The TRUTH about STEM CELL therapy 🧬 - Dr. Joy Kong

I will tell you something about stem cell therapy that may surprise you. And there are a lot of questions that are asked about, you know, what may be the best kind of treatments and what kind of cells to use. So I'm going to answer some of the questions for you. First of all, a lot of people think that using your own stem cells is better than using someone else's. So when we talk about someone else's, really we're talking about birth tissue derived stem cells, because in this country embryonic stem cells is not legal, fetal stem cells is not legal. But young cells from the birth tissue, which usually are tossed away when the new baby is born. Those tissues contain really, really potent and young stem cells and those can be harvested. So usually those will be the sources that comes from somebody else. So just because a cell comes from your own body, that doesn't mean that it's a better type of cells. Because whatever your age is, you know, you can be 25 years old or you can be 65 years old, your cells are the same age as you, which means it has been with you all these years, it's undergone the same environmental pollution exposure, you know, the same sun damages or whatever junk food that you may have put in alcohol, Everything that you have experienced, it's going to be imprinted on the cells that you carry with you. Mitochondria damages and decline. So everything is carries with you and your stem cells is the age of you. And there's no question, because research have shown side by side comparison, when you look at umbilical cord derived stem cells versus adult stem cells from a person's fat or bone marrow, all these parameters, looking at their differentiation capacities, their anti inflammatory capabilities, near their neural protection capabilities, how many generations they have left, their telomere length, everything, the umbilical cord cells are superior. So just because it's from your own, yes, there's not going to be an immune rejection. But you have to look at umbilical cord cells that they're so primitive and so young, especially when you get it from the umbilical cord tissue source. It has a lot of MSCs, mesenchymal stem cells, those are actually very calming for the immune system. So they actually can help your immune system to, to relax and not be overactive and not to start to attack new cells. This is why mesenchymal stem cells has been used in organ transplantation, actually promote the longevity or engraftment of the new organ because it calms your immune system. So from all these factors, these young cells from another person because they're so primitive and so young, by the way, they're younger than the cells from the baby's body because these birth tissue cells actually were trapped early in embryogenesis. So they're kind of in between embryonic stem cells and the baby stem cells. So they're very young and they're able to adapt to the new host. So there's very little chance for rejection, you know, besides the fact that mesenchymal stem cells can calm your immune system. So there's very little chance of causing problems. But they're much more potent, they produce more benefits. So that's, that's one thing I think is a common myth that people think, you know, I have to use my own. The other common question is, shouldn't I get more cells? You know, shouldn't I go overseas and get 200, 300 million cells? Wouldn't that be better than doing something in the US because in the United States you cannot expand the cells and then give it to people without undergoing a clinical study. And that can be a very labor intensive and very expensive process. That's why all these companies are going to Central and South America, because the regulation is much more lax and they're able to grow the cells in an incubator. So expand them to huge numbers and then take a little portion of it to give it to people. The problem of that is it sounds great, it sounds potent because you got so many cells. The problems that research have shown, just by expanding the cells, even within 24 hours of expansion, you're decreasing the homing capabilities of the cells and the engraftment capability. So you're already changing certain properties of the cells. Also when you increase the number of cells, there's one research that was presented at a conference at 10 times the number of cells given that's used, the effect is actually less than the cells that have not been expanded. So you may give a huge number. Let's say, you know, in my clinic, let's just say I use 20 million cells. But overseas you're getting 200 million cells. Well, the research have shown at 200 million, you're getting less of the benefit than 20 million. Because these 20 million are native cells. They've never been altered, never been changed. And that's what a study shows. They're more potent, they give greater benefits. So that's another thing that I think one reason is because when the cells are dividing in the incubator, they don't divide symmetrically. They often divide into one stem cell and one daughter cell. The Daughter cell is more differentiated, so it starts to express more surface receptors that mark them as that particular person's cell. So all of a sudden now you're getting signals on the cell surface that can trigger an immune response, but also is no longer a quintessential stem cell. So it's lost certain stem cell potential. It becomes a daughter cell. And then you keep growing them, then that stem cell becomes a stem cell and daughter cell. So over time, you can imagine you got a huge reservoir of daughter cells and, you know, a relatively small portion of stem cells. And then when you portion them out, because they grow them to such huge number, they save a lot of money and you take a little portion and they charge huge amount of money. I think they charge on average about twice as much as treatments in the US at least, you know, in my clinic. So, you know, it saves, you know, the cost. It's big, very little, and they charge a lot more. The problem is that the effect is less and you have more chance to have immune rejection. So that's another thing that I think a lot of people don't realize. That's the, the second question I think is important for people to, you know, to hear the answer of. And then the third one, the last one I want to mention is that people still have the idea, and I, even some doctors still think that when you use stem cells you put in the body, you're counting on the cell's ability to become cells of the tissue that you're trying to repair. Unfortunately, that's kind of old school thought. Within the last 10, 15 years, it's been pretty evident. If you look at all the research studies, everyone is accepting, okay, we used to think that's how the cells work, but now we know that's not how these stem cells work. They work by providing signals. So they don't work by going there saying, I'm going to become a liver cell or I'm going to become muscle cell. They go there to send the right signals to your immune system, to tell your immune system what to do, to send the right immune cells to take away the cells you don't need, and to send signals to local tissue so your local stem cells can start dividing and can start regenerating. So that's how you rebuild the new tissue. So it's really not so much about, you know, having to put the cells right where you need them so they can become the tissue you want them to become. This is why simple treatments like IV treatments can be so powerful, because the cells do have the homing mechanism. They can get to the areas they're needed and even, even if they don't divide from, sometimes they do mesenchymal stem cells. They can become muscle cells, you know, bone cartilage or even neurons and liver cells. So that's been shown, but that's not what we're counting on. We're counting on their ability to talk to your whole body and to get to the areas that are needed and start talking to the local tissue. So that's why I think a lot of doctors are missing the opportunity to tell the body to come, come on board. So if you just inject into that area, then you're limiting your action to that area. Unless, you know, the cells gets absorbed, you know, into the bloodstream and then you start to talk with the whole body. And that's what happens a lot of times. So even if people think that I'm injecting, treating locally, sometimes you end up getting, you know, a systemic effect. Unless you're injecting the joint space, then it's in the joint, it's not going to get absorbed anywhere else. It's going to stay in the joint pretty much much. So I think that's a missed opportunity for a lot of doctors, is not allowing the cells to talk to your entire system. And your immune organs can be very powerful at orchestrating the repair. So you want to take advantage of those capabilities of these stem cells. So these are three important things I think that have not been talked about enough. And I really hope that this has been helpful for you and clearing some confusions because there's so much confusions, not just for average people, but also for a lot of doctors. I hope if you have other questions that you can write in the comments, and I'm happy to discuss more of the questions that you may have because this is a developing field, we're still fledgling, we're still know, learning more and new things are going to come up. So I'm always trying to update myself so I can update you. And yeah, so just know that I'm here for you. I hope you really enjoy this and I look forward to talking again with you.