ANNOUNCER: Dr. Marc Darrow, MD, from the Stem Cell Institute in West Los Angeles. This is the program that can give you effective solutions for the pain you’ve been living with. Dr. Darrow is a medical doctor, board-certified through his studies at UCLA. And Dr. Darrow uses stem cell and platelet-rich plasma to heal your body. He teaches about the use of stem cells, PRP, and prolotherapy. Today’s program could open up a new life without pain for you. To speak with Dr. Darrow, call 866-870-KRLA. That’s 866-870-57-52. Ask for a copy of Dr. Darrow’s book, Stem Cell and Platelet Therapy. Regenerate, Don’t Operate. Now, here’s Dr. Marc Darrow, MD.
DR. MARC DARROW: Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I’m so happy that you’re listening to this show because my job here is to educate you how to take the surgery out of pain. That’s a word twister. What we’re trying to say is if you’re getting ready for an orthopedic surgery that you don’t need, please jump ship and consider talking to us at the phone number to the office if you like.
You can get a free phone consult with our staff. It’s 800-300-9300 and we send out a free copy of our book Stem Cell and Platelet Therapy: Regenerate, Don’t Operate. The foreword is by Suzanne Somers, who I had the pleasure of knowing for most of our lives together. We were very good friends and I’ve taken care of her and I’ve taken care of her son Bruce and his kids and all with great results.
If you want to call and speak to me now live, you can do that. You can learn about stem cells and PRP which is platelet-rich plasma and it’s very simple process. the phone number to call in right now to talk to me live is 866-870-5752. That’s 866-870-5752. I would love to talk to you.
I’d love for you to ask questions about how you can heal your musculoskeletal pain without a surgery that you don’t need. And I always say this, in my humble opinion, most of these surgeries, and I don’t know how to put a percentage on it, it’s humongous, never should have been done.
And the reason I say that is because we have people that come in every day with a failed orthopedic surgery. And it’s a shame really. It’s old medicine to me. I’m not saying orthopedic surgeons are negative because they are the hardest workers in medicine. I love these guys. I was on track to do orthopedic surgery. I loved it. Had a lot of fun.
Then I had a shoulder surgery when I was in medical school and that changed my mind quickly because I had nothing but quote impingement in the shoulder and had a surgery and by my boss and woke up with a swollen arm and a fever and u that took about four years to quiet down.
And then finally when I learned about regenerative medicine, this is back in the day a long time ago. I injected my own shoulder and woke up the next morning completely pain-free with full range of motion.
And I’ve had several injuries all over my body. I’ve used stem cells and platelets all over my knees, my shoulders, both shoulders. I had both shoulders actually lock up on me at different points and my wrist, my elbows. I’ve had other doctors inject my neck and my back all over the place.
I may have I may be the guy who’s had the most regenerative medicine of anybody on the planet and I probably do the most. We’re very busy clinic and if you want to get a hold of our staff right now and learn more about it that you don’t hear about here, you just call the office at 800-300-9300. they’re waiting by the phones.
And if you want to watch me actually do these injections, there are videos on my website, which is www.stemcellinstitute.com. That’s stemcellinstitute.com and every page on my website has a spot where you can email me and I get back to everybody the same day.
I typically wake up and do emails through in between patients. When I’m injecting, I do emails and at night I do emails. And my patients get my cell number if they need me. It’s pretty unheard of in medicine, but I think it’s a great way to get connected to the patient, help them heal because a lot of times people have questions that they don’t know what to do with. So I like to give them that comfort of knowing that they can call me if they need to.
So one of the things we talk about in you know most of what I do is educational timewise because because patients you know this is not mainstream medicine yet. I know it’s becoming much more mainstream than when I started it back 20 almost 30 years ago. no one knew about it and I think I’m the guy that brought it out the most.
Now it’s all over the world and but the problem still is the mainstay of musculoskeletal medicine is still orthopedic surgery. So people accept that they go in blindfolded and then get a surgery and then sometimes it comes out great. My shoulder surgery came out horrible and that’s unfortunate but that’s part of surgery. You know, there are times where it just doesn’t work out very well.
So, I talk about all the time in my education process with patients when they come in that there is pathology and then there’s reality. And pathology is what their doctor diagnoses them with, often based on an image. And there’s basically no correlation between an image and between the reality, what is really going on.
And I had someone I actually I have someone come in every day. I’m trying to think yesterday what it was. Someone came I know what it was. A woman came in and she said she had to have a hip replacement. This was her her let’s see it was her right hip and she was getting ready to have it replaced.
She had come to me before for knee pain and her knee healed up pretty quickly using stem cells. So when her hip started hurting by the way it wasn’t her hip. I’m using that term because that’s what all the doctors called it.
She came and said, “I need a hip replacement, but I trust you because you fixed my knee and I was supposed to get a surgery on my knee and I didn’t have to after you injected stem cells.”
So, I said, “Well, the first thing we have to do is we have to examine it because I can’t go on the diagnosis of another doctor.” And I said, “Point to where the pain is.”
And her pain was nowhere near her hip. It was it was actually in her back lower than than the low back. It was down in the gluteus medius muscle that attaches to the inner side or the medial side of the pelvis.
And I poked it and she jumped and I said, “This is pretty easy to fix. So, I don’t think we’re going to have any problem fixing that.”
She said, “What about fixing my hip after you fix that?” And I said, “There’s nothing wrong with your hip.”
I did a hip exam. she had full range of motion without any pain. and she said her doctor said that she had hip arthritis.
And I said, ‘You may have some arthritis. That’s part of aging. She was probably 70 years old, but it’s not the cause of where your pain is coming from. And arthritis doesn’t necessarily cause pain.
So, that’s how it goes. And I see that every day where people come in with the wrong diagnosis. They’re ready for a surgery they didn’t need. And a lot of people come in having had the surgery that didn’t work.
We have a caller here which is excellent. Thank you so much. This is Adam Pantrelli. How are you Adam?
ADAM: Good morning, Doctor. How are you?
DR. MARC DARROW: I’m living it up, man. What can I do for you?
ADAM: Well, listen, I’m an active guy. I’m 56 years old and time is catching up with me. I’ve had some shoulder pain for about six months and I must have just kept reinjuring it because pain finally got so great and I got an MRI this week or last week.
DR. MARC DARROW: Oh, okay.
ADAM: And I just want to know what my options are other than surgery. I know. All right. That would be great.
DR. MARC DARROW: What did the Let’s start with this. What did the MRI say? Because we’re going to probably debunk that right away.
ADAM: Okay. So, we’ve got let’s see if I can get just the just the impression the end the ending the goodies.
ADAM: Yes. Let me dig that up and I’ll read that right to you.
DR. MARC DARROW: Well, without reading it, do you remember if you had a rotator cuff tear or something like that?
ADAM: I do, and I did. Okay, give me a minute.
DR. MARC DARROW: Let me address Let me address that quickly. No, I don’t need you to read it. So I have three three tears in my shoulder. Okay? I have a subscapularis tendon tear. I have a supraspinatus which is the most common tendon tear. And at 56 if we did a study and just did MRIs on people that have no pain, we would probably find that a huge number of them, if they’re athletes, have supraspinatus tears. It’s the most common of the four rotator cuff tendon tears. So, it’s common to have it and it’s common to have it without having any pain. So, because you have pain doesn’t mean it’s that tear that’s causing it. Now, like I said, I have more tears than you do probably, but I’m going to go play golf later today. I’m going to do some weightlifting and I have a bar that I hang on and do all kinds of stuff. I used to be a gymnast and I don’t have any pain in my shoulders. So, what’s the I hope you can get this, Adam. It’s not about the diagnosis and it’s not about the MRI. So I am you know I can’t promise anyone anything. Our consent form says and I make people sign this in their own handwriting so they can actually get it you know so they just don’t breeze through a consent and and and not know what it’s saying. They have to write out there’s no guarantees to this procedure with stem cells or platelets and that we don’t know how many treatments it’ll take. So, that’s the end point for you. I’m going to tell you this. If you’re functional and your shoulder is not locked up, you know, with arthritis where you can’t move it, we can probably help you. So, Adam, God bless you, man. I appreciate you calling in. I’ve got to go to some other people here. We got a two other callers coming in and I want to get to them quickly. So, God bless you. I appreciate the call. And we’re going to go to Els.
DR. MARC DARROW: Thank you. Hello there. Can you hear me?
AVA: Hi, Dr. Darrow. It’s Ava.
DR. MARC DARROW: Ava, how are you today?
AVA: Doing great. How are you?
DR. MARC DARROW: I’m good. Do you have a question about stem cells or PRP that I can help you with?
AVA: I do. I was just calling in. I was curious to see a question about stem cells. I just wanted to hear your thoughts. I know you do a lot of stem cell treatments and I was wondering what condition you think stem cell therapy has the most potential to treat.
DR. MARC DARROW: All right. You’re going to laugh when I when I say this. You ready? Get ready. Back pain, neck pain, joint pain, any joints, any joints anywhere. Even little toes, not just hips and shoulders, you know, necks, backs, those are all joints. osteoarthritis, any kind of arthritis, it helps. plantar fasciitis, tendinitis, tendinosis, joint, SI joint pain, you know, the low back stuff, ligament problems, bursitis, tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow, Baker’s cyst, meniscal tears in the knees, labral tears, hip, shoulders, bunions, groin pain, sports hernias, hand pain, headaches, buttock pain, cartilage damage, calcific tendinitis, degenerative joint disease, patellofemoral syndrome, what else? whiplashes, rotator cuff tears, acromioclavicular joint pain, I mean there’s thousands of things it works on. And which one works the best? They all work the best because it’s very simple. The body is made out of the protein collagen. Collagen is the major constituent in cartilage. So all that happens when we inject in a certain area is we stimulate new tissue to grow. And we can see this on images where we have a knee that’s the cartilage is pretty much gone and we can inject and then later a few months later we can do another X-ray. We can see there’s more joint space so we know there’s cartilage growing. So I hope that answers your question a call. We’re going to go to Marco. Marco, can you hear me?
MARCO: I can hear you. Good morning, Dr. Darrow.
DR. MARC DARROW: Thank you. Marco, what can I do for you? Do you have a question about stem cells or PRP?
MARCO: Yes. I am calling because I’ve had a hip replacement on my left side and that’s worked great. Now, the right hand side according to the orthopedist says that I should be thinking about getting that replaced, but I’m not in such severe pain with as I was with the left hip. I take a lot of sea moss and I’m wondering if you think along with the sea moss that maybe a stem cell injection here and there will help.
DR. MARC DARROW: Well, you know, for everybody, whatever they take, if it works for them, it’s great, right? So, when you said you take sea moss, honestly, I don’t even know what that is. Is it actual moss? Oh, sea moss.
MARCO: Yes. It’s a purified, high-quality sea moss.
DR. MARC DARROW: Yes, that’s a good anti-inflammatory. And anytime you can alkalize the body, which sea moss would probably do, you know, we’re in an acid state as humans from eating what we eat. Our diet is heavily into protein, which has a lot of arachidonic acid, which is inflammatory. So unless you’re eating grass-fed beef, it’s very inflammatory. Okay? So with the pain in your hip, if you’re taking things like sea moss, you can get all kinds of supplements that will alkalinize the body. Bicarbonate can do it. You know, you can get bicarb and take that in a glass of water. That can do it also. there’s no magic in any of these special products. They’re all special. And some people take several to alkalinize. people that are on a diet which is alkaline is mostly like vegetables and protein. I’m sorry, vegetables and fruits can get rid of a lot of pain. All of my fibromyalgia patients, if they follow this type of an alkaline diet, their fibromyalgia typically goes away if they’re not cheating. Cheating means they occasionally have, you know, a pastry or something with grain in it. Grain is very inflammatory. So, yeah, I mean, you know, I do stem cells all day long, a PRP all day long. So, of course, I’m going to tell you that if your right hip is not that bad, why would you want to operate on it?, you had a great hip replacement, it sounds like, and God bless you for that one, and God bless the surgeon. But if you don’t have to do it on the other one, I wouldn’t do it.
MARCO: Exactly.
DR. MARC DARROW: Actually, I’ve had people with horrible hips where they can barely move them and they’ve gotten great results. So, you never know. I can never prophesize as I mentioned before there’s there’s my consent form says there are no guarantees there can be very simple things to fix like just a simple tendonitis and sometimes we can’t get rid of it and that’s on the patient also usually that’s someone who’s too active not letting the tissue grow in and you know that’s on them you know it’s not just on me and it’s not just on stem cells or platelets so there’s a lot of variables and, hopefully you’d be a great candidate, Marco. And we’re going to move on. I really appreciate your call. I love you very much. And we’re going to go on to Joanna. Joanna, can you hear me?
JOANNA: I can hear you. Can you hear me?
DR. MARC DARROW: Yes. What’s cooking? Do you have a do you have a question about stem cells or PRP?
JOANNA: Well, I do. As you know and I have had the wonderful experience of having you do a stem cell shot in my knee and also giving me some a very good head of hair because of some of the [Laughter] stem cells you’ve put in there. So I am thrilled.
DR. MARC DARROW: Yes.
JOANNA: But what I want to know and this is important to me because I’m of an age that many of my friends are having issues, serious issues like cancer and and heart failure and things like that. I want to know do the stem cells can they u produce new cells and can that help with serious illnesses like that?
DR. MARC DARROW: Well, first of all, that’s outside my wheelhouse. I’m going to tell you that right now up front because that’s not what I treat. I treat musculoskeletal issues like your knee and I treat hair issues like your head, which you know, you had some good luck with., so there are studies I’ve seen though on injecting stem cells into dead heart muscle after a heart attack and that’s been very positive. I’m not sure of anything about cancer. Yeah. Yeah, the heart’s very specific about that. They can go in with an angiography and watch where the stem cells are being put and there’s been very positive success with that. I don’t know anyone in town who does it. it might just be through a major university or something like that. But if your friend looks up looks up heart and stem cells, they’ll find the studies on that one. And again, on cancer, that’s totally that’s totally outside of my wheelhouse. So I don’t know the answer that
JOANNA: I think it’s miraculous that that you u are dealing in this because I know that it does help it help. It does make total sense to me. but and let me ask you one other quick question. Does it replace Ask as many as you like. Yeah. Bone disintegration kind of reboot that. Okay. Well, that’s fabulous.
DR. MARC DARROW: Bone? Yes. I mean I mean when stem cells are placed somewhere they stimulate new tissue to grow. when you say bone disintegration I’m I’m thinking more like osteoporosis. Is that what you’re thinking of? Something different. Yes. Not a not avascular necrosis. Okay.
DR. MARC DARROW: I don’t have an answer on that., osteoporosis is in my wheelhouse, but it’s but what I the way I treat it is with natural hormones, bioidentical hormones. And what that does is it helps the bones remodel. It takes out the old bone that’s soft and lays down new bone. That’s a a process of the osteoclasts and the blood taking out old bone and the osteoblasts growing new bone. And I lost my testosterone very young. I’m not sure what happened. And I was feeling low energy and I got my hormones tested and my testosterone was very low and I started supplementation, and I knew about low testosterone and bone mass. So I got a bone density and I had very severe osteopenia almost osteoporosis in my hips and my spine. So, I started taking testosterone and within about a year or so, my bone density improved significantly. Now, it’s really I mean I honestly I’m 78 and I’ve been on testosterone for the last 30 years.
JOANNA: To keep my bone mass, honey? [Laughter]
DR. MARC DARROW: I want to look like I’m 16. Yeah. I mean, there’s no there’s no reason for people to act their age anymore, you know?
JOANNA: No, I agree with that. I totally agree. Yeah.
DR. MARC DARROW: And you know, knowing the way you look, you’re you’re one of the most gorgeous women on the planet and however you do it. Thank you. You should you should have a radio show about it because I don’t think there’s anyone more beautiful than than you are. So
JOANNA: Oh, well, thank you for that.
DR. MARC DARROW: We’re complimenting each other here, which is good. [Laughter]
JOANNA: It’s very good, and I appreciate it.
JOANNA: Well, thank you for answering my questions and you have a great day.
DR. MARC DARROW: And one more statement about that. There’s tons and tons and tons of research on stem cells because a lot of private equity guys are getting into it because there’s money to be made and that’s great. So there’s a lot of research. I think stem cells are the future of the world. AI obviously is on the tech side but on the biological side stem cells are still the bomb. And I’m grateful to have been in this field for almost 30 years. And one of the things I love about it is when I injure myself and I’m still an athlete even at my age doesn’t matter because in my mind Joanna I am 16 years old and I’m still ripped up pretty good. My body is you know I came in with the embryologically whatever it was genetically I came in with a good body and I work out every single day of my life and I don’t care what it is. It could be taking a halfhour walk in the park over the ocean and playing with the dogs or whatever, you know, but I have to get out, get the oxygen moving. And I still like to, you know, use weights and and run and all that stuff, too.
JOANNA: I love it. I couldn’t live without that.
DR. MARC DARROW: It is very depressing not to be active. It’s very depressing and and it’s unfortunate for people. I have so many people come in with injuries. They go, I can’t exercise. And I go, use some other part of your body. just get the blood moving and you’re going to feel better. You’re going to get endorphins going and that’s going to make you feel better because absolutely you know pain and depression are are twins and if you’re depressed you end up with pain and if you’re in pain you end up with depression. So it’s an awful cycle. It’s a slippery slope. You got to keep moving no matter what. And I get so many patients come in that are obese and they don’t get that their obesity blocks them from be having a happy life and I feel so bad for them and you know people have all their excuses why but there’s no excuse for good health and not having good health and not being happy and being happy as you know because I know your personality you’re an up person that’s not easy to do you got to work it and people don’t know how to do that.
JOANNA: Do you have to make that choice?
DR. MARC DARROW: You do, every minute. You got to just say, “I am happy.” Even when you’re not feeling happy. And that changes the endorphin structure in the body, the neurotransmitters and the hormones. And then you become happy. You forget about the way you started. Well, Joanna, you’re a blessing to the planet, and I’m so grateful that we’re friends, and I appreciate this call. Thank you so much.
JOANNA: Testosterone shots. [Laughter]
DR. MARC DARROW: Well, for a woman, you don’t need shots. You just use a cream.
DR. MARC DARROW: Anyway, we have another caller here. We have It looks like Amy is calling in. So, Amy, can you hear me?
AMY: I can.
DR. MARC DARROW: All right. Do you have a question about stem cells or PRP or regenerative medicine or orthopedic surgery? Anything of that nature?
AMY: I want to ask about stem cells.
DR. MARC DARROW: Okay.
AMY: I was curious but for stem cell treatments does their effectiveness—or the number of treatments needed—depend on your age? I know that PRP and stem cells are intended to induce a healing environment within the joint space. But does the effectiveness vary depending on your age?
DR. MARC DARROW: I haven’t found it to vary. That doesn’t make any sense. I know because you’d think that someone younger has better blood supply, better collagen, better you know, better healing ability because of all that, but I treat all ages. I treat you know, pre-teens sometimes if they’ll allow getting an injection. Some of them don’t want an injection, so I can’t help them. But I’ve treated a lot of you know, 12-year-olds, 13. We’re going to go to the break. Amy, if you don’t mind staying with us, I would appreciate it because these are great questions you have and I want everybody to hear it. So, this is Dr. Marc Darrow on Living Pain-Free. This is how to avoid orthopedic surgery by way of regenerative medicine using stem cells and platelets. And if you want to call my office, get a free phone consult with my staff and a free book on stem cells and platelets, call the office right now, 800-300-9300 and we will see you shortly. You’re listening to Living Pain Free with Dr. Marc Darrow at the Stem Cell Institute in West Los Angeles. To schedule an appointment, call 800-300-9300. That’s 800-300-9300. Dr. Darrow will be back in just a moment.
MARC DARROW, MD: This is Marc Darrow, MD. We’re going to the second half hour of Living Pain-Free and how to take the surgery out of pain. And the meaning of all of that is we don’t need to have surgery just because a doctor tells you need surgery. That’s what I call dinosaur medicine. Obviously, if you have an emergency, you break a bone or something, you may need an immediate emergency surgery. That’s a different story. But most of these meniscal tears, rotator cuff tears in the shoulder, neck surgeries, back surgeries, whatever do not need to be done. If you go to many surgeons, you’ll probably get the same opinion.
please go to someone who does regenerative medicine for a second opinion.
And if you go to the same type of doctor, you typically get the same pathology, the same diagnosis, which may not at all be the case of what the reality is. And I talk about the pathology versus the reality. The pathology often comes from images rather than from examining the body. I touch the body before I inject to find the right spot. And the right spot typically is not what the person is diagnosed by or about. And I know that sounds crazy, but I see it every day. I can’t believe that doctors are still treating based on images of the of the musculoskeletal parts of the body. It makes zero sense to me. There’s often zero correlation between an image and where the pain is. And people come in with some arthritis in a joint and their pain is nothing to do with that joint.
It might be close by. One of the greatest examples is when people say they have hip pain or hip arthritis and are going to get a hip replacement. I palpate the different areas and move the hip around. The hip may have great range of motion. There might be some arthritis, but arthritis doesn’t necessarily cause pain. I may find that the pain has nothing to do with that joint and is instead coming from nearby muscles. The gluteus medius muscle wraps around the back of the pelvis, and there are many muscles in that region. The greater trochanter—the small bump you can feel on the outside of what you call your hip—has 14 muscle attachments. It’s a complex area.
There’s so many different things that can be causing your pain that have nothing to do with what your doctor told you the pain is supposed to be from. be super careful. Do not get a surgery you don’t need. They’re no fun to have. You can get infected. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a couple of people die on the table. That’s no fun. one woman had a heart attack from the anesthesia. I’ve horrible stories. I don’t want to paint the picture like that because most surgeries are okay. It’s just that most of them do not do any good for the person. And when you get a surgery, let’s say that let’s say you’ve got an ACL rupture in the knee. By the way, most of those we can heal without any surgery at all. But let’s say a doctor goes in to use a cadaver graft or a patellar graft or hamstring graft.
when they go in, they’re going to cut out a lot of excess tissue that is good cushion for the knee. They’re going to clean it up or clean it out. That ain’t good because what happens is there’s very little stability left in the knee and down the road anytime you injure that knee again, you’re on the path the slippery slope to a knee replacement and that’s no bargain either. A lot of people get hip hip or joint replacements, knee replacements, shoulder replacement. They go, “It came out great.” And then I’ll see them five years later, they’ll come in and go, “It failed.” And then they’re in big trouble because it’s not biological. There’s not much I can do for it because it’s metal and plastic. please do your best. save your own life.
if you’re thinking of a surgery, at least go to a doctor that does regenerative medicine to see if that person can help you by just simple injections. You walk in, get injected, you walk out. You don’t need anesthesia. You don’t need anyone to drive you. It’s simple, simple, simple stuff. so, we’re back to Amy. Amy, thank you so much for calling in. And you asked a question about are stem cells more and PRP more effective in younger people than older people. Is that correct?
AMY: That’s correct.
MARC DARROW, MD: Okay. the answer I gave succinctly was I treat all ages. I’ve treated 12-year-olds every age possible. I’ve been doing this almost 30 years. So I’ve had thousands and thousands and thousands of patients. And I’ve treated hundred year olds, without any issues about that. It’s not necessarily the age that counts.
It’s more of the health state of the person. There are people that come in that are older that have all kinds of disease processes and they’re overweight and they don’t take care of themselves. Those people may be more difficult, especially obesity. That’s more difficult to heal. If a person comes in way overweight and they have a knee problem, well, we can start growing the tissue back, but as soon as they stand up and they’ve got excess poundage, that’s going to put pressure, excess pressure on that knee.
And I always use this analogy with my patients about letting the tissue heal. After an injection, you got to chill for a while. Let the tissue start growing. Let those cells grow in. And the analogy I use is when you have a lawn that you want to reseed, you don’t throw the seed down and then step on the seed.
You wait for the grass to grow. And it’s the same thing anywhere we inject.
It’s not just I know you mentioned Amy about the inside of the joint, but we inject not just the insides of the joints. We inject all over the body. It could be the fascia. It could be the tendons. It could be the ligaments. There’s basically no part of the body I don’t inject for musculoskeletal issues. So I hope that answered that question. I haven.t seen faster healing in kids or adults. It just doesn’t seem to matter. And the problem is I can’t predict how soon someone is going to heal.
You can have something seemingly simple, such as a wrist sprain involving the ligaments between the bones. That is typically easy to address, but sometimes people do not improve even after multiple injections. Then I find out they were playing golf, which places stress on the wrist. I ask people to take a break from their sport, but they do not always follow that advice. They may say, “The treatment doesn’t work. Stem cells or PRP doesn’t work.” I respond, “It works. You didn’t work it.”
It’s like that with anything. I meditate for an hour a day, and many of my patients ask, “How are you so mellow?” Meditation creates a lot of joy, peace, and love. It helps mellow me out.
And they go, “Well, I tried that. It didn’t work.” And I go, “You tried it, but you didn’t work it.” And it’s the same thing with everything in our lives. If you’re not working it, you could say you tried it, but that’s not working it. Working it is doing it. And I have been doing my spiritual exercise, my meditation for an hour a day for, oh my gosh, 55 years or so. So, I still have the same issues other people have. my brain travels all over. The brain’s very active. It’s like a computer that doesn’t stop. But the key to meditation is, and by the way, I’m talking about this because it can help people with pain. The key to meditation is when your mind takes off, you let it take off and then you go back to your mantra. Mantra is a word that you use to focus to focus on. the mind can’t do two things at once.
And if you have a mantra, then you focus on that, you repeat it. And as you’re repeating it, all these other issues that you have in your life, your pain, your miseries, your relationships, your job, your money issues, all these things we have are not present because you’re focused on the inner part of you. And in the inner part, none of these things exist. So I’m big proponent of of meditation for people that have musculoskeletal injuries. It helps them heal quicker.
Amy, we have another caller. Do you have any other questions before I go to the other caller?
AMY: No, I don’t. Thank you for your answer.
MARC DARROW, MD: All right. God bless you, Amy. I really appreciate your call.
I don’t know the name of the next person calling in. They’re giving it to the call screener. Let’s see—are we ready? It’s Ross.
It looks like the light hasn’t turned green on my computer screen yet. Ross, can you hear me?
ROSS: Yes.
MARC DARROW, MD: Ross, you’re up. Hello, Ross. Can you hear me?
ROSS: Dr. Marc Darrow?
MARC DARROW, MD: I sure can. Can you hear me?
ROSS: I can hear you.
MARC DARROW, MD: Great. You could yell at me a little bit. It wouldn’t bother me.
ROSS: Well, I called to thank you. I know you didn’t expect my call this morning. I’ve been helping my wife this morning, but I wanted to let that I went out and hit golf balls, and I have no pain in my shoulder.
MARC DARROW, MD: Tell us what the pain was like before and what happened.
ROSS: This is going to sound kind of silly, but I had a cart injury where a cart turned over on a very slippery slope. I was the driver, and it turned over on the left side of the cart. I fell on my shoulder, and all of a sudden I had a rotator cuff tear.
MARC DARROW, MD: How did you had a tear, Ross?
ROSS: I had an MRI, and the MRI showed a tear.
MARC DARROW, MD: I got you. That’s the most common scenario we have. Someone has an injury, gets an MRI, and it shows a tear or arthritis. It shows something, but that doesn’t necessarily matter to me. What did your doctor tell you to do about it?
ROSS: I’ve had more than one opinion, and everybody I talked to other than you said it could be repaired with surgery. But I had a rotator cuff tear about 10 years ago, and I had surgery that took seven to nine months to recover from.
MARC DARROW, MD: Holy cow.
ROSS: Since you had helped me with my Achilles tendinitis previously, I thought, “Why don’t I come down and see you?” You said I was a perfect candidate for this type of treatment. I’ve had a couple of treatments from you, and I have no pain.
MARC DARROW, MD: This is so important for the audience to hear, Ross. I’m glad you called. You had a rotator cuff tear repaired 10 years ago. Was it the same shoulder?
ROSS: Different shoulder. My right shoulder.
MARC DARROW, MD: Okay. That was your right shoulder.
ROSS: This is my left shoulder.
MARC DARROW, MD: Okay. That right shoulder has been good for 10 years after the surgery.
ROSS: Oh, yes. The surgery worked beautifully.
MARC DARROW, MD: Okay, good. So, I’m going to tell you something quirky about that.
Okay. Okay. And what I’m saying what I’m saying may not be the truth. It’s just quirky. so when we bleed from a surgery there is a lot of a lot of healing that takes place not just from the area like you had a rotator cuff tear that was probably sewn up but it’s not just the healing from that and it may not have been that healed your shoulder. Okay? I’m not saying it is or it isn’t. I don’t know. Right? It could have been the bleeding.
When you bleed, you have platelets in the blood that go to the area. You also have stem cells that are released that go to that area. Theoretically, it could have been the process of injuring through the surgery that helped your shoulder feel better. Does that make sense to you? I know it’s a conundrum kind of a statement.
ROSS: It does make sense to me.
If if your body releases stem cells and yeah, you need that to repair that tear and platelets platelets are the first responder when there’s an injury. They go to the they go all over the place and actually more commonly now a lot of surgeons before they close the wound after they open up the body will spray in stem cells from the person. They spray it in. Why do they do that?
ROSS: To help the healing.
MARC DARROW, MD: Right. It would be right. Help.
my my point is why why do you need to do a surgery to spray in stem cells? You can do it with a little needle without a surgery. That’s what we call regenerative medicine. We use a little needle and we just place the cells either platelets or stem cells around the area where the pain is coming from. And your pain may not have been coming from that rotator cuff tear. Okay.
And to wit as a lawyer I am to wit for example your your left shoulder now has a rotator cuff tear per MRI. I injected you said two times and it’s better. I didn’t operate on it. I didn’t close up those tears. You may have had those tears for 50 years and not known it.
ROSS: I could have because I played college baseball, I’m left-handed, and I also played professionally with the Montreal Expos. They turned me into a pitcher because I could throw as hard as their pitchers. It’s interesting because that was my strongest arm. The rotator cuff problem could have come from years ago or from throwing.
MARC DARROW, MD: Here’s another thing, Ross. You’re a high-level athlete, but many people who come to me are not athletes at all. They’ve never played a sport. But every human is doing athletic activities all day long—moving around, getting bumped, and falling.
If we performed shoulder MRIs on many people your age, we would find a great number of rotator cuff tears and arthritis. Some would say, “I didn’t know I had that because I don’t have any pain.” When someone does have pain and an MRI shows one of these findings, doctors may attribute the pain to that pathology.
It’s the reality which is what’s going on, not what does the image tell you is going on. Don’t believe the images. They’re wrong most of the time.
Sure, they show imperfections, but those imperfections are not the pain generator. They can be, but usually not. And I see it all day long in my clinic.
ROSS: Yeah, the MRI reading made it sound terrible.
MARC DARROW, MD: Well, that’s the problem. And then it’s a seduction into getting a surgery to fix the MRI. That doesn’t fix you because that’s not your problem. And we already know it’s not your problem because the chances are if your shoulder is better now you played golf today the chances are that you still have that tear but it’s not the problem. I don’t mean to mess up your mind thinking I doubt it. It’s possible. for an experiment, this would be a great experiment.
Let’s get you an MRI and see if it is or not. My guess is it’s not okay. But, you have to understand, I don’t think that’s your problem. I have had people that have come in with complete rotator cuff tears where they, based on an MRI where they shouldn’t be able to lift up their arm and they lift up their arm and they go, “But I have a complete tear.” I go, “Well, you might, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting you.” I know it’s a brain twister. I get it. Yeah. But it really isn’t. When you’ve been in this business like I have for almost 30 years, it’s all day I see it. my point of view, the white horse that I ride is don’t get a surgery unless it’s an emergency. These surgeries for the most part are elective. What does elective mean, Ross?
ROSS: It means you can have it or not.
MARC DARROW, MD: Yes, it’s the patient’s choice, not the surgeon’s choice. An emergency is a different story. Get to the ER and have an orthopedic surgeon address it immediately.
But unfortunately, the culture we live in is operate, operate, operate. And my culture is the opposite. My culture is don’t operate, don’t operate, don’t operate unless you absolutely have to. It’s the last resort. Emergencies, right? That’s the first resort. But all of these injuries that people have, most of them, can be healed using regenerative medicine of platelets and stem cells. PRP is great. Stem cells are better. We actually mix them together to get the best that we know of.
this is great information that you’ve given us. Ross, do you have any other questions about regenerative medicine, stem cells, PRP, friends, or any other issues involving your body that we haven’t discussed?
ROSS: No, not at this time. I just want to show my appreciation for what you’ve done. I think I can go back to playing golf.
MARC DARROW, MD: Well, I’ll tell you what. I’m going out this weekend twice. You’re welcome to come with me as a guest.
ROSS: That sounds pretty enticing. I will [Laughter] really think about that one.
MARC DARROW, MD: All right, man.
You probably need a little more time to ease back into the game and should not play a full round yet because this is new healing, and we want to let the tissue keep growing. It’s great that you’ve already hit balls and played a little, but I wouldn’t play 18 holes right away. When you do play, you may want to play alone rather than with a foursome. You don’t want to go into competitive golf too soon and try to drive the ball farther, which may irritate your shoulder again.
ROSS: I haven’t used any of my long irons, hybrids, fairway woods, or driver. I’m waiting to get to those.
MARC DARROW, MD: Okay. You can advance to that now, but take smooth swings and don’t go for distance. And the name that I use to hit smooth and in tempo is Ernie Els, the great golfer. It’s in my head on every back swing.
Ernie Els has a fluid, simple swing, and he never jerks at the ball trying to hit it far. Yet he hits the ball as far as anybody. I can’t wait to play golf with you, Ross, after you’re ready to get out there.
ROSS: Thank you so much for the invitation. I will let you know.
MARC DARROW, MD: God bless you, man. I really appreciate your call. It helps educate people about how these treatments work and how they may be able to avoid surgery with a conservative treatment. You drive yourself to the office, receive the injections, and walk out. The injections take very little time.
And I do most of my injections under ultrasound guidance so the patient can actually see where the needle is going, which is kind of fun for them. And then they just walk out even with work on the knees or shoulders, hips, whatever it is, they can walk out and drive. you don’t need anyone to drive you. You don’t have any medication, no anesthesia. And some people go back to work. It depends what body part we’ve done. It’s pretty simple. It’s pretty easy to do. I love it. I’ve done so many parts of my own body. I’ve injured my knees, shoulders, elbows, wrist. other people have done my neck, back. I’ve actually had at one workshop that I did. It was up in Madison, Wisconsin. I flew up there once for a workshop many, many years ago. I had I had hundreds of shots done on me at one time.
I was the guinea pig.
Anyway, God bless you all for listening. Thank you callers. Love you all. And if you want to call the office, get a free phone consult with our staff. Get a free copy of my book, Stem Cell and Platelet Therapy. Regenerate Don’t Operate. Call the office 800-300-9300. Go to the website stem cellinstitute.com. And looking forward to seeing you in the office in a quick exam. I can tell you what’s going on. Takes me a minute.
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