Dr. Kay Durairaj 0:15
Well, hello, hello guys. You're listening to Beauty Bites with Dr. K, Secrets of a Plastic Surgeon. And today on the podcast, we are interviewing a real pioneer in stem cell medicine and stem cell research. We are talking to Christian Drapot, and Christian is from Stem Region. He has developed a nutritional supplement that actually improves how many stem cells come into circulation and become active in your body, so welcome to the podcast, Christian. I'm so excited for you to teach us about the bioregenerative potential of stem cells.

Speaker 1 0:49
Thank you. My pleasure.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 0:51
So, first off, can you start us at the beginning of your journey? What actually got you interested into the stem cell field and the science behind

Speaker 1 1:01
it? I mean, just like probably any scientist 20 some years ago, because the first discovery was about 2025 years ago. So, as any scientist at the time, we all had a basic knowledge of stem cells. They are precursors to blood cells, red blood cells, platelets, and lymphocyte. So, I had no specific interest in stem cells. I was studying a plant, blue green algae, that grows naturally in Klamath Lake in southern Oregon, and I was hired to study this plant to document its mechanism of action, how it was working in the body, and researching that plant slowly led to the hypothesis early 2001 that it looked like stem cells are the repair system of the body. We published that in the scientific literature, and the in the back of my mind, my thought was maybe this blue green algae was working by stimulating the repair system of the body, and we discovered that that's what it was doing. So, since that early discovery, 2001 then the rest of my work has been in the field of stem cells, so that's how I ended up working with stem cells.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 2:08
That's incredible. So it's really a plant-based solution that helps trigger the human stem cells to come out into circulation. And then what is your background? Are you in? Are you a PhD scientist, or in terms of like educational background?

Speaker 1 2:27
Yeah, my background is brain research. So I was at the Montreal Neurological Institute, essentially at the time doing work on memory and epilepsy, so obviously nothing to do with stem cells, again, just like any scientist in the early 2000 I mean, if you're working with stem cells, you're basically working with blood, blood disorders, it all, it has all to do with the manufacturing, this, the production of red blood cells, platelets, and lymphocytes. So, the discovery that stem cells can do other things is, I think, one of the greatest revolutions in medicine, so at that time I was working on the brain, which is my background, neurophysiology.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 3:06
Love it. And then what exactly is endogenous stem cell mobilization? Because that's a concept that is very unique to you and your product,

Speaker 1 3:16
correct? I mean, yes and no, it's unique to us on the marketplace, but in the early days of stem cell research, when stem cells from the bone marrow or stem cells in the human body were shown to have remarkable regenerative properties, then immediately the quest for what is the, I wouldn't say the best stem cells, but probably the stem cells with the easiest access, the safer to use the one that has that can be worked with the most, the most easily. All of this quest started, and the scientists identified obviously stem cells from fat tissue, stem cells from umbilical cord, V cells. These are words and names that are very well known today on the marketplace, but around the same time, what was not been as well, I should say, promoted in the popular scientific literature, but it's very present in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, is at the same time scientists were looking at another option, which is what about triggering the release of stem cells from the bone marrow, so instead of increasing the number of stem cells in circulation through an injection, we use a natural mechanism, which is the release of your own stem cells in circulation. So, starting from 2000 2001 there is a vast literature of this process called endogenous stem cell mobilization. The only problem is that the compounds used to trigger stem cell release from the bone marrow are to a large extent toxic to humans when used at the doses that show all the benefits. The benefits are remarkable in all these animal studies. You trigger the release of stem cells from the bone marrow and you can significantly change the course as just about any kind. Addition that that is known to the to the human body, but it cannot be done in human because of the toxicity of these compounds. So, what really, what we have developed is the use of natural plant extract that do the same thing, they trigger the release of our own stem cells. So, we are tapping in the process of endogenous stem cell mobilization. We have brought this term, if you want, to the marketplace, but there's a vast literature on this whole process in the period scientific literature

Dr. Kay Durairaj 5:30
that's so interesting for listeners that are new to the stem cell concept. Why exactly are stem cells so important for aging and healing? And you often describe them as the body's repair system, and so, how does that process work in everyday life?

Speaker 1 5:46
Okay, it's a big question, but it's a fascinating question. So, let's first answer the question, like, how is the stem cells the body's repair system? So, I find it fascinating that it is something that everybody on earth as experience, everybody has had a broken bone, a cut, a bruise, something, and have witnessed that the human body repairs. However, in medicine, there's no clear description of what is happening in this process of tissue repair. If you get a broken bone, the doctor puts you in a cast and tells you, come back in six weeks. He doesn't say come back to see me in six weeks, and in the meantime, do A, B, and C to support X, Y, Z in order to repair better. The understanding of the mechanism of that process of tissue repair was not there until recently, and the discovery is that it's your stem cells. So, on the day of an injury, and this whole process has been documented very well in case of heart attack, stroke, bone fracture, burn to the skin, other types of injuries, and so what is seen is that within I would say half a day after an injury, we can start to pick up in the blood very specific compounds, like for example granulocyte colony stimulating factor, GCSF, stem cell factor, interleukin eight, and there are many others. These compounds, when they reach the bone marrow, will trigger the release of stem cells from the bone marrow. So, within the between the third and the fifth day, we can see and quantify in the bloodstream up to about tenfold increase in the number of circulating stem cells, these stem cells don't know where to go when they're released, so they are attracted by the affected tissue, which starts to release the second day after the injury. One specific compound called stromal derived factor one is the f, so when that factor is released locally in the in the area of the injury, and stem cells are circulating into the fine capillaries of that tissue. That compound, SDF one, connects with a receptor at the surface of stem cells, triggers the migration of stem cells out of the blood into that tissue, and upon contact with serra debris of that tissue, stem cells will multiply and transform into cells of that tissue, so this is the repair system that has been present since the day that we are born. So, when you ask the question, what is the link or the role of stem cells in aging, and it's to understand that we are born with red marrow that makes these stem cells very early in life. Red marrow converts into fatty marrow that makes much fewer stem cells. There's also an interaction between fatty cells and red and red marrow in the bone marrow that somewhat inhibits the release of stem cells from the bone marrow, and the consequence of all of this is that when you reach 3035 you are left with roughly about 10% of the number of stem cells that you had on the day that you were born, so we can understand as we grow, and we like as a child, as we grow, we need an enormous power of regeneration and building new tissue, so we have a large number of stem cells in circulation, but as we reach maturity, then we no longer have many stem cells, so that decline is pretty much following the growth and maturation of the body. The problem is that there's a point, at some point in our 30s, early 40s, where that number is going so low that it crosses a threshold where the normal sedative loss that is taking place as part of normal damage in the body, exposure to environmental stress, inflammation, free radicals, everything, aging, cellular turnover. The cellular loss associated with this is no longer fully compensated by adding enough stem cells in circulation. That's when we start to experience I'm aging, I'm not recovering as well as I used to, and that's the beginning of deficits building in various tissues that will express themselves in 510, 1520, years on the road into a condition, a disease, a dysfunction of a tissue because of its failure of in its ability to repair, so that's how stem cells kind of fit into the whole concept of. Repair, recovery, aging, and also disease formation.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 10:04
That's so interesting. So, definitely this decline in the number and activity of the stem cells is implicated in the aging process.

Speaker 1 10:13
Of course, I mean, it goes even further than that. If we look at, for example, people who have developed just about any kind of age-related disease, so I published this whole view in 2013 in the scientific literature, peer-reviewed literature, suggesting that stem cells are in fact, or that decline, I should say, in the number of circulating stem cells is the primary cause of aging and disease formation, and in that paper I was suggesting that one way to test if this is true, we simply have to go and count the number of stem cells in the circulation of people who have developed various kinds of age-related diseases, and they should have fewer stem cells in circulation. Now, there's about 100 of those studies that have been done and published, and across the board, and the number here is strikingly similar across all studies, people who have developed these problems - any kind of age-related disease, heart disease, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, cardiovascular problem, diabetes, COPD, liver failure, lupus, Alzheimer's, Parkinson, arthritis. I mean, the list, metabolic syndrome, and the list is keeps growing. It's almost like any time one is looked at, the same thing is found. These people have 50% or less than the number found in a healthy person of the same age. So, there's a direct link between how many stem cells you have in your blood and your ability to age graciously. And when we link this to aging, well, if we, if we tie aging, if you want to longevity, well, the only thing that is going to shorten your lifespan is developing an age-related disease that will shorten your lifespan. So, if you can delay the onset of these problems by maintaining your innate repair system, then, of course, it's going to have a huge impact on aging. And, of course, when we talk about simple aging, well, it's just the fact that organs and tissues lose their optimal capacity to do their job in the body, because you don't, you no longer have the full ability to repair and maintain these tissues, so it's really at the core of the whole process of aging.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 12:16
So many people have heard of this concept of injecting stem cells, and you know, so stem cell injections or exosome therapy, for example. How, what do you think is the most important distinction between using injected donor stem cells versus triggering your own stem cells to commit circulation?

Speaker 1 12:37
I mean, both have their place, both have clearly well documented benefits, but I think it's important to understand what they really do when we release our own stem cells. This is what you have done since the day you're born. This is how your body is designed. This is your innate repair system, so you release these stem cells into your arterial blood, so that they can indeed circulate into the arterial blood circulation and go everywhere in the body, migrate into tissues, and maintain your tissues. This has been very well documented in many studies. As an example, you take a woman that has leukemia, and then she's treated with radiation that kills all the stem cells. The woman receives a bone marrow transplant from a male-compatible donor, so now the woman or entire bone marrow is made of stem cells that have the Y chromosome, and when scientists went and looked at biopsies of tissues taken after the woman passed away, let's say 510, 15 years, however the number of years after this bone marrow transplant, and you can see cells with the Y chromosome everywhere in the body, so these stem cells circulate and engraft and become cells of

Dr. Kay Durairaj 13:48
of the

Speaker 1 13:49
various organs and tissues of the person.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 13:52
When

Speaker 1 13:52
you inject a stem cell, or when you do a stem cell injection, it is done in the venous blood, and that's a huge distinction, because venous blood means the blood will go in the stem cells will first go into the right ventricles, then into the lung, and the fine capillaries in the lung are too small for these stem cells, so most of them get trapped into the lung, most of them, probably about 80 85% of them, will die on the day of the injection, and the rest, I mean, none of them are present a week after the injection, so these stem cells do not engraft in the body, they do not do what is normally, I would say, generally understood of stem cells as the repair system of the body, but what they do is that as they die, or in that process of apoptosis and cellular death, they release tons of exosomes, secret homes, growth factors that end up having an impact on on our immune system and on the stem cells of various tissues, so they are essentially a time release exosome injections, if you want, so the impact of that of that inject. Injections essentially then leverage the body's innate ability to repair, and that is one of the main reasons why typically when people do a stem cell injection, I'm simplifying here the statistics, and it is improving as we move forward, but generally speaking, 30% will say it was amazing, 30% will say it was good, but it was not exactly what I was looking for, and then 30% will say it was a waste of my money. Stem cells work, did they work in the body? If they did not work, you would not be alive today. So they work. So the reason is that as you inject them and they release their exosomes, if you don't have enough of your own stem cells, if your own microcirculation is not good enough to support the circulation of stem cells. If you have too much systemic inflammation to sort of reduce stem cells' ability to find where they go in the body, these exosomes have nobody to talk to in your body, so you inject stem cells, they release exosomes, but these exosomes are sort of lost and you see no benefits. So, the main, the best results that we have seen so far in clinical trials is the blend of both. You take our product that triggers the release of your own stem cells, and then, by injecting stem cells or exosomes, it's sort of the same thing. Stem cells simply sort of have a time release component to them. Then there are stem cells to talk to, and that's where we have seen really the best results. So, it depends really what people are looking for, but from a day-to-day standpoint of everyday boosting your ability to repair and your ability to maintain your health to counter aging, daily mobilization of your own stem cells is a very, very strong strategy, let's put it that way.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 16:44
And people can mobilize their stem cells by from exercise. Sometimes stress can cause that. The plant-based phytonutrients. Can you talk a little bit about what's the strongest data behind those type of ingredients and how they mobilize stem cells?

Speaker 1 17:00
Okay, just first you understand when we say stress can support can release stem cells, just clear understanding here. Physical stress, like injury,

Dr. Kay Durairaj 17:08
yeah,

Speaker 1 17:09
injury to a tissue will then trigger the repair response that I talked about. So you release stem cells because there is something to be repaired. I've been talking about this for well more than two decades, but over the years I've sort of kind of stopped talking about this as a repair process, because the release, the stem cells that you release are this release is triggered in order to go and repair muscles, tendon, and ligaments, or skin, or whatever, this wherever the stress is, so these stem cells are called for a specific application, so they're not necessarily playing a role, if you want, in longevity, but, but it is a repair process that is triggered by an injury. If you talk about stress, that is more of a mental stress, like anxiety, it actually suppresses stem cell function in the body, so it is probably one of the main reason why stress and anxiety has been known for a long time as an underlying factor of just about any kind of age-related disease. Stress reduces stem cell function. Reduced stem cell function breeds the development of all kinds of problems. So the other thing that you can do to release stem cells, fasting is very good to release stem cells, more than release stem cells. It's very good to rejuvenate stem cells. So you are in your 40s, but you want to make sure that you have stem cells that behave as when you were 20 years old. Well, fasting three days and more is a very good way to rejuvenate your stem cells. Hyperbaric chamber will put more stem cells in circulation, and then other types of technologies, like PMF, red lights, they've all been documented to leverage stem cells in one way or another. If you really want to put more stem cells in circulation in a daily manner, then the way to do this is with the plans that I have, that I have discovered. So, let's start with the one with which I started this whole journey, so I was hired in 1995 to study blue green algae from Klamath Lake, known on the marketplace as AFA Blue Green Algae, and I would, I just had to basically document the mechanism of action, the active compounds, how it was working in the body to support marketing claims that were made about this product, so this was right after the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act in America. So companies selling this product needed science to back up their claim. So I very quickly identified the mechanism of action for its anti-inflammatory properties, its immune-boosting properties, its properties on the mind, mental concentration, mental energy, a feel of calmness and mood elevation, but as I'm doing all this work, I came across people reversing multiple sclerosis, heart disease, COPD, insulin dependent diabetes, Parkinson, Alzheimer's. I mean, so many of these conditions. At first, it was.. I mean, I did not believe in it. But the number of them at some point became compelling. Then I tried to have access, and I did get access to a number of the medical file of these individuals, and there was something that was hard to explain, and what was the most difficult to explain, I should say, was the broad variety of the condition, not only the extent of the benefit, but what was this plant doing that would help someone's brain, someone else's heart, someone else's liver, someone else's pancreas, long skin, and so on. So we did a number of studies over the next what, three, four years. We got good data, but nothing that really explained what it was until one day in 2001 January 2001 I came across an article documenting, for the first time, stem cells going from the bone marrow to the brain and becoming a brain cell. I thought it was fascinating. Again, I only knew what everybody knows about the bone marrow, or everybody knew in 2000 once they are precursors to stem cells. So, seeing one becoming a brain cell, I thought it was amazing. So, I went to the local medical library to see what else I could find. I found something similar about stem cells going to the heart and to the liver. So I simply thought, if stem cells can become heart, liver, and brain, what would be the mechanism that would allow stem cells to become those three tissues and not others? It made no sense. So I simply hypothesized that it's a matter of time, stem scientists will show that stem cells can become everything, and if that's the case, then they must be the repair system of the body. So we published this hypothesis in the scientific literature in 2001 and in the back of my mind, my thought, like, was just like we have plants stimulating the repair, sorry, the immune system, what if this plant was working by stimulating the repair system? So we bought a flow cytometer that allows counting stem cells in the blood, and we started on our cells, but took a sample, counted stem cells, and then took this blue green algae, took another series of blood samples, an hour, two hours later, and then we saw the whole phenomenon. Within an hour or two, we trigger a significant release of stem cells from the bone marrow, so after documenting the mechanism of action, the active compound, proof of concept, filing patents, after doing all this work, then I was curious, you know, what else out there in the world may also be working by releasing stem cells, but nobody has ever looked at it, plants that oftentimes have been used for centuries with a long history of being used for many different kinds of problems, so you go in Ayurvedic medicine, you would think ashwagandha, for example, things of that nature. So, so then I started to look at goji berry, medicinal mushroom, adaptogens, and I threw this quest I studied probably about like 1520 plants, and of those plants, the top five that we documented act as stem cell mobilizers are in the product that we have today, which is stem regen release, which is this blue green algae from Klamath Lake, we have sea buck thorn berry from the Tibetan Plateau, we have one specific aloe from Madagascar, we have Panax neurogens, and a specific seaweed extract that all act as stem cell mobilizers. So, you take two capsules of stem region release, and we can document roughly about 10 million stem cells in your bloodstream, and that's a conservative, conservative estimate, but about 10 million additional stem cells in your blood circulation within two, three hours after consumption. So, you take 10 million, you do this, let's say every day, do this for a month, that's 300 million of your own stem cells that you have released over the course of a month. So, physiologically speaking, it becomes quite significant over time. I knew it was a long answer.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 23:42
Yeah, no, it's a good answer, though. But then, should we pulse these type of therapies, or is continuous release the goal, and do we exhaust the bone marrow reserves?

Dr. Kay Durairaj 23:55
Okay,

Speaker 1 23:58
three. A good question. So, is is it something that we take daily? I grew up, grew up, I mean, like, since the early discovery, so my mind was shaped by every single step of discovery that we had. The benefits that were seen, for example, with AFA, this blue green algae were not seen by people taking the product and pulsing it, it was seen by people taking the product constantly. If you take about the Seabuck Thornberry, it's the same thing. So, so is the observation of how these products had been used historically was not true pulsing. As I developed the whole concept that I've talked about earlier on, that we develop problem because of a gradual failure of our own endogenous ability to repair. Then we lose cells every day. This is a day-to-day process of cellular loss. So, in my mind, it developed as a concept. It's something that needs to be offset every day as well. So, in my mind, it's something. To be taken every day, I've been taking it every day since 2001 so but as now we have developed the science of, we have a product now that is more powerful than than what we developed originally, then somebody could decide that, you know, let's do this for a month or two and do this twice a year, for example, as you're healthy, and if there's a problem that shows up, then you want to boost your ability to repair, so somebody could look at it that way. I don't think it's a wrong way of doing it. I'm taking it every day. I've seen the results of taking this every day. We are doing studies right now with Parkinson, with congestive art failure, and the results that we obtain is with people taking it every day over, over, let's say, six months after that, can they stop? Yes, they can stop. Their heart is repaired, but other things are going on. They're aging, so other organs are losing. So I see it as a day to day support of your endogenous ability to repair, which is offsetting damages that are taking place also every day, so to me it's a day-to-day process, and in terms of exhaustion of or damage of the bone marrow, it is a legitimate question that I've had since day one. There's absolutely no nothing in the scientific literature that points to the fact that there could be an effect on the bone marrow, and we can look at it from so many different angles. First, are there industry? Take, for example, Seebuck Thornberry, used for 2000 years in Tibetan medicine, Mongolian medicine, Chinese medicine, as a remedy, but also as a food. Nothing has emerged over the years, over the centuries, as to any effect of people taking this Seebuck Thornberry and then having some sort of an effect on the bone marrow. Number one, who in our society released a lot of stem cells? We mentioned it before, when you get a micro lesions or micro traumas to your muscles, tendon, and ligaments. So that means athletes, professional athletes, or top athletes release stem cells, significant release of stem cells every day of their lives, sometimes for decades. Nobody, no athletes, at some point have a condition that is associated with a damaged bone marrow of any kind. Studies in mice have shown that if we destroy completely everything in the bone marrow, but we put one stem cell back in the bone marrow, within six weeks, the entire blood system and bone marrow is reconstituted, so everything points to the fact that releasing 10 million stem cells from your bone marrow every day has absolutely no effect, no deleterious, no negative effect in your bone marrow. There is even some data, but at this point it's evidence. I cannot say it's demonstrated in any way, but evidence to say that you also, you almost like develop a flexibility of this whole process of repair, and it's more effective when you need it, when you have an injury, and you actually need it. So, if anything, it could have a positive effect. So, I've been taking it, I'm not the only one taking this for the past 25 years, everything is still good to help my

Dr. Kay Durairaj 28:02
numbers. You look great, so I must be working as you look fabulous. When we give a patient stem cells exogenously, like if we do mesenchymal stem cells, they sometimes can't make it through the pulmonary circulation, and they can't get to the brain or other distal sites of injury. Is that the case when it's your own endogenous stem cells, they're able to pass through all those barriers, right?

Speaker 1 28:27
Yes, I mean, I have to take your statement a little bit further. When you inject stem cells, they actually did never make it to the brain, injected stem cells. So, after a week, this was done in animals, but it was also confirmed in humans, when you inject stem cells, they actually do not engraft. You rarely find them in tissues, and of all of them, probably never really in the brain. So, their effect is really a paracrine effect. It's a stimulating effect through growth factors that are released through exosomes. When you're talking about your own stem cells is a different scenario, but but the ability of these stem cells to migrate into tissues will vary from organs to organ. You take the heart and the brain, the ability of stem cells from the blood circulation actually penetrating the brain is very rare. It is seen, but it's very rare. The main effect will be one of your own stem cells migrating into the brain, hanging to the vasculature in the brain, and then secreting paracrine growth, growth factors, exosomes that then will have an effect on the local resident stem cells in the brain. So that's why the repair capacity of the brain is limited to the endogenous ability of the brain, what, what is there in terms of repair capacity in the brain, and what your stem cells can stimulate in there. The heart is somewhat the same, and at the other end you have the liver, you have the muscles, you have the skin, where stem cells, you have the intestine, where stem cells that you release from the bone marrow will migrate like significantly to these two. Issues, we have done a study. It was in mice, it was not in humans, but we have done a study where we marked stem cells and then injected a toxin in the muscle of the leg of a mouse, so it completely killed the muscle. And then we gave at the time this blue green algae extract to boost the release of stem cells from the bone marrow, and within about six weeks we saw the entire reconstitution of the muscle in the leg, but they were all cells of the muscle, muscle cells tagged with how we had tagged stem cells to begin with. So these were all derived from stem cells that had migrated into that muscle. So to give you an idea, it really varies from tissue to tissue, but your own stem cells really do engraft

Dr. Kay Durairaj 30:42
interesting. What about muse stem cells? Have you heard of these multi-resistant stress stem cells that can cross through the pulmonary circulation, and they do go to the brain? So, those, I think, are very super fascinating and new.

Speaker 1 30:58
Yeah, they are fascinating, but I think it's early in research, I mean, I would like to see the data that shows that they can migrate in the brain, because you don't have a lot of cellular migration in the brain, so I would like to see the data, I'm not saying it's not possible, but I would like to see

Dr. Kay Durairaj 31:15
the data, yeah, there's a couple clinical studies, I think, out of Japan, and human studies, so it's early yet, but, but some promising

Dr. Kay Durairaj 31:23
that

Speaker 1 31:24
I've shown stem cells, new cells migrating into the brain.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 31:27
I don't think they have biopsies, and thus, and such,

Dr. Kay Durairaj 31:30
to show

Speaker 1 31:30
it's hard

Dr. Kay Durairaj 31:31
to there, but, but, yeah, but they have enough evidence that they pass through the pulmonary circulation that are able to

Dr. Kay Durairaj 31:37
get correct. It's

Speaker 1 31:38
a matter of size, yeah, it's a matter of size. As soon as the stem cells are smaller, for example, if you do V cells, it's the same thing. V cells are unaffected by passage into the lung, so V cells, and they are your own, they will show a good level of engraftment in certain tissues.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 31:56
This is so interesting. Now, in terms of stem region, are there other, so are there nutrients and peptides that we can also give to the body to support the exogenous stem cell release? Think you're working on some of those new concepts.

Speaker 1 32:11
Yes, not so much that I'm aware of in terms of mobilization of stem cells, but when we think of the whole process of tissue repair, so release of stem cells from the bone marrow, these stem cells must be able to circulate into the entire blood circulation. We just mentioned about the lung, but it's a reality of the body that the average size of a capillary is about 12 micron, where your stem cells are bigger, for the vast majority of them are bigger than 12 micron, so you need an optimal microcirculation to allow the delivery of these cells. To me, this is one aspect that is so poorly - I wouldn't say documented, poorly integrated, I should say in popular - the popular narrative about health is that we're all measuring how much, I don't know, DHA, testosterone, whatever that we have in our bloodstream without ever really looking at whether this bloodstream is actually reaching the cells, which is the only place where it matters, and this is the microvascurature delivery of cells, delivery of the immune system, but here in this case delivery of stem cells, if an organ or a tissue as a chronic condition, most of the time this, the chronic nature of the problem has affected the microcirculation, so you inject stem cells or release stem cells, and they don't have access to that area, because the microcirculation is compromised, so you need to have proper microcirculation, you need to have, if you have systemic inflammation, which is a localized signal, so that signal normally, like not 100% like the vast majority, like the main reason, let's put it this way, the main function of an inflammatory signal is to open through to edema is to open the waterways to that tissue, so that cells can circulate there, and when they arrive there, they do the process of tissue repair. So, the main role of inflammation is to attract stem, tell stem cells where they need to go when they cannot reach the area because of compromised microcirculation, microcirculation, or not enough stem cells in circulation, because you're past, let's say, 4050, years of age, then the area becomes chronic, but it keeps sending a signal for repair, so that signal at some point becomes systemic. So now you release stem cells. The stem cells is meant to follow that signal, but the signal is everywhere. So stem cells have lost their GPS. So systemic inflammation is a very important part of this whole process. And now stem cells needs to go into tissue, so where peptides play a very interesting role is that they act on on epigenetics, DNA, RNA transcription, and basically they work from the tissue to better receive better call for stem cells, and in that way. Today you need to protect DNA repair mechanism, because cells, when they migrate, they multiply. You need to harmonize the inflammatory signal coming from the tissue. You need to optimize microcirculation, so that's where I think peptides can play a role. Like Epitalon is playing a role in DNA repair mechanism, Villon is playing a role in KD in maintaining good microcirculation main timeogen as well to maintain good inflammatory signaling, like harmonized inflammatory signaling, so peptides can really help the whole process, but from the tissue standpoint, so we release themselves from the bone marrow, and then from the tissue we attract them where they should go, that's where there's a really good harmony with peptides and stem cells.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 35:44
Well, that's fascinating. I don't think I've ever really thought about that concept, that the microcirculation becoming so tiny that the ingredients you need to arrive at the destination are never delivered.

Speaker 1 35:56
I mean, let's, let's clarify, yes, the vessels are small, 12 microns, roughly on average. Nutrients will go easily. They're, they're small enough. So, it's the cells, is the circulation of cells that is limited, but your physiology is is made in accordance with the size of your stem cells, so they can reach. So, you need nitric oxide producers that will dilate arterioles. You need to have flexible capillaries, so that they can extend properly. Capillaries can extend significantly to allow cells to indeed pass through those capillaries. This is normal physiology, but if anything comes in the way of reducing this whole process of capillary extension, the glycocalyx at the surface of the endothelium to allow the proper anchoring of stem cells or immune cells when they reach the tissue. This whole process just needs to be well harmonized and optimized. That's where we need to, that's where we need to, to have optimized microcirculation. So, but nutrients normally will, I mean, will I mean the moment that you have improper microcirculation, you will have reduced microcirculation in that area, which is over time, from from a chronic standpoint, it is poor delivery of nutrients, poor delivery of oxygen, poor removal of carbon dioxide, poor cleansing of these tissues, so obviously it breeds an environment that, yeah, will will lead to dysfunction.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 37:28
Oh, interesting. Are there some human clinical studies on the stem cell mobilization that you're really excited about right now, or any recent publications that you've thought were fascinating?

Speaker 1 37:41
Well, we documented that these ingredients support the release of your own stem cells. So, as I mentioned before, you take two capsules, and we can estimate roughly about 10 million additional stem cells in circulation. So, putting more stem cells in circulation has been well documented in the scientific literature to really help organs function optimally all throughout the body, most of this was done in animal studies. So, the next step in this whole evolution was for us to go now in human clinical trials and see if we can duplicate these observations with a safe stem cell mobilizer, which is the product that we have. So, now we have started a study on stable chronic congestive heart failure. We have an ongoing study on Parkinson. I'm actually reviewing the data and the article in that study. We are starting one on COPD, potentially one also in liver failure. Our aim is not at all to say this product is good for heart disease or this product is good for Parkinson or COPD, it's not the aim. The aim is really just to show stem cells are the body's repair system. The ability to repair the main parameter here is the number of stem cells in circulation gradually decline as we age. So, this gradual decline in our ability to repair is what allows dysfunction and damages to grow and lead to problems. So, if we can put more stem cells in circulation, we simply boost the ability of the body to repair, and the body can then improve function in various organs and tissues. So, let's look at what it means in the heart, because I'm choosing in these studies organs that normally are not known to repair, so really to re underscore the relevance of the innate ability of the body to repair. So we have an ongoing study on stable chronic congestive heart failure. So we are now at about what, 4050, patients in this study. Last year we published the first 10 patients, and of those first 10 patients taking releasing their own stem cells three times a day for six months, all of them had regained normal heart function on the Parkinson after about six months, anywhere between 40 to let's say 80% improvement in the various parameters that are affected. In a Parkinson patient, which is like sleep disturbance, depression, anxiety, balance, tremor, typical issues that are associated, we have not in that study used patients that also show dementia, so just basically just motor and motor problems in an anxiety mood, sleep, so and again, 40 to 70% to 80% improvement in these various parameters. COPD, we have not yet started this study, but based on single cases, we have not published this case yet, but one of these cases is right now being written up for publication. Based on these cases, we expect to see good, good results in that study as well, again, just to show that when we give back the body to the body its ability to repair, the results can be quite surprising, quite impressive in terms of just general repair.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 40:54
Where do you think stem cell science will be in the next five, five years? Everything's moving so fast, I was going to say 10 years, but my God, with I and the speed of science right now, three to five years,

Speaker 1 41:07
I think. I think I mean, with everything that I have shared with you today, for me the main development in stem cell research and stem cell treatment is not going to be the new type of cells that have been analyzed, or the new method, although this will happen. You mentioned the new cells, for example, it's a very interesting type of cells with a, with a brilliant future, but, but at the end, it's just like another treatment that is added, like another type of stem cells on the menu of stem cells. I think the much, much more fundamental thing that we'll have to sink down in medicine is understanding that stem cells are the body's repair system. That system, that ability to repair, declines with aging. Aging and disease formation is a direct result of the gradual failure of endogenous repair. It means tons when we talk about medicine. It means that when somebody comes to the office for whatever problem, a doctor will see, is it the flora that is the problem, is that absorption, is it blood circulation, is cardiovascular system, is it the lung, the liver, whatever, is it, is it diabetes? Or if we look at all kinds of things, never in this inquiry is the question, is this person having a failure of endogenous repair, and in that condition, what part of it can we attribute to that failure of endogenous repair, and the research points to the fact that it's a lot of it, and in that case, what if we just boost the body's ability to repair as a first approach to then see what else we can do, so it has a huge impact in how we practice medicine, understanding that it's the body's innate ability to repair. So, to me, this is probably going to be the greatest impact, is having this really sink in, because it will change our general understanding of health, wellness, longevity, disease formation. When I say that the decline in the number of stem cells to me is the primary cause of aging and disease formation. Let me put that a little bit in context today. If we ask, what are the main causes of aging and disease formation, we will say, like, inflamaging, inflammation, free radicals, the free radical theory of aging, mitochondrial dysfunction. These are probably the top three reasons why we age and we develop disease, but take inflamaging. If you take ibuprofen and Tylenol every day, I'm being a little bit facetious here, but you do not change the course of disease formation. I am not saying inflammation is not relevant, it is extremely relevant, but it is not the fundamental cause, because when you change that element, it does not necessarily change the course. If you look at free radicals, it's the same thing. Take a whole list of all the antioxidants that you can put your hand on and consume them daily. It's not going to change the course of disease formation and aging. I'm not saying it's, it's, it's not good, and I'm not saying they don't play a role, but look at the study that we have on congestive heart failure. All we did in these patients, all we did, we simply add them, release more of their own stem cells every day, that's all we did. Six months later, all 10 of the first 10 patients have regained normal heart function, and so that's why I'm thinking when we really look at the core understanding that stem cells are the repair, the repair system of the body. It becomes the core aspect of human health. It's the first thing to leverage, and then we also do all the rest with it. But to me, it's the fundamental cause of aging and disease formation. When that has sunk in, in our medical society, for lack of a better term, then all these treatments that we talk about, new cells, all the ways of using stem cells, suddenly has a different meaning, and so to me that will be, I hope, the big, the biggest development in the next five years.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 44:55
That's so interesting. How do you think that relates with the whole information theory of aging that. Our cells have the programming to repair themselves, but you know the DNA gets methylated, and then it no longer reads right. So that's like a David Sinclair's idea of information theory of aging. How does that relate to this idea that even if a stealth cell goes wrong and damage the stem cells will come in and reset that I'm just curious, if you think that those are, I

Speaker 1 45:24
mean, I would have, yeah, I would have to study it more. Let me just say that at this point in time, what is known to reverse DNA methylation, one of the main ones is calorie restriction, that is known to reverse DNA methylation, and there are other things that are coming out on the marketplace now that supports that. None of them extend life longevity, none of them achieve that in higher animals. You see this, you see this in yeast and fruit flies, you see it in mice, you see, but you don't see it when you get to dogs, chimpanzees, and humans, you don't see it. It's giving you a better life. There's no question. So I think it's playing a role. There's no question, but I don't think it's the fundamental cause of it. It's a, it's a symphony of things. It's a, it's a, it's a myriad of factors that all play a role, no doubt, and I think that in an approach of longevity, or for anyone personally, like what should I do for my health? In no means am I saying you should take one and not look at the others. I think they all participate to it, but the data of what I have seen, just by increasing the number of stem cells in circulation, far is far beyond the contribution of any one of those factors alone, just this one alone. So I think it's the primary cause, and we use everything else along with

Dr. Kay Durairaj 46:54
it. I love how you describe that. Let's end up by talking a little bit about you and yourself, what is your own personal health routine has changed because of what you've learned with your research, and you know what's what are some things that you're doing for biohacking your health?

Speaker 1 47:12
I mean, my, I, of course, I take the product that we have, that we have, that we have produced and marketed, so stem region release that releases your own stem cells, mobilize that boost cross circulation signal that harmonize all the signaling in your blood. So, essentially addressing systemic inflammation, we're coming out with a series of bioregulators to do exactly what I described before, to orchestrate this whole process from the tissue, from the epigenetics of the tissue, we're developing products on autophagy, on synolytics. So I'm doing all of this right now, which is the main thing that I do. I take the usual vitamin D, DHEA, and everything that my wife puts in front of me in the morning, so she will know more what I take every day, but from from from a beyond this, I would say my biggest bio act for me is I've been meditating for a long time. For me, how the mind works has a huge, huge impact on health. We talked briefly a little bit about how stress and anxiety can affect stem cell function. It can affect a lot of things in the body. There's one thing that all centenarians and super centenarians share in common, and many things have been looked at - gene expressions, lifestyle - many things have been looked at. You even find, like, super centenarians that drink, like, I don't know a shot of brandy every day, and smoking a cigar every day. So, it's the only thing that they all have in common is that they're happy. So, I think that the greatest biohack that anybody can do is to find a place within yourself where you're really at peace. And so, for me, this is really my greatest biohack.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 49:01
That's a beautiful way to end, and I think that you're absolutely right. You have to do what you're good at, find what you're good at, do what you're good at, and then also find something that you have a passion about, like a mission, like you have clearly this is your mission to educate people. Where can people find you, Christian, if they want more information or to reach out

Speaker 1 49:22
on all the products and the research on our website, stemregen.co so stem regen.co On any questions that people send me, these are answered to on Instagram and on TikTok at Stem Cell Christian. So, and if you have any question, just post them there, and my team will pick them up, and I'll, I'll answer them.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 49:42
Wonderful. Are you lecturing at any conferences coming up soon? Or,

Speaker 1 49:46
well, the next, the next big conference is Beyond, Beyond Biohacking in Austin, at the end of May. So, I don't know if it will be in time for when, for when your podcast is released, but that is for us a big conference in the year. So, I'll be there. We are the title. Sponsors, so we have a big presence there at that conference. Then I have the Harvest Harvard Business School, where we're going to have, for the first time, a whole panel and a discussion about the repair system of the body, and basically aging and disease formation as a failure of endogenous repair. So the concept now is starting to penetrate mainstream, so I think that these.. this is it for now until after the summer.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 50:25
Well, that's amazing. You're very passionate about what you do, such a great interview, and I can't thank you enough. I hope we get to meet you in person one day.

Speaker 1 50:35
Thank you. Same here. Thank you.

Dr. Kay Durairaj 50:36
That's it for now, guys. Don't forget to find me on my Instagram, it's Beauty by Dr. K, doing amazing things with people's faces, health, and longevity. We are all about turning on bioregenerative powers to repair for skin aging and collagen production, and all of these other things that we didn't even get into yet. But you can also check out my new peptide-based skincare line with GHK copper, glutathione, and my own tripeptide complex that stimulates collagen and elastin. Check it all out at Beauty by Dr. K. That's D R K A Y. And our website is the same. Our Instagram handles are the same. That's it for now, guys. I hope to see you in the next podcast, where you're going to learn more and more about the bioregenerative powers of yourself, that's it for now, guys. Stay beautiful,

Unknown Speaker 51:23
you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai