The Truth About Stem Cell Therapy for Autism: MSCs, Sourcing, and What Actually Works | #183

They call it either cell therapy or regenerative medicine because it's so much more complex than just using the cells. You really need a— you need a holistic approach to bring everything together. That mechanism is very complex. It can modulate the immune system. The immune system really is extraordinarily sophisticated, and that can help your body to regenerate and can give you the right environment, the healing environment. Unfortunately, the common psychiatric treatments is really not so not so much at targeting the real mechanisms of what's underneath autism, but more of subduing a patient. Just people, children with autism have shown to have impaired central nervous system circulation so that that results in hypoxia. So the brain is lacking in oxygen. So what happened with stem cells is that it actually can stimulate what's called angiogenesis, which means new blood vessel formation. So actually getting blood supply to be enhanced in the brain.

Hi there and welcome to Naturally Recovering Autism. I'm your host, Karen Thomas, and I want to thank you so much for being here with us, being a proactive parent, getting the resources that you need to help get your child better, because children on the autism spectrum can definitely improve. My own son is living proof. I was told to drug him, try behavioral therapies, and there would be nothing we could do for him. And because of my holistic background and my research with the brain I just didn't want to listen to that. I wanted to find out what the causes were. And like you, I was out there researching, listening to everything I could, reading. And, and fortunately, through everything that I found, I have— now my son today is fully recovered from his symptoms of autism. And we know that everybody's level of recovery is different, but they can be healthier, they can sleep better, they can focus in a classroom, they can control their moods and not have tantrums and rage all the time. They can be able to have friends and socialize in a normal social environment so your child can live a happier and healthier life. And to, to help you understand all of the pieces that, that really need to take place, I've created a free webinar for you, and it's, it's on Stage 1, which is healing the gut. Stage 2 is natural and safe heavy metal detoxification. Stage 3 is clearing the co-infections like mold, Lyme, and strep. And then Stage 4 is brain support and repair. And you can register for that. It's free, and please share it with others. The link to it is naturallyrecoveringautism.com/freeworkshop. No spaces, just free workshop. And that'll give you a good overview of all the things that are necessary for the optimum level of recovery for your child and how I can help you do it, because that's important too, is knowing how. And today I'm excited because this is a very important topic for autism. And as, as our pretty much everything that we talk about here, but this one is commonly misunderstood, I think. So we are going to be talking about stem cell therapy for autism today. And fortunately, we have an expert with us on this subject. And so we're going to clarify any misconceptions, any concerns, uh, what you need to be aware of when looking into stem cell therapy, what it's about, how it works. And, um, rather than me kind of going into some of that now, I'm going to let our guest explain that to you. So I'd like to introduce her. We have today, very fortunately, with us Dr. Joy Kong. She is an MD, founder and medical director of Thea CRM. She graduated as a valedictorian from San Francisco State University. Dr. Kong completed her medical training at UCLA School of Medicine. As a result of her intense interest in the human brain, she specialized in psychiatry and worked at a Veterans Affairs hospital in LA County. While working in the hospital ER and in county clinics, she realized the futility of trying to treat someone without examining the person in a holistic manner, and which led to her into interest in integrative medicine. She believes in respecting the complexity of our own microcosm and taking into the account its interactions with the environment. Dr. Kong has consulted with many regenerative medicine experts from around the world and has lectured internationally on stem cell therapy. Dr. Kong is a member of American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, certified in advanced cellular therapeutic protocols, is board-certified by American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and American Board of Addictive Medicine. She is also the president of the American Academy of Integrative Cell Therapy, an avid educator helping physicians to become fully trained in the science and practice of regenerative medicine. And we will link to everything, including Dr. Kong's website, so you can contact her as well. Everything will be— the show notes today will be at naturallyrecoveringautism.com/stemcell. No spaces, just all altogether stem cell. So Dr. Kong, thank you so much for being here with us. I greatly appreciate your, your time and your expertise on this important subject.

So welcome, it's my pleasure to be here.

So why don't we start out at the beginning? You know, many listeners are maybe stem cell therapists therapy is brand new to them, they don't know anything about it at all. So, um, you know, basically, what is stem cell therapy? Maybe we can start with that.

Okay, so just that itself has a lot of misconceptions. Um, I think what people knew a lot about stem cell therapy initially was from embryonic stem cell research. Um, and even though that has great promise, but as a therapeutic method, it's not allowed in the US because of the high risk of what's called teratomas, the form of tumor, because we cannot control the growth of these stem cells. So, when we talk about stem cell therapy, yes, you may be able to get embryonic stem cells in some other countries, but in this country, we're talking about either using a person's own stem cells or use birth tissue, which come from healthy live births, So, it's the waste product of the placenta and umbilical cord. So, those are full of stem cells, so you can utilize those. So, those are the stem cell therapy. And when people think about stem cell therapy, I think one common misconception is that people think, oh, yeah, I'm getting stem cells, so these cells are going to become the new cells. They're going to replace— if I need more neurons, they may replace neurons. If I need more cartilage. They will become the cartilage cells. But as, in the last couple decades, the research has been very clear of how these cells work. The main way these— the stem cell therapy that we've been utilizing, the forms I was talking about using a person's own or birth tissue, is really through a signaling effect of these cells. So, it's not about the cells starting to differentiate and become the cells that you want them to be. It's about these cells sending your body the right signals so your body, your own stem cells, can start differentiating and replace the damaged old cells or start to repair. So, that mechanism is very complex. It can modulate the immune system. The immune system really is extraordinarily, you know, sophisticated, and that can help your body to regenerate and can give you the right environment, the healing environment. And then, it can talk to your own stem cells, talk to other cells in the area, and so, Having the cells is important, but other things in the stem cell therapy are important, too, such as even extracellular matrix full of proteins and signals or structural supports, and those can be important, or the growth factors, which work synergistically with the cells. So, a lot of people don't like the word stem cell therapy. They call it either cell therapy or regenerative medicine therapy because it's so much more complex than just using the cells. You really need— you need a holistic approach to bring everything together. Yeah, so that would be something that I want people to take away.

It is important to know the differences between cell therapy, regenerative medicine, what this all means, too. We're going to take a short break right here, but when we come back, I think that would be important to kind of dive into a little bit further. So, uh, stay with us. You're listening to Naturally Recovering Autism. We will be right back.

Have you ever wondered why some children recover from their symptoms of autism while others never seem to get any better? After 13 years of research, Karen Thomas has recovered her own son from his symptoms of autism naturally. She now shares how she did it with you in her free webinar so that you can have the right resources and knowledge to help your child. The definition of recovery is to regain Karen offers this to you in 4 stages: healing the gut, natural heavy metal detoxification, balancing the co-infections of autism, brain support and repair. Register now for this free webinar to help you know what you can do to help your child to sleep better, be more calm, improve focus, and reach their fullest potential to live a happy, healthy life. Go to naturallyrecoveringautism.com/free-workshop. Empowering parents with the resources to naturally recover autism Autism from a mom who's done it.

Hi there and welcome back to Naturally Recovering Autism. I'm your host Karen Thomas and today we're talking about stem cell therapy for autism and we have Dr. Joy Kong, MD, specialist in stem cell therapy, with us today. Before the break we were talking about how these cells signal our own cells or create signals that will help to send the body to, you know, the messages to repair their own cells, which is very interesting how it, how it all works really and, and how you want to find quality quality sources to get these from. We'll get into a little bit of some of the legalities and how some people are, you know, leaving, going, flying into foreign countries, and I want to cover that. But I think first of all, let's talk a little bit about the different mechanisms in autism, because I know that autism is its very own special and unique piece and how these stem cells can assist with the defects in the T-cell numbers, which are basically our body can have these immune reactions. Basically, autism is a form of an autoimmune response. So maybe, Dr. Kong, you can give us some of that explanation around the mechanisms and autism?

Yes, absolutely. So autism, of course, I study psychiatry. Unfortunately, the common psychiatric treatments is really not so much at targeting the real mechanisms of what's underneath autism, but more of subduing a patient, just, you know, or to prevent outbursts and/or psychotic-like behavior, you know, because that's the psychiatric approach, or mood disorder. So it's very limited in its approach, but really when you look at the underlying issues. There are a few things that underlies autism. One is that they realize that people, children with autism have shown to have impaired central nervous system circulation, so that results in hypoxia. So, the brain is starving of oxygen. So, it's lacking in oxygen. And so, what happened with stem cells is that it actually can stimulate what's called angiogenesis, which means more new blood vessel formation. So actually getting the blood supply to be enhanced in the brain. And there are also other things, like you mentioned, autoimmune issues. So parents, actually family members of autistic children have a higher percentage of having autoimmune conditions. Comparing to just, you know, people who, you know, regular people who don't have autistic relatives. So, it's a cluster of higher autoimmunity, and one thing about stem cells is that it's very good, especially mesenchymal stem cells. That's the most used and most kind of sought-after type of stem cells these days, they are superb at suppressing pathological immune responses, and they also can stimulate the formation of new blood cells and even helping with blood vessel formation, so angiogenesis. So, because of these autoimmune irregularity or pathologies, the stem cells can go in there and help correct that. So, it's interesting, like one of the studies actually had brain autopsy of 11 autistic children, and they saw that there's active neural inflammation in a lot of areas of the brain. So, there's inflammatory condition going on in these children. Of course, they they've died, but they were comparing these with age-matched controls, and they found out there's a lot of neuroinflammation, and the stem cells, the mesenchymal stem cells, are really fantastic at their anti-inflammatory effect. So, there are different mechanisms the stem cells can alter. It can help, like I mentioned, form new blood vessels. It can supply more oxygen, so the cells can function more normally, and it can also calm the excessive immune activation and reduce inflammation. And then, it also can stimulate the local stem cells in the brain. And these stem cells also secrete different factors, so, different factors to help local cells to regenerate or to be healthier. And also, it helps with antioxidant activities, and so it helps restore the neural connectivity. So, all these are the ranges of mechanisms that the stem cell can help.

Wow, it's fascinating. I mean, what kind of things have parents really notice as far as results that you've seen? Can you give us some examples?

Parents, for example, there's one little girl I treated, you know, I saw in our clinic. She went from diaper-bound, she was about 7 years old, she even had a stem cell therapy of her own body, bone marrow, I think when she was about 5. She did that in India. So, it did help her somewhat, but I think she got a better response even just through a simple IV treatment using our cells, our birth tissue-derived cells. And she went from being diaper-bound, so completely incontinent without bowel control, to almost all the time is able, off diaper, is able to tell the parents, you know, that, you know, potty, you know, when they are out. So the parents could, you know, the parents would say, you know, can you wait a little bit so we can find a bathroom? And then she will hold it and she will wait. So except for very rare occasions when she was in a very unfamiliar environment, you know, when they are traveling, that there may be a few accidents. But basically she was off diaper. And she also went from being nonverbal to being verbal. So she started talking, and she was also using sign language, but she was counting in my office. So she was completely nonverbal and was very hyperactive, very difficult. And then she also had hypotonia, so she had muscle weakness. She couldn't go up the stairs on her own. Her parents always had to carry her, but after the treatment, she was able to climb the stairs up herself. So there are a whole range of changes and interactions with kids. Has been able to, you know, react better in social situations. So all these are just— this is just for one, one kid I've treated, but there are a lot of different cases of various improvements seen in these kids.

Wow. And I want to ask you a little bit more about, you know, like you said, you mentioned the IV, and I'm wondering if they were her stem cells or if you get them from others. And I know that you have a very strict practice for how you get them, and I want to go into that. But first, we're going to take a short break. So you're listening to Naturally Recovering Autism. I'm your host, Karen Thomas. Please stay with us, we will be right back. Hi there and welcome back to Naturally Recovering Autism. I'm your host, Karen Thomas, and today we're talking about stem cell therapy for autism, and we have Dr. Joy Kong, MD, with us, who is a specialist in this area. And, and I know, Dr. Kong, it is something you have to be very careful of where you get these stem cells from because there's a lot of a lot of poor potency, there's a lot of lack of integrity out there. And I do know some personal stories of hearing from people who've gone to foreign doctors and who are, you know, they're actually putting on free seminars and recruiting people to their centers, you know, throughout the US and then outside of the country. And then parents are kind of being pulled into, you know, false claims and not getting accurate treatment. And so I'm wondering if you can give us some background. And I I know that you've come up with a method, and for our listeners, Dr. Kong is in the United States. She's in California, and you have come up with a way to get around this. So can you give us some background on sort of all of that? You know, I do want to find out too what eventually parents should really be cautious of and what you have found and how you do it.

Yeah, there's so much to talk about on this subject. Initially, Of course, people were going to Panama, to Mexico to get these stem cell treatments. So, a lot of them— so, some are utilizing a person's own bone marrow. That's one popular method, such as in Mexico. And then, some are using birth tissue-derived, so umbilical cord-derived cells, such as in Panama. So, using a person's own, first of all, so I have an online lecture. It's called— it's on YouTube. I go into this in huge depth because I— it really is meant for all the doctors out there who are doing stem cell therapy because a lot of information people just don't know, but the research is out there. So, I just showed article after article. The title is called "Are All MSCs Created Equal?" So, even though I was talking about MSCs, the mesenchymal stem cells, how powerful they are, but just because they are MSCs It doesn't mean from any source they're the same. So if they're coming from your own body, if you have certain genetic issues and that's carried with you, and if you are aging, if you are getting older, even when you are 20, 30, your cells still have aged and have endured environmental degradation. And so, not to mention when you're, you know, 40, 50, but autistic kids, you know, they're young, but still, like we talked about, there's There's genetic, you know, for people with autoimmune conditions, we found that their mesenchymal stem cells do not function as well as the mesenchymal stem cells in a healthy person. So, their immune-modulating abilities has been impaired to some degree. But, so that said, if you're using a newborn, a healthy newborn mesenchymal stem cells. In other countries where cell expansion is allowed, such as Panama, what they do is that they will get the cells from the umbilical cord, either cord blood or cord tissue, and then they will expand them, so they grow them in culture. And that is not allowed to be used unless it's under clinical trial in the US. So, in the United States, What the government said, the FDA said, you can use the stem cells, but you can't manipulate it in any way. You can't use enzymes, you can't use, you know, to break down the neighboring tissue, because enzymes do affect stem cells, and you cannot grow them in culture. So, you can't manipulate them in any way, but if you don't, they're the original cells, and if you use them the same, you know, for the same function that they were, that they had in the donor's body, then you can use it legally. You know, that's okay. It falls under a different section of the regulations, the Section 361. So that's the FDA says basically then these cells are considered 361 products, and then they can be used without a drug trial. So that's what's going on. And what I believe is that, first of all, cells from a healthy newborn, they are a lot more potent than an adult cell, especially when a person has aged more, 30, 40, especially above 50. So, these cells, they've demonstrated that they are more anti-inflammatory, so they secrete more anti-inflammatory factors. They have more neuroprotective effects. They have more generations left. Their telomere is longer, which means they have more generations, right? And the cells The cell's DNAs are more protected, and so all their vibrancy is just a lot higher. Metabolically, they're more active. And when you expand the cells, let's say you get the cells from these newborn tissue, the umbilical cord or placenta, and you start expanding them. The problem with expansion is that the cells start to lose potency. So, it's not like they're just money growing on trees. You can just keep growing them. It doesn't work that way. The cells will start to degrade. So, when you going overseas getting 200, 300 million cells, what the research has shown, and I've shown one study, is that that 10 times the number of cells. Let's say I'm giving somebody 20 million cells, and they go overseas, and get 200 million, what it shows is that the 200 million doesn't have as good of an effect as the 20 million. And that's really interesting, because when cells— when you grow them in culture, a lot of them are not stem cells anymore. They start to differentiate. So even though they're measured as cells, they're no longer mesenchymal stem cells. They're further differentiated. So there's a lot of intricacy. People think, oh my God, I'm getting 200 million cells. Just because you get getting a lot of cells doesn't mean that you're getting better results. So, what I believe the best treatment is original cells and completely unmanipulated, which retain the highest potency, and you don't need that many cells. So, like the little girl that I saw in my clinic I just mentioned, you know, it was— I think she got about 30 million cells right? It doesn't take that much because they're so powerful, so potent, and that's where you can get— that's where you can get their actions. You can, you know, you can get the benefits. So, in the US, when people use these cells, there are different sources too. There's from cord blood and there's from cord tissue. So, they're all from the umbilical cord, and that we can talk about, you know, in a little bit about the differences.

Okay, yeah, that's important to know. It's not just about quantity. Same I find with probiotics. You know, there are so many things people think, well, it's got more in it, so isn't that better? No, it's not necessarily at all. So yeah, the source and, and, and all of that is very, very important. We'll, we'll dive back into that. We're gonna take a short break right here. You're listening to Naturally Recovering Autism. Stay with us, we will be right back.

Hello, my loyal listeners. I want to interrupt this podcast for just a second because I want to let you know that if you're looking to help solve a major health issue, or you're looking for health optimization and just for longevity purposes, you can find us at Chara Health. We are considered the leader in the regenerative medicine and longevity space, and we utilize modalities like stem cell therapy, peptide therapy, plasmapheresis, ozone treatments, treatments, laser therapy, all to create a beautiful symphony to get you to where you want to be. You can find us at www.chara-health.com. That's C-H-A-R-A.

Hi there and welcome back to Naturally Recovering Autism. I'm your host, Karen Thomas, and today we are talking with Dr. Joy Kong, MD, who is an expert on stem cell therapy, and we're talking about stem cell therapy for autism as well. And before the break, we were talking about about, you know, basically quality versus quantity. Just getting a lot more isn't necessarily, and often is not, better, especially if the cells have had reduced potency. So you mentioned, Dr. Kong, a little bit right before about cord versus blood, and I'm wondering, you know, okay, so babies are born and some are already— they have some contaminants. They've had maybe— mom has had some environmental toxic exposure while she was um, while she was pregnant. And so the baby sometimes can have some, some toxins in it. So I'm wondering that, you know, what issues there are with that. If people, you know, use— it's better to use somebody else's that you think are more pure, and how you know that those are clean cells versus using your own. And so I'm just wondering about that, like source contamination versus getting something that might be a little bit more more pure.

Yeah, that's why knowing your source is really important. So, in the US, when we use birth tissue-derived cells, the cells, the donated tissue supposedly have gone through very, very strict inspection and criteria. Unfortunately, some companies are really damaging the industry. So, this company called Livion, their product, had been recalled twice now. So first time there was E. coli contamination, and then there was another issue. It would just— it's really unfortunate because, you know, the sourcing and the inspection, it's just not up to par. That's why the product was recalled by the FDA. So working with a laboratory that you know that upholds the highest standards. You know, that's, that's the most important thing. So what happened in, in, in this industry was when I first started, you know, using stem cells for my patients, I realized certain facts were not adding up. And because I was told mesenchymal stem cells was the main thing that's working in the product, and at that time was a cord blood product, so from umbilical cord blood, which has a lot of wonderful qualities, but cord blood has has about, at most, 1% of mesenchymal stem cells, but I wasn't told that. So, what— but the cord blood is very easy to process. So, a lot of laboratories can easily set up shop, and everything is already in the blood, so you just spin it down, and then you can get the cells. Unfortunately, with just 1% of mesenchymal stem cells, not only is lacking the therapeutic potentials from these mesenchymal stem cells, but also there's a little bit higher, you know, a little bit higher chance of immune interactions because of the purity, you know, how pure you can make the product. If there's red blood cell contamination, definitely there can be more immune rejection because the red blood cells are mature cells, so that would have exhibited surface receptors that are of different human. That when they're younger cells, really they should give people very pure cells, what's called either hematopoietic progenitor cells or mononuclear cells. So, these mononuclear cells are cells that are very immature. They haven't matured. So, they're immature immune cells or progenitor cells. That's what's supposed to be used. And when that's used, even if that's from a different individual, It's very, very safe, extremely safe. I can, for example, a statistic was that out of over 500 patients who got umbilical cord blood transplantation, there's not a single one that has suffered from graft-versus-host disease, even when there's no immune suppression, because when cells are so young, they are somehow able to adapt to the host, whereas if you get a bone marrow transplant, right, so that's kind of like— it's also a blood source. So, bone marrow transplant, they just mobilize your bone marrow, and then they filter your blood, and they give people the stem cells. Unfortunately, even if you're perfectly matched as adults, let's say Adult A is giving Adult B perfectly matched matched bone marrow transplant, so these blood transfusions, there is still a rejection rate. Whereas, if using cord blood, completely unmatched, no immune suppression, you just give it to another person, there hasn't been rejection. That's how powerful young cells are. That's how interesting biological systems operate. So, this— when the cells are pure, you're not supposed to have issues. But when you have more mesenchymal stem cells, you're even almost— it's pretty unlikely to have any kind of immune issues because mesenchymal stem cells are used to help prevent organ rejections. So, a person can have just gotten an organ transplant, and if the person gets mesenchymal stem cells as a transfusion, the organ is going to stay in better. Because it modulates your immune system. So, what I believe is a combination of these immature immune cells plus a high percentage mesenchymal stem cells, and that's what I set out to do. So, I actually set up a company called Chara Biologics where I wanted to provide the best, the highest quality product. So, our stem cell product has has over 20% mesenchymal stem cells, but also have all these other cells that are really helpful in therapeutic effect. So, in combination, I believe this is the best product in the country, and I can prove it by third-party testing. And I always want to give my patients the best, and I kind of made, you know, it's kind of like a pledge I made for my to my patients, that I will give them the very best no matter what. So, the screening is really important. The screening process, the mothers actually go through about 89 questions. So, when they decide that they are not going to keep their cord, they're asked to fill out this very extensive questionnaire asking about their own personal history, family history, their sexual history, tox exposure, travel history, so everything you can think of, prenatal history, everything is taken into account. Of course, you know, a person is not allowed to be compensated for a tissue donation, right? In the United States, you can't sell tissue. So, you can't even give them a little gift. You know, it's completely, you know, it has to be a donation. There's no reason for mothers not to answer it truthfully. So, only when a sample or a tissue is 100%, you know, with perfect answers, will we accept them. And then we go through extensive testing of the tissue still.

Wow.

So, yeah, so the safety is quite assured.

Well, that's good to know too, because there are so many issues, especially when people are going going into foreign countries. So we'll talk a little bit more about that. We're gonna take a short break right here. You're listening to Naturally Recovering Autism. Stay with us, we will be right back. Hi there and welcome back to Naturally Recovering Autism. I am your host Karen Thomas, and today we are talking about stem cell therapy for autism, and we have a specialist, Dr. Joy Kong, with us. And before the break, we were talking about this combination that Dr. Kong, you mentioned, of of the, the umbilical cord with the specific mesothelial cells. And I know that you have a process to make it, and that you're assuring people that it is safe and the highest standards are made if they're getting it from you, from your sources. And I know that, that you have told me before when we talked that yours is actually much more affordable too, because I know parents are going out, out of the country and pursuing it and Many are spending, you know, exorbitant amounts of money. So I'd like to just kind of talk about that just slightly, you know, a little bit there. But I'm also wondering, okay, some people didn't even know that this treatment was legal in the US. So obviously it is, but I know that you have a little bit more to say about that. So, you know, comparing somebody going out of— overseas to doing it here, affordability and legalities, can you just kind of COVID some of those things that parents need to just be aware of?

—Yeah. So, overseas, yeah, I'm shocked at how much people are charging, but in this country, there's a wide range. The range is a little crazy as well, so it ranges from a few thousand dollars to $30,000 for one treatment. So, but I tell our doctors, please be reasonable. Please make it affordable for patients. So, for example, in my clinic, if a person gets 1 cc of stem cells, which contains 10 million cells, the cost is $4,000. If the person gets 2 cc, which is 20 million cells, then the cost is $7,000. And for a young kid, probably 1 to 2 or 3, it's enough. So, each additional cc, in my clinic, I charge $2,500. So, you can see it's probably half or a third of what people have to pay overseas. So, we have the most, as far as quality assurance, it's the best type of cells and the safest and also more affordable. So, it's just a matter of people getting to know that they have this available in the US from a very safe source. It's too bad that there's this misconception that people think that they have to fly out and to get something from overseas.

And I'm wondering, yeah, it's nice to know they can get it here. I'm just wondering, how much do you know— how do you know how much to get each child? Because, you know, there's the 10 million cells, the 20 million cells, and the different prices. So I'm assuming that you do some testing and some question surveys with the parents and the child's level of, you know, of autism, perhaps their symptoms. I'm also wondering, is it always through IV? And if it is, how do you get a child with autism them to sit comfortably. So, can you answer those questions for us?

Yes, of course. The way the dose is calculated is by weight. So, it depends on how many pounds the child is. So, I usually go by about 30 pounds for 1 cc. So, there's flexibility. So, also about disease aggressiveness, but I think the way I like to do it is a series of treatments. I want to see how patients do in a couple months, 2, 3 months, neurological Brain-related issues sometimes take a long time to recover, so a person may still see improvement even 6, 7 months down the road. So, I want to give them some time, at least 2, 3 months to see, "Are we getting a lot of improvements? Are we good, or is the person plateaued? Can we do another treatment?" treatment. So, by weight and also by response. And as far as injections, speaking as a physician and as an educator, there's so much study done on different autoimmune issues or even autism. So, IV definitely is a powerful modality that people can use. But even intramuscular injections, so when the IV cannot be established, the child is really difficult and very hyperactive and just very resistant, because it can be very difficult to establish IV in an autistic child. Even injecting intramuscularly can have good results, because the cells will be absorbed into— a lot of them will be absorbed into the bloodstream, but some even stay in the muscles and can continue to secrete various factors, the growth factors, when they're in the muscles. But ideally, I think IV is ideal, but I've heard people getting great response even with IM injections. So that's good news.

Yeah, that is good news. I know it causes even a parent of a child with autism thinks they have to go to the dentist with their child and the stress level just goes up. It's so hard. Our kids are so sensitive, the sensory overload, the fear factor. That's good news to know too, for sure, and that the series is good. I'm thinking too, I'm imagining, you know, a whole approach to health is also important along with this. You know, we're going to take a short break right here and then maybe we'll jump into that when we come back. You're listening to Naturally Recovering Autism. We're going to take a short break. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

Have you ever wondered why some children recover from their symptoms of autism while others never seem to get any better? After 13 years of research, Karen Thomas has recovered her own son from his symptoms of autism naturally. She now shares how she did it with you in her free webinar so that you can have the right resources and knowledge to help your child. The definition of recovery is to regain health. Karen offers this to you in 4 stages: healing the gut, natural heavy metal Detoxification, Balancing the Co-Infections of Autism, Brain Support and Repair. Register now for this free webinar to help you know what you can do to help your child to sleep better, be more calm, improve focus, and reach their fullest potential to live a happy, healthy life. Go to naturallyrecoveringautism.com/free-workshop. Empowering parents with the resources to naturally Recover Autism from a Mom Who's Done It.

Hi there and welcome back to Naturally Recovering Autism. I'm your host Karen Thomas and today we're talking about stem cell therapy for autism and we have Dr. Joy Kong with us. And just so that you know, to all of the links for today's show, including those to, to Dr. Kong, but I'll have her give her website to you as well. But every— the show notes will be at naturallyrecoveringautism.com forward slash stemsell, and I've made it all one word, no spaces, just stem cell there. And important to know, as well as Dr. Kong's YouTube lecture that she mentioned, I'll link to that as well too. So if you're out driving your car, you're on your morning walk, you don't have something to write with, don't worry about it, we'll be able to get that for you. And one thing too that I think is really important, Dr. Kong, is to help assure and, you know, parents, I'm always trying to educate as well— that diet, detoxification, the rest of the pieces are important along with the stem cell therapy, correct?

It's crucial. It's really crucial. So like all the patients who come to me for stem cell therapy, no matter what conditions they have, I always try to optimize their, their diet, you know. So detoxification is a part of it. And also, you know, there are hormones and there are, you know, inflammation levels. There's so many ways to reduce that or to optimize those to allow the cells to work better. So what I tell people is that, you know, I'm giving you this incredibly powerful tool, this, you know, almost, you know, this magical piece that helped the beginning of life, right? But life is so much more complex. You know, if you don't have a nutrient, if you don't have zinc, you know, the cell— how is the cell gonna work? You know, how is that gonna promote different signals when it requires zinc? So, you've got to optimize everything. You've got to, you know, have integrative and holistic approach. You can't just say, "Oh, I've got stem cells and I don't have to worry about everything else." No. You still have to worry about everything else and do everything you can for overall health. And exercise is important for sure. You know, get the kid to exercise and to move. And outside and in nature, yeah.

I think people, you know, tend to get isolated, especially children with autism. You know, it can be challenging to go out in public sometimes, but I always really encourage, you know, take them to the park, take them out for a walk, get them moving and then get them, you know, fresh air and, and in the earth, as well as, of course, you know, diet is, is so, so important. You know, food is medicine, but it's also important to know that diet is not everything. There are, as I mentioned to you earlier, the 4 Stages workshop that I offered to you, and that's again at naturallyrecoveringautism.com/free-workshop. So you can get that as well to learn everything there is, because we're looking for the optimum results. We don't want to just do one thing and get par results or subpar results. We want to just get— we want to get the— do the best that we can. And again, I'll link to your information, Dr. Kong, but where can our listeners learn more about your practice and contact you?

So they can look up on the website. So at SEA, so SEA, Center for Regenerative Medicine, so it's in short It's theacrm.com. And I have a lot of YouTube videos where I try to educate people on stem cells and subject regenerative medicine, so they can look me up. I think it's Joy Kong, MD, or something. I have to look up my YouTube channel, but just Google me on YouTube. So, I have some good videos out there that I think are very helpful. And yeah, or call our clinics at 818-356-8248. That's another way to reach us.

Okay, great. And again, I will link to— I already have that linked on the show notes page, so we'll make sure. But I will add your— the YouTube lecture that you mentioned, Are All MSCs Created Equal? And there are, as well as, as parents, we do have practitioners that listen to, uh, to this, so, uh, this show. So please do share with other practitioners so you can help educate, because Dr. Kong is an educator of other practitioners. So that would be really helpful to share that. And parents, you can share that with your practitioners as well. And again, we're actually—

I'm putting together— I'm actually putting together, uh, my, my full day lecture on stem cell therapy online. So I— that will help reach more doctors and get more doctors educated on really the nitty-gritty and how best to optimize cell therapy.

Okay, great. That will be wonderful. So again, the links will be for you at naturallyrecoveringautism.com/stemcell. And we are out of time. Thank you, Dr. Kong, so much for being here with us today. I really appreciate your time and your expertise. Thank you for listening in today, and we will see you next week. Hey, really quick before you go, I wanted to give you a big thank you. Uh, we have reached number 1 of the top autism parenting podcasts, and it— I couldn't have done it without you. I put a lot of time and effort into giving this free resource for you, and I appreciate that you appreciate it. And if you can go on to your favorite streaming platform and give me a, hopefully a good review, a review, It really helps those other parents who are searching and seeking this information to find me much more easier as well and get the resources that I share. So again, I wanted to thank you for helping us reach number one and for all of your support, and I'm here to help you, and I look forward to our future journey together. Uh, again, I just want to give you a big thank you for helping us reach number one. Take care, and I will talk to you very, very soon.

Thank you for watching and listening. If you enjoyed this kind of content, please subscribe and turn on your notification bell so you don't miss any of my future content. And if you want to learn more about regenerative medicine or other modalities in anti-aging medicine, please go to my YouTube channel, Joy Kong, MD, and there are all kinds of videos to help you keep learning.