Stem Cell Therapy in 2024: Everything You Need to Know | Dr. Joy Kong & Inka Land

So when people age, their face is wrinkling up, they look older, and they say, oh, I'm older because I look older. No, you're older because everything you can't see, they're all older and they're all wrinkling up. Just like your face. You just can't see it.

So let's discuss stem cell therapy in 2024 and its applications. And I want to hear your own experience with it as well. And to clarify first, what does it even mean and why it's such a buzzword at the moment. So what's the current state of stem cell therapy in? Why is it becoming so popular?

Yeah, it's so just kind of vindicating that, you know, to see how popular it has gotten, because that was what I predicted back in 2015. I think that's initially when I heard about stem cells. In 2016 is really when I started conducting stem cell therapy. I saw that with one elegant treatment, you are putting some kind of intelligence into the body. And. And the cells have the capability to secrete thousands and thousands of different molecules each individual. One could be interesting drug. Right. But the molecules was. I mean, the cells will secrete all these molecules depending on your body's needs. So it's like a smart pharmacy. It's like ultra smart. Like way better than AI, right? This is this. Nature's intelligence is so powerful, that creates you and me. If you just think about both you and me and everybody else, we all started from a single fertilized egg. We were that. We were that egg. And how do we become this? What was in that fertilized egg that knows how to develop into a complex human being? So that's the intelligence we're tapping into. And research has been quite active from all around the world. So more and more evidence is coming up. But what I saw was the results are what's driving the whole movement of stem cell therapy is because people are actually getting relief and they saw incredible responses in their body, let's say. Well, even just for me as a physician, I've treated people with, let's say, rheumatoid arthritis, complete remission, no longer need any medications, you know, free of rheumatoid arthritis or free of lupus. People with musculoskeletal issues who are told that they have to have knee replacement, completely unnecessary. I'm able to fix the knee, you know, with one simple injection. I mean, that's really powerful. Because who am I? I was trained as a psychiatrist, and I was able to put some cells into the body. And I'm getting people. Well, people with kidney failure, with heart diseases. Right. With lung problems. I'm none of those specialists, you know, I'm not, you know, I wasn't trained in any of those, you know. Yes, I was trained in the brain. So, yeah, for brain conditions, they're great too. But for all these different, you know, a wide variety of conditions where traditional conventional medicine doesn't have a whole lot of answers to. I was there, you know, I actually was trained at the VA hospital, so the Veterans affairs, and that's where you treat veterans. And every veteran comes into the clinic with a bag of medications. It ranges from 10 to 30 medications. So are these people. Well, no, they. What I call hanging, like hanging in their medicine. Medication, you know, or whatever. That's how you practice. Everyone's kind of hanging in. No one is recovered from their condition. No one is well. So that is the problem of conventional medicine. And all of a sudden I come along, not trained in cardiology, trained in pulmonology, and not trained in orthopedic surgeries and conditions, and I'm able to reverse people's condition. I mean, that is so powerful and so elegant. Then you can imagine what these people will say to people in their circles, their friends and families. The word just spread. It's like wildfire. I think that's why it's so popular.

Yeah, right. So you refer to the traditional medicine and that approach and then to regional generative medicine. What is the difference between these two?

Traditional medicine are looking at the body as something that you combat. Right. If there's a disease, you're fighting the disease. There's thinking that there's something wrong and we need to fix it. And it's very linear in its approach. It's from A to B. There's one thing. We need to find that one cause for this condition and find a drug that can fix that one cause. And voila, then we succeeded. So that's the whole approach. It's reducing diseases into one cause. Sometimes it works well, like infectious diseases. Right. Acute sports injuries or accidents. You know, people are sick, then all of a sudden you can go in there, you know the cause, you give an antibiotic, and then the person is, well, unfortunately, modern day, with the poor quality of what's going on with food, with our air, with water, the entire environment and how we are treating our body, we are chronically inflamed. And that's why we're having all these chronic illnesses and cancer. So all these different chronic conditions doesn't have a single source of reason, of why. So when Western medicine is looking at, oh, let's say atherosclerosis, right, heart disease, it's thinking that we can just do this to change the heart, you know, the contract, contractability and we can change how the heart works and then we're going to be all good. But what about what's causing the disease? Your bad diet, your cardiovascular condition, that the raging inflammation that's going on the body, that's what's driving the heart disease. And so are the, you know, hundreds and hundreds of other chronic illnesses. So western medicine is not equipped at looking at a complex condition from a multi dimensional angle. It only wants to find what's going on from A to B. And when you are that limited in your thinking that you're not going to be able to solve the problem, you have to go on a system approach. So this is a typical, typical example, let's say Chinese medicine. Why does it work? Chinese people were throwing a bunch of herbs into the soup and then all of a sudden people are improving. They're addressing a complex problem with this complex, complex solution. But Western medicine don't understand why does it work? And you're putting all these things in there. We don't know what's doing what. So we have to isolate one chemical, we have to isolate one molecule so we know what's working. But that one molecule may not solve the whole problem. It may be because the 10 herbs coming together, creating a new form, a new mechanism, right? The system. When you have a system, you know, you, you, you, you're gaining a complexity and a different level of how things work. So that's like interactions. And western medicine doesn't know how to deal with the web, whereas some traditional medicine, it sounds, you know, nebulas and kind of, you know, woo, woo. Because they're talking about like Chinese medicine was talking about, you know, the qi and the dampness in the body, the heat. But that's kind of a more like a system approach. You're, you're coming on from a higher level. You're generalizing things with certain language because there's no, there's no specific language for this. So they developed some kind of language to look at things in a more system approach. And that's like lacking in Western medicine. They, that's not the Western thinking. Western thinking is science, measurable amount from A to B. We're isolating everything to the simple elements. And that is just, is not cutting it when it comes to chronic illnesses. That's why people are so sick. That's why we are, you know, as a populist, we're all, you know, so obese. Right. The obesity rate is like 60% in the U.S. so it's a paradigm shift that people have to be willing to partake. A lot of traditionally trained medicine, medical doctors have not really shifted their mind to embrace a more system approach, but a lot of doctors are. That's why we have the holistic medicine, functional medicine. Those are all system approach type of medicine.

Yeah. Just before this recording, we discussed about the fact that now we have a norm that when you age, you're supposed to decline and you're supposed to start eating medication at some point to your decline and to your conditions. And we do this because we think this is the norm. But in regenerative medicine and in, in the idea of longevity, the whole thing, the whole idea is how can we maintain the functionality, how can we maintain the health until we maybe die to a condition very rapidly. Right. So that we, we can just regenerate our bodies way more effectively, no matter the age.

Yeah. So regenerative medicine really is. It's about asking your body to heal itself. So you are trying to address things on a core level, on the foundational level. So, so how can we evoke the body's capabilities? Not having the body as a battleground for you to fight it out. Because that's traditional medicines like, okay, there's a battle. I need to, you know, either kill something or shift something and, you know, change receptors is not talking about how you are tapping into the repair mechanism. So that's the, that's the main difference. And of course, there are many ways to do promote regeneration. Something as, you know, as simple as a molecule like ozone molecule. Right. Nitric oxide. You know, there are a lot of different ways. A lot of nutritional therapies can be regenerative, can help promote it. And of course, the most powerful would be stem cells. There's nothing that can replace the power behind the, you know, really contained within the DNA. So if you're putting the, the DNA in the body, you know, the intact DNA in the cell, all of a sudden the DNA can give you whatever you need. So that is way more powerful than, than any single entity that we can come up with that we are putting into the body what the universe has created. You can use all kinds of word for it. Something created it. Because we don't know how to create a single cell. We don't know how to do it. It's way too complex. It's beyond us at least at this point, maybe we'll become godlike at some point that we can create some. But right now we don't know how it's done.

Yeah. So can you explain what exactly is a stem cell? And are they found in adult, like, where are they found in humans and animals?

A stem cell is a cell. The definition is the cell that has the ability to differentiate, to gain function, to become something that has further function. And it can replenish itself. So just because it differentiate, it can also make a copy of itself, so it maintains its own population. And then it's. So every time it divides via copy, into a device, into a copy of itself and a daughter cell. So the daughter cell can go on and, you know, perform certain functions. The daughter cell can also be a stem cell. But then the daughter cell will have gained certain functions and lost certain potentials. Every time it gains function, it also loses potentials. And that is because the genes are turned on and off in order to move the cell in certain directions. But the cells can keep dividing and dividing and different, specializing until it reached the very end stage, which is your tissue specific cell. Let's say your heart muscle cell is the end stage functioning, working cell. And you know, your, your, your muscle cell, that's an end working cell. But before that there's a muscle specific stem cell. So those are, you know, myoblasts, so they can become a muscle cell. So anywhere in between. So if you imagine a fertilized egg, so, you know, it's not a simple answer. That's why I'm kind of going, I have to give you the pathway.

Yeah, absolutely.

First, fertilized egg is the quintessential stem cell. And then it will divide and multiply and convolute and migrate and it will form a ball. So day five to seven, after fertilization, within the ball, there are all these cells. And you can take one of those cells out. That is an embryonic stem cell. So just so people understand where it came from is from that ball. Of course you are going to end up destroying the embryo when you, when you're getting the cells out. That's where this, the ethical controversy come from. But that embryonic stem cell can have the potential to form a full human, right? And so that will keep dividing and dividing, dividing. And then there are different germ layers that's, you know, different layers of embryo and each have its own function. So anywhere along the way until it becomes a fully functional, tissue specific cell is a stem cell. So there's a wide variety that's why people say stem cell. And I've heard even a. Oh, I heard a nutritionist on, you know, on a famous podcast, and she was talking about stem cells, and she said, oh, these are cells that can become anything, do anything. No, that is not a scientifically backed, you know, way of describing these cells, because there's so many different kinds of stem ce, and as they gain function, they lose potentials. So depending on where they are and which one you use, there are different uses. So right now, the most popular one is mesenchymal stem cells. And these are from the middle germ layer, the. The specific layer of embryological development. And these cells are everywhere in your body. Somehow from that germ layer, there's these. What's called mesenchymal stem cells. And, you know, they have such a coordinating effect on regeneration. That's why the. Dr. Kaplan who discovered it wanted to rename it medicinal signaling cells that. Because that's what they do. They are. They're like, yeah, they're performing like a medical therapy, you know, throughout your body continuously and very intelligently. It will sense what's going on in the blood, and it will sense what's going on in the neighborhood because they hug the blood vessels, so they're always along the blood vessels, sensing what's going on in the blood and in local environment and start coordinating repair. So that's kind of like a quick overview that stem cells are the thousands of shades of what a stem cell is.

That was fantastic. So you mentioned mesenchymal stem cells, and other term that's often heard is hematopoietic stem cells. So what's the difference between these two and the applications?

Hematopoietic stem cells, or progenitor cells are cells that are floating around in the blood. They come from the bone marrow. So bone marrow has. Can produce these cells that can form the entire bloodline. So when you conduct a bone marrow transplant, that's what you're counting on, is these hematopoietic progenitor cells. There are other cell types too, mononuclear cells, but there's this very small fraction, you know, not. Not very much, you know, small concentration. But they're powerful. They can form your entire bloodline. You know, red blood cells. Red blood cells, you know, they have the specific function that's what we're counting on. They can help with forming more blood vessels, and they're very neuroprotective. They have its own functions. But, yeah, these are very different from the mesenchymal stem cells.

Right. Okay. What about the difference between exosomes and stem cells?

Yeah, so there's this hype regarding exosomes partially coming from the fear about doing stem cells not because they're unsafe, because they're extraordinarily safe. It's because of the resistance from the governmental agencies and just entire atmosphere that some companies said, okay, there are all these restrictions and all these controversy about stem cells. So how about if we just don't use the cells? It's true that exosomes are secretion products from the stem cells. So that is one of the major ways stem cells perform its actions is by sending out, budding off all these little vesicles and sending out into extracellular space. And that vesicle confused with other cells. And that's how the signals can be given to other cells. And so it exerts a lot of its functions that way. But stem cells does, you know, they do much more. They can secrete other peptides or, or growth factors that are not included in these packages. They can send out other signals. They can also conduct mitochondria transfer because they contain mitochondria. If you use younger sources like birth, tissue source, then you actually have these young, fresh mitochondria that the cells are able to scent to other cells by all kinds of ways, by spitting out into space, by establishing like a microtubule, like this bridge, allowing the mitochondria to walk over to other cells. So these are the things that exosomes can do. Right. And it cannot respond to the environment because the stem cells contain DNA that will be turned on and off depending on what is needed, and can secrete put together packages of exosomes that are the most appropriate to the situation. When you collect exosomes, they're already done. They're already, you know, whatever composition it is, that's what it is. So people get exosomes either by extracting from the amniotic fluid or by putting the cells in a culture and allow them to grow to huge numbers. And the cells will keep spitting out all these exosomes, and then you collect them that way. But the culture, you know, the cells are based in whatever nutrients and medium that is very different from your body. So the cells don't know how to respond to your body. Right. So it's responding to the culture. So that's what you're getting. Even though it has a lot of great elements and a lot of great growth factors and, you know, cytokines, but doesn't mean that it's the most relevant to you, but if you put stem cells in your body, the cells can give you exactly what you need. Right, the smart pharmacy concept. And they can also travel. The cells have the capability to track signals, so they're attracted by inflammation and injury. So when they find where they're needed, it can get out of the blood vessels and then they can start secreting exosomes or other things that you know that's needed in the environment. So the stem cells can do so much more. This is why when people do stem cell therapy, the effect generally lasts much longer, probably on average, if you just want to put a number to it, maybe twice as long. Generally the cells will live in the body for about one to three months. That's in general, and there's research showing they can live much longer. But in general, majority of them, they don't live forever. Once they're activated and put in the body, there's a lifespan like everything else. So they generally live for about one to three months. And during that time they will secrete a lot of exosomes that is specific to your needs. And those exosomes will have effects for about another three months, you know, one to three months. In general, the exosomes don't, their half life is very short. They only stay for about eight to 24 hours. So that, that's it. But they exert their effects and those will promote changes. So that's kind of the, the main difference, Right.

So it doesn't mean that you need to go to treatments in every three to six months, but that they stay in your system about that period of time and you will get the benefits within that period of time.

Right. Once you promote certain repair and you may be repaired, you know, you may be done. So it's possible with one treatment, that's all you need. But I always ask what's causing you to have that problem in the first place? If you don't look at what caused it and the causes are still there, then you're going to be going backward over time. Right? So it's easy with injury because if you don't injure yourself once you're, you're fixed, you're done. But with chronic illnesses, why, why are you sick? Right? So if a person come in, comes in with psoriasis, okay, why do you have psoriasis but your friend doesn't? What is going on with you? So unless you address all those reasons, then you're not going to really stop the process. So you can try to reverse it and repair it, but then that train will Keep pushing, will keep pushing you toward the disease unless you do this comprehensive. You know, that's why in our clinic we want to address all these different factors. You know, are you inflamed because of blood sugar issues or because nutritional problems? Is it microbiome difficulties? So all these things you need to address.

What are the most common reasons that people come to your clinic? Is it more like to cure a disease or get help for a disease or some degeneration like arthritis? Or is it more for anti aging and longevity purposes to do stem cells?

75% are coming in for chronic conditions. I think that makes it more imperative for them to, to actually, you know, take the time, energy and spend the money to get the treatment. And I think that because these people, they have tried everything. Believe me, when people are sick with chronic illnesses, they have tried everything. They have worked with multiple doctors, and they couldn't get better, then they're looking at alternatives. But 25% of my patients are people who are. Well, there's nothing that's wrong really, in a major way. They just want to optimize their health and prevent decline prevention diseases, because aging is the highest correlating factor with disease. So when you age and you decline, and then that gives you a higher chance of all the chronic illnesses, including cancer. So if we can stop that process or even reverse it, all of a sudden you're protecting yourself for so much longer period of health.

How often do stem cells are sourced from the patient themselves? So autologous therapy are. And how often do they come from a donor?

Yeah, so this is an interesting question. When I first entered the space, I think about 80% of the stem cell therapy conducted were from a person's own body, either fat or bone marrow. Those are two most popular sources. So either you do a liposuction and then you spin the cells to really spin the tissue. What you're trying to get are the cells that are holding onto the blood vessels, right, the mesenchymal stem cells. So you're trying to free them and you collect those. So that's one way. Or you can drill into the bone. Usually they do it from the hip, and it's a painful procedure. So they drill into the bone and they suction out the bone marrow and they can separate out the cells that way. But when I entered the space, when I started comparing the different sources. So if people are interested, they can go online, watch my lecture. Are all MSEs created equal? I've lectured, given that lecture at different conferences to physicians, but I wanted to Put it out there just to show people that these are the research. These are, you know, all the studies that have done comparing these different tissue sources. So don't trust my word for it. Let me show you the studies that have been able to find from around the world just to show the, you know, what are they? Do they function differently whether or not it's from your own body or from a young source like the umbilical cord? So if you go through my lectures, 40 minutes, you will see on every measurement, whether or not it's how anti inflammatory they are, how neuroprotective they are, how many, you know, or immune modulating effects, how many generations they have left, how wide wide their differentiation potentials are or how long their telomeres are, how many senescent markers are showing up, everything you see that the umbilical cord, the younger source, is superior. And also they're safer, surprisingly, because people think, oh, the safest when I use my own. And actually that is not true. Because when you use your own, your cells is your age. And whatever you've done in your life, the cells have done it with you. So if you drank a lot of alcohol, you ate some bad food, if you didn't sleep well, you, you, you know, you got exposed to, you know, things that are not healthy. All those things are affecting everything in your body. So those cells tend to lose their capabilities and intelligence over time, including the intelligence to detect cancer. That's why there has been this fear, oh, if I have cancer, if I have, you know, history of cancer, I can't do stem cells. Well, you probably shouldn't do stem cells from your own body because the vast amount of evidence is showing cells from your own body, it tells, is telling everything to grow. So if you're telling everything to grow, that can include cancer cells. If you don't know that those are cancer cells. So it's almost like the cells from your own body have lost certain intelligence. And I call it cellular dementia. You know, these are slightly demented cells that when it comes upon your cancer cells, because we all have cancer cells popping up, you know, this is just part of life, you know, aberrant right there. They're abnormal cells. But a young stem cell can detect, oh, you don't belong here, there's something really wrong with you. Let me tell you. To die. That's what they found out. The young stem cells can tell a cancer cell to die. But if you use your own, there's a risk that you can end up promoting the growth of existing cancer so on many fronts, the birth tissue cells are superior. This is why I thought, well, looking at how potent they are, how safe they are, and also how convenient and easy it is to use. You can use multiple times, anytime you need. You know, it's like a, like a, like a medicine in a sense that you can prescribe. Right. Instead of every time you use it, you have to drill into someone's bone. We're doing this liposuction. I don't know if you've seen liposuction. It's not a mellow procedure. The doctors are really, you know, drilling and, and poking and you know, it's, it takes some, some, some force. So now with birth tissue, you have all the vantages and, and it's very easy, very convenient. So I knew that's going to grow. So I think the prediction is by 2029, about 65% of the therapies will be conducted using birth tissue. So there's a shift, right, from 20% to 65% within about the span of about 14 years or so. Yeah.

Right. So, yeah, I was just about to ask about the, you know, the risks of using own stem cells if you have some DNA mutations or genetic mutations that might be actually causing your or highly associated with your disease.

Some people, some disease is a stem cell disease. Like a lot of people think that some of the autoimmune conditions, it's because the stem cells of these patients are defective or even something like autism, which has a lot of autoimmune component, that there's a defective stem cell within your own body. So if you're trying to use your, you know, defective cells to try to heal yourself and it's not going to work as well.

Are there any risk of using the donor stem cells? I read something about that. The immune system could reject it. But is this legitimate claim or legit concern?

Yes, theoretically it can. But because the cells we're using are so young, they're so primitive, the use of the cells is different. You know, it makes a big difference if you get cells from the umbilical cord, which is younger than the baby's stem cells, by the way, because it's captured by the cord in the middle of forming an embryo. So these cells are still very young and they retain a lot of characteristics of, of the embryonic stem cells. So they're, they're very young. They have all these markers that, showing that they are very primitive that have lost in further down the line, other stem cells like the baby stem cells. So these are very primitive Cells, they have no surface markers that mark them as foreign. So there's nothing on them that says I'm from a different individual. There are markers that show them that I'm human cell, so don't attack me. Right. I'm a human cell, but there's no marker that shows that I'm from a different human. So your cells are not attacking it. But you know, depending on how the cells are processed, mesenchymal stem cells, especially immune evasive, they actually calm your immune system and your other type of cells, you know, there could be more potential of evoking some kind of response. That's why I think, you know, in therapies is always important to include some mesenchymal stem cells. So as far as the safety of the cells, it depends on, uh, depends on what kind of cells you're using and how old the cells are. So if the cells are from an older person and from another person, then there's a, you know, much greater chance of rejection. That's when, why when you use bone marrow derived stem cells, when you do bone marrow transplant, you have to match the two people. And even a perfectly matched donor when it got into recipient, there's still a chance of rejection. But if you use umbilical cord blood transplantation, and these cord blood cells are actually very similar in composition to bone marrow cells, so they're very similar. The blood flows into the bone marrow and they're kind of A1 system. But if you transplant umbilical cord blood, if you completely do not match, there's no matching involved. There's less chance of rejection than perfectly matched bone marrow transplant. So that gives you an idea. Oh, okay. Cells are not the same, even though they are supposedly of the same kind of stem cells. Older person will cause a different reaction. So just remember that. And when you do stem cell transplant, if you don't have a lot of mesenchymal stem cells, there's also more chance of rejection. If you incorporate mesenchymal stem cells, it has an immune calming effect, There's a lot less chance of problems. So in our clinic, I just, I just don't see problems. You know, there's minor issues. You know, if you do iv, there's injection site, you know, retinas and a little pain and swelling. Possibly if you inject into someone's joint, there could be more swelling because the cells are evoking some kind of inflammatory response. And all your cells are aggregating fluid are coming in, you're trying to fix the tissue. So that's Short lived as far as it's discomfort that often predicts long term good results because you know that everything's mobilized. When it comes to cells from, from the umbilical cord. The cord blood contains a lot of the immune cells, the primitive immune cells and the hematopoietic progenitor cells. And the core tissue contains a lot of mesenchymal stem cells. So it's I think the best to bring the two together. There has been research showing that combining the two sources give better results. So there's a synergistic effect. So this is why I developed a product, a stem cell product that combines different components from the umbilical cord. And I think I'm the only one in the entire industry that's doing that. To me it just common sense, right? Coming from China, understanding that, you know, you want to combine different things to create a higher level of benefits. You know, all the herbs, you know, there's synergy involved. So to me I always say, you know, God created everything for a reason. So who am I to play God, you know, why do I say, oh, you only will benefit from this one type of cells? Because we've studied this one, we know it's good. No, they all talk to each other. They have a, you know, more elevated effect that you, your research hasn't shown yet. So that's, you know, I'm not. So in a sense I'm being more humble in respecting the body knows more. So I will give you more.

That sounds like a fantastic approach. I wonder, have you done like when did you start doing this new protocol of yours and have you seen any different kind of results or different kind of trajectory with the recovery and without the results? When you have compared the two.

When I incorporated the mesenchymal stem cells along with umbilical cord blood stem cells, there are way less side effects. So with pure umbilical cord blood cells there's a tendency because you know, of the different cells cell types, maybe the product is not completely pure and it has almost no mesenchymal stem cells. It has a little bit, a fraction of, of you know, for example, the current product I use has 20% mesenchymal stem cells. The product that's cord blood only at Most will contain 1%. So it doesn't have the kind of immune modulating effects or calming effect as a higher concentration. So during those times I used to counsel patients before treatment that you know, these are the potential side effects. You may get shortness of breath, you may have sneezing or wheezing and low grade fever and malaise for a few days. So I used to tell people that. I don't tell people that anymore because I don't see it. That's not really part of the picture anymore because it's so much more calming.

Well, that's, that's very interesting. So one, one quite interesting video in your YouTube channel. So Dr. Joy also has an amazing YouTube channel where she discusses about regenerative medicine and stem cells. And you did a video on reviewing Brian Johnson's stem cell trip to Bahamas. So he went to Bahamas to get blood from or the stem cells from a Swedish donor that were then transferred into the Bahamas and injected there. Do they always come from a different country or do they, should they come from the same? How does, how does it go?

Yeah, I don't know what kind of arrangements they have there, but in the US the cells will come from the US donors. So the tissue bank I work with obtain the donors, they're all from the continental US and they all have gone through pretty strict prenatal care. And they also have to commit to eating, you know, a certain kind of diet which is, you know, a healthier anti inflammatory diet, exercise and particular vitamins to optimize the pregnancy. So the criteria. But there, there are a lot of tissue banks. They're, they're popping up. So eight years ago, they're not that many. There are only a few, I think now there are a lot because a lot of people are seeing this as an incredible opportunity. Yeah, a lot of people are jumping in. So it's hard to speak to the quality of, you know, of all these products out there. But. Yeah, so people really have to do their own research to see if, you know, they're getting what, what, what was claimed.

Right. So you mentioned arthritis is one of the applications of stem cells. One in four adults in the US have arthritis. That's a major like issue at the moment. It's a major deterioration of life quality and life satisfaction and it causes chronic pain. So what kind of results you can get to arthritis with stem cell in your experience and also the research that you have looked into.

Yeah, so if we're talking about osteoarthritis. Right. That's what you're talking about, not rheumatoid arthritis. So rheumatoid arthritis, you know, because it's autoimmune in origin, we have good results. The, you know, is one of the bread and butters for stem cell therapy. Actually two, the bread and butter treatments are autoimmune Conditions and musculoskeletal issues. So I've seen great results in both. So osteoarthritis, very good results. I tend to approach from an angle that's a little bit more of addressing your entire health. Because by the time people get osteoarthritis is no longer a acute sports injury. Right. Whatever injury they had may be precipitating this osteoarthritis. But why do you have this condition that doesn't go away? So it becomes a chronic condition, and that really is an inflammatory condition. So how can we calm the inflammation in your body and repair that? So I think that's an important component that a lot of stem cell doctors are not addressing. Osteoarthritis is an inflammatory, inflammatory disease because it's not a wear and tear disease. We wear and tear our bodies when we were kids way more than what we're doing now. We're crazy, right? As kids, we think we're invincible. And if you hurt yourself, you get repaired right away. You don't get osteoarthritis. You hear any. Any children have osteoarthritis?

No.

Because of all these stem cells, they get them repaired right away. So your body cannot repair effectively. That's why you have osteoarthritis. When you can evoke the body's ability to repair and rejuvenate and you get your immune system on board, all of a sudden you can do a much better job. And for large joints like the knee, the hip, shoulder, you may want to inject directly into the joint. But for smaller joints like the hand, you don't have to inject locally because it's very well perfused. The joint space is well perfused by the blood. So if you just put cells in the blood, it's pretty easy for the cells to get to where they need to be. But for larger joints like the knee, I would address from both angles. Because the outer one third of the cartilage of the knee is nourished by the blood supply. The inner 2/3 is nourished by the synovial fluid. The exchange of the synovial fluid and the blood is very, very slow. It may take two months for whatever you put in the blood to actually end up in the synovial fluid. So you want to attack from both angles. That's why I think we get such good results, is because we're addressing both sides. It's not just the blood supply to the cartilage, but it's also your whole immune system. And how that can come on board and help you repair. So, yeah, we see great results in saving people from potential joint in replacements.

Right. So how does a therapy course compare between an acute tendon rupture versus someone with osteoarthritis? How many times, how long do you need to do the treatment? How does it look like in real life?

I think chronic conditions may take more for sure. I usually when someone has severe condition, I recommend three sessions. So osteoarthritis is a chronic condition. We can bring about changes, you know, a certain amount of improvement, maybe 100, not 100%, but sometimes we have drastic improvement. So I never just say, you know, you absolutely need three treatments, otherwise it's not going to be achieving, you know, a particular result. Because I've seen all kinds of responses. I've seen people with one treatment doing amazingly well or people needing actually three or even four sessions. So it's hard to, you know, make a blanket statement. But I want to give people the understanding that our body is very complex and the disease has come about over time. And when you try to bring about changes, it may also take time to peel back the onion layer by layer. So you may need multiple sessions depending on your body. Because each of our body respond to stem cells differently. Maybe because our own regenerative potential is different, you know, how we're able to hear the signals, or because we may have underlying, you know, other issues that's preventing the cells from working as well, including issues like hidden infections. Hidden viral infections can affect the effectiveness of stem cell therapy. So everybody's a little different. But in general, I want to give people the expectation that it may take multiple sessions to get to where you want. So if I just promised people, yeah, with one treatment, you will be fine, and some people will be fine, but then the other ones who needed more treatment would have given up. And I actually made that mistake early on in my career as a regenerative medicine doctor because I, you know, I didn't want people to spend too much money. I want to save them money. So I said, let's just do one treatment and see how it works. I did not set a equity the expectation really adequately. I should have said, you know, expect three treatments. If you do well with one treatment, fantastic. Don't come back to the second and third. But because I didn't stress that, then people, after one treatment, if some people do not get the desired response, and they would just say, well, I guess stem cells don't work for me, and that is doing the whole Field an injustice because I've seen since then, when I started to really implement this regimen of expecting three sessions, I've seen people who did not have a response after one session having a response after the second and having even a greater response after the third. Beautiful response. So that's why, you know, we need to really, you know, have that framework.

Right. And do you do the stem cells?

Yes, I do. Ever since I found out about stem cells, I think what happened was after I was told, so this girl, she had rheumatoid arthritis and she said, I did stem cells. And it's amazing because even just during the infusion, the swelling in her hand was going away because she had swollen fingers. Right. She was so inflamed. And she said, I'm able to put on a ring that, you know, my grandma gave me that I haven't been able to put on for a few years. And then also she had huge improvement in her energy and sex drive. And I just thought, how, how fantastic, you know, like, I need to, I want to try that. And then of course, in the meantime, I started reading all these research articles and it just is very inspiring seeing what these cells can do. It's not a panacea and it's not a miracle cure. There may be some people respond incredibly well. Some people respond partially and there may be some people don't respond. It really depends on how you're doing the stem cell therapy and what the person's like. So. So we need to approach it like any other medical treatment, right? No, no doctor is going to promise you that. Yeah, this is going to cure you. This is going to. Yeah, I guarantee that you're going to be fine after this treatment. No one is going to say that. So this is the same thing because we can't guarantee. But the research have shown such promise and it's really encouraging. And they're showing promises in very, very tough conditions that conventional medicine have nothing to offer. For example, copd, there's really, I mean, steroids. It doesn't address the issues. I was able to give people stem cells and getting patients off oxygen and off almost all medications.

How often do you do stem cells and how long have you done them?

So I do it on myself. Of course, it's for anti aging purposes as I don't have any medical issues. I do it every three months because the philosophy is the cells live in your body for one to three months and then the effect will last between months.

For how long?

The stem cell treatment only lasts for an hour. I mean the.

Yeah. How long have you done them?

Oh, how long? I've done it over the last, last eight years, ever since I found out about how great stem cells are. So it's kind of like an experiment of what, what I can achieve with stem cells. I had no idea at the time. I didn't even have the data for anti aging benefits of stem cells. There' there's one study showing that people have better hair, better nail, better energy level and sex drive, but there's no, the data would, you know, no strong data. But since then there have been animal studies actually. Animals unfortunately were sacrificed after they got stem cell treatment. So they were compared the animals that got stem cells versus animals that did not get stem cells and the ones that got stem cells, all their markers went back to the younger state. Whether or not is, you know, how long the neurotransmitter secretions, growth fact profile, the senescent markers, everything was restored to the younger state. So that's pretty, you know, pretty strong evidence. And also animals live on average 30% longer. Not just living longer, live look amazing. And they're acting like a younger animal. These are rats and mice.

Yeah, yeah. This is kind of interesting because now what the, maybe the most common anti aging research comes from are in nutrition. There is a lot of harms and risks for doing the most sort of research. Nutritional interventions. Who even knows if they apply to humans. Like calorie restriction might be detrimental female hormones. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just inject stem cells and get those same lifespan and healthspan benefits?

I think that's the engine behind everything. I, I make analogy of a car. Let's say our body is a vehicle and the stem cells are the engines. But everything else you do, like nutrition peptides, hormones, these are all fuels to the engine. So if you just have all the fuel, you keep adding all the amazing fuels, but you don't have the engine to drive it. That's what I've seen in some of my patients. They've tried everything and they are still not up to where they want to be. And then they get stem cells. All of a sudden everything takes off. So that I've seen. But you also cannot have an engine, a beautiful, shiny, sparkling engine with no fuel. Right. Where are you going? So, so, so you have to have everything else that this engine needs, which are the nutrition, you know, the detoxification, the hormones and, and you know, optimizing your microbiome, all this you're priming what, how you let the engine Work.

I hope it's okay to ask Dr. Choi, how old are you right now?

Oh, yeah. It's so public. I, I, you know, I really don't care, actually. It's more and more fun to talk about my age. So I'm 53 years old. It's actually in my memoir. So everybody, you know, if they read my memoir, they know exactly. They know my birthday. So the memoirs, Tiger of Beijing. So I was born 1971. And it's really fun, I think, to get to, you know, to witness or be part of this new wave of human existence where my age really has become a number. Like, it doesn't really matter that much. I can just keep living, you know, I just like, okay, I keep existing. I'm, I'm here, I'm still here, and I'm gaining all these experiences and wisdom, but then I don't decline. So my body is not starting to break down. It's not, you know, going down a path where I'm more prone to disease or cancer. So we can extend this time for a very long time. So, you know, your age, I mean, we're going to have a new definition of what age really means, because that's going to be shifted.

Yeah. I mean, you look fantastic.

Thank you.

It's obvious that you have so much energy, you run a busy clinic, and that you have no health issues. So I know there is no control group of what would have happened if you didn't do stem cells, but can you guess, like, what do you think would have been, like, would you have had the same kind of vitality and energy and youthfulness if you didn't do stem cells?

Looking back at when I started it, I was 45. So if I show you a picture, even When I was 43 years old, you know, 10 years ago, I definitely, I looked more tired. So if you look at a picture that's, you know, I've heard that comment. Yeah, you look a little, you know, like a little drained. My face is not as lifted and full. I had, you know, more discoloration, and it just look a little, I guess, a little more sunken. And now it's like everything, because I'm rejuvenating. Everything is kind of, you know, filling up from the inside and out. I look a lot younger, you know, comparing to that time. I'm sure with everything I'm doing is this total rejuvenation because, you know, I've been very also public about it, about my own journey. I, I've dealt with some depression, anxiety since I was A teenager. And to the point where it culminated during my medical school at ucla when I went into depression, I was still functioning. I was still going to work, you know, going to the hospital and doing all my clinical work, but I was not functioning well. But I was functioning until a doctor, you know, asked me, you know, saying. Asked me what's going on, and then ended up getting on antidepressant, which I absolutely love. This is one reason I went into psychiatry. I realized this could transform people's lives. So I got on Prozac, and then as time went on, you know, more and more stress. I kept increasing the Prozac dose. And it got to its maximum. Right. 80 milligrams, and then I can't go any higher. That's where I was at when I started doing more holistic health. And with the help of everything I'm doing, plus stem cells, I'm able to, you know, get. Get off it completely two. Two years ago, just, you know, completely free. So, yes, I think altogether again, I'm talking about the engine and the fuel. When you do everything together, you have a chance of. Of healing of, you know, from the fundamental level. Yeah, so that's really has been my biggest challenge is. Is the, you know, mental health aspects. But, you know, physically, I think that face is a reflection of everything inside your body that you can't see. So when people age, their face is wrinkling up. They look older and they say, oh, I'm older because I look older. No, you're older because everything inside of your. That, that, your. Your torso, everything you can't see, they're all older, older, and they're all wrinkling up just like your face. You just can't see it. So that's what I'm trying to address. If I give you IV stem cells is rejuvenating your organs, all your organs, right. You're making them less wrinkly and less, you know, saggy and. And they are all rejuvenated. And your face is just a window of what's going on inside your body. Right.

That makes a lot of sense. Can you use stem cells to rejuvenate facial wrinkles?

Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Stem cells or exosomes. We. We do that in our clinic as well. You can inject stem cells. I usually do microneedling on the surface because you're promoting, you know, you're making some structural shifts. When you do microneedling, you're disrupting the matrix, and then the cells can come in to restructure it. If you just Inject it without disrupting the existing framework. It's going to be harder for the cells to know what to do. But if you disrupt it and the cells are really activated and then they see that, you know, that was a matrix that was disrupted. Now it needs to be fixed. Now it can regenerate really healthy tissue that's not wrinkled, that's actually, you know, not defective.

Right. Can you use this topically like you have a product, right?

Chara Omni. It's called Chara Omni cream. So C H A R A O M N I I'm very proud of the product and people really are in love with the product. I developed it because of my own kind of pursuit for a clean skin cream. That's all I wanted. All I wanted is a really clean natural cream that's not going to have all these toxins and hormone disruptors. And I had a hell of a time finding it. I would go to these natural expos that they have all natural product. I'll get some samples. So I put in a drawer and wait to use it, you know, a little bit later. And then by the time I get back to it, like a couple months later, everything's separated into different layers as I've been, wow, I don't know if I can put this on my face. It's not even stable. You know, of course I wouldn't separate into different layers. And then I would go buy some expensive products. Like, you know, for example, one from Korea. They're you know, really advanced, right. In skincare and they say, oh, this is all natural. And then by the time I start using it is okay again, complicated stuff, right? They got toner serum and eye cream and everything is separate. Okay. We've got all this stuff and I'm putting all these on. And then at one point I flipped over the bottles and let me really, really read. They say it's all natural. Let me actually go through the ingredients and then it turns out that they have all these synthetic components. That's when I said, okay, sounds seems like I have to do this myself that if I want a really good product. So that's what I developed. But because I'm a stem cell specialist, I have access to access to great stem cell components. So I added that component and I also added all kinds of peptides. So that makes it really powerful. The cells are not alive, but all their beneficial growth factors and the different molecules that's good for regeneration are still there. So that's what we're tapping into. Yeah, so that's That's a product. That's the only thing I'll put on my face for the past four years. I refuse to. To touch anything else. I freak out when I travel and I forget my bottle.

Yeah, well, your skin looks amazing, so.

Thank you so much.

And I believe we have like a discount code that we can link to the description if anyone's interested. And I might give it a try myself as well. I've been very open in my channel about how I be in suffering with acne scars. And I actually, I love micro needling so much.

I've used. Actually you can use this product as a base, right, as the glider for micro needling because it's so gentle, so natural. So you can do micro. Put this on the face and do microneedling. People love that.

I need to try it. I feel like I become like the voice of microneedling. Wherever I go and somebody mentions skin, I'm like, I go crazy about microneedling because it makes such a big impact. It really did a lot of impact on my pace, actually. So to boost it with some sort of cream would be amazing. The wound healing, because that's what it's all about. Regenerating.

Yeah, yeah, it's very nourishing. You will feel it once you put on your face and just keep it really nicely hydrated and nourished, you know, throughout the day. It's. Yeah, it's just beautiful cream.

So what do you think is the future of stem cell treatment? Are we gonna. Is it gonna become like a standard of care? Are we gonna see everywhere?

Because again, I predict one day stem cell treatment is going to be no big deal. That's what's going to happen. That right now is this fancy thing. Oh, it's expensive and only rich people, whatever. So that's. That's one thing people say. You know, I've seen people who don't have a lot of money and they see the value and they're able to, you know, actually put. Put that in, investing that into their health and, you know, but. But it's true. It's on the expensive side, although not exorbitant, considering how much benefit it can bring to a person. But one day that's all going to be moot point because stem cell therapy is going to be so available that whatever you do, you got to do some stem cells because if you're. Let's say you have to get an operation, you know, you have to take appendix out, whatever, you know, you take some stem cells, that's going to make you heal. What I've seen is twice or three times as fast as far as healing time. It drastically improves healing, not just healing time, but how well things heal, right? The scars and, you know, how the tissue, how well they feel. So before and after surgery, that's everywhere. Let's say you got sick, you got an infection, you got, you know, you don't feel well, okay? Get some stem cells that's going to get you to, to, you know, catch you, you know, up to speed as far as repair and regeneration. And then people are going to take this on a regular basis to slow down the aging process so you can keep yourself in a youthful state. Right now, what's our youthful state from, you know, as an adult from age 18 to, let's just say 40, right? I mean, really 35. And then from after 35, you start to decline. So, but, you know, nowadays people are taking care of themselves. Let's just say from, from 18 to 45 is your youthful time, that you're, you're, you're looking pretty youthful, pretty good. But I think we have a chance of changing that, extending that from 18 to 75. So, so we're actually, we can add 30 more years of you looking pretty much the same, you know, as when you, you're 35. You know, you're at 75, you look just like, you know, very similar to when you were 35. And wouldn't that be amazing? And what I think about is, you know, some of the wonderful people that you want to, want them to stay alive longer, right? Want them to keep sharing and teaching and enriching the world or your, your children, grandchildren want you to be around and, you know, to be there and then to be a family and, and then you, you gain 30 more years of just an amazing healthy time with everybody and keep sharing with the world. And that is transformation of human health. Not only you're, you're, you're staying younger, but you are staying healthier because when you reverse aging. So like I was talking with Ryan Smith from True Diagnostic, when you reduce or your biological age by seven years, you cut down chronic illness, the rate of chronic illness by half. So if you just make everybody seven years younger, all of a sudden, half of the chronic illnesses in the world would have disappeared. So let's say right now there are 100 million people who are sick. If you just reverse Everybody's age, only 50 million would be sick. But I think with the help of stem cells, we can reverse that even more. I don't think it's far fetched at all to reverse by 15 to 20 years. I think that's pretty easily achievable. So if you can't do that, then maybe we can cut down the disease by 75%. Right. So we just, people are so much healthier. So that's what we're looking at. That stem cell is going to be part of everyday, you know, conversation and whatever people need, whether or not if it's for surgery or for their own, you know, getting sick or just to stay young, that's just going to be. Yeah. Happening all the time, everywhere.

Well, thank you, Dr. Joy, for spreading the awareness, the information to education and helping so many people to reverse these chronic illnesses and reverse aging as well. Where can people learn more about your clinic, your products and all of your education and teaching online?

Yeah, the best place probably is my website, drjoykong.com and you can always contact me by sending a contact form. So it talks about everything I'm into. So that includes my clinic, the stem cell company I started, the academy, I started my memoir and of course follow me on YouTube. So that's just Joy Kong MD and I post, you know, content every week to either me talking about stem cells or me interviewing. Really wonderful, you know, pioneers to really spread the knowledge and help everybody to live younger. Yeah. And my Instagram people can come to Dr. Joy Kong. So DrJoy Kong and I look forward. I'm always interactive. I'm happy to speak with anybody who wants to learn more.