Dr. Joy Kong, a stem cell specialist, disputes Tony Robbins' claim that cytokine storms are normal in stem cell treatment. Expanded cells grown in culture trigger immune reactions, while native unmanipulated cells don't. She describes a patient who suffered two months of fatigue after 150 million expanded cells but recovered quickly with native cord-derived cells.
Hi, this is Dr. Joy Kong. I want to continue to tell you about Mike's perspective on Tony Robbins book Life Force. So today I want to talk about the subject of cytokine storm, because he mentioned that he believed in order to get stem cell treatment, that getting a cytokine storm was part of the normal response. And that is really not correct. Because if you're using cells that are native to, which means that they have not been manipulated or expanded to grow into a huge number, they haven't really changed. And if the cells are really rich in mesenchymal stem cells, so majority of the cells are mesenchymal stem cells. If you fulfill those criteria, really, it would be strange for you to get a cytokine response. So I have conducted stem cell therapy a lot in my clinic, and we use unmanipulated native mesenchymal stem cells from the umbilical cord. And I've never seen a cytokine response. So I think what happens when people go overseas is that these clinics are using expanded cells. So they put extracted cells from the birth tissue into a culture and incubate them in an incubator. So in that process, cells will start to divide. And a lot of times they don't divide into identical stem cells, but they divide into a stem cell and a daughter cell, which has gained function, but which also means that it has grow grown surface markers that will mark them as foreign to the recipient. So that will create some kind of immune response in the new recipient. Not only that, the cells can also, in the process of adapting, can become more inflammatory. So there could be more kind of this stimulation on that can lead to a cytokine response. The cells are grown in the culture, in a foreign environment and is stressful for them. So they start to divide and show their previous characteristics and in the process can become more inflammatory. But if you don't do that, if you take the cell out of the birth tissue and then you cryopreserve them and you thaw them out at the time of use and give it to people, the cells haven't really had a chance to express their own surface marker or to produce any of the more inflammatory cells, because it had not gone through that kind of stressful environment. So the cells are quite different when it's native versus expanded, Even though some people believe expansion will give you more cells, and more cells means better. And it's really not true now that we know what happens to the cells when you start to grow them in culture. So more is not necessarily better. It could be worse. But because I can give you an example of one of our patients who had gone to Mexico hearing about, you know, from celebrities about a clinic over there that give a lot of cells. So this patient went over there and got the stem cells, I think was 150 million and, and connected with all the patients there. So about 20 patients, they all exchanged phone numbers, so they all connected. And this patient had two months of extreme fatigue as a result of the treatment. And he was told that was normal, that was a cytokine response. And the healing, it's, it's underway. So two and a half months after he got the treatment, that's when his lung function started to get better. That's what he went there for treatment for. But when he came to our clinic some months down the road to do stem cells, oh, by the way, all the 20 patients that he connected with all had the same fatigue. So everybody had the same extreme fatigue for a long period of time. But when he came to my clinic here in la, when we gave him native unexpanded cells a much lower number, so we don't need to give him as many cells, not only did he not get any fatigue, he had a boost of energy, so increased energy. And within three to four days, he started to notice benefits in his lung function. So instead of waiting for two and a half months, this is how different it can be. So in my mind, it will be doing patients an injustice if I'm giving them expanded cells. Knowing the cells, when it's native, can have better results at a lower number of cells. So I think it was misrepresented in a lot of these clinics. They say, oh, that's part of the normal response, that you're supposed to feel a little sick. And that is not correct. Because if it's high in mesenchymal stem cells and is native, the mesenchymal stem cells can calm your immune system. And the native cells not going to create this type of inflammatory response or rejection type of reaction. So I just want to make sure that people understand just by getting a lot of cells, having the promise that we're going to give you large number of cells that's going to make it any better. And, and cytokine response is not part of the normal treatment response. But if you use cells that are low in mesenchymal stem cells, such as umbilical cord blood cells only, which has less than 1%, that's, that's on a lucky day, it's way less than 1%. These type of products of mesenchymal stem cells, they can have more of adverse reaction. People can have low grade fever, malaise, chest tightness, sniffling, coughing, so those are possible. But when it's high in mesenchymal stem cells, which are very much anti inflammatory and calming for the immune system, I have not seen these kind of reactions. So I just want to make sure that people understand that there's a difference in different types of cells, whether or not it's cord blood cells only or cells that are rich in mesenchymal stem cells, which is usually from the umbilical cord tissue or amniotic membrane, or if the cells are expanded in culture, which is not legal to use in the US unless it's under a clinical study, which is one reason all these companies are going overseas to perform these kind of cell expansion and promising people a lot of cells because they can't really do it in the US without enrolling in a clinical study. And that's very time consuming but very costly. So companies, they simply avoid this procedure, this process and go overseas. So be aware of what you're getting. More is not better and the type of cell is important. So I hope you like the information I'm sharing. A lot of this information. It's really, you know, very much missed by the public. This is why I feel it's my obligation to, to get the kind of the the picture straight. I still very much appreciate the book Life Force but some of the information is not accurate and I think you deserve to know what the truth is. And if you're interested to know more about stem cells, just look through my YouTube videos. So it's under Joy Kong MD and subscribe to my channel because I will keep having new videos coming out. And also I do podcasts which I post down YouTube and a lot of important aspects about our health. I interview some great guests, so I hope you really enjoy this video and thank you so much for watching.
