah.

Yeah. We've helped over 80,000 patients have come through. And with our Go Wellness community, we've almost got 100 members in the Go Wellness community. And we are on a. We're on a mission to end pain and chronic disease for a million people by 2025.

I love that. And I think two years ago we sat down at the clinic dinner and it looked like we were on track for that. Right?

Yeah, it's still, we're trending, we are gaining traction. I mean, I think by 2025, it's going to take some work the next five years to get the scalability where we want it, but we're right on track.

Love it. So on the biggest needle mover, would you say the biggest addition here has been in that regenerative medicine field? I mean, this is the one that you really are spearheading and educating and writing about and also treating a ton of people with regenerative medicine. Now, you listed all of those other therapies as well. But I mean, in the time, the two decades of practice that you've been in practice, have you seen anything else like this?

No. I mean, with regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy, I see that there. You know, right now there's, you know, it's kind of like this crazy free zone where people don't quite know how to, you know, how to put their finger on it. Right. I look at this as, you know, we could get somebody to a certain level of health before we use stem cells. May take us three times longer and we may not get the result that's as permanent. They'll need more maintenance care. What I found when we started implementing stem cell therapies, I said, holy cow. This is exponential growth as far as patient results go, because exponential is something that grows at 10 times. So it's a magnitude of power. We just saw that time and time again. I saw it in my own life. And then as I started using that with patients, I just said, this is crazy because I do less work, it ends up costing my patients less money in the long run and they feel better and they get more permanent results. I said, this is something we've got to start writing about, sharing with people. And yeah, of course there's always going to be naysayers out there who are like, they are the regenerative medicine specialists and anyone who comes in who doesn't have the specific credentials behind their name doesn't know what, what they're talking about. And I just kind of, I LOL on that laugh out loud because I'm like, hey, I've seen your patients. They've actually come to me because you didn't get the results and we ended up taking them through. The regenerative medicine for me is no different than it's ever been. I still run the right tests, I still do the right treatments, and I'm still focused on lifestyle medicine with my patients and that's what yields 50% of the long term results.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, we're seeing that all over Portland Market as well. And you know, when we come together at the GO Wellness gatherings, you know, hearing what's happening at communities of people just injecting and being done and saying that's it. You know, it's like, oh, come on. You know, we're, we're so multifactorial as beings moving through time and space. We got to address all of it. And that whole program aspect of we know what does a body good and we just want to feed, feed into it so on, you know, maybe just give a, give a for instance of what you've seen. Just some, just some cases that have been like, just blowing your mind of like, wow, that too has been helped here.

Yeah. Well, I guess I can speak freely about a few cases. I recently had one of my patients who's got als. He was diagnosed about a year and a half ago, and his, you know, you've seen ALS patients. I mean, his doctor gave him about six months, and he said, you won't be able to speak, you won't be able to walk. Your life as you know it will be over. This guy Warren, he's gone deep into stem cell therapy. He did stem cell therapy with us. He started with us, did amazing, and then he actually traveled all the way to China and used embryonic stem cells for his allies. You can hear him on my podcast. It was my most recent episode. But he's still got his strength. It's a year and a half. He's still ambitious. He's on a mission to find the cure for als. And he's got this whole Facebook group. And it started because he showed up at my clinic and he didn't know. He said, hey, I don't know what to do about my als. I think acupuncture would be helpful. And I said, well, there's this whole nother level. And so we did intranasal stem cells. We've done IVs, and then we've injected him in some of the areas where he's having motor problems, and he's done phenomenal.

That's amazing. That one in particular is such a quick, debilitating condition. So just to even have something that has given some benefit sounds like that's huge. Yeah.

Crazy. Yeah. Wild. Even if you. If you saw pain rebuild, I don't know how much of that docu series you watched.

Yeah.

But the crazy thing about that is, you know, the phone calls that I've taken from people who watched that documentary, they said, I love what your patient said. You know, we had our patient who runs a big architecture firm. He's owned it for years. Chris is his name. And he was getting to the place where he put on 30 pounds. Both knees needed to be replaced. His doctor said, look, they're bone on bone. There's nothing you can do about it. Don't waste your money on stem cell therapy. And he was skeptical when he came, but he came and just sat down with us and said, all right, I'm going to give it a try. What do I have to lose? And he. When you see him on the documentary, he starts crying because he's like, Yeah, I lost 30 pounds. And that was really helpful. But the most important thing is I got my life back, and now I can see a future where I can stay active. I can be the person that I've always been, he's always been athletic. I mean, look at him. He's got a really athletic build. And, you know, I look at that and I say, man, health independence is my goal. I want to give people as much health independence as possible. Someone who has ALS, even giving them 5% more health independence changes them bone on bone on the knees, we can say, hey, I think we can accelerate that to, like, 90% more health independence. You know, that's totally simpler than ALS.

Yeah. Way, way different ballpark, really. You know, what do you do? So you get, like, the orthopedic community saying, well, it's bone on bone, and there's no cartilage. You know, there should be no cartilage able to grow again. Right. And I know in your clinic and in our clinic, we're like, this is absurd. Like, maybe in the textbooks, that's their thinking. But in reality of what happens in the clinic, we're seeing it change day in and day out.

Right.

Why do you think that they. Why is that the party line?

You know, I think part of it is medicine is 25 years behind the research, at least. Even though we're all packing around a smartphone that gives us the research. You know, you just have to look, and it's right there.

Yeah. You and I used to have to.

Go to the library. I remember that's where I would study.

Yeah.

And now it's like I'm studying, like, right here. I can pull up whatever I need, but I just think it's just a lack of having the exposure. And then the other thing that I see, too, is that the people who are making recommendations and you miss it at the Go Wellness event. But we had an orthopedic surgeon who told me he's repenting from his past sins, and I'm not quoting. And so, you know, he is incentivized to provide, you know, perform surgery and to do knee replacements. And so he's never seen anything in the literature that was ever convincing enough for him to see that. Yeah, well, let's replace this. But it's the verbiage that you use. Like, you've got a slipped disc. Is it possible to have a slipped disc?

Not at all.

It's not like your ankle bone does not go out, your back doesn't go out. It's still in. It's just the language that we use. And then people think they're in greater danger than they are, and then you've got the urgency that's created. Hey, there's no hope for you, Greg, it's bone on bone. The longer you're going, the more damage you're going to do to the bone structure. You need to get this thing operated on right away. Or with a slipped disc, you've got this slip disc in your neck. Someone taps you like this and you could be paralyzed. What's the general population supposed to do? So I think, you know, and I'm not trying to throw orthopedics, orthopedic surgeons under the bus, but I have observed it enough where it's the language that we use creates a perceived danger that's not reality. Because we see on average 2 millimeters of growth of cartilage. People say 2 millimeters. That's not much, Reg. And I say absolutely, that's enough to create either painful knees, from painful knees to no pain. Like, that's huge.

That's huge. Yeah. That is an amazing change. And, you know, I like to say we are living at an amazing time to have these therapies on board. There is some, I guess maybe just touch base on, you know, there are some regulations or some, you know, there's some things that are going to happen in 2020 with regards to regenerative stem cell therapies in the U.S. now, it's a big unknown. But I'm wondering in your crystal ball, what do you think? I mean, you know, maybe if you were Kaiser, you know, the king, maybe not the insurance company.

Oh, God. Okay.

In the land of Reagan, Archibald and Go Wellness and East West Health. You know what? I feel like these therapies are out. So many people are talking about them. I have patients, they're out to lunch. Somebody overhears them talking like, hey, I heard some stuff about stem cell therapies and I was thinking of getting that done. What do you. These are two people. One had a procedure here, another had a procedure at another clinic. It's like, wow, this is really. People are voting with their actions and lo and behold, are getting the changes. Seems like this ship has sailed. But in a reactionary medical model that we do live in, I'm wondering what your thoughts are around that.

You know, here's what I've seen. Right now, the coolest thing that's coming up is, well, one of the coolest in healthcare is Haven. So Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, and the founder of JPMorgan Chase, they're creating a brand new healthcare model and they just named Atul Gawande as their CEO. And he's a surgeon who's an outspoken critic of the United States Healthcare system. He's the one that's talked about the complexity. And we need to take the complexity of medicine and simplify. That's the only way we can get ourselves out of this, as Warren Buffett calls it. We've got a tapeworm in our economy, and it's called healthcare. It's a three and a half trillion dollar industry. I mean, it's consuming. It's 20% of our GDP. And I look at that and I say, okay, well, that's the big picture. But how it really affects Americans is Americans are spending $14,000 per person on average for insurance, and that includes your premiums. And then you got a deductible. And your deductible on average is 6 to $8,000. You've got to, you got to smash through before you can even get access to your health coverage. And then once you get into the doctor's office, now you got a copay, maybe that doctor is out of network, and so you got to pay 40% more out of pocket. And so it's just a ridiculous model. And so I'm really happy to see some of the world's richest and most innovative individuals look at it and say, we could do it so much better. And they're actually doing something about it for their 1.2 million employees. So you asked me about the future of regenerative medicine, and not to take us off track, but I see what the FDA has done is they've said, look, by November of 2020, every person out there who is using regenerative medicine, they've got to comply. And this pertains to clinicians, but it also pertains to labs. And so one of the things that the clinics have already been shut down is those are the clinics who are making claims, and they make claims as if they've got a drug. And so one of the things that, and I don't mean to get too technical, but the guidelines, the tissue reference guideline, it comes from your CFR 1271. And that tissue reference guideline very clearly spells out the difference between a 361 product and a 351 product.

Yeah.

And a 361 is what we've used for years. And I intend on continually using a 361 product because this means it's a tissue that we use from healthy mothers, their umbilical cords, their placental tissue, their amnion membrane. And this is, it's basically the biological material that allowed us to form in our mother's womb. We're using that Same material to regenerate knees or calm down inflammation in the brain. And that substance, what the FDA says is you can't manipulate it. You can't put a growth agent in there and just grow out stem cells. Because everyone, you know, stem cells is the big buzzword, as we've seen. But, yeah, the deeper I dive into the tissue, I said, man, there's. There's TIMT2 proteins. Those proteins have robust evidence of regenerative capabilities. And the TIMP2 proteins are only found in the serum and which, you know, we use Utah Core bank, and there is some of the TIMP2 in the serum. Then I look and I say, well, MMP9 is another protein that's. That's heavily found in the placental tissue. That's a protein that breaks down scar tissue. And then you've got the young hematopoietic stem cells that can remodulate the immune system. You've got MSCs that are very densely populated in the perivascular region of the umbilical cord. And that's what's just recruiting, healing into the area. And so as long as we look at that and we say, man, all we're doing is recruiting, healing, we're right in alignment with what the FDA wants. And I don't see that ever going out that's going to stay in as long as we just stay compliant. And the FDA has already issued citations to different labs who are not following their protocol. And that's been actually, in my opinion, that's been a really good thing. But it's going to. It's the same if you're using bone marrow. A lot of the adipose clinics have been shut down because they have to do more than minimally manipulate that tissue, the adipose tissue, to extract the stem cells. There's an enzyme that they use and that's been shown to be dangerous. I mean, people have gone blind by getting their eyes injected with it.

Right.

So this is. I think the landscape is great. The 351, if you do create a drug now, that's exciting, because Huntsman Cancer Institute, which is right in my backyard, what they're doing is they're actually forming stem cells that can mobilize themselves onto cancerous cells. And then they shut down the signaling properties, so that starves out the cancer. We're going to see more and more of that. You look at cellularity, who received a $250 million investor fund. Sure. And they have the T cell therapy from the placenta, and they're tackling Cancer as well. And they're through phase two of the FDA clinical trials. Phase three is. And then they're in the $450,000 treatment is what the 351 products are.

That's what it costs to get that up and run.

That's what it costs to get it up and running. Which is crazy, right?

Yeah. Wow. So that's awesome. That is not too technical at all. I definitely have clinicians watching the. What the health episode here. And so I think that's really important because there is a lot of confusion for the public and for providers. This component around using the full tissue, the whole tissue and all of the signaling properties, that is a piece that I lecture about extensively as well. It's not just a stem cell count in the general population. That's kind of what people. The buzz terms that they're tuned into. So there's an educational component for the general population and public, but also for clinicians as well. Understanding like it is, you know, it's the full complement of all of the signaling units in there.

Right, right. Yeah, totally.

And it's the. And it's the body healing itself given the right information. Right. So it's not these things coming in, acting like a drug. You know, we're not saying we're treating this specific thing. So that's awesome. So on. So I guess, you know. Right. Good segue. Right into, you know, we'll return into some nuances, into some specifics around brain health along that one, those lines. Because that's near and dear to me on future of healthcare. So, you know, looking at, you know, overall, like, do you feel like. So this Haven group, they just named their system, you know, how do you see again, if you. How would you improve on healthcare?

So I think the biggest thing I would do is a lot of people argue for a single payer. Right. Why don't we just have Medicare for everybody? And I say, man, that is absolutely the worst thing we could do for our healthcare system because then it thwarts any kind of creativity. You and I are innovators and so we're always going to be pushing the envelope and we, we're laying the railroad tracks for the future of medicine. And that's the beautiful thing about it. But when you have a single payer, then things start to get choked out and innovation starts to get choked out because there's people who have their hands in the pot, like the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance industry and the big agricultural industry. They all are the same people sit on the chair. I Mean, these are the boards of the big, the big corporations and they're all funding their campaign. You know, they're funding the politician who's going to go in there and keep them in power. So I look at it and I say the best way is to innovate. Like, we've got health share programs. And that's really interesting because, you know, a lot of the way we look at healthcare is, well, how can people get access to it? And one of those ways is creating health share programs, more of those having not just insurance based models, but also helping the public realize, like, hey, maybe we have a more innovative type of catastrophic insurance plan. And then when people invest in their health, have you noticed, Greg, how much better the results are when a person just, they write out a check for their health and they say, look, I just invested $10,000 into my health and I promise you they're gonna get every penny out of that in return.

Totally. Oh yeah, that decision and that, you know, really being invested and it's so interesting to see, you know, you would think even the folks that you wouldn't think could, quote, unquote, afford it, right? No, they are doubling, tripling down on their health because they realize, like, I use my body so much, I need this thing to work.

Right.

And so that, I love that kind of, that leveling up of themselves and really investing in what matters. Right. When you don't have your health, you don't have anything. I've seen some really miserable millionaires out there. It's like, you can't take that stuff with you folks. So it is, I think so. That's great. So you would have. I think I'm in agreement around that having kind of like car insurance. We don't think about using our car insurance to go get the oil change or the tire, you know, new tires or you know, whatever those upgrades or the maintenance of the car, it's really the major accident that we need the insurance. And that may be the way. And also I think it would really put some incentive and fire under people to actually make the changes that they rationally know. But if they're having to pay for that, you know, that would be very motivating. Like I'm thinking about diabetes, maybe obesity, some of these things where it's like, wow, you know, there's a. I got a lot more motivation because I want to take the trip with my family.

Right? Yeah, totally. Well, and when we look at that, I say, you know, exponential organizations.

Yeah.

So one of the things, if you look at what Like Netflix has done. You look at what Uber's done, you look at what all these, like, great companies that are just, like, bringing us. Like, they're taking a resource that wasn't used. Like, Uber is just like, people have time and they have a car that's sitting there and I happen to need a ride and it's like, oh, well, let me go pick up Reagan and he can pay me to use my car. And all in my time. It's like a brilliant model. Netflix. What they look at is, with Netflix, you say, well, well, Netflix is a company and. And they create this, like, entertainment and this great content. And then Netflix started creating their own content and they pay their artists really well. It's a resource where these artists, you know their work. It's hard to get into Hollywood. So Netflix said, fine, we'll just bypass Hollywood and we'll create a platform for you. And we got some great stuff that way, right?

Yeah, totally.

So I look at healthcare and I say, how can we innovate healthcare? The same way Netflix has done it, the same way Uber's done it, even the same way Amazon's done it, where it's a delivery system that's very efficient and user friendly, but it's a system that actually gets the results, because that's where I look at it. I say, with testing, everybody has a smartphone. They can get access to that. We have AI People have this interface where the AI can help us understand the data. It can really track where a patient's going. Pretty soon, we're going to have cyborg chips, and that will be amazing. So I just see the future is so exciting in healthcare now.

Wait, cyborg chip? What's going on there? You slipped that in there?

I actually slipped one in your arm last time I saw you.

You did. Awesome.

So I can actually track your info right now.

I'm doing pretty well, right?

Yes.

I feel great. Yeah.

And so the cyborg chip, if you look at that, the cyborg chip is actually a way of tracking where you're at up to speed. It's a nanosensor that can measure how your cholesterol levels are. What's your hormones looking like, what's your cortisol right now, what's your testosterone right now. Cyborg chips will be huge in the future already. If you look at Abilify, you know.

Yeah.

The schizophrenic medication Abilify has, you know, the FDA approved this two years ago, where you can. A patient will swallow a medication and there's a sensor on the Medication. And that sensor will let up to five caretakers say, yes, he's taken his medication or no, I'm going to go find Greg and hunt him down. Because he has not taken his medication.

Right, well, and that's important, right? For that, that is a, it's a major issue that, that diagnosis. And you know, it's kind of, it's a novel approach. You can see, you know, they actually have taken their med. Right.

And I don't know that that's like, you know, big brother interfering with health. It's a little bit scary. But the reason I bring that up as just a point of reference is this is where we're going, where you can have instant access and when you really create precision medicine, because that's what it's about. That's why we say everyone needs the right test. Because I want to be precise. Because what your needs are, are going to be different than mine or they're going to be different from Warren's or from Bill's or from Sarah's or whoever is coming in. Right. But in the current model, what we've done is we've said, well, we're going to run the same standard panel on everybody. Then we're only going to give them a diagnosis if they have a disease that shows up. And so then we're just, we're playing like catch up the whole time. And so it's like, oh, Greg, your cholesterol is high. What's going on? And then we give you the wrong advice, like no more fats.

Right.

And you know, you got to go on like, you know, you want to take out anything that it's going to be tasty in your diet and then that should help, you know, and let's get you on a statin while you're at it. And your muscles might ache and your brain fog may be so severe that you can't remember your kids names, but otherwise you'll be fine.

Right. Your cholesterol will go down and now you've got dementia and all the host of other things. Yeah, I mean it is, we definitely know that the system is broke. I mean, that is, it's a good cue into announcing, you know, you're. If you're just tuning in now, this is what the health. I'm Dr. Greg Eckel and I've got my guest today, Reagan Archibald, a leading expert in regenerative medicine field and functional medicine. Super amazing innovator here. And we've got Howdy. And we've got you live on the air. So welcome and if you're just tuning in, check out naturecuresclinic.com I've got the episodes on live stream there. It's under the podcast link. And finding out information about Reagan and his clinics and this whole new future of healthcare. I've got that in the show notes as well. So welcome aboard, everybody. So getting back into this, that's a really. I mean, that is really the future of medicine, right? If it's not measurable, you can't really track it, you can't change it. And then you're coming at it from this background, right? You've got this training in one of the oldest medical systems on the planet, right? I'm curious for what was the switch for you? Where, like, you were like, okay, this is awesome. I'm helping you. I mean, you had some of the largest clinics in the United States, right? You're saying 80,000 people help. I mean, you've got a huge wealth of clinical experience, and you're a clinician's clinician. I like to say, you know, what works clinically in the real world because of that, because of the practices that you've developed and all of the support that you're giving other people to have large impactful practices. What was the switch? Was there a specific moment or a patient that came in? You said, you know, we need to do more here.

You know, I think the biggest thing, and this is what I love about you, Greg, is, is you listen to your patients and then what your patients have needed over the years, you've innovated in a way that most doctors won't. Instead of just staying in your little naturopathic bubble, you've said, no, there's better ways I can help these people. And so you've sought out mentors and you've done the research. That's all it was for me, too. It's just like, hey, I want to see what. I just keep hearing themes. You know, I have patients who. They're like, I don't want to get surgery. I'm like, okay, why don't you want to get surgery? And then they tell me, well, I'm afraid I'm going to get a blood clot, or I don't want to get an infection, or my sister had the surgery, it didn't work for me. Or I have patients over the years, I don't want to do the medications. I say, why don't you want to do the medications? I think the biggest light bulb that went off for me is when I had my first doctor reach out to me. Her name was Pam Vincent. She was a neurologist. I hadn't been practicing more than six months, and she had a couple of her patients came to me for their headaches, and then another patient came for Ms. And she said, I don't know what you've done to these people, but they think you're just like some kind of savior. She said, I at least wanted to get to know you. She said, I don't know anything about acupuncture. I don't know about Chinese medicine. We just created a relationship. She ended up saying, hey, can you teach me how to do some acupuncture? Because I was very limited in my time. My practice was so busy, and so. So I would go work at her clinic one day a week. And so I started training her on acupuncturist. She did the Stanford program for physicians. And she said, I still don't know anything, Regan. So she almost felt worse after she tried to learn it, to see how complex the medicine was. But she was really the collaborator with me, and I worked with her for seven years. And then I ended up hiring her daughter out of med school. And her daughter was my first physician that I hired at East West.

Oh, wow.

And so that was arguably my first exposure of seeing how powerful the medicines could be when we just collaborated and worked together. Because Pam Vincent, she kicked out all the drug reps. There went my free lunch. They were booted out because she just started to see this cycle. She's like, I've been educated by drug pushers my entire career. And she said, you bring in this old medicine, and this old medicine works way better than my new medicine. Not that, you know, she didn't get all our patients off medicine carte blanche.

Right.

She was strategic about it, but just by seeing the amount of change that I created in her practice by blending the medicines, I said, this is how healthcare needs to be.

Love it. Love it. All right, so let's change gears. I want to talk about your most recent book for the general public, and what motivated that, Because I think it's right in here, right in line with where we're talking about.

Because my newest book is called you'd Healthy Self. And if you break up, if you do a little word play with that, Healthy self is heal thyself. Right. Nice. I put your on there because I want people to just take it more personal. Because healing yourself is. At the end of the day, it's all about you taking that first step and really committing to your health. Because the Commitment. Once you make a commitment, it's either 100% or you're not there. There's no such thing as a 99% commitment.

Right, right.

Like you and I are having this discussion and there's 100% commitment on both of our parts. If it's 99%, then I'd be like, well, I'm still going to think about getting on this, this call or the radio show. What the hell. So that's what your healthy self is all about. It's about just make the commitment and just try to imagine yourself getting 1% healthier every day. That's it. It doesn't need to be big. It's the small things that yield huge results. I mean, if you think about what are some of the worst short term decisions people make in their health, Greg, what would you say they are?

Oh, the like smoking.

Yeah. It's like the short term is like, oh, I feel this like rush of adrenaline from the nicotine.

Right, right, right.

What's another short term?

That's, you know, another. Definitely having the, having the cookie or the cake after every meal. Right, Every meal.

But I like cookies and cake. But what, what happens in the long run?

Right? In the long run that is diabetes diabesity happening, right?

Yeah, totally.

You know, another, we got another one on. You know, I'm just going to binge Netflix rather than moving my body.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Speaking of Netflix.

Yes, yes. Right. Thank you.

Really easy to binge.

Yeah.

And you can just consume and consume and consume and you're not giving and you're not giving to your own body first and then to the world. And so that's all your healthy self is about is looking at that and saying, hey, instead of turning on Netflix, why don't you just get out of your chair and go exercise first. Don't skip a day of exercise. That's what one of the things exercise increases brain derived nootropic factors. And you actually did a lecture at Go Wellness about a five minute sprint is the best ways to increase bdnf. I'm just encouraging people to look at the short term things that you're doing and think in the long run, what are the consequences of that? Because what are you going to feel better if you and I went on a bike ride or if we sat down and binged on Netflix, Right?

Yeah, yeah.

You and I are going to forget whatever that was we watched. Maybe we'll remember a few little things about it, but we'll remember that bike ride and we're going to Feel a lot better when we get back from that bike ride.

Totally, yeah. And creating that memory and just that the body cellular memory of the movement together and the experience, you know, it is so the whole heal you. It's your healthy self. Right? Your heal thyself. I love that. So you have a stepwise program in there for folks to kind of get this 1% increment, or is it more on the mindset?

It's a lot more on the mindset. There are some step by step criteria, but the COVID it says optimizing health brain cells to stem cells.

Awesome.

Awesome. You know, I start out the book and I say, how old do you want to live to be? Because a lot of people, they don't put a number down and they forget, like, hey, we don't know when this thing could end. But I would much rather die healthy than live the last 10 years of my life really sick. And so I just paint the picture that the oldest person on record is Jean Clementine out of France. And she lived to be like 117, 118. And we have her baptismal records and her death certificate. So it's like she's this like crazy novelty. Now we're seeing more super centurions and we're like, you know, so I just said, how old do you want to live to be? And you can't do that if you don't have good stem cell health. And so the older we get, we start losing stem cell populations. Our stem cell population declines, and not only does the population decline, but the stem cells that we have left, their ability to replicate and duplicate and, you know, become therapeutic is minimized as well. And so, you know, patients ask me all the time, why aren't using my bone marrow stem cells? I'm like, well, if you look at the research, you know, yeah, there's ways of amping those up, but it's still risky. You know, that's why we want to use young stem cells. It's the same reason why we heal faster when we're younger than when we're older. But I draw out some ways of increasing stem cells, like time restricted eating, fasting, or things you can do on your own, staying active, exercising. And then stem cells are very sensitive to vibrations and the energy you put into them. Not to get too woo woo on you, but no, we can go there.

We do that on the show.

There's studies out of Harvard where vibrations actually limit the amount of stem cell proliferation that they can have. Just that the environment that you place stem Cells in. And Bruce Lipton, who I'm sure you know, he was one of the first STEM cell researchers 30 years ago, he said, yeah, it's the environment that you put the stem cells in, that's what creates the lineage and the expression that that stem cell takes on.

Yeah.

So what's the environment in your body? And that's, that's what your healthy self is about. And then really about anti aging and living a long healthy life until the very end where you have this compressed morbidity where you just die fast. You don't, you don't drag on the last 10 years of your life. Yeah. That's what I'm shooting for. And that's what the book is about. So keeping your brain healthy is critical in that whole process.

Love it. Yeah. So great segue. So let's, we'll finish strong here with our last 13 into brain health. Right. Because that is, you know, we're seeing rates of dementia, Alzheimer's over 65. It's like 50% of people now are predicted and then the stats get worse as you get older.

Yeah.

I was flying yesterday and sat next to a 90 year old and she said, yeah, boy, you're a brain regenerative specialist. Like I need you like my whole community. Like she's 90, so like more than half of her friends have lost their minds. She's like, I go in and I visit them on a weekly basis, but they don't really remember. They got the old memories, but there's nothing new. Right? So wow. When you say you want to live to be 150 years old in public venues, you can hear a pin drop, people look at you like, are you crazy? It's like, no, we actually can do it with our brains and our brawn and community. Right. So brain health, right? You guys, you had our quarterly gathering down there at Go Wellness, this awesome network of providers that are really cutting edge therapeutics. And we all get together. What I love about the group and I'm going to just share with the listeners. It's a broad array of providers and there's really no ego. It's just about how many people can we help, can we help more and can we help them faster? With that being the full mission of Go Wellness, what a unique, vibrant community you created. Like, you know, you hear colleagues are just griping about healthcare system and you know, we get together down there, it's like getting the soul recharge of the battery of like, yes, we're out kicking ass, you know, so on brain health in Particular. Right. Because we can do it with our brawn. But if we don't have the mind, what are you seeing in that realm, like the biggest levers that you one can push on for, for brain health?

Well, I think that's. There's kind of a multifaceted approach, but I'm into things that can get into the brain easily without needing to be transported all over the body. And so intranasal stem cell delivery has been really exciting. And using intranasal stem cells with peptides either like cerebralysin or C Max, even treating conditions like Lyme, because the brain, if you have infections in the brain, it's really tough to have a brain that functions properly. And so even using like synapse and has been actually really exciting or LL37, those are exciting peptides that I've seen used for the brain.

Awesome.

You know, I'm a big fan of nootropics and really excited every time I get my hands on a new nootropic. And so that's something I'm excited to. You know, I feel like that's a big breakthrough. But with the brain, probably in the last two years, just the acceleration of what we can do with the brain, with traumatic brain injuries, with our patients who have early onset dementia or Alzheimer's, we can catch it on time. It's been really exciting. Parkinson's, Mississippi, als, those things are really exciting. And you've got some brain rejuvenation. I mean, you're like the leader in this field.

I've got my fancy approach. That is true. Yeah. And you know, educating folks. I always glean some great information and, you know, we want to know what works clinically. So yeah, I've got a whole episode on that. If folks are just tuning in now, you can kind of binge listen to what the health here. But you know, on that component, you're doing some stuff with low doses of insulin, is that right?

Yes, yes.

You guys can get that over the counter in Utah, is that right?

Well, I can either have my pharmacist make it for you. And it's an intranasal insulin, so it doesn't impact blood sugar. That's where people get this misnomer. But it's really hard to get insulin into the brain. But insulin is what actually carries the stem cells and creates new neural pathways. Great. Nootropic. So I can have my pharmacist compounded around $160, or you can go get it at CVS or Walmart over the counter. Novolin r and it's 20 bucks and you put it in a nasal mister. So it's a no brainer. Yeah, it's very simple and it's a powerful therapy. I mean, it's something that we get every single person who does intranasal stem cells, we say, yeah, you need to get on the nasal mist with insulin.

Yeah. That's awesome. That is so awesome. What are, what are your other favorite nootropics right now?

So I love aniracetam. Aniracetam is really. It's an amazing formulation for motor skills. So if I'm riding my mountain bike, I make sure to take some aniracetam. It does stimulate some gaba so you feel more connected on aniracetam, but then it loads the front prefrontal cortex with dopamine so you can focus really well. But it's more of a creative type of focus and I use that with citicoline. So anytime you're using a racetam, then the citycholine is what actually helps you lay down the acetylcholine pathways for better long term memory.

Oh, love it.

So, yeah, I like no pep.

No pep. What's the no pep?

Nopep was named nootropic of the year in 2017 for the Emmys. It was all over the news.

Awesome. Awesome.

Nopep is just another. It works on the cholinergic receptors and helps with dopamine production. It's also great for creativity, memory, short term and long term. Lovely. It's just clean energy.

Love it, Love it. So we've got. We're down to the last two minutes. I like to ask folks, what do you do? What are the biggest movers for your health, your routine? How does Reagan stay at the top of his game day in and day out?

You know, the biggest thing, no matter all these cool hacks that we talk about, I think just relationships and connecting with people. I mean, you're a close friend and I really value and admire you. And, you know, just loving people is probably. I know it sounds super cheesy.

No, no.

But I was. I thought about this this weekend after go wellness after being with so many cool people. And, you know, I miss my family during the weekends, but I have so many other relationships that nurture me. And then I go back to my family and I'm like, man, I love my wife. She's just phenomenal. My kids are amazing. I just, you know, I just felt super blessed with relationships.

Love it.

That's it.

I love it. That's not. That is not cheesy at all that is so on brand and target like that is. I mean, I think, you know, we all can agree we want to live in that abundant loving world. Right. And so the more we can talk about it and put it out on the airways, you know, it's just a good encouragement for folks listening. You know, make sure those in your closest surroundings or if you're thinking about somebody, just call them up, tell them you love them like that. If we're all doing that, like that's what it's going to come back around. And you know, thank you for sharing that. Like that's a, that is actually an important message. We can get lost into some of those details and they're super fun. We can totally geek out on a provider level. We can share it with the public on a, on a level to, to be consumed as well. And sharing that knowledge is super important and in essence, you know, we are heart centered beings and that, you know, in a Chinese medicine fashion, the Emperor Empress really rules the roost. And lo and behold, that's the way it works.

Yep. Awesome.

Anything that you would like to share in our final closing minute with the listeners of what the health.

No, I think that's just the biggest thing. Like put your relationships with yourself first and, and then relationships with others and then you'll have this relationship where your health will become 10 times more important to you because that allows you to express that love.

Yeah, it gives that reason. So thank you for those great closing remarks. Appreciate you so much coming on the show. Get everybody. This is what the health we're on Tuesdays 2 to 3 Pacific Coast Time. Please share this with your loved ones and your friends and family. This is where we're bringing you the truth of how to stay well and thrive. So thanks for tuning in.