With Marc Darrow, MD, JD
Callers and questions
Part 1
- Written question: “I have bone-on-bone in both hips. Is there an alternative to surgery?”
- Nita [name uncertain]: Reported lasting improvement after treatment for a neck injury. Asked how prolotherapy, PRP, and stem cell treatments differ and how blood is collected and prepared.
- Ron — Rancho Mirage: Reported no knee pain since two prolotherapy treatments for a meniscus tear 23 years earlier. Asked whether an MRI would be useful to see what the meniscus looks like now.
- Bruce — West Hollywood: Shared a testimonial about treatment for a groin injury before a 13-day hike from Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn.
Part 2
- Steve — calling from London: Shared his experience after bilateral shoulder dislocations and tendon tears, including choosing injections and returning to golf.
- Arthur — Menifee: Asked about chronic low back pain after unsuccessful surgery and other treatments; number of injections; PRP alone versus PRP with cells; insurance/payment; appointments; and why acupuncture or chiropractic treatment had not resolved his pain. Also asked about cancer treatment.
- Erica — Beverly Hills: Shared her experience with persistent knee pain after meniscus surgery, subsequent PRP treatment, and returning to police work.
Part 1
Opening and written question: Alternatives to hip surgery
Announcer: Are you living in pain? Is it joint pain or muscle pain? If so, stay tuned. Welcome to Living Pain-Free with Dr. Marc Darrow, MD, and Dr. Thomas Grove, DO, 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. Dr. Grove is a regenerative medicine specialist and an expert in ultrasound-guided injections with extensive experience as an athlete and strength and conditioning coach. Today’s program could open up a new life without pain for you. To speak with Dr. Darrow and Dr.
Grove. Call 866-870 KRLA. That’s 866-870-5752. Ask for a copy of Dr. Darrow’s book, Stem Cell and Platelet Therapy. Regenerate Don’t Operate. Now, here’s Dr. Darrow with his co-host, Dr. Thomas Grove.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Hello, ladies and gentlemen. This is Dr. Marc Darrow. It’s so good to be on the show again and I’m here to educate you as to how you can avoid orthopedic surgery when it isn’t necessary. There are times when it is necessary obviously but unfortunately all the or maybe it’s fortunate the studies coming forth show that most of these it surgeries really should not be done.
We have a new way to heal, which I’ve actually been doing for almost 30 years. So, it’s not new for me, but the public is starting to learn that you can regenerate tissue with stem cells and PRP, platelet-rich plasma. And by calling in the show right now, I’m going to send you a book. It’s the book I wrote. It’s called Stem Cell and Platelet Therapy: Regenerate Don’t Operate.
It’s got a couple hundred pages and about 250 scientific studies on how stem cells and PRP can actually regrow the tissue. That’s what we now call it regenerative medicine. Back in the day, we used to call it prolotherapy, proliferative therapy, and we had lesser type injectables that didn’t work as well, but it’s all we had and we were grateful for that. Today it’s morphed into using what started with PRP many years ago and then stem cells.
Anyway, Suzanne Somers wrote the foreword to my book stem cell and platelet therapy regenerate don’t operate and by calling in to ask me a question right now which I would love. I will send you out a copy of the book free copy of the book and the studio number you can talk to myself Dr. Marc Darrow. Dr. Grove is off for the day.
U but the no the number here is 866-870-5752. That’s 866-870-5752. I’d love to hear from you. So how do we take the surgery out of pain? That’s really the question. here’s an example. There’s a question that just came in. And by the way, if you go to my website, which is stemcellinstitute.com, that’s stemcellinstitute.com. You can actually send me an email right there from the website and ask me any kind of questions you want about musculoskeletal medicine.
And the question that just came in is I have bone on bone on both hips. I have Kaiser/Med Medicare. Is there an alternative to surgery? So, this person doesn’t have a lot of information about what they’re able to do. But if they’re walking and their hips are moving, their their femurs are moving in the acetabulum, then they don’t have bone on bone.
And that’s something we’ll talk about after we get to a collar. we have a caller coming in, but let me not quite ready. so bone on bone means that there’s no cartilage because there’s cartilage in between the bones that are in the joints. We have Nidita calling in from Studio City. Nidita, can we take this call right now and talk to you?
Hello, Nidita. Not ready yet. Almost. Nidita’s getting ready. so back to the idea of bone on bone. Bone on bone is is rare. a lot of people that come in to see me and Dr. Grove are told they have bone on bone and then we examine the area and the joint is very mobile. It may even be better than the joint that’s not on what they call bone on bone.
So, we can’t look at an image or a doctor’s diagnosis. Most diagnosis that we get referred into us are absolutely wrong. And why do we know that? Because we use Dr. Dr. Grove and I use an ultrasound to look inside the body to see what the real thing is that’s happening. And then we do a hands-on examination. Most people that come to us that have had a failed surgery, when we ask if the doctor actually examined them, they say no.
They put an image. They put an X-ray, an MRI, CT scan up on the light box and showed them what was wrong. That’s to me, in my humble opinion, a horrible way to decide whether a person needs surgery or what type of treatment it is or what the diagnosis is. We use our hands. We find the pain generator. That’s the place that the pain is coming from.
And by the way, if you want a free phone consult with our staff, you can call the office right now. The phone number to the office is 800-300-9300. That’s 800-300-9300. Now we have Nidita in studio city on the phone ready to rock and roll. Nita, are you there?
Nita: Neck injury, prolotherapy, PRP, and cell-based treatments
Nita [name uncertain]: I am here. Hi Dr. Darrow.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Hello Nita. How are you today?
Nita [name uncertain]: I’m really good. And the reason why I’m really good like 100% is because you treated me the first time over 20 years ago. Then a few I
Dr. Marc Darrow: [laughter]
Nita [name uncertain]: Well, I thought you were 30 at the time. No. [laughter]
Dr. Marc Darrow: I’m still 16.
Nita [name uncertain]: Okay. Well, that’s a good thing, right?
Dr. Marc Darrow: Yeah.
Nita [name uncertain]: So, I was treated by you and it was miraculous and then a few years later when I reinjured myself dancing or whatever I was doing, I went back to you. And so you’ve treated me over the years a few times and I mean we’re human beings. We run around. We do things. We’re going to reinjure ourselves the older we get especially and every time.
So I’m sitting here as like a real senior citizen. That means I’m somewhere between Heinz 57 and death [wording uncertain] and I’m 100% [laughter] in pain-free. I’m 100% pain-free because of you, Dr. Darrow. And what I liked also is that, you know, I don’t like needles,
Nita [name uncertain]: But you’re so quick. It’s like a little pinch and it’s like no big deal.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Well, you know, Dr. Grove and I both use the thinnest needles that can be used. And the reason is both Dr. Grove and I have injected ourselves and we know you know, what the pain of a needle can be like. And we get a lot of patients who have failed stem cells or PRP and we say what what happened? They say well number one it hurts so bad and typical doctors will use a thicker needle you know maybe a 22 gauge needle.
We use maybe a 25 which is much thinner and when we can actually use a 30 gauge needle which is like a feather and it just depends on the area. So, we have to be careful to do things that make people feel better and not hurt them. So, yeah, that’s why you had an easy time with it.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Do you have any questions about the treatments we do today?
Dr. Marc Darrow: Because if you came in 20 years ago, I doubt we were doing stem cells then.
Nita [name uncertain]: I started with what you were talking about a minute ago, which is, you know, prolotherapy and then, of course later you developed other treatments. So I think it would be great if you could distinguish those a little bit again and then talk about also maybe the difference between stem cell and plate platelets and how how that works like how do you draw the blood and all that stuff.
I think that’s sure pretty
Nita [name uncertain]: Important things to explain to people because you know it’s a scary thought. It’s off the beaten track, but it is miraculous. These treatments are miraculous. And so, who wants to be on a bunch of pain pills? Who wants who wants to take
Nita [name uncertain]: That stuff that destroys cartilage?
Nita [name uncertain]: That other stuff. I can’t think of what
Dr. Marc Darrow: Steroids, dexamethasone or things like that. Cortisone.
Dr. Marc Darrow: No, you’re right. Those are really good issues. And and the difference really is PRP is just taken from the blood. It’s a quick blood draw like when you get your labs done and we take a little bit of blood, we spin it in a centrifuge and then we can segregate out the platelets and that’s called PRP platelet-rich plasma and we can inject that immediately. stem cells typically can be done from bone marrow which is takes it’s like a blood draw.
It’s just done from the pelvis in the back. And that’s a very simple thing to do. A lot of doctors are using Wharton’s jelly, which is the inside of an umbilical cord now to get stem cells. And there’s different ways to do that. But that’s also very simple. The nice thing about using bone marrow is that it also has blood in it.
So you get the PRP and the stem cells at the same time from one draw. in in my experience because I’ve done both my knees, my elbows, my wrist. I’ve done both my shoulders. I’ve had other doctors do my neck and back. I’ve had many many injuries. I am a an idiot athlete and I just keep going even when it hurts until it’s until I can’t do it anymore.
So when I’ve injured myself,
Dr. Marc Darrow: I just drive into the office if it’s like a weekend like I’m going to go play golf today and I’m going to go running later and if I do injure myself, which I have done on the golf course, I have driven directly from the golf course to my office and injected myself and Oh wow. So, I’m very for I’m very fortunate to be a doctor who found a niche that works for him, me and I’ve had amazing success.
Every time I’ve injected myself, I’ve healed. Sometimes it’s taken more than one treatment, but many times it’s just taken one treatment. Just depends on the severity of the injury. So, that’s kind of the difference. And over the years, I started injecting myself with prolotherapy, which you said you had 20 years ago. And I did that on myself almost 30 years ago.
Nita [name uncertain]: Yeah, it still works. could I ask you another question?
Dr. Marc Darrow: Well, it works, but prolotherapy, let me let me get to the bottom of this. Prolotherapy is mainly dextrose and lidocaine mixed together and it works, but it it needs a lot of treatments. It’s not as efficacious as using PRP.
Dr. Marc Darrow: And then stem cells are even more efficacious than that. And there’s other things we can throw into the cocktail to increase the healing. So, what part of your body did we work on, by the way, just so we can let [listeners know; wording uncertain]?
Nita [name uncertain]: Okay.
Nita [name uncertain]: U, we worked on my neck and and yeah, it
Dr. Marc Darrow: What did you have? Did you have arthritis in your neck?
Dr. Marc Darrow: Do you know?
Nita [name uncertain]: No, it wasn’t from arthritis. It was an actual injury. and I had been just so people can hear like what I went through
Nita [name uncertain]: Because it’s interesting because I didn’t know about you until somebody connected us but it took I was going to a chiropractor in the valley who was doing heat and cold compresses and trying to adjust it a little and it was getting worse and this went on for a number of months and then I happened to be talking to someone who’s a mutual colleague of ours and and she said, “Hey, you know, there’s this treatment blah blah blah.” Explained who you were, what you did, and then I saw you the next week, and here’s what I want people to know about you.
When she told you I was in level 10 pain, you actually called me around 11:00 on a Sunday night to make sure I could get to you the next morning. And I never had a doctor on a weekend in my life. I never had a doctor care so much as you do about your patients.
Dr. Marc Darrow: That’s so sweet.
Dr. Marc Darrow: And that is really Let me just say this. Dr. Grove and I both give out our cell numbers to every patient.
Dr. Marc Darrow: And when they leave the office after treatment, we say, “Please call us tonight and let us know how you’re doing or please call tomorrow or we’ll call you.” And the reason is because we stay very close in touch with our patients and we need that I think I think every doctor should you know there’s no such thing as should and but we would like to stay very close in touch with our patients.
They always say well I don’t want to bother you and I say you will bother me if you don’t call me and I say I turn my phone off when I go to sleep so you really can’t bother me. And I’m on the phone with patients literally till midnight almost every night and they’re always shocked like you are about that kind of connection.
I think it’s very very important because the doctors that I use won’t talk to me. It’s very difficult to get a hold of my doctors today and we’re the opposite. We want a very close contact. We want to know what’s going on with our patients and we want to know where you’re at so we can help you heal and keep you from doing the things that block the healing.
So that’s very very important to have an amazing relationship with patients.
Dr. Marc Darrow: So I’m going to give out the phone number to our studio again so we can get some more callers. Nita, thank you so much. You’ve been very helpful in educating people.
Dr. Marc Darrow: So the number of the studio
Nita [name uncertain]: I’m gonna call you. I’m going to call you at least once or twice a year until they toe-tag me because you’re a miracle. Thank you, Dr. Darrow.
Conservative treatment, activity, and recovery
Dr. Marc Darrow: Thanks. I appreciate it, Anita. that’s very humbling. so the number to the studio if you want to call in is 866-870-5752 866-870-5752. And if you want to get a free phone consult with our staff, you can call the office right now. That’s 800-300-9300. That’s 800-300-9300. And if you want to if you just want to email me right now or anytime with a question, you go to my website which is stemcellinstitute.com.
That’s stemcellinstitute.com. And on every page there is a spot where you can email me. And there’s also videos of me doing these procedures all over the body. So you can learn about whether you would like to avoid a needless surgery. And I say that with a lot of respect for the orthopedic surgeons. I love what they do. It’s really tough work being a surgeon.
I used to do tons of it in my training. I was on track to do to be in orthopedic surgery until my boss did a surgery on my right shoulder and God bless him but the surgery failed miserably and my shoulder and my arm blew up like a balloon and I had a high fever after that and at that point I was like I am not going to be a surgeon and do this to people and I learned about doing regenerative medicine when I was a resident at UCLA. day and u and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.
It’s it’s worked for me every time I’ve used it. It’s worked for Dr. Grove and it doesn’t work on everybody. I’m not going to say this is the panacea or the miracle. And most of the failures that come up are really because the patients don’t listen to us. they get too active too quick and the cells, the stem cells, the PRP, the platelets we put in don’t have a chance to start the growth cycle because people are too active.
And I know what that’s like. I like to I like to exercise every single day. And if I don’t let the area rest after I inject myself, it’s just not going to heal as quickly and I have to do more treatments. So, you know, we just have to be careful and listen to the doctor in order to make this work. So, you know, listen folks, you don’t have to live in pain.
You can get back to doing the things in life that you love to do. And you can do that without a surgery. You know, there’s no reason to do most of these orthopedic surgeries. And if you don’t believe me, go to you know, chat GPT, go to Google and look up these studies that are coming out showing that having the surgery really can hurt you.
And it hurt me. It hurt my shoulder. And that’s the way I learned. That’s how I flipped from doing orthopedic surgery to doing regenerative medicine is because fortunately or unfortunately for me, the shoulder failed miserably. this the surgery failed miserably and it taught me a lesson which was in medicine be conservative always be conservative do the thing that can hurt you least I kid my patients and I say if you’re really smart don’t go to a doctor you know do things naturally and they say you mean don’t even come to you and I said if you can help it don’t if you have ways of doing things conservatively do it and you know on the show we’ve had many chiropractors and acupuncturists and body workers and I’m all in favor of that.
You know, if you can stay away from medication and surgery, you’re in good shape. So, we have Ron in Rancho Mirage on the phone. Ron, how are you today? Can you hear me?
Ron: A pain-free knee 23 years after prolotherapy
Ron: Yes, I can hear you, doctor.
Dr. Marc Darrow: So, what can I do for you, Ron? What’s going on? Do you have any pain in your body?
Ron: Not really. I was going to give you a report on my torn meniscus that you treated 23 years ago.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Oh my god, we’re both getting older.
Ron: Yeah. You probably don’t remember, but u an orthopedic surgeon in Colorado told me that I had a badly torn meniscus in my left knee. And you treated me with prolotherapy and I had two treatments and my knee hasn’t bothered me since.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Wow. That’s that’s really cool news.
Ron: So I’m wondering I’m wondering
Dr. Marc Darrow: Yeah. Go ahead.
Ron: I was going to ask you you know I’d be very curious to have an MRI of my left knee
Ron: To see what the meniscus looks like. Do you think you know because I’m just wondering if
Dr. Marc Darrow: That’s a great it’s a great idea. It’s a great idea and it’s unnecessary and I’ll tell you why. Many people come in with the diagnosis of a meniscal tear, rotator cuff tear in the shoulder, labral tear in the hip, blah blah blah blah blah. We treat the whole body. There’s no area of the body that Dr. Grove and I do not treat for musculoskeletal pain.
So it doesn’t really matter where it is. The body is made out of collagen and collagen is the structural protein of the body. It’s wherever we inject stem cells or platelets. The area grows tissue. Now many people who come in have a diagnosis that’s wrong. So a diagnosis could be let’s say meniscal tear. All right? And then we examine the knee and it’s not even the meniscus that’s the problem.
And why did they have a meniscal tear? Why did why did they come in with that idea? Because the doctor did an MRI and saw a meniscal tear. and wanted to do a surgery on that or treat that. So, no, I don’t think you getting an MRI at this point when you have no pain is a valid idea because it may show something that is not causing you a problem.
You already said you haven’t had any pain since I treated you 23 years ago. Well, that gives you your answer. Ron, thank you so much for your call. We’re going to go to Bruce in West Hollywood. Bruce, can you hear me? Dr. Marc Darrow on Living Pain Free. Hello Bruce
Bruce: Groin injury and returning to long-distance hiking
Bruce: Wanted to call in and talk about how successful the stem cell was that you treated me with about two years ago. You know I had about six weeks before a long hike and you said well let’s give it a try. wasn’t it it it felt like there wasn’t quite enough sessions but it turned out to be perfect because we he treated me for about three weeks three sessions and then I was really you mellow for the next three weeks went on my hike and hiked from Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn so I would call that a success
Dr. Marc Darrow: Oh my god that’s crazy how long did that hike take you Bruce
Bruce: That was about 13 days of a lot of incline line and a lot of decline. And it was a groin injury. And you know, groins are so so such a nagging injury that I thought I was shocked.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Oh my god. Groin injuries are horrible. Yeah, they’re horrible.
Bruce: Horrible.
Dr. Marc Darrow: And
Bruce: And
Dr. Marc Darrow: What what it is what it is. Let me just let me let me explain to people what it is. Bruce, I know you’re you’re all excited here.
Dr. Marc Darrow: So the groin injuries generally are what we call an enthesopathy. The enthesis is where that or where any tendon, ligament or muscle attaches to bone. And a lot of surgeries are done because the surgeon doesn’t realize that it’s only an enthesopathy. An enthesopathy is inflammation at at that juncture of the tendon, ligament or bone. And it could be near a joint and then they operate on the joint.
So in the groin we have you know the hip is close by the hip joint. So a lot of people end up getting a hip replacement when it is when it’s nothing more than an enthesopathy that we can heal with stem cells or PRP and another term for it might be a pubicitis. The pubic bone can be inflamed where the adductor tendon attaches.
Bruce I’m sorry we’re on a break right now for a couple minutes. If you want to hang with us great. If not, I appreciate your call and God bless you. We’ll be back soon. If you want a free phone consult with our office, with our staff, the phone number to the office is 800-300-9300. 800-300-9300. And if you want to call me right now after the break, the number to the studio is 866-870-5752.
Break
Announcer: You’re listening to Living Pain Free with Dr. Marc Darrow and Dr. Thomas Grove. Their practice is located at the Stem Cell Institute in West Los Angeles. To schedule an appointment, call 800-300-9300. That’s 800-300-9300. Dr. Darrow and Dr. Grove will be back in just a moment.
Part 2
Opening
Dr. Marc Darrow: This is Dr. Marc Darrow and I am educating people today on how to take the surgery out of pain on my show living pain-free. So I’ve been doing orthopedic medicine now for close to 30 years. We now call it regenerative medicine because we actually grow back tissue where there’s been injury or arthritis. And if you want to call and talk to me and ask questions about stem cells and platelets, that’s how we heal.
The phone number to the studio is 866-870-5752. 866-870-5752. And if you want a free phone consult with our staff, you can call right now to the office at 800-300-9300. That’s 800-300-9300. If you give us a call, we’ll send you out a free copy of my book, Stem Cell and Platelet Therapy: Regenerate Don’t Operate with the foreword by Suzanne Somers. It’s a couple hundred pages.
There’s about 250 studies on how stem cells and PRP, platelet-rich plasma can heal your body without having a needless surgery. I see we already have a caller. It says Steve in London. This is going to be interesting. can we talk to you, Steve? Do you can you hear me? Is Dr. Marc
Dr. Marc Darrow: Darrow?
Steve: Shoulder injuries and returning to golf
Steve: Hey, Dr. Darrow. How are you?
Dr. Marc Darrow: I’m living it up. Are you actually in London?
Steve: Yeah, I’m in a cab, a black cab right now, rushing to the theater, but I knew you were on. I thought I would should try to do this. I just have a few minutes in the car, but
Steve: Oh my god. Thank you so much. Yeah, I’ve always done, you know, I feel like I’m one of your biggest cheerleaders. So, if there was a chance to tell my story at least of, you know, from my some of my several visits with you, I’ve sent probably 30 folks to you. I think my guests have recommended because every time someone tells me they’re getting ready to get surgery and you know I love your you know sort of subtitle you know regenerate don’t operate. yeah and
Dr. Marc Darrow: It sounds like it sounds like you’re my biggest referral source. Thank you.
Steve: Yeah. Well, I I think now from my hometown, I know Chicago. they know I’ve got somebody there who fly out from Chicago to see you.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Oh, yeah.
Steve: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I know. I know who you are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Yeah. Yeah. It’s pretty interesting. there’s a body worker in Chicago who was sending his patients to, I think it was Costa Rica for very, very expensive treatment and a long trip.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Exactly. And then if I’m correct, you had come in for treatment. Was it your shoulder initially?
Steve: Yeah, my initially with my shoulder, I had dislocated both shoulders and I had my subscapularis and supraspinatus [tendon names inferred from captions] had were full separate, you know, full tears. I saw five surgeons. I saw the top five. If you look at any top 10 surgeons or top if I I saw the top surgeons in LA from the Lakers and Dodgers surgeon I mean people who were at the you know get some at really you know famous you know centers for your orthopedic surgery.
I think I saw you when it happened. I had an issue was getting it scheduled is right at the onset of COVID and so you know that that was starting to happen. Things hadn’t been shut down yet, but that was sort of waiting and I think I saw you after I saw the first surgeon and you you gave me a little bit of a overview of your approach.
You told me that that the surgeons were going to tell you that I that you were crazy and this the stuff that you could do.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Well, I am crazy. I am crazy. I love being crazy because I’m outside the box in medicine.
Steve: Yes. And you said that you didn’t you didn’t fault them. You didn’t fault them from believing what they believe. It’s like a religion. But go ahead and see because I showed you the names of the surgeons I was interviewing with and then she you come back and it was like no harm no foul. Every surgeon I saw five all five surgeons said that I had to do surgery and I had to do it as fast as possible.
Two of them.
Dr. Marc Darrow: So let me ask let me ask you a question. See did you ever did you ever get a surgery?
Steve: No, of course not. I I mean that’s why
Dr. Marc Darrow: And how how are your should how are your shoulders that were dislocated and torn? How are how are they doing today?
Steve: I can still hit a golf ball 300 yards and and you know and and
Dr. Marc Darrow: I want a lesson. Tell teach me how [laughter]
Steve: My the thing that’s funny is that my friends who I play golf with not necessarily well but if they golf with all thought like you know oh there’s somebody else who had the same type of injury and they said you you’re going to be out for a year.
Steve: I was back on the course. I wasn’t trying to hit driver then, but I was, you know, I was back and maybe just under three months. and I feel you, you know, surgeons were telling me I wouldn’t be able to touch my head or raise my arm again. And if I wanted to do this, one surgeon told me if if I let it heal naturally, that I if I ever want to play golf, and there’s other lot of sports I probably couldn’t do, that I would I would not serve a tennis ball again.
And I would they said that I would you know if I did if I did play I would shank every shot because the the unevenness and no I heard a lot of stuff by you know very esteemed people all anxious to to
Dr. Marc Darrow: Steve let me let me make a couple com let me make a couple comments here and then I’m going to have to let you go because we have other callers but the the top surgeons in town I have the highest respect for just like I have respect for all surgeons but unfortunately they have what I’m going to call tunnel vision and you were told by five of the top guys and I know who they are that you had to have surgery and you had to do it right away and that just is wrong.
You have to have surgery when you’re bleeding to death or you have a broken bone or sticking like that otherwise it’s what we call elective. Elective means the patient gets to decide, not the surgeon. So, I’m so grateful that you came to me and we’re able to heal up your shoulders. And it’s real easy to heal with a small needle. You know, you walk in, get some stem cells or platelets or mix them together and walk out.
You know, there’s really very minimal if any side effects. People typically get a little stiff. That’s what happens to me. But nothing bothersome. But anyway, I want to appreciate you in public. No, thanks. I’m glad
Dr. Marc Darrow: And thank you so much. I mean, I can’t believe I can’t believe you’re calling all the way all the way from London in a in a black cab on the way to the theater. God bless you, my friend. I’m going to talk to I’m going to go to Arthur right now. Yeah, take care.
Steve: Okay. Thanks.
Arthur: Persistent low back pain after surgery
Dr. Marc Darrow: This says Arthur in Menifee. I don’t know what that is. Arthur, are you on the phone with us? Can you hear me? Dr.
Arthur: Yes, sir, I am. I’m in Menifee, California. That’s about 8 to nine miles north of Temecula, just south of Riverside, in the Inland Empire.
Arthur: And I heard your show for the first time last week. I was going to a job. It was Sunday on AM590 and, was really intrigued by the show and you started, you were talking about platelet-rich plasma and I’m suffering from chronic back pain, low back pain. my MRI or CAT scan shows it’s the L5–S1, and L4–L5. It says mild disc herniation, but I’ve been having these MRIs for years, and it says the same exact thing.
But, they did back surgery on me, many years ago. It was, it was failed, didn’t work. I’ve had over 100 acupuncture treatments, hundreds of chiropractic treatments, traction, massage, ice therapy, vitamins and supplements. I do yoga. I’m exercising. I’m doing everything. And all the and
Dr. Marc Darrow: Well, it sounds like you’re going to live to 150 years old. [laughter]
Arthur: Well, I want to, but I I’m not going to be able to with the chronic pain no matter what I do. It’s kind of out of my power and I’m just hearing I’m not excited about hearing your show.
Arthur: And
Dr. Marc Darrow: So, let me give you the key. Let me give you the key, Arthur. The key is this.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Here’s the key.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Do you have pain down your legs or in your back or both?
Arthur: No, I just got it just basically centered in my low back, not the leg.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Okay. Okay. So, number one, a minis a herniated disc means zero. Okay. I have herniated discs in my neck and my low back. I have no pain.
Dr. Marc Darrow: All right. I have no pain.
Dr. Marc Darrow: And when someone has centralized low back pain,
Dr. Marc Darrow: 99.9% of the time that’s an enthesopathy, which I talked about the first half of the show. The enthesis is where your ligaments back there, the iliolumbar ligaments attach to the pelvis or it might be the quadratus lumborum muscle that originates on the bottom of the ribs and then inserts on the pelvis. It could be something called the thoracodorsal fascia which is like saran wrap that covers the muscles in your back that insert down there.
So I haven’t seen you. I’m not your doctor. I can’t promise you a thing but from what you’re telling me you’re an easy fix.
Arthur: Really? Not according to the regular
Dr. Marc Darrow: I’m not going to promise anything. I have to examine you and you have to be a patient for me to tell you but just from your telling me you’re you’re an easy fix and I could be 100% wrong. Okay.
Arthur: One more thing sir is I had I didn’t tell you I’m also getting spine shots. They’re steroid block their nerve blocks they’re called and they make me numb and they make me feel a little better. Maybe not even all 100%. [Percentage unclear.]
Dr. Marc Darrow: Yeah, bad news.
Dr. Marc Darrow: To me, it’s bad news. If you like it, do it.
Arthur: Oh,
Dr. Marc Darrow: Well, steroids are no good for you.
Dr. Marc Darrow: It’s not good for your entire system. It can shut down your adrenal glands.
Dr. Marc Darrow: It can actually make the situation worse because it it destroys the tissue.
Dr. Marc Darrow: So, personally, I wouldn’t do it to me. If you like it, do it. I would say the best way to do is regenerate those the attachments and if the steroid worked for a month what we do with regenerative medicine with stem cells hopefully it would work you know for a lifetime maybe not because you can reinjure but we’re regrowing tissue instead of destroying it which is what you’re having done now
Arthur: How many treatments would I need of the if could I get do the PRP without stem cells or do I have to do it with with the stem cells
Dr. Marc Darrow: Yeah you can do whatever you want something to talk about when you come And when you come in the office, we can would discuss. I have to examine you first.
Dr. Marc Darrow: The examination with our hands is the most important thing to figure out what’s going on. Your images mean nothing to me.
Arthur: They mean nothing to my I I had a feeling that was you were going to say that. So So
Dr. Marc Darrow: No, no. If you if you saw an MRI, if you saw an MRI of my back,
Dr. Marc Darrow: Any doctor saw the MI of my back, they go, “You need surgery right now. That’s horrible. But I don’t have any pain.
Dr. Marc Darrow: So you cannot correlate an image with a human being.
Arthur: Okay. You’re absolutely right that that so so the so the report and and the X-ray mean absolutely nothing. It’s not an open barometer for anything really.
Dr. Marc Darrow: No. I like to have them because a couple of times I found cancer.
Arthur: Okay.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Right. You can find weird things sometimes with images.
Dr. Marc Darrow: I found a bleb in a in a lung one time when I was looking at a shoulder and the guy was a deep sea diver.
Dr. Marc Darrow: So, we saved his life by having that taken care of, but it was nothing to do with the shoulder. No, it’s good to get the image
Dr. Marc Darrow: Just as an adjunct, but the hands, the physical exam is really where we find the pain generators.
Arthur: Oh, makes sense. So the the best thing is to come into your office and and basically have a have a you know like a one-hour consultation and and actually speak to you or or the doctor Dr.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Arthur: Does it also help cancer PRP? I understand it helps with cancer too because a friend of my sister is was 70 years. No.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Yeah. Not yet. there’s Oh, I’m sorry. I should re I should retract that. There are certain types of blood cancer and what
Dr. Marc Darrow: No, no. There’s certain types of blood cancer that it could help with. You know, they can,
Dr. Marc Darrow: You know, you do a bone marrow transplant. That’s different.
Dr. Marc Darrow: We just do musculoskeletal medicine. We don’t do IVs. I haven’t found one person yet that’s had IV stem cells who said it lasted.
Dr. Marc Darrow: They get a halo effect after they spend a fortune for nothing
Dr. Marc Darrow: And they’re walking around for years going, “Wow, this is the greatest thing.” But then later they go, “No, it’s a waste of money.” So, no, I’m not into doing the IV stuff.
Arthur: Okay. So, this is not something the insurance take care of. This is something I got to come out with my own I could put it on my credit card or I got to come out of pocket, right?
Dr. Marc Darrow: You know, come into come into the office or actually call the office now if you like. You can get a free phone consult with the staff. The office is 800-300-9300 800 300.
Arthur: Yeah. Okay. in. And if if I call if I call in first thing Monday, I could I get in next week?
Dr. Marc Darrow: I’ll get you in whenever you want.
Arthur: Okay. Okay. Thank you very much for having me on the air and for relaying this stuff to you. I feel very hopeful right now because I suffered from just a
Dr. Marc Darrow: I’m very I’m very hopeful. I’m very hopeful for you, too, because I had the exact same thing. luckily, I didn’t have a back surgery, although my doctor told me I needed it. And that was so many years ago, I can’t even tell you. And I’m just very grateful that I do this work of regenerating tissue using stem cells and platelets because guess what?
I use it on myself
Dr. Marc Darrow: And it’s worked every time. I see.
Dr. Marc Darrow: So hopefully it would work for you. I can’t promise you anything.
Arthur: Yeah. Can you tell me this? Why acupuncture and chiropractic, those are natural treatments? Why don’t they fix or heal the problem and the traction? I mean, these are all
Dr. Marc Darrow: They do. A lot of people get healed from those things. You got to try it all out. See what works for you.
Dr. Marc Darrow: All right, man. I got Erica awaiting Beverly Hills.
Dr. Marc Darrow: God bless you, Arthur. And there’s good hope ahead for you.
Erica: Knee pain after surgery and returning to police work
Dr. Marc Darrow: I appreciate your call. All right. If you want to give me a call live right now at the studio, the phone number is 866-870-5752. That’s 866-870-5752. Erica, can you hear me? is Dr. Marc Darrow.
Erica: Hi, Dr. Darrow. How are you?
Dr. Marc Darrow: I’m living it up. I’m always living it up no matter what’s going on.
Dr. Marc Darrow: How about you? What’s happening?
Erica: I’m doing fantastic. I just wanted to call in and share my testimonial with PRP and my recovery back to work after getting injured on the job.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Okay.
Erica: So,
Dr. Marc Darrow: What happened? What kind what kind of work do you do?
Erica: Okay, so I’m in law enforcement. I work for Beverly Hills Police Department. I two years ago in September of 2024. I was contacting the subject who was under the influence of some sort of drugs. And I got out to contact him. He took off running. I took off running after him. I ended up catching him, but I mean somewhere in between the running and catching him, I tore my meniscus.
I was in severe pain which led to MRI and all these other things. the city of Beverly Hills will suggest different types of treatments surgeries and things like that to get you back healed along with physical therapy and whatnot. So, I had did all the things that they had asked me to do and I just felt like I wasn’t improving. and I still had significant amount of pain in my right knee.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Let me ask you something. Did you did you have a did you have a surgery?
Erica: I actually didn’t end up having surgery. but this was prior to my knowledge of PRP, so I had no idea about this [Captioned wording conflicts with her clarification below that she did have surgery after the injury and before PRP.]
Erica: Until after.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Did you have s Hang on. Did you have surgery after this incident? or before
Erica: After the incident. Yes, a right right after the injuries but before PRP.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Okay. And and did the surgery help you?
Erica: It did not. So, it was very
Erica: I will say I started to think that I wasn’t going to be able to make it back to work because what the doctors in the city were telling me that oh, the projected time of recovery was anywhere from four to six months. even things hearing things like, oh, I’ve had patients that I’ve got back sooner. So, it started to make me feel like I wasn’t my body wasn’t healing properly.
Like it kind of made me feel bad. Like the surgery didn’t work how everyone is saying it was supposed to.
Erica: So
Dr. Marc Darrow: Yeah. But no, here I just I just thought of something very funny.
Dr. Marc Darrow: It’s not funny, but it’s funny.
Dr. Marc Darrow: So you thought that you failed the surgery instead of the surgery failing you.
Erica: Correct. and that’s Yep. And that was
Dr. Marc Darrow: That’s so weird. You felt You probably felt guil You probably felt guilty about it.
Erica: I did. I did. yeah. You know, you start to think like, what’s wrong?
Dr. Marc Darrow: I mean, if you’re a police officer, if you’re a police officer, you want to be tough. You want to support the team. You want to get back to work as soon as you can.
Erica: Exactly. Exactly. 100% correct. So, yeah, that’s what happened with me. I felt like because my body wasn’t recovering well from the surgery and it’s no credit I mean a discredit to the surgeons but it’s just that it didn’t work
Erica: And so
Dr. Marc Darrow: I never I never discredit surgeons because they really have the hardest work in medicine. It’s really tough doing those surgeries and you know they know the results aren’t always so good
Dr. Marc Darrow: You know right? So that must weigh on that must weigh on their on their conscience too.
Erica: Exactly.
Dr. Marc Darrow: But they do the best they can just like all doctors do.
Erica: Exactly.
Erica: And it I mean Yeah, they they were great. it was probably about a 10-minute surgery.
Erica: I think I probably went like in the operating room maybe like around 8:30 or so. And after they do everything they need to and they give you anesthesia, I was probably waking up and in my recovery room maybe like around 9 9:15. So it was very
Dr. Marc Darrow: Let me let me redirect you a little bit.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Let me redirect you because I’m a lawyer. We always redirect people. having had the surgery, it failed and then you had PRP and how did that work for you?
Erica: So I was told about PRP from one of my bosses at work. he explained how it helped with his recovery with his knees and knee pain. So obviously I kind of went down the research trail and started researching what PRP was, stem cells, platelets, like what the process is, how it works. And I was like, well, this seems like an obvious like you literally allow your body to heal itself.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Yeah. by
Dr. Marc Darrow: Yeah yeah of course we want to do things naturally
Dr. Marc Darrow: As a doctor we would always like to have the patient heal naturally of course because everything else has side effects
Dr. Marc Darrow: So bottom line bottom line let’s bottom line this are you back at work
Erica: I am back at work I’ve been back at work since last year August I got cleared in July of last year but I didn’t return back to August just due to a family trip but I returned back to work And honest to God truth, from postsurgery until how I feel now, which I know it takes a little bit of time overall, but I feel way better.
I probably should come in and get a couple more, but I feel way better than what my hopes was after surgery. I would have never been able to make it back to work after surgery, but PRP gave me hope.
Dr. Marc Darrow: You know, the take-home the take-home point of the take-home point of your call, Erica, I don’t mean to cut you short, but we only have a minute left.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Is you had a surgery, unfortunately, it failed. You got PRP
Dr. Marc Darrow: And you’re better and you’re back at work. You’re a police officer. Very demanding work.
Dr. Marc Darrow: And God bless you. I appreciate your call. It’s great for the public to hear
Dr. Marc Darrow: That something that’s sort of off track works.
Erica: Yes. Yes. Thank you guys. Thank you to you and Dr. Grove and your amazing, friendly staff.
Dr. Marc Darrow: Love it. Thank you so much, Erica. And
Erica: All right, have a good one, sir.
Closing
Dr. Marc Darrow: Yeah, if you need me, you get a hold of me. We’ll take care of you. Call the office right now. You get a free book, Stem Cell and Platelet Therapy.
Dr. Marc Darrow: That’s 800-300-9300 800-300-9300. And go to my website stem cellinstitute.com. stemcellinstitute.com. You can ask me a question there. I’ll fire back an answer that day.
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Again, the website is stemcellinstitute.com. Living pain-free with Dr. Marc Darrow and Dr. Thomas Grove is heard Saturdays at 10:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 5:00 p.m. here on AM870, the answer. Take the first step toward a pain-free life. Call to schedule an appointment at 800-300-9300. That’s 800-300-9300. Live long and pain-free.