Searching for the Best Stem Cell Therapy

Hello everybody. I'm Jim Masters with CUTV News Presents. We're on location in Los Angeles, California. We're here at the Thayer center for Regenerative Medicine. You know, regenerative medicine is growing by leaps and bounds because of advancements in technology and research. And one of the subsets is stem cell therapy that is growing by leaps and bounds due to these advancements that are absolutely amazing. We've come here to Los Angeles to meet with Dr. Joy Kang. She is a leading and renowned physician in the field of stem cell therapy as well as anti aging. We're going to have an opportunity as well to meet with some of her patients who are going to share their stories with us. How life changing benefits have happened as a result of Dr. Kang's efforts. What initially inspired you to pursue the medical field as a career?

I love to, to put different subjects together because my mind synthesized information very well. So I wanted to choose something that I can combine different disciplines into one. So I ventured into architecture, photojournalism, and eventually because my first love is science. So I was very excited about biology, possibly neuroscience. But when I did an internship at nyu, that's when I was, was learning from an obstetrician. And that's when I saw how cool it is to actually be able to talk to a patient, help a patient and interact with a person. And so there's a social aspect, psychological aspect, and then at the same time you're utilizing technology and science, so you're kind of, you're combining everything together.

Doctor, what was it about regenerative medicine and specifically stem cell therapy that really captured your attention?

I think the most exciting part is how holistic it is. I'm giving somebody something that is not a molecule, is not a simple plant with multiple molecules, but is a cell that has DNA and has ability to respond to environment. And the potential is phenomenal because it's that potential that led to the development of a human being from an embryo. So I wanted to tap into that potential. So what did the science show? The science actually showed that it helped a lot of different conditions. And that's the exciting part in theory. Wow, that's amazing. That's incred. But actually digging deeper into it and seeing how much evidence there has been in helping people with different conditions. So that's the ultimate, right? So I was excited about the science and when I actually saw the results and what it can do for people and that was, you know, I found my calling.

You've worn a lot of hats in the medical field. You were Even the medical director of an alcohol and drug rehab center in Los Angeles. Tell us about that and some of the other things you've done in this world of medicine.

After finishing medical school at ucla, I actually went into residency. I worked at the VA hospital. So I had the good fortune of working with a lot of veterans. And what I chose is psychiatry because I was very fascinated by the brain. So from there, gradually I moved on to more alcohol and drug. You know, that's, that's kind of a little bit more interface between medicine, traditional medicine and psychiatry. So there's kind of bridging, it's a bridge. And I just thought I could bring a new perspective into the field because I've always believed in the integrative approach. Even when I was doing psychiatry, I was basically functioning as both a primary care doctor and a psychiatrist because so many things the patient was experiencing wasn't really addressed by their primary care physicians. So when I was there, I wanted to look at their entire health and I wanted to look at different factors. You know, the nutritional aspect, you know, toxicity aspect and hormone aspects. All these things were not addressed by either the traditional primary care or the traditional psychiatry. So I was doing something. I was trying to bring things together again. So in alcohol and drug treatment, I wanted to do the same because I knew this is more than just a phys, you know, a psychological, some kind of, you know, blockage and dependence or physical dependence. There's much more to it. There could be a lot of imbalances. So that's kind of what drew me to, to the area where I feel I can do, make a little bit more changes in those settings. I can implement certain testing. And that's what I started doing. I was offering micronutrient tests and hormone testing. I would genetic testing. So I was optimizing these, you know, these patients health in the, in the rehab centers.

So let's define for the folks watching what actually is a stem cell and how does it work.

So that has. There has been an evolution of our understanding of how stem cells work. So initially people think, oh, stem cells, they replace tissue. So if there's an injuries in your tissue, we better put stems out there. So, so they can start dividing and replace the tissue or there's something happen in the brain. We have to put the stem cells in the brain. And then as we start to do more research and more clinical studies, then we realize, wait a minute, a lot of those cells don't become tissue, but the person still heals, the person improves. So what's happening. So what happened is that really the majority of the effect of these stem cells is what's called paracrine effect. So paracrine is really about sending signals to local tissue environment and tell the cells what to do and mobilize the immune system to get the right cells to the area. So you're promoting a local effect. So these stem cell therapy, most of these therapies are relying on what these cells after infusion are able to tell your body what to do. So that's a new. Most scientists, you know, have, you know, have accepted and I think a lot of clinicians are beginning to know, but a lot of, I think public still have the misconception they think the stem cells will go into your body and replace your tissue. And that has been disproven. So the other thing people don't realize is that just because, for example, a very exciting thing, you know, paper published this year about stroke victims using stem cell therapy. So people used to think, oh my God, there's blood brain barrier, deliver the cells into the central nervous system, either through the spinal cord or somehow, you know, get into the brain itself. And they found out when you do stem cell therapy, comparing to injecting directly into the brain versus just putting in the IV in the bloodstream, the people who suffer from stroke always get a superior recovery when they do it through IV therapy, not directly injecting to the brain. So guess what they found out. Spleen is an incredible organ that's orchestrating the repair and the immune response, initial response, the inflammation and then the later response and how to mobilize repair. It's pivotal. So when you put in stem cells in there, it's able to modulate multiple organ system, including spleen and the peripheral lymphoid system. So the way our body heal is way more complex than we thought. You know, we think, oh, we can just put cells there and they would do their thing. But no, we have to, you know, engage entire body. That's a holistic approach that I think we're still trying to understand.

So then let's talk about stem cell therapy. And what is stem cell infusion? How does that actually work?

You know, it's not just stem cells, it's also a lot of other cells. So some people don't like, don't really like the idea of stem cell therapy. Saying stem cell therapy, they therapy. So it's really a group of cells including stem cells, that's helping with the repair. So when you infuse it, you know, when you put it into the Vein. What it does is that the cells will go through your venous system and go back to the heart, and the heart will pump it out to the lungs, and from there it's oxygenated, and then it goes back to the heart and gets pumped out to the rest of the body. So there is some trapping initially in the lungs, but gradually the cells will migrate out. And the cells also tend to gravitate towards certain organs, like the very well perfused organs, such as liver, the spleen. But there may be a reason it's gravitated toward something like the spleen, because that's their function, that's how they exert their benefits. So when they get into the bloodstream, they will send signals. It's almost like mimicking what the cells were doing when you had, you know, without infusion, you're just sitting there and you cut yourself and there's injury, and all of a sudden the injured site is going to send some signals, right? So some cells will get into the blood vessels. So instead of waiting for the cells to get into the blood vessels, we inject the cells into the blood vessels so the cells can find a signal and get to the area of the injury and inflammation and start producing that local effect.

So are there more than one kind of stem cell? What are some of the stem cells that are in existence and what role do each of them play?

There are different ways of categorizing it. The initial, you know, what people talked a lot about is embryonic stem cells. Those are the earliest ones. So the embryonic research is, you know, taking cells from an embryo about five to seven days old and taking one of the cells in an inner cell mass. So that's the. They are totally potent, which means they can become anything. They can become the entire organism. So as you gradually, as the embryo grow and you start to get more and more differentiation, more functions, more regions, they start to specialize more. So there are still stem cells, but they're losing some abilities to become other things. So they're going toward a direction. And so different surface receptors may surface and their capacity to turn on certain genes change. So they go down a certain route. They're all stem cells, but they start to lose different abilities. So when people say stem cells, you don't lump them all together. So there's very potent stem cells, totally potent, and then you have less potent ones, pluripotent, and then you have less potent one called multipotent. Then you have tripotent, bipotent, unipotent, start going down the ladder what people also don't understand is that stem cells, when they think, oh, I'm getting stem cell therapy, as if all stem cell therapies are the same. But when you get stem cells from your own body, those stem cells are drastically different from a stem cell I can get from, let's say, umbilical cord. They're. I teach courses and I show to doctors the research statistics of what's the direct comparison between these cells. They behave completely differently. I think this is something that the public needs to know that they don't understand that not all stem cells are created equal. The first stem cell therapy conducted was actually the bone marrow transplant that a few decades, decades ago. And so that is using somebody else's, right? If you have cancer, you have something, you want somebody else's bone marrow. So that's from another person. The problem is between two adults, you have a higher rejection rate. So people have to go through chemotherapy, type of treatment to suppress immune system, or first kill off your own stem cell generation system, the blood generation system. And then you introduce. So that's the first one. So the evolution started there. And then the bone marrow was the kind of the cornerstone of stem cell therapy for a very long time until something else came out and they realized, oh, we can get stem cells from the fat. You can use bone marrow for yourself also, right? Stem cells from the bone marrow using for yourself, or you can extract fat. And then there are stem cells from the fat tissue. The cells come from the vasculature that support the tissue. So all along the vasculature of the fat, there are some mesenchymal stem cells and other type of cells. So extract those cells and you can use those cells on yourself. So that's a younger technology than the bone marrow technology. But the youngest one is the birth tissue derived stem cells. So that include anything from the placenta, any placental tissue, umbilical cord, amniotic fluid. So all that is, you derive that's the youngest kid on the block. But what's interesting is research has shown that these younger stem cells are actually safer and more potent. So there's a misconception, people think, I have to use my own cells. What's interesting is that there's a higher chance of promoting tumors when you use your own cells, because your own cells, when they get older, which your stem cells do get older, they are losing various capacities, including ability to suppress tumor. So when cells are younger, it's almost like they're retaining more of the intelligence, more of the abilities. And when the Cells are getting older, including stem cells, they start to lose some of the capacities. So when people, you know, live through their lifetime and they get exposed to, you know, UV light, they get exposed to, you know, toxins, pesticides, all those can make, can cause changes in the DNA of the cells and causing decline of the cells. And these cells, when they get older, they actually can cause harm. So people don't quite understand that using your own cells may not be the ultimate answer.

So when somebody comes in for a treatment, is this something that happens regularly? Do they come in from multiple treatments or is it, you know, a one shot deal? Or does that depend on whatever the situation is and maybe the condition they might have?

It really depends on what they want treatments for. Some of my patients come in, let's say they have, they injure their knee. So if they're fairly young, they're in their 30s, and they just had an injury, okay, then we'll treat it and it heals up and you're done. Right? So that's a one time thing. But for people with osteoarthritis, people think it's a wear and tear disease. And it's not because it's a chronic inflammatory disease, because your inflammation and your lack of ability to regenerate the cartilage in your joints, that's what's causing the osteoarthritis. Because if you put a knee construct, you know, a piece of cartilage into the knee, gradually, that piece of cartilage is going to be eaten up because of the inflammatory environment. So you've got to address the whole body. So I can't just give it to you in the knee? Yes, it's going to help, but if you don't address your entire inflammation, that is not going to sustain. So it really depends on what the cause is. So are we addressing all the causes of what's causing your problem? Stem cells can address a lot of it, can help balance your immune system, can help calm the inflammation, help waking up your stem cells. But there's also a whole lot other factors, depending on whether or not the person is addressing all these other factors that also, you know, would determine how long their results will last.

I was diagnosed five years ago with a chronic illness, autoimmune disease, lupus. So I was on prednisone, I took cellcept, I was seeing hematologists, rheumatologists, and then a friend of mine took me to a cryotherapy clinic and there I was introduced to Joy Kong, who was doing stem cell treatments. For other patients, I've had about 12 CCs, maybe six months in between, six to eight months in between. When I got my first two CCs, I think it was maybe two months later. I got my blood work done and for the first time in three years, all of my tests, all my blood work was completely normal. I didn't have an active ana and my liver enzymes, which were always going high, normal is like around 20 to 38 or something. And my liver enzymes were in the 200s. So one of the better things that I noticed in my flare ups due to, prior to meeting Joy, I had a significant amount of hair loss. A whole section of hair about this large. I was wearing headbands to cover it up and I had to kind of, you know, fold over hair. And I didn't have a lot of hair to begin with. So that was very devastating to me. And after my first infusion, the hair that grew back was significantly thicker and grew really fast. My hair, skin and nails actually really reaped the benefits of that. So, yeah, that's my experience with Joy. That was after my first round. I kept up with them. And then I also had a gum surgery, gum recession surgery. And I got that done and immediately came over from the dentist to Dr. Joy Kong. And my periodontist was thrilled with the results. I healed so fast, probably double as fast as normal. I mean, I have my health back. I have, you know, my blood work is normal. I know that I'm not a slave to what I was diagnosed with five years ago.

It sounds like there's a lot of incredible benefits to stem cell therapy. Does it help with a variety of chronic illnesses, neurodegenerative diseases, maybe skin rejuvenation, anti aging? Let's talk about some of the incredible benefits you've witnessed through stem cell research and therapy.

So for chronic conditions, you know, people ask me all the time, would this help my condition, this condition? So my answer is generally, if your disease has inflammation as one of the components, very likely these therapies will help. Because one of the biggest capabilities of these, the cell therapy, is anti inflammatory effect. So it's going to reduce your inflammation. As we get older, we have more and more inflammations. Your body has less and less ability to actually start the recuperation step. It's constantly inflamed, so it couldn't really regenerate. So if you can calm the inflammation, then your body has a chance to regenerate. That brings up what are the functions of the stem cells. The most useful stem cells is mesenchymal stem cells, what kind of capabilities do they have? It's pretty remarkable anti inflammatory. And they're able to have this regenerative trophic effect, which means they're sending signal to neighboring cells. They can wake up the stem cells, they cells and coordinate a kind of concerted effort to repair. And they also have immune modulating effect, so a systemic effect. A lot of people have autoimmune conditions and this are able to calm your body to switch from this highly inflammatory state to the anti inflammatory state. So it changes your entire milieu of your, of your body. And then it has antimicrobial properties. So mesenchymal stem cells can secrete antimicrobial peptides. So it has direct antimicrobial properties. So it can help you fight infection. It also has anti apoptotic properties so it can prevent this cell death. That can happen with some injuries. Let's say someone had a stroke, some cells are dead, but neighboring cells are injured. They're sensing certain signals. Some of the signals will tell them to go on and die. So that's a programmed cell death. And the mesenchymal stem cells can come in saying hey don't, you don't have to do that. They can help bring them back and reverse that process. And so they don't have to go on and die. So you are saving certain cells so you can retain more function. And we now also know mesenchymal stem cells have anti fibrobic fibrotic properties. So breaking down scar tissues, including after heart attack, people can have scarring in the heart and they've shown that it can help break down the scar tissue in the heart. Liver cirrhosis, it can help reverse some of the liver cirrhosis and or even peyronie's, you know, people with the penile deviation issue, that's because of plaque, because of scarring that can help break down the scar formation. So all these can be attributed to mesenchymal stem cells. So you can imagine with all these properties how many things we can help.

Also anti aging properties as well.

Yes. So the anti aging, of course when we don't have enough stem cells in our body, you're not going to regenerate as well. And that's when we start to see the signs of aging. Just things are slowing down and then you have more old cells, they call it senescent cells. And those cells are old. Not only they're not doing anything sitting in your tissue, but they also start to secrete these kind of toxic material to hurt the function of the neighboring tissue. So it's a double whammy. So what stem cells can do, one is it can wake up your stem cells and help them to regenerate the tissue, but it can also help boost your immune system so you can get rid of some of those old cells that are sitting there and causing damage. So that's why I do have a lot of patients who come to me to do anti aging treatment. Because what's fascinating, I already have these three articles. It's pretty fascinating. It's an animal study, but they've shown in rats and mice that regular IV infusion, so between the three articles, pretty consistent, regular IV infusions of younger stem cells can prolong the lifespan of these animals by 20 to 30%. So it's pretty remarkable. So we, we haven't done human studies, but I'm willing to be a subject because I give myself IV treatment every three months because I, I know the science and I, I know that's, that's what it's going to do. And actually already seeing benefits from myself personally, my other patients also, they've seen, you know, improvement in their complexion and their hair, their skin. So I definitely see that in myself.

Now, of course, I'm sure you have a plethora of case studies and testimonials and amazing stories. Can you share maybe one or two with us?

Okay. One case that really moved me a great deal was an autistic girl. She was six years old when she came to us and she was still wearing a diaper. So she had no bowel control and, and she was non verbal, couldn't say a word. And she also had very weak muscle strength so she couldn't even climb up the stairs. And parents always had to carry her up the stairs. So I gave her a simple IV treatment, was very elegant, very simple. You know, it's, you know, I didn't have to drill in her to bone or you know, put in her spinal cord. I give her a simple treatment. And they came back seven months later to get another treatment because they were so encouraged by the first one. What happened during that time is the little girl now has bowel control, it has gotten off diaper and she has started to speak words. And she was able to tell her parents when they go out to a store saying potty, you know, I need potty. And the parents will say, oh, can you wait a little bit until we find a bathroom? And then she will hold it, she will hold until they get to a place and then also she's she's more interactive. We could see she's more interactive. There's better eye contact. She started to sign with us, and also she can climb up the stairs on her own. Her parents don't have to carry her anymore. And I just. You know, the parents are so beautiful. They're so. They're willing to do anything for this child, just so the child can have, you know, even just a little bit of improvement. But just, you know, seeing how the, you know, the child's life can be changed and can continue to improve, it's really, really inspiring. So that made me extremely happy. I was having tremendous amount of body pain. I had a lot of joint swelling. My lab work was elevated. My ana. My titers were all up. And I had been using western medicine quite a bit, but I was absolutely getting worse. And it was decided that we would try to do stem cell therapy. And after the first therapy session, there was a tremendous amount of difference for me. It was night and day. I could suddenly move, I could walk. I wasn't in pain. I wasn't sweating standing up. I had just amazing results from it. It's 100% changed my life. It has actually given my life back to me. It has let me live again because I wasn't before. I was suffering daily.

Now, in addition to doing the work that you do with your patients, you've also created your own product. Let's talk about the product, the development of the product, and what it's all about.

Yeah. So what's interesting is when I first came into regenerative medicine, I came as a physician trying to utilize products produced by certain companies to help my patients. And I did see good results. But then I started to realize that certain facts weren't adding up. You know, I weren't quite told exactly what the product was, so I was. It took a long time to even just nailed down what the product was. So, because the research, we were told mesenchymal stem cells is why this product works. And this is wonderful. And then I saw research on Wharton's jelly being full of mesenchymal stem cells. That's a tissue. That's part of the cord tissue. But then I still wasn't told, is it cord tissue or cord blood? And so finally, when I was able to nail down the lab and I found out it's cord blood, and I said, well, how much mesenchymal stem cells are in the cord blood in your product? And I was told 1%. So I was very disappointed because the entire presentation of why the Product works is based on, you know, you know, expounding the beauty of mesenchymal stem cells and all their capabilities, yet there's only 1%. So I didn't quite understand it. So that's kind of the. The lot of points of doubt. Like why? Like why there's mesenchymal stem cells, you know, in abundance in umbilical cord tissue. Why aren't you using that? One reason is because it's very difficult to process. A lot of scientists are very comfortable with processing cord blood because it's very easy. Everything's already in suspension. But the core tissue is pretty tough to process. You know, all the cells are embedded in this matrix. So how do you free them up without using enzymes, you know, without trying to digest the collagen and still allow them to be viable? So how do you do it? So that's a challenge. So I was able to find a lab that does that. They were able to get cells out the core tissue, which means the product is full of mesenchymal stem cells. And they worked fantastic. They worked beautifully. But then being a person that I read a lot, I constantly read different articles. I've seen benefits from the cord blood. You know, I've seen research, you know, unseen for my patients, and I've seen benefits from the core tissue. So. And I know that each cell type have slightly different capabilities and potentials to, you know, their role to play in healing. So if I can bring them together, then I have a much more powerful product. So that's why I decided to design my own product. I actually. So I filed for patent. What happens is that I included cells from the umbilical cord tissue, which is full of mesenchymal stem cells, and then I included the cells from umbilical cord blood, which has a lot of other types of cells. So when you put those cells together and then you put umbilical cord, the serum, which is the native environment of how tissue are bathed. So in a way, you never allow the cells to leave their native environment if you're bathing them in the serum of the cord blood. So that's the complete product I built that. There's, there's. That there's everything that's valuable in the core tissue in this product. So I think that's why we've seen, you know, such great results.

So the product is used for your patients, but then do you have other doctors and hospitals and others that also acquire the product and use your product as well?

Yeah. So what I did was that I realized, unfortunately there has Been some kind of a lack of integrity in the industry. This is a young industry and there's a lot of profits. So everyone is coming into the industry. Just in the last few years, I think the number of labs probably increase 10 times. It's pretty remarkable, unfortunately. So many of them will promise you the moon will say they have everything. Yet when you ask for third party testing, then everything falls apart. And so I try to find the best people to work with. So that hasn't been easy, but I found the right people. So what I want to do, what I want to stand here and be able to promise is to other doctors, hey, I have done my homework for you because I know according to science, work the best. And I've investigated all these labs and I know who has integrity and who is going to produce a product that combine all these therapeutic elements. And when I give that to you, I promise you this is the best product in the United States. So that's what I've been doing. And along with that, I provide a lot of physician education. So we do have a lot of doctors who are coming on because they not only feel comfortable that they're getting a product they can trust that has good clinical results, and they also can talk with a physician who can help them guide their way in their own therapy. So, yes, we have a lot of doctors who are working with us.

And all of this is based on solid evidence based information too, which is really important, right?

Absolutely. So that's why I set up American Academy of Integrative Cell Therapy. So that's exactly to be there. So I can teach doctors how to conduct stem cell therapy. And not just talking about my opinion. Actually, I rarely talk about my opinion. I show them clinical evidence. I go through study after study after study. So actually, after they come out of my training, they have close to 200 articles, you know, with them because I want to show them this is, this is all, everything I'm saying is backed by evidence that someone has spent maybe a few years trying to proof a certain aspect of the field.

So it really does sound like it's crucial. It's vital that people do the homework and do the research in terms of if they're looking for a stem cell physician, somebody that specializes it, like yourself, do that research first and be very cautious. Make sure you know what you're getting involved in. Right?

Very much so. It's really unfortunate that we have all kinds of players in the field. I don't know if you heard about just last year, October Livion, which is the Largest stem cell provider based on bilicocal cord blood. There were 12 people hospitalized because of E. Coli contamination. And that's completely unacceptable. There's no reason, if they follow the right protocol, there's no reason E. Coli should be ever there. So that's just really unfortunate. And unfortunately it tains the whole industry and people don't know. I've had doctors who use our product getting great results, happy, and then someone else convinced them to use Livyon product and then got very sick, you know, a week or 10 days later, asking me what had happened because he was so sick. So people, you know, even doctors can be fooled. It's not just the patients. So I constantly read articles so I can stay in the forefront, so I can convey that knowledge to all the doctors I work with.

So what sets you apart?

I am rather fearless. I believe we're doing the right things. I believe regenerative medicine will be the foundation of modern medicine. So it's just a matter of time. And I know I'm doing the right thing. So. So in that sense, I'm going to do everything in my power. I'm going to look at the science, I'm going to follow the safest protocol, which I've designed and refined. I'm going to do this because I know it's the right thing to do. And I see it in every patient. I've treated every patient. So one thing is, I know a lot of people live in fear. They're afraid, you know, what does government say? What does the insurance company say? So I, you know, I try to do things right so I don't live in fear. And the other thing is I'm, I'm, I'm very. I need to understand it in my head. That's why when I first started learning about regenerative medicine, I quickly started to dig and dig and I just, I couldn't stop because I need a very clear picture in my head so I could understand what I'm doing and I can explain to patients. You know, I can't just say, oh yeah, this does this, this does this. I need to understand it from the very beginning, from when the eggs fertilized. You know, I want to. So from then on, so what happens? What's each stage so I have a full understanding, then I feel I can really master what I'm giving. So maybe, you know, I don't know how many doctors want to spend that much time reading and reading and reading. So that's. And the other thing is I'm. I guess it's part of the fearlessness, that that's why I started my own company, because I felt I can do a good job. You know, I can get this knowledge out to doctors and I can get the best product because I just. I believe I can't do it because, well, someone else hasn't thought about it. I thought about it, so I guess I can do it. So when I kept learning and kept learning and I realized, my God, I've accumulated all this knowledge, I better give it to people. So that's why I started teaching. So in that sense, I guess I'm not the most common doctor.

And now we're at Dr. Kang's alma mater. We're here at the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, actually right in front of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical center center here at ucla. And this is a place that's very near and dear to Dr. Kong's heart because a lot of her education, formal education, came from ucla. It really is a very special place for you in your educational career, isn't it, Dr. Kong?

Yes, absolutely. It's an amazing place. And we've got some of the best professors that really built a solid foundation for me in my, you know, in my Western education training. But interestingly, there are also classes offered that help students to understand the Eastern medicine and how to combine the two. So I actually got a taste of that, which really is a holistic approach to a person's health, which I'm utilizing right now in stem cell therapy because it's a derivative of Western medicine, but also is a very holistic approach addressing multiple organ systems and multiple factors all at once. So I just think I got a great start in my career here.

I know you're passionate about this topic, but in this subject, why do you think that preventative medicine is sort of lacking in the medical world these days and why it's important that it's addressed?

The way I look at medical industry is that it's this giant behemoth that's moving very, very slowly. What the new science has shown usually takes about 20 years for this machinery to actually catch up. And the other problem is that this machinery is controlled by a lot of companies that has vested interest in seeing it operate the way it is. Unfortunately, I found out later, not when I was in medical school, but later on, that the medical school and fda, they're all heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. So that's really unfortunate if there is incentive to keep selling the drug and keep people on the drug and make a huge profit. So why prevent. Why prevent people from getting sick. So because of how doctors are educated, there's really no emphasis on prevention. We weren't taught on how to keep people healthy. We are ignorant about how to keep people healthy. We only know when they get sick. We can run these tests and we can figure out what's wrong and we can give them medicine. That's our entire education. We had. I went to UCLA Medical School. We had maybe a half an hour of nutrition. When people come to me asking me advice, asking about herbs, when it says clear with your primary care doctor about before you take this herb, most of them have no idea what that is. They had to look online. So the entire education is very skewed to wait until people get sick and then we'll fix them. But unfortunately, I worked at the VA for some time and I know how medicine was practiced. And everyone comes into primary care with a bag of medicine. Either the least is five or six. The more is close to 30 medications. A whole bag of medications, that's all they're taking. It never gets smaller. It just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. They get more and more medications. So it's not working because these people are not getting any healthier. They take this medication, sort of keep things at bay for that lab test, and then they get some other symptoms. Okay, then take this one. And that will calm those symptoms. And they just keep adding and adding and it's, it's not working. It's devastating. Because I think that's one reason doctors have such high stress. Because we went into medicine, most of us, with the best of intentions to help people. But if day in and day out, you're not really helping people, you're keeping them sort of okay, and you may be causing some problems, but you convince yourself that we're just, we're keeping them okay, that couldn't be any better because you don't know how to make it better because we weren't taught. So that requires a whole paradigm shift. And so there are certain disciplines, new areas of medicine that are taking up that slack. Something like functional medicine or what's called integrative medicine, anti aging medicine. It's all about the same thing. It's looking at the body holistically, it's looking at all these factors that could affect your health. So how about we address each one? We don't just wait until you get sick and we give you a drug attack attacking a single mechanism, but we're looking all these factors that could have contributed to you being sick. And then we're slowly peeling Away the onion, we get them off you, we get all those toxicity off, we replace your nutrients and we, we, we, we tune up your hormones. So then you start to heal from the inside out. Without those medications, if you're really sick, I'm not object, I don't object to medications, but that can be the solution.

So one thing you alluded to earlier was that, you know, obviously you can come in for stem cell therapy, but there's certain things that the patient has to do as well, and that is watch their diet, nutrition, exercise. You have to take responsibility and play a role in conjunction with stem cell therapy. Right.

It is going to sound very cliche because diet and exercise is the bottom line and people don't, you know, they think they can go around it. No, that is the absolute foundation. You've got to challenge your body, you've got to move. So your body because mobilizes more than 400 genes in your body. And the diet is what you give the fuel you're giving your body. Your body doesn't have the tools to do what it needs to do. So these two are foundation and, and then you can add other things. Of course, we live in a pretty toxic world unfortunately. So detoxification is important because if you, if you eat clean and you are exercising, but you've got lead poison, you've got that, you've got to take that lead out. So you need to, you know, you can't just look at it, you know, not looking at these factors. And that's problem I have with traditional medicine, with psychiatry, that was my field, is that they were not looking at any of those. So many of the psychiatric symptoms could be a result of leading poisoning. Yet how many psychiatrists actually check that? I would be surprised if it's more than 1%. So this is the scary part of how medicine is practiced, but the holistically what people can do is to avoid toxic exposures. So food, of course you avoid fried food, simple carbohydrates and additive and highly processed food. And you know, don't eat meat that's been pumped up with hormones and other, you know, toxic substances and the fish. And then do some exercise, mobilize your body and then detox. One of the detox I love is infrared sauna because it gets your body to sweat and you naturally and safely are letting out a lot of toxins. So that's what I advise all my patients to do when they do stem cell therapy.

So let's talk about, and I'm sure a lot of people want to know what's Dr. Joy Kang's regimen? What do you do in terms of nutrition and exercise and taking care of yourself?

That's pretty much what I follow. I practice what I preach, so I eat very healthy. Lots of vegetables and fruits, and I avoid simple carbohydrates. I wouldn't, Wouldn't touch fried food. And, you know, and exercise. I exercise every day. Really. People should be. Should exercise every day. I think the three to four times a week just for people's convenience. You really should move your body every day. And, and I, I do infrasana, like three, four times a week. And of course, I also have the stem cells, which, you know, it's another force. It's life force that can help your body to replace the damaged tissue. You still need that when you get older. Your supply of stem cells is getting less and less. So the ability to mount that regeneration is getting less and less. So what am I doing? I'm putting the supply back into my body, so that promotes that regeneration. So that's kind of my secret.

Now you mentioned also, too, a little bit about the fact that you teach classes to other doctors. Let's talk about that.

So after accumulated all these literature and all these protocols, and I just felt that I need to get this information out. I need to let other doctors know. Because when I start talking to doctors, I realize, unfortunately, most doctors who are doing stem cell therapy are listening to either reps from a company that's selling them products or they get little bits and pieces of information. So, you know, we are, we're supposed to be the guides. We're supposed to, you know, guide our patients in this, you know, in this age, any patient can go on the Internet and search all this information. But why do they need a physician? Because we can help them sift through the information. So you got to be knowledgeable yourself so you can guide your patients. So I want the doctors to be able to give the right information to patients and know exactly what they're doing and provide the best and most effective therapy. Because stem cell treatment is expensive and it's, you know, it just makes no sense. When some doctors are looking for the cheapest product, they think it's the same, but it's. It can be night and day. You know, you need to give your patients the best chance possible at healing.

One of the things that Dr. Kang loves doing is speaking engagements. And to that effect, we're here in Beverly Hills, California, at the Beverly Hilton. We're here at the Cell Surgical Society's conference The sixth annual. And this is something that you really love to be a part of. Speaking engagements and really encouraging people to understand stem cell therapy, right?

Yeah, absolutely. You know, we have to get the word out. And I definitely enjoy having a large audience where I can really go down the nitty gritty of the science and interact with audience. And I see a lot of enthusiasm in there. Yeah, it's definitely very exciting.

What's the theme of your talk today?

I'll be talking about how to pick the best source of stem cells for their patients. So there are many sources of stem cells, oldest being bone marrow, and then comes adipose derived stem cells. And then the last, newest one is birth tissue derived. So I want to show the doctors what are the differences and could there be one source that's better? Is there one that's safer and more effective? And what are the research evidence that's out there? So I wanted to present this evidence that I found, you know, through all this search. So I just think every doctor, if you want the best results for your patient, you need to know the signs. So I want to give that knowledge to the doctors. So I know that, you know, the stem cell field is really rapidly expanding. What I believe is that all forms of cell therapy are very beneficial. So it's my mission in helping my patients is to give them the very best. Because cell therapy is very expensive and patients are placing a lot of trust in us. And if I can give them something that will be the safest and has an edge in the therapeutic response, I feel it's my responsibility to provide that. So these cells have the ability to home into areas of injury and inflammation that induce changes by secreting different peptides. The previous speaker talked about the three mechanisms, the growth factors and peptides and exosomes plus mitochondria transfer. So all these are important mechanisms. And then last thing I want to mention is this whole question about expansion or no expansion. So FDA doesn't allow cell expansion unless it's under an IRB study. And a lot of people go overseas because they think they can get this huge amount of stem cell infusion. They go to Panama, Cancun. But is it, is it better to have more?

You really like speaking to the doctors, but also sort of one on one conversations as well. That's important to you, right?

Right. I love both. I love teaching doctors, you know, whether on the phone or in person, when they come to my office, sometimes they come to receive treatment there and it always becomes a teaching session. I walk through with them and we have fun. And they get really excited because it's very exciting science. And then going to conferences, of course you can reach a lot of people. I do find it energizing to be able to get information out to so many people. And so much of what I'm teaching, nobody's talking about. But all the evidence, the research is there, so someone has to let people know.

So do you feel that stem cell research and therapy is the future for medicine?

Yep, that I believe what I'm already doing. I'm trying to prevent people from getting sick. When I do the anti aging treatment, it's not just about keeping them young. I'm preventing them from getting sick. I'm repairing. All the systems are slowly going downhill so they can maintain this level of health. They can get rid of the bat cells when it emerge, and they can, you know, keep all the organ system function optimally so there's less chance for disease to emerge. And also when people do get sick, because sometimes they do get sick for all kinds of reasons, you know, toxicity, injury, when they have to do certain treatment. So of course I can, I can treat them with, you know, I can give them stem cells that will help their body's ability to recuperate. But even for people who have to have surgery, I've had quite a few patients who would need certain surgeries, you know, orthopaedic surgeries or even cosmetic surgeries. And they will come to me to get stem cells before surgery because it speeds up their healing probably twice as fast. And I've seen that over and over again. So eventually it's going to be the foundation. If you want, you have to have something done. You should get stem cells, and that's gonna, you're gonna get better surgical results. You're gonna heal much faster. So, you know, that's. Who wouldn't want that?

Exactly.

The idea of using the stem cell therapy was brought to my attention just by a surgical procedure I was doing in the hospital. I had my orthopedic surgeon who was operating and I was operating in the mouth, being a maxillofacial surgeon. And I know that he would take the bone and give it to me immediately and I would use it in the graft. In that time frame, as minutes as it is, 80% of those cells die. So you're not transplanting cells, and those cells that are there are at the end stage of forming bone. That's when we got the idea, I got the idea of using the bone marrow aspirin, and I've written a number of Articles and textbook chapters on the procedure. But then the results have been so phenomenal, and that's what got us started. The approach of using stem cells in what I just described, or age regeneration, has been around for a while, and people have been using other forms of stem cells for quite some time. So when it came to my attention that a better way to do this was using umbilical cord stem cells, the next step was to evaluate where these cells were coming from and the quality of the cells. That got me to Dr. Kong. Upon that information, I attended a lecture given by Dr. Kang and saw what she was doing and wanted to evaluate her professionalism, which was excellent. What was interesting with Dr. Kong and my recommendation is that the quality of the umbilical cord stem cells is so high, and the situation is, as I see it, is that stem cell therapy will be the vanguard and will be the frontier of medicine and surgical treatment for a number of diseases that we know about. It's going to take a while for the clinicians to come on board with this. They're very slow in order to accommodate new ideas and new techniques. It will happen, but I cannot tell you if it's going to happen next year or five years from now. But you cannot argue with the biopsy and you can't argue with the results. It's a matter of changing minds.

What are some of the other services that you offer here at your center in addition to stem cell therapy?

Yeah, so because I believe in an integrative approach, I always, you know, I've always in a, you know, intuitively know that our health is a web, is all these things are working together, pointing in different directions. We're not a linear, you know, a linear thought. And that's unfortunately kind of the pitfall that western medicine has fallen into. It thinks that, okay, wait, everything has a cause and has an effect, but it doesn't quite. It can't quite think in a way that there can be so many causes and then it gets lost. It doesn't know what to do. Because it's a whole way of dealing with, is find one cause and one solution. So because I know we're affected by so many things, I'm going to address all those things together. So everybody comes to me for stem cell treatment. I always tell them, nutrition is key. We need to make sure all your nutrients are there. And then I also check their cardiometabolic status because I need to know, how is their body processing sugar correctly? Do they have too much cholesterol? Is that going to be causing vascular problems because that's going to affect your entire body. And omega fatty acids, those are very important to, you know, for many, for the health of many organ systems, essential for the brain, immune system, heart. And then I check for thyroid, which is a master hormone. It's a very comprehensive test. And male or female hormones, which do decline with age and should be addressed. So these are the kind of the scope, the test I do, there could be a lot more. But you know, these just these tests is going to cover probably about 75, 80% of the web. So I'm going for, you know, a tangible amount of this web that I can grasp and address.

What do you see as the future of STEM cell therapy?

Dr. What I see is that people are going to utilize the therapy to not get sick, that they're going to have the time of health. Instead of people getting sick, start to get aches and pains and start getting sick in their 50s and 60s. And they're all, yeah, of course I'm getting this way because I'm getting old. But they're going to not be sick. They're going to be really, well, maybe well into their 70s. You know, they get longer health span. It's not just a lifespan, but they're also going to get longer lifespan but more health. And when they do get sick, we can utilize stem cell therapy to give them the extra jump for their body to repair. So that's what I see. That's why it's the foundation, not getting sick and then getting you better faster.

Why do you love this work that you do?

Because I see results because I actually feel I'm very useful. That was one thing that was difficult. I think it's difficult for a lot of doctors and they don't know where to turn. They don't talk about it, but there's a high suicide rate in physicians. But what I do is that I get so inspired by what happens with my patients. I'm excited. They make my day. When they tell me that they're getting good results, they're able to do things they couldn't do before, I can't really think of anything that makes me happier. I mean, it's just making a difference in the world. And it's so elegant, it's so simple. You know, really, I shouldn't take the credit for it because the cells, their intelligence is doing all the work. That's what makes it so magical, because it's like here they will do the work. So that's it's fun. So it's powerful and it's fun.

So in addition to being a doctor, you're also a published author. Tell us a little bit about this book.

Yeah, so the book really was inspired by my own life experience. I grew up in Beijing for my first 20 years, so I actually went to university, studied architecture for two years. And because of policy change in the government, I had to make a decision whether or not to come to the United States. And making the decision of coming to the United States doesn't mean that I could get here because my family knew nobody and there was really no reason that I could be here because all my friends were telling me it's ridiculous you're even trying because it's just about impossible. And I said, you know what, I want to be there. So if I don't try, I will never know. So I'm just going to do it. So I encountered various obstacles along the way, but I had an idea, I felt it was my right for to seek my own freedom and my own fulfillment. It's like it's me as a human, that's my right. So nothing should stop me. So because I'm doing something that's righteous, then I'm gonna get there. So I did whatever it took. And that's the. The book is about, you know, the story of me single mindedly wanting to be there and what took me place that actually got me here and what happened after I got here. It wasn't really easy when I got here, so. And then eventually, you know, all that is very interesting story, but that kind of set, set the foundation for what I encounter later in life because I literally think that was the biggest challenge in my life to be able to get out of the country who didn't want you to leave and get into a country who didn't want you to come. So now whatever I undertake, for example, taking on this regenerative medicine, wanting to help advance the field, I don't think it's going to be more difficult than getting out of China. So in a way it's a little bit of parallel. And also in regenerative medicine is another thing that's righteous that I feel. I know how it's helping people, I know how safe it is and I want the medical world to understand that we have this incredible tool at our hand and to utilize it so because I know it's right and it's going to be there. So I'm fearless. I have the same single minded mindset. So in a way the book is kind of bring it home about this kind of journey. The person I think you know, I wish everyone can undertake.

So what do you hope people get out of this book when they read it? What do you hope that they're left with?

Courage. I want them to dare because I realize the most valuable thing and the most incredible thing is actually you. Life. You are a life force. Imagine something from a little embryo, a little, you know, cell becoming you. And if you have your mind set on doing something, you can do it. And that's what I did in China, from something that seemingly impossible, but I did it. I don't know how, but I knew I wanted it. And somehow that created that energy that is going that way. There may be setbacks, but it didn't matter because I wanted that. So I want people to realize that they. There's so much power within you that a lot of people underestimate themselves. So if they really appreciate this energy, incredible energy that's capable of creating you and could create a lot more and use that, and I just think it would be a more incredible world.

This is a tremendous place. And the work that she is doing is life changing. And we're so happy we've had an opportunity to learn more here at CU TV News about the incredible work that Dr. Joy Kung and her team are doing. Again, it's work that makes the world a better place. In Los Angeles, California, at the Thayer center for Regenerative Medicine, I'm Jim Masters, CU TV News.