Dr. Joy Kong
Appearances
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Gosh, that's a great question. And there's so much that we can go into. So first of all, there are a lot of myths. So if people happen to encounter some myths and their brain cells get stuck on those myths, that's one form of resistance. One of the myths is that, oh, stem cells are not legal in the US. Well, that's completely wrong because I've been doing stem cell therapy for nine years.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
I've taught... over a thousand doctors how to do stem cell therapy. So we're all there providing therapy and it's absolutely legal. Well, first of all, there's nothing that says it's illegal. So it's in a gray area. So no one can say that what you're doing is illegal unless you are breaking certain rules, right? It's still not legality. The FDA did put out guidelines. Although there's no legal
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
you know, really bearing because it's not a law. It's not enforceable. It's an agency's guideline. What do the guidelines say? The agency, well, they can come after you if you don't follow the guideline, but still you're not breaking the law per se, right? So, but the guidelines are, if you use the cells for the same purpose of what the cells were doing in the body before,
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
And then you're not manipulating and changing the cells in any way, such as using chemicals or enzymes to treat them, which can cause changes, or growing them in large numbers because alterations can also happen. So if you don't do that and you fulfill the same purpose, then you are providing a tissue transplantation. You're not using this as a drug.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So if you're tissue transplanting, you're not really dealing with the whole drug control aspect. You are dealing with how medicine is practiced. So you have your patients to answer to, and you have your medical board, each state's medical board to answer to if you don't do things right. So it's being governed in a whole different, from different entities.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So when the doctor is providing tissue transplant, just like a doctor, like I'm a licensed physician surgeon. So basically we're trained to be, we can do any medical practice or provide any surgeries. So that's what our license is for. And When we do tissue transplant, that is a procedure that we can do just like blood transfusion, just like any organ transplantation.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
If there's a medical necessity and a doctor can justify from either literature or research, any kind of standard of practice, that there's some kind of standard established, then they can do it, right? They can justify. But frankly, a doctor can do anything they want, to be honest, as long as they're not causing harm. Let's say a doctor believes that there's something in the dirt.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
is really, really good. And the doctor says, I think you should put this in the water and drink it. And the doctor can do that as long as you're not causing harm. So that's the scope of practice. So that's first myth is that people think is not legal and is absolutely legal. Why do we have this myth? Well, there are some vested interest in people who want
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
stem cell therapy to be illegal in the US so everybody can go across the border, go to Panama, Costa Rica, you know, the Bahamas, Mexico, right? They would love for people to think that their only option is by taking a plane to those places. So that's one myth.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
I wish I could say no. But from what I have heard, I've learned is that there's really no, there's no intention to, the FDA's part to really push or fully accept or even wanting these therapies to be approved. So I have heard certain direct evidence that point toward the fact that this agency really is not excited about pushing this forward. It may say so.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
It may say that we want you to do studies, to do this and that. But what I've seen with companies is that they're given the runaround and they are asked to do things, you know, Maybe they think that certain things were not done correctly, then they have to redo certain things and they go around and around and some company ran out of money, go bankrupt.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
And still even very powerful company that I know has not been able to achieve any kind of approval. So there's definitely institutional resistance there.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
We want you to do this, but you just do this first. And then somehow I just couldn't finish doing those things.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
People think, oh, are you killing babies? Well, I don't know anybody that's killing babies in the United States. Maybe in other countries, especially if they're doing fetal stem cell treatments, such as Ukraine, I've definitely, definitely abortion will be involved and it involves a destruction of a fetus, but that's not legal in this country. So no babies killed.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
And embryonic stem cells are not used for clinical use. You can't give it to people as treatment. You can do it as research, but you can't give it to any humans. So the cells we use either is from a person's own, like your own bone marrow, your own fat. We can get from your dental pulp. There are different sources, menstrual blood. But
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
More and more popular, and because it's more powerful, is the early birth tissue derived stem cells, such as from the umbilical cord. So the umbilical cord is obtained only after a healthy baby is born. right? What do you do with a cord usually in the past? You cut the cord and you toss in the trash. Now we know, no, don't toss it.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
There's so much incredible things in this that we can use it to help people repair and heal. So that's another myth that people think that anyone's harmed by getting stem cell therapy. I think partially it was because years back, George W. Bush banned embryonic stem cell. He didn't ban the research. He just banned federal funding that supports more embryo destruction.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So he just didn't want more lives.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
People who, or labs who already have these embryonic stem cell lines that you just keep using the same line to do research, that's not banned. So they can still research, but still they can't give it to humans for just clinical use. So that's another, people get confused.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
That's definitely a highly manipulated process. You're getting cells from the embryonic. Basically, day five to seven, when the fetus is forming, the embryo is forming, there's a ball of cells and embryos. Inside the ball, there are certain, you know, straggling these cells. They're called inner cell mass. And you can grab any cell from that inner cell mass and you can form a full human.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So that's the embryonic stem cell that they're getting. So you can get that from day five to seven after fertilization. The problem is that they are still difficult to control, that they can cause what's called teratoma, which is an uncontrolled growth of tumor. It could be all kinds of cells from hair, teeth, bone, they're all clustered together.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
There are other countries who are doing embryonic stem cell treatment, just not in the US. However, people have heard horror stories of how a person grow a tumor. And a lot of times they grow a tumor on the back. That's very commonplace. So all of a sudden they grow a tumor on their spine and there have been people who have been paralyzed because of this.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Well, really regenerative medicine has been around ever since humans are around because we regenerate and that's what we can do.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So there's a little bit of, well, there's a high risk that we can control these cells that they can just all of a sudden start to form tumor cells. So that's one reason it's not allowed in the U.S. besides the ideological concerns of destroying of an embryo.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So if you can tap into a way of doing medicine that coax that capability instead of fighting the body, I think that's one of the problems with conventional medicine is that it's looking at the body as a battleground and I'm going there, I'm waging battles and I'm trying to fight enemies and I'm trying to fight the wrong receptors, the wrong neurotransmitters or the wrong protein.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Umbilical cord is almost the best of both worlds because it contains some of the early markers as the embryonic stem cell, which really shows that they are more flexible. They've got more potentials. They're just in a more primitive state. And then they're so down the stream because they are all the way down to... the formation of the baby.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So they have also evolved to the point where they are not going to go crazy, go haywire. So, so these cells were trapped when the embryo was forming and then they're retaining some of the characteristics of the early embryo, but, but also they just lost some of the crazy potentials.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
The exciting thing is, is that the, the range is just kept, it keeps expanding either from research, published research or from anecdotal clinical practice. So the, Even if you just look at research, it's extremely active all around the world. There are so many conditions.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
I know this because I've read almost all of them, all these articles, because I teach a course through the academy I founded called American Academy of Integrative Cell Therapy. So I train all these doctors and I train them through evidence. I don't train them through my philosophy, right? This is all about evidence. Let's see what we have found out. through rigorous research.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So there are evidence of every organ system, just from head to toe, right? From brain diseases as early as autism, cerebral palsy as late as Alzheimer's or later other neurological neurodegenerative conditions. And we have cardiac issues, heart, lung, liver, reproductive systems,
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
and all kinds of musculoskeletal issues all kinds of systemic conditions like autoimmune issues or cancer i mean you name it there's tremendous amount of evidence and then every day the doctors that i work with and and me we keep accumulating new evidence basically we're in the frontier we're right in the front line and we started we start to see things that have never been seen before right so a few examples even just things i've seen
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
I mean, I couldn't believe there are a few cases I just couldn't believe. One of them was a patient that was had a when he was nine years old, he got a brain surgery from because of a brain tumor. But the surgery went bad. didn't go very well. There was a problem. So optic nerve was, was damaged. So he couldn't see from that one eye for 44 years until he got stem cell therapy from us.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
He's starting to see in that one eye. So this is something that like, I would have never, if I had done a consultation with a patient, I would have just said, you know, I, I doubt this is going to help your vision. You know, I would, I would not anticipate. I mean, I just, I wouldn't, I've never give false hopes, but
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
the fact that the person's starting to see, it's just so inspiring of what these cells are capable of. And one of my earliest patient was a liver cirrhosis patient. He didn't qualify for a liver transplant because he was IV drug user. So he was in hospice and he had almost no strength to talk and is extremely emaciated with a big belly, the ascites.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
And I gave him one treatment, and I couldn't believe it, as I found out later, because I was planning on doing more, but he didn't show up. But he got recovered so fast that even on the way, on his drive from Los Angeles to Sacramento, within those four or five hours, he's... the swelling had gone down halfway. It was just, I couldn't believe it.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So you're going there to wage battle. But what if you're looking at it differently? That you're now working with the body and tricking the body into making healthier versions of yourself. And all of a sudden that you're elevating the body instead of just focusing on fighting a particular issue, which has a whole slew of problems.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
And then within a few weeks, he was walking around talking like a normal person. And then within a couple months, when he went back to his primary care, his liver specialist, and his liver test actually was normal. So that one was absolutely incredible. And It could be an outlier. However, show me a conventional medicine, any medicine you have, that can create this. I will be in shock.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
We don't have anything like this. So there are outliers of extraordinary outcomes. And there are people whose outcome is not as extraordinary. And then the vast majority is in between. people are getting incredible benefits from previously with no medications, no medical treatment was making a difference. So it may take several sessions.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So it's not a miraculous thing, but still we are able to create changes that the conventional medicine really didn't have tools to create.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Yeah, from what we give him, right? We're not giving him neural progenitor cells. We're not injecting right into the area. And a lot of times we don't have to because of how these cells work. So how I consult with patients is really by talking about how the cells work and to see if that can dovetail their condition. So something like optic nerve damage. So there's tissue death and damage.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Maybe it's not dead, maybe just severely damaged, but still the person could not see. there could be a local inflammatory mechanism going on, that there's so much inflammation that it's diseased, right? There's a blockage of signaling. So how do the stem cells work? So the mesenchymal stem cells I'm talking about, that's one of the main...
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
main players in regenerative medicine, the mechanism is one is highly anti-inflammatory. So think about chronic illnesses and how many of these have inflammation as part of the mechanism. So if you can calm the inflammation, now you're allowing the body to go to the other way of existing, which is regenerate.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
such as side effects of these medications, and not fundamentally curing or really fixing the problem. So a lot of people just end up with many, many medications, 10, 20, 30, 40 medications before they die. And that's really not the best way for human health, right? If you can just fully repair, that would be ideal.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
That's where we're going. That's where we are. We will be there. Um, I'm, we'll be there in our lifetime and you know, I, I hopefully within 10 years, 15 years, I'm really hoping, and it really depends on the regulatory atmosphere and how it just, yeah, that has a lot to do with how fast we can get there.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So, um, and your example of your, your, your, your arm, it's just so beautiful because you are, you were doing regenerative medicine, right? Through dietary approach, because calming the inflammation, you're, uh, addressing this through a systemic method. And that's one of the mainstays of how I use stem cells to help people is through the systemic route. Because your arm, the tissue damage,
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
is the reason it's chronic is because your body somehow could not repair it. Because acute injury, yes, you're going to be inflamed, you're going to be in pain, but if your body is doing its job, cells should get right over there, take away the bad cells, calm the inflammation, now you can start regenerating. And why couldn't you? It's because your body was
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
in a in this stuck position is in this place of inflammation that it can't move on from now when you change shift your diet all of a sudden you're allowing all the anti-inflammatory signals to come through and now you can heal so that's what we're doing with stem cell therapy as well one of the main reasons stem cells work so well is that it calms the inflammation inflammation
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
is hand in hand with aging as we age it doesn't matter how healthy you are your inflammation level is getting higher and higher as evidenced by inflammatory markers you're just going to get higher markers it doesn't matter if you're perfectly healthy vibrant older person so inflammation is closely related to aging and aging is closely related with disease is the most predictive factor of chronic illness including cancer so if we can calm the inflammation
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
we can actually slow down the aging decline. So that's one of the powerful methods. And the other thing that stem cell therapy worked really well on is immune regulation. So that's kind of hand in hand with the inflammation. So if you're stuck in inflammation, that means your immune system is more shifted toward inflammatory response.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
But there's a counter response that your system just get lower and lower in their capability of evoking. So when you are using stem cells, it can shift your body, get you out of that inflammatory stickiness, and now you can move on to regeneration. That's why it's been extremely powerful in autoimmune diseases. is like one of the places it just shines.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
If you have autoimmune, you have lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and all kinds of odd, you know, autoimmune disease. I, I believe they're calling the same diseases by over 120 names. So that make them feel better, make the doctors feel better. I know exactly. I know the organ. I know the problem of which organ, and this is autoimmune, but not realizing that it's the same disease.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
It just pops up in different places. So which means, the repair, the cure or the method of addressing it could be just one. If you just reduce inflammation and shift your immune system, it doesn't matter what you have and everything can get better. So that's the immune regulation. And besides that, it has all kinds of cool stuff that it can do, like breaking down scar tissue.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
I've seen that in liver cirrhosis, in lung fibrosis, COPD, and other lung damages. In Peyronie's, which is an abnormal curvature of the penis because of inflammatory plaques, it's really easy to help. One injection is straightened right up. And so the breaking down of scar tissue is something... that is exciting because conventional medicine has nothing for it.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Yeah, I don't know how much evidence, but definitely infrared sauna, we know light is highly, you know, very good for cells, cellular health, and for detoxification. Of course, that's going to enhance the health of your cells. I think we just, we're at the beginning of understanding what light can do. I do use light in our stem cell treatment, actually.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
I use laser light of different colors and wavelengths, so red, green, and violet. So three different colors. Those will target different mitochondrial enzymes, and that elevates the mitochondrial function. Of course, that is the powerhouse for the cells, and that will elevate your body's function, period. Gotcha.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
And also, I can direct the cells to particular locations if I use the laser to target. But yeah, to answer your question, I love infrasauna. And I think light therapy is a really, really powerful adjunct. I think we're just at the beginning of understanding how much of light beings we are.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Yeah, it's very popular. I think I've heard people getting tremendous results and feeling great and doing great. I just don't notice a big difference in me when I do it. And it's very uncomfortable. But there are supplements you can also take to elevate your NAD level. So I think those are a good idea. There's still some controversies out there, you know, how much...
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
you know, certain rates and that kind of stuff. But I think in general, it could be helpful, but it's still individualized. Some people don't notice any benefit, but some people really swear by it.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Well, methane blue has had a history of over 140 years. So it was developed as a dye, you know, to dye jeans. But then apparently people who were working in these factories that were, you know, had their hands in these dyes, they never got sick in one of the plagues. That's how they realized that there's a lot of antimicrobial properties. Wow.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
And so they were the first anti-malarial drug developed. But later on, they realized, oh, it can help with mental issues. So people in asylums, they started giving psychotic patients these methylene blue and found out they were helpful. And yeah, and then later on was used to help you fight carbon monoxide poisoning.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
because it can help take the damaging molecule off the oxygen, I mean, off the red blood cells. But then they found out that people were able to use it for traumatic brain injury. So emergency rooms started to give IV infusions of methylene blue for people who have traumatic brain injury. And I think the popularity started to happen.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
I wonder if it has to do with COVID when so many people have brain fog and low energy and people are searching for things that can really reverse that. And because what they found out is that it's a potent mitochondria enhancer. So now people with brain fog, fatigue, and all kinds of conditions... are able to get relief and it's really great for brain health. So that's how it was.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
It became, I think, popular. And of course RFK was taking it.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Yeah, peptides is really nature's way of getting things done. In our body, we have over 300,000 different kinds of peptides. I mean, there literally is a sea of peptides that's doing the work. Um, so we've only discovered, I think about 70,000 of them, uh, no, about, about seven, no 7,000 of them. And, um, and we are only using maybe around a hundred or so. So, but it's still an expanding field.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
There's new things coming out, um, new discoveries, um, The beauty about peptides is that they're so specific. You can target specific organs, specific functions, because it's like all these keys are floating around in your body and they're all searching for the lock.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
And so if you can replenish the keys, because a lot of times as we age, we may have lost certain keys and all of a sudden you can't unlock functions or you have a really short supply of it. You just can't get enough of the job done. So now we can replenish it. Now we can unlock that function. That function can be immune function. So you can target by enhancing your thyroid function.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
I mean, thymus. So like the T-alpha-1, the thymus beta-4, also called TB500, you can...
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Yeah, both ways. So either get ahead or actually fixing it really effectively by addressing the root causes. So yeah, if some tissue is damaged and there's low blood flow and you can go in there, give the body something that tell the local tissue to start to repopulate and then tell the blood vessels to start to expand and grow more blood vessels to supply the tissue.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
All of a sudden you're getting full healing in that area. So, you know, it's funny that you mentioned that case because it's so typical. It's almost like if you have to set a race between regenerative medicine and conventional medicine, there's no race. And it just is so evident because they just keep... showing how ineffective the old system is. Not to say that all modern medicine is not good.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
There's a lot of amazing things and just incredible advances. But when it comes to chronic illnesses, the way it's addressing it is really misguided. That's why it's ineffective. That's why you see things like people getting on medication after medication to address previous medication. And it just shows how ineffective it is. But when you use
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
these you can use cells, you can use growth factors, peptides, you can use light, you can use different supplements. All these can target how the body is going to replenish and make new of itself. So that's why, you know, we are so excited about it because who doesn't want to make new, right? Yeah.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Your show is focusing a lot on entrepreneurship, right? Yeah, I mean,
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
First status right now, you may have heard of it. Yeah.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
I'm hoping that we've gone beyond that point quite a bit because when I first started in the field, now it's been nine years, people did ask me that all the time. The first few years, what is a stem cell? What are you talking about? What is it? But now the question usually is, oh my God, I heard stem cells are amazing, but I have this issue. Do you think stem cells can help me?
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So the conversation has definitely shifted. Nonetheless, it's still important to define what stem cells are because there's still even misconceptions about what they are. Some people even refer to PRP as stem cell therapy. Some people refer to things like amniotic fluid. There's almost no cells. But first of all, what is a stem cell?
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Just think of you and me, how we started in this universe, this life, is by forming the first stem cell. And from that stem cell, we started to divide and specialize. Different cells are going to directions. We have this magical migration and formation of the human being, right?
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So from that first cell, whatever that's in that blueprint in the DNA in that first cell, somehow it is capable of directing the forming of this miraculous being, this complex little universe that can walk and talk and think and interact with each other. So that type of intelligence is really what we're trying to tap into in stem cell therapy.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So from that one cell, you can form other stem cells all the way until they become cells of a particular tissue. Let's say your heart, your heart has heart muscle cells, but before it becomes a heart muscle,
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
cell it was a heart muscle stem cell so that is called the end tissue stem cell that's the the last step of a stem cell before it loses its stem cell status and become a working cell so the cell goes through puberty kind of exactly yeah i like that yeah so anywhere along the line the Those cells are a stem cell until you become a tissue-specific cell.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So we can intercept as doctors anywhere before that, and we can put the cells in the body, and they have tremendous potentials. First of all, they secrete a lot of growth factors, and they send a lot of signals. So these exosomes are little packets that's one of the main ways that the stem cells are sending out signals.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So the cells are potent in triggering, um, uh, actions in neighboring cells in the system. And they also have the capabilities to divide usually asymmetrically because they would divide into one copy of itself and another copy that's more specialized. So now we've got a, you know, more capabilities, but less potential to become everything. So they, you get narrower, uh,
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
And then you get deeper into your function. But really, stem cell is anywhere along the line. And there are different aspects or different categories depending on what you're trying to utilize. There's embryonic stem cells, which are very early cells. that we don't really use in this country for treatments because it's hard to control. They are a little wild.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
They can become tissues of any kind and oftentimes can form tumor. So even though they can become anything, but there's a potential risk. And then there are cells and organ cells. Let's say you wanted to grow neurons and then you can grow a
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
neuron you know particular progenitor cells for the neuron but that is more difficult because they're very small in number sometimes you may have to induce other cells to become these cells and now at least at this point fda says now if you're trying to induce any cell to do anything or you're trying to grow them to large numbers you are making a drug
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
So whether or not I agree with it is a whole other question, but that is what the FDA says. Now you've changed the cells. Now you need to conduct clinical study. This is one reason that things are slowed down. You can't just go ahead and try to trigger some cells to become this new group of cells, new type of cells to tailor your treatments and then, or grow them into large numbers.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Now you're creating a drug. Now it's millions and millions of dollars go into research and approval in this time and energy. And so that slows things down quite a bit. So what we use mostly in this country and around the world right now is what's called mesenchymal stem cell. It's the most popular type. You can also use core blood or bone marrow. They contain a lot of the other type of cells.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
They're primitive immune cells or cells that can form the whole blood system. So you can use those as well. But mesenchymal stem cells is the most popular. And that... those cells actually are all along your blood vessels. Anywhere you have any blood supply, you can rest assured that these cells are hovering over it and they're sensing what's going through your blood.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
And they're also keeping tabs on what's in that neighboring environment to coordinate how to help your body repair. So those cells are easy to use and you don't In the US, we are using cells that have not been expanded, which means grown into large numbers in a culture medium. But overseas, they do expand them so they can create much bigger numbers.
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
That's a whole other subject because from what I know so far, when you grow the cells to that kind of large numbers, you are losing potency and you're also allowing the cells to start to differentiate. growing their own surface receptors that will mark them as coming from somebody else. Because we're getting these cells from a very young source, from the umbilical cord, right?
The Ryan Hanley Show
Are Stem Cells the Unlock to Regenerative Medicine? | Dr Joy Kong
Usually that's from another person. Unless you saved your own cord, you can use your own. So when you start to expand them, grow them, then you're increasing the chance that the recipient is going to recognize, oh my God, these cells are not from me. So let me attack, or they can attack the host. So that can cause a whole range of side effects.