Living Pain-Free with Marc Darrow, MD

Radio Transcript — September 12, 2026 — Part 1

Announcer: Are you living in pain? Is it joint pain or muscle pain? If so, stay tuned. Welcome to Living Pain-Free with 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. Dr. Darrow uses stem cells and platelet-rich plasma to heal the 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 866-870-5752.

Ask for a copy of Dr. Darrow’s book, Stem Cell and Platelet Therapy.

Regenerate, Don’t Operate. Now, here’s Marc Darrow, MD.

Marc Darrow, MD: Hello there. It’s so good to get you ready for a show that I love. I’ve been doing it—my gosh—since my kids were born. What was that, around 2001?

I started doing the show in my 20s, and it’s all about how you take the pain—your musculoskeletal pain—out of your body. We like the byline, “Take surgery out of pain.” How do you take the surgery out of pain? Meaning, how do you get rid of pain without surgery? Let’s say you have a meniscal tear in your knee, a rotator cuff tear in your shoulder, a labral tear in your hip, or a muscle tear. We get them all over the body. We inject the entire body.

I didn’t mention this: My name is Marc Darrow. I was trained at UCLA, and I’ve taught regenerative medicine there—stem cells and PRP—for about 20 years after my residency program. I’ve been very, very lucky to have trained with some of the best. Most of my training, though, was in the early days, experimenting on my own body. Eventually, when I started having patients come in with surgical issues, I worked on them and was able to teach many residents at UCLA and other medical schools around the country, as well as doctors from all over the world. Now this has become an amazingly large field.

If you look up stem cells PRP, which is platelet-rich plasma, or regenerative medicine, you’re going to see that there are so many doctors that are doing this work right now. I used to be nervous when I would train someone to do this. I thought, geez, there’s going to be a lot of competition. But what happened every time a doctor went out after me training them was there was more public awareness. So, it actually was in my favor. And it’s been a great life doing this kind of work. fortunately for myself being an athlete, I’ve been able to inject myself when I’m injured.

I just had a new injury last week. We’re going to see what happens with it. I give it a few days before I inject it. I had a golf lesson and indoors with the screen in front and I was pounding the ball as hard as I could trying to drive further and further and I was fine until I woke up in the morning. So I don’t know what exactly happened that made the pain wait, but I woke up the next morning and I could barely walk. my adductor muscle tendon that inserts on the pubic bone on the right side was what I’m going to call sprained, stretched out. And I’ve been limping around for the last few days. It’s getting a little bit better and it’s very frustrating for me just like it is for you when you can’t get out and do your sport or do your walking or hiking, biking, golf, you know, tennis, whatever those things are that you love. And I’m going to give this another maybe I’ll play golf tomorrow. Who knows?

Sure. I push myself to the limit. Can I inject that myself? Yes, I’ve injected my knees. I’ve injected my elbows, my shoulders, my wrist, my back and neck. I’ve had other doctors do for me.

Having been a gymnast, my body was really beat up. And in my 40s, I was a you might say. I was just having a real problem doing any sports at all when I learned about this during my residency at UCLA and a doctor came in for a one-hour lecture and I was pretty shocked because he said that regenerative medicine healed about 80 to 90% of his patients. So I went to his office and I talked to his patients and they thought he was God. It’s kind of funny these days. it used to be an old adage where the joke about doctors were the gods of medicine, but it’s not like that anymore. People can actually educate themselves on ChatGPT or Google and sometimes know a lot more than their doctors know because there’s a lot of information out there. I always tell my patients to stay away from doctors if they can help it because doctors cause problems for people. And one of those is I get emails from my website which is stem cellinstitute.com.

If you go to stemcellinstitute.com, you’ll find extensive research and videos of me performing these procedures. You can see whether this is something you might want to do if you’re in pain: walk into the office, receive an injection, and walk out. To me, it makes more sense than having invasive surgery that can sometimes have horrible side effects. With what we do, it’s a thin needle. Patients walk out without anesthesia. Some people even go back to work, depending on the body part treated.

Every page on my website has a place where you can email me, and I answer my emails every day. This question came in:

Listener’s email: “Hello, I was diagnosed with a tear in my supraspinatus muscle or tendon. A couple of years ago, a regenerative medicine doctor treated me with PRP and Prolotherapy. Before each injection, an ultrasound of my shoulder was performed. However, the doctor did not perform the injections under ultrasound guidance. While the treatment helped a little, I still have pain in my shoulder, either in the supraspinatus or the long tendon of the biceps brachii. With the therapies you offer, could I see greater improvement?”

Marc Darrow, MD: No promises. I always tell my patients that I never promise anyone anything. The chances are that we can help. I use ultrasound to guide the needle and watch where it goes in most parts of the body. I would use it in the shoulder, especially around the biceps tendon, because that’s a very small area. Sometimes we can see fluid around it.

We can see where it’s actually subluxed away from the little groove that it fits in. We can see tears. And then we can put the needle exactly on the spot. So for areas like the shoulder joint or the hip joint, u the knee joint, the knee meniscus, areas like that, to me, and again that’s just me in my humble opinion, you need an ultrasound to watch what’s going on and see where that needle is going. There’s certain parts of the body I don’t need to use the ultrasound where there’s more of broad ligaments where the fluid actually can traverse the areas along these ligaments and the ultrasound in my humble opinion is not needed although some doctors do that. There are many doctors who are trained like myself without ultrasound. We’ve been doing it so long. I’ve been doing this work since whoa that’s a long time ago 1997 I started doing it and I’m kind of the old man in the business I think and I love doing it. I see patients all day every day. I’ve been doing this almost 30 years and it is a lot of fun to watch people heal. Sometimes I meet people and they say, “What do you do for a living?”

I say I watch people heal because it’s so much fun. It really is fun having people heal. Of course, not everybody heals. And of course, a lot of the healing that could play take place doesn’t because too many patients cheat on me and they get too active too quick or they jump the gun and get back into the things that they did before that caused the problem and then they expect they can still do that. And often it takes a while for the healing to take place. And it often takes more than one treatment. I just had a football player come in yesterday who’s very disgruntled. He’s his knee is better but not perfect. And he wanted it perfect.

And he wanted me to promise that the next treatment was going to make him perfect. And I refused to do that. And he was not happy. Well, I’m sorry.

There’s no doctor that I know of that should promise anything to a patient because there are too many things we do not know. We generally as doctors will do the things that we have seen work, but there’s no promise it’s going to work again. So, be very careful when you go to a doctor. Quiz them. I always have my patients quiz me as long as they want. if I don’t have enough time to answer all their questions, I give them my cell number. I say, “Call me at night when I’m not with patients. Every single patient gets my cell number.” That’s right. I like to be in close contact with my patients and people are very nice about it. They’re not there to bother me and they typically only call if they’re really confused or have an emergency of some kind or they become afraid of something. and I like to talk to them and talk them out of that and let them know that everything is just fine. So, if you’d like a free phone consult with my staff, you can call the office right now and the phone number is 800-300-9300.

That’s 800-300-9300 free phone consult with my staff and they will also send you a free copy of my book which is called stem cell and platelet therapy and here’s the key on it regenerate don’t operate the foreword was by Suzanne Somers who I had the privilege of working on I’ve worked on her family her son Bruce and his children all with very very good success. And we have actually we have someone who’s calling in name David.

We’re not quite he’s not quite ready yet, I guess, but the call screener has his name there. David, we’re going to be with you in a second. And I’d love to hear what your questions are about stem cells and PRP. If anyone else wants to call in, the number to the studio is 866-870-5752.

That’s the studio office. You can talk to me live. Ask all the questions about your musculoskeletal pain and whether stem cells can help you, whether PRP can help you, when you’d use one or the other, what’s the science behind it. any of these kind of questions I love and I love when people push my envelope and sometimes people who call in know a lot more than I do about certain things and then they can educate me. is David ready?

We’ve got someone else coming in here too. David, can you hear me? This is Dr. Marc Darrow. Hello?

Caller—Mitzi: Hello, Dr. Darrow.

Marc Darrow, MD: I don’t know that we got the right name. The screen said David. So, Mitzi, you’re in Orange County. What can I do for you? Do you have a good question for me?

Mitzi: I hope so. Dr. Darrow, I’m 85 and very active. All of a sudden, I have trigger fingers on both hands. They’re limiting what I can do. I can’t use my hands easily. On one hand, I had a steroid injection, but it only lasted for a few months.

Marc Darrow, MD: That’s right. Let me give you my two cents about trigger fingers.

We can treat them using PRP or stem cells, and we use ultrasound. You had a steroid shot from a hand surgeon or your primary-care doctor, and it lasted a few months. That is typical. I don’t like to use steroids because they can thin the tendon, and it can rupture. I would stay away from getting another steroid shot.

you already had one, it lasted a few months and then the trigger finger came back. So, I’m not a fan of that. if you like it, do it. You know, I always tell people if you like it, go do it.

I’m not a fan of this or that. I wouldn’t do it. so with an ultrasound, we can actually see that tendon going through the there’s like a it’s not a ligament, but it’s like a ligament that covers the tendon and holds it down into the hand so it doesn’t bow up and stick out. And what we can do with the ultrasound, we can actually look and see that. And typically, it’s at what’s called the A1 pulley. That’s that fibrous band that covers the tendon, holds it down. And we can put with a 30-gauge needle, teeny needle, some PRP or stem cells there.

And then we can free up that tendon and get rid of the trigger finger.

Another thing you can do—and I would try this before getting injections or coming to see me—is put a bowl in your sink. Add about half a cup of Epsom salt and the hottest water you can comfortably tolerate. Put your fingers in the water, stretch them back and forth, and see whether you can loosen those trigger fingers. Does that make sense, Mitzi?

Mitzi: Yes.

All right. Try that. And then if you still don’t loosen it up enough and massage it while you’re stretching and

I’m going to show you. Actually, I can’t show you on the radio. [laughter] there’s a spot right below the fingers on the palm of the hand where that A1 pulley is. And you can rub that at the same time where the tendon is triggered at and see under real hot water if you can loosen that up. When the water cools off, get pour some more hot water in there. That’s why I like it in the sink. Okay.

Marc Darrow, MD: All right. God bless you. Go ahead.

Mitzi: How long do you soak the fingers?

Marc Darrow, MD: Soak them for five or 10 minutes.

Mitzi: Thank you. Why do you suppose I have them on both hands? What happens?

Marc Darrow, MD: Several things can happen. It’s usually overuse—using your hands too much.

You know, using your hands too much. You are 85. The collagen in the whole body starts to dry out. We shrink. The discs in our back get get smaller. my father was about 6 feet 1 inch when he was young and he shrunk down to about 5 feet 10 inches by the time he was 90. So that’s normal.

Trigger fingers. A lot of these things that people have, meniscal tears, rotator cuff tears, whatever it is, are really kind of normal with aging and then surgeons get all hot and bothered about it and say they have to operate on it. But there’s better things we can do. We can use stem cells and PRP to regenerate the tissue rather than cutting tissue out. I don’t like that knife.

Okay. I’ve had it I had it on my shoulder when I was in med school and it totally jacked my shoulder up really bad.

So, I’m not a fan. When I learned about regenerative medicine, I injected my own shoulder and it was 100% healed after four years of misery after a shoulder surgery. 100% free range of motion and no pain after I injected myself. And that taught me to become a regenerative medicine doc.

Okay.

Mitzi: Well, that’s impressive. Thank you so much for your help.

Marc Darrow, MD: God bless you. We’re going to go to Mike in Brea. Mike, the screen says you have a question about a shoulder replacement. What can I do for you?

Caller—Mike: Hi, Doc. No, it’s not a shoulder replacement. I came into your office, although I didn’t see you. I saw Dr. Grove about three years ago. It’s my right hip.

Marc Darrow, MD: Okay.

Mike: I had two PRP injections, and I probably should have kept doing it. But the long and short of it is that I’m going in on the 21st for a total hip replacement. It’s totally gone.

my question is what has happened since that’s happened is my hips have become tilted. So my right leg now right side is functionally an inch and a quarter shorter than the other side. so my question to you is after the surgery, I don’t want them to compensate for that. I want to be able to get those hips back to where they were. And I’ve been told it’s like a muscle imbalance.

and also once the surgery’s done, I want to come back into you because I want to take care of my knees and my left hip because I don’t want that to go.

Marc Darrow, MD: Okay.

Mike: I don’t know whether you know anything about getting the hip back to where it should be.

Marc Darrow, MD: Of course. There are a lot of things going on here, Mike. I’d like you to come in for a free consultation to see me because, from what you’re telling me, it may not be as bad as you think it is.

And I know you gave me the doom and gloom story about it, but I don’t believe it. Okay? So, I need to see it.

I need to show you what I think. And, you know, if you can make it in, I’d appreciate if you do that because I don’t want to see you have a surgery you don’t need. I hear people every day come in saying they need a surgery and then we fix them up without it. And there’s just too much going on with one leg shorter than the other at this point, which is probably that you can’t bend your knee properly with this or your hip is in a in a placement where you can’t bend it properly or straighten it properly. So that you have, you know, what’s called a leg length discrepancy, which may not be real. And a big issue is this. A lot of people who have no leg length discrepancy end up getting a hip surgery and then they end up with a leg length discrepancy.

These surgeries are not perfect.

I’ve seen too many things I’ve seen way too many things go wrong where I hope I never get another one. You know, I you probably heard me before. I had one on my shoulder when I was in med school and I re totally regretted it. I was doing orthopedic surgery and it was like cool, you know. I said to my boss, hey, would you fix my shoulder? I had a weightlifting injury.

I never needed the surgery. I found out later, but I was a dummy at the time.

And they cut the my doctor, my buddy, my boss cut some ligaments in my shoulder and shaved off the acromion because he said I had an impingement syndrome. Well, that was a bunch of bull. Okay, excuse my French, but that was a lot of bull. No, no, right.

It was a surgery I never needed. And then four years later of four years of misery, not being able to use my arm very well because of the surgery, not because of the injury I had from weightlifting.

I injected my own shoulder one night and the next morning I was 100% completely healed. That doesn’t happen all the time. I’m not saying regenerative medicine is this miracle thing where everybody heals up. It’s not like that. But it was for me. It’s like God came down and kissed me on the forehead and said, “This is the work you’re going to do.” And I’ve been doing this work now because of that. My wrist and my shoulder I did myself. And it’s been almost 30 years of of working with lots and lots thousands and thousands and thousands of patients. And most people have good success if they listen to me.

the failures are usually people being too active or not getting enough treatment. They get frustrated.

Mike: In my situation, it has deteriorated quite a bit over the last year, and I never had that discrepancy before.

Marc Darrow, MD: I don’t think the joint deteriorated that much in one year.

I think your situation deteriorated, but I don’t think that joint did. That’s a slow process unless you have something like avascular necrosis where the hip ball of the hip collapsed.

Mike: That is what’s showing up on the X-rays and MRI. That’s what the report says. I have to walk with a cane now. I can’t bear weight on it, and the pain is around a nine or 10.

Marc Darrow, MD: Sure. Once again, Mike, I’m offering you a free consultation and examination.

Let me look at it because if I can save you from a surgery, you’re going to make me a very happy man, and because what you go through, I go through. Patients don’t understand that what they go through, I go through. I want everybody’s success because that’s my success.

And if you have a failure, that’s on me. I don’t like it. I feel horrible.

Mike: Let me ask you this: I’m perfectly fine with coming in. Will you look at it with ultrasound?

Marc Darrow, MD: Yes.

Mike: Okay. My surgery is scheduled for the 21st, so I would need to get in this coming week as quickly as possible, if that’s possible.

Marc Darrow, MD: I’ll get you in whenever you want.

Mike: Okay. Do I call the office and make an appointment?

Marc Darrow, MD: I’m going to give you my cell number right now. You can call me right after the show. Actually, I have yours. I have your number here.

It’s on the call screen. I’m not going to say what it is out loud. I don’t think you want people to know, [laughter] but I’m gonna I’m gonna Let’s see.

Okay, I’ve got that written down. I’m going to call you right after the show and I’ll get you in as soon as you want to.

Mike: Just one quick question, and then I’ll let you go. There are times when you do need surgery, right?

Marc Darrow, MD: Oh, absolutely.

Mike: Okay. That’s all I wanted to know. I trust your judgment, so I just want confirmation one way or the other.

Marc Darrow, MD: I don’t like it when people simply trust me. Take what I say, and then do your homework.

Mike: Yes. I’m very familiar with this. I’ve researched it and listened to your shows and other people discuss these things for years. I’m with you. I would rather not have surgery. I’ll make an appointment, get in this week, and go from there.

Marc Darrow, MD: All right. God bless. I’ll call you right after the show.

Mike: Thank you.

All right. If you want to I have a few more callers here if you want to call in and talk to me live. The phone number to the studio is 866-870-5752.

And the phone number to get a free phone consult and a free book. Call my staff right now at 800-300-9300.

That’s the office. And if you want to email me, go to the website. You can watch me doing videos there and you can email me on every page. That’s stem cellinstitute.com.

We’re going to go to Mary in Chicago. The base of your thumb is sore. Mary, can you hear me?

Caller—Mary: Yes, I can hear you, Dr. Darrow.

Mary: My thumb—ever since I started playing the piano and using it in a way I had never used it before—I started to get this—

Marc Darrow, MD: Mary, do you hear that banjo playing? That means we’re going to a break. I’m sorry; you’ll have to wait until it’s over. It’ll be short, and we’ll get right back to you. Thank you so much for calling. Hang on with us, okay? We’re going to get that thumb fixed up for you.

This is Dr. Marc Darrow. Give us a call at the studio at 866-870-5752.

Announcer: You’re listening to Living Pain-Free with Marc Darrow, MD, 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.

Living Pain-Free with Marc Darrow, MD

Radio Transcript — September 12, 2026 — Part 2

Marc Darrow, MD: Dr. Marc Darrow, back again on Living Pain-Free. Let’s take the surgery out of pain. That’s a little thing I made up.

It just means you can get surgery if you like, but there’s an easier way with most conditions in the musculoskeletal system. If you’ve got some arthritis, neck pain, back pain, any joints, tendons, ligaments, you name it. Rotator cuff tears, meniscal tears, I don’t care what it is, plantar fasciitis, these things can be healed today with simple injections of stem cells and PRP, platelet-rich plasma. The old school surgery is on its way out. It’s taking a long time. Surgeons I love very much.

They do the hardest work in medicine. I just don’t like all these surgeries that they’re doing that are no longer needed.

They do need they obviously do surgeries that are needed. If you break a bone, you need a surgeon, but meniscal tears, there’s studies show they shouldn’t be done. so many people have that. Rotator cuff tears in the shoulders, I don’t think should be done.

And people [clears throat] come in all the time. They bring their MRI. They say they need a surgery. They say they have a complete rotator cuff tear. And it’s not it’s not complete. And there’s other muscles that take over and we can inject and help get it better. So I’m going to get back to Mary from Chicago.

The base of her thumb is sore from playing piano. How long have you been playing piano, Mary?

Caller—Mary: It’s been about six months.

Marc Darrow, MD: Okay.

Mary: It started after about three months of playing.

It really hurts. When I’m working in the kitchen, cutting things, and when I’m playing the piano, it hurts. I have to stop after about 20 minutes.

Marc Darrow, MD: That’s horrible. I’m sorry to hear that. You might say you have an overuse syndrome. Did you start playing piano six months ago?

Mary: Yes, I did.

Marc Darrow, MD: You’re using new muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and all those tissues are being stretched. Repetitive activity—whether sports or music—can produce small injuries. I take care of many musicians, and their problems vary depending on their instruments. Does your thumb click when you bend it?

Mary: No.

Okay.

Marc Darrow, MD: It may be arthritis. How old are you, if you don’t mind answering?

Mary: I’m 86.

Marc Darrow, MD: At 86, joints can start to wear down. Collagen, which is found in cartilage, can deteriorate and dry out. Age can therefore set the stage for arthritis. Have you been to a doctor or had an X-ray?

Mary: No, I haven’t.

Marc Darrow, MD: What I would suggest—

Mary: I have gone to a very fine physical therapist who understands things like this.

Marc Darrow, MD: Good. I would get an X-ray or ultrasound to evaluate the joint at the base of the thumb. If the joint space is diminished through arthritis and the cartilage is worn down, it would be good to find someone in Chicago who does the work I do—regenerative medicine, stem cells, or PRP. I treat fingers, thumbs, hands, toes, and the larger joints almost every day. For some reason, thumbs tend to heal quickly.

It’s a very small, 30-gauge needle—almost like a feather—and we can go directly to the area.

You can spray it with some ethyl chloride before the injection so you don’t feel it very much. And it’s something very easy to do.

These usually heal up very quickly if that’s what the problem is. Now, it might just be that one of the tendons that’s moving that thumb is being stretched out. So, that’s a whole different issue. So, I would before I went to a surgeon, I would go to someone who doesn’t use a knife to find out what the conservative way of getting that healed is. Okay.

If you need help finding someone in Chicago, go to stemcellinstitute.com and send me an email. Every page has a place to email me. I will search for someone in Chicago. A good friend of mine, Ross Hauser, used to be there. I think he moved to Florida, although he may still have an office there. He’s one of the best. If he’s not there, I’ll find someone else for you. How’s that?

Mary: Excellent. Thank you so much, Dr. Darrow.

Marc Darrow, MD: Thank you, Mary. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you. God bless you.

Marc Darrow, MD: We’re going to go to Donna in Irvine. She’s been very patient. She has a question about stem cells. Donna, are you still with us?

Caller—Donna: Yes, I am. I have two questions. First, is a stem-cell procedure considered surgery?

Marc Darrow, MD: It could be. It depends on how the cells are obtained. Before you get to your second question, I’ll answer this one.

stem cells can come from your own bone marrow, which I’ve done about 7,000 of these over the years, and it takes me about 15 seconds to do it because I’ve done so many. most people it’ll take them a long time to do it because they haven’t done many. We have a very tiny little drill with a tiny needle and we have you lay face down on the table and we numb up what’s called the PSIS, the posterior superior iliac spine. It’s sort of a lump on the back of your pelvis.

And we put a needle in there and then we can aspirate out the bone marrow. And then we can spin the bone marrow if we want to and take the stem cells and the PRP out at the same time. So we get both of those from the bone marrow. So that’s one way to do it. Another way to do it is to actually purchase what’s called Wharton’s jelly, which is the inside of an umbilical cord. And in that way, those are frozen cells. And in that way, you don’t have to get drilled. There are some doctors that say there’s no live cells because it’s been frozen. I haven’t found that to be true. There’s a question about what a stem cell actually is, certain markers, CD4 markers on cells. So, there’s arguments among doctors whether those cells are viable.

And typically, the doctor who is selling bone marrow kits is the one who doesn’t like people using Wharton’s jelly. So, we have to be careful about that. that they want to just do and say that only bone marrow is the way to get stem cells. So medicine is like everything else on the planet. Money drives it unfortunately and it’s unfortunate the way medicine is practiced. it’s very high-tech today. The drug companies are making a fortune. There are some pills that cost thousands of dollars. That’s horrible, right?

Yeah. Yeah. That’s horrible. And there are entrepreneurs now who are setting up companies where they’re getting medicines much cheaper than going through the pharmacies. You can get it online much cheaper. So medicine is being revamped now. And one of the revamping is using stem cells and PRP rather than using the knife to operate.

Now, my grandfather, who was born in the 1800s, used to call surgeons butchers, and I would never say that today because

I think they do great work. I think surgeons are amazing, but I don’t think they should be doing all these surgeries that they’re doing. They don’t need to be replacing these joints. We just had Mary on the phone that had some thumb pain from playing piano for the last six months. If she gets to a surgeon first, he may want to operate and replace that thumb joint before anything else. And why would you put a foreign material in your body when you can do a simple injection with stem cells or PRP to regrow that cartilage?

Makes no sense to me.

What is your second question, Donna? That was a very good one.

Donna: My second question concerns my left shoulder. I have bursitis. If I considered stem cells, would you—or another person who performs these procedures—be able to tell me the likelihood of my shoulder getting better and how long it might take?

Marc Darrow, MD: That’s a very good question, Donna. The answer is yes and no because I can never predict someone’s outcome.

I don’t have I’m not psychic. I can tell you in my in my history with thousands of patients that I’ve worked on with shoulder bursitis that most of them get better fairly quickly. It could take one, two, three treatments maybe.

That’s pretty average.

But I don’t promise anything. As a matter of fact, I have a consent form that says there’s no guarantees because I’ve had people come back and say, “You promised I’d get better.” And I say, “I never promise anybody anything.” So, I have them write that out.

I like to be very transparent with my patients. And some of them get mad at me. A lot of them get mad at me. They go, “I want you to tell me what’s going to happen.” I go, “I don’t know.” And they say, “Well, you know more than I do.” And I go, “I really don’t. I don’t know because you’re a study of one person. and you’re going to be different than the thousands that I’ve taken care of already. I can tell you what my experience has been, but that may not apply to you.

That really gets some people angry. I’ve had people storm out of the office.

But I’m not going to make it up. I’m not here to be a salesman.

I’m not here to sell what I do. I’m here to educate people. And I and when they ask me, “What should I do?” I go, “You decide. I’ll give you as much information as you need. It’s your decision.” And I always say, if you want to have a surgery, I support you in doing that. I wouldn’t do it, but I support you in doing if that’s what you want to do.

There is a high probability that after surgery, you’ll still come back to see me for treatment.

Donna: Thank you for being honest. I appreciate that.

Well, I do my best. I’m not sure any human is really honest. I don’t know if we have the ability to be. I mean, I had I mean, this is a funny story in a way.

I had a patient come in a couple weeks ago and he was complaining about someone that lied to him. And I said to the patient, I said, “So, you never lie, do you?” I was teasing him and he goes, “No, I don’t lie.” He goes, “Well, I do lie a little bit, but only when I think it’s for the other person’s benefit.” And I said, “So, you’re a liar, right?” And he said, “No, [laughter] that is a funny story.

We’re all humans are liars. We paint pictures, you know, the way we want them to be and we do our best. You know, most people don’t want to lie. It just kind of slips out. And there’s a lot of times, honestly, where I’ve said something and I’ve I’ve augmented the reality of it. And after I said it, I went to my inside. I go, “That’s a lie.” But is it worth going back and saying to the person that was a lie? Sometimes maybe.

Sometimes maybe not. You know, it just depends. But I don’t like lying. I don’t pe I don’t mind if people are liars, but I don’t like to do it myself.

It really bothers me. Okay.

Marc Darrow, MD: Donna, God bless you, and thank you so much for your questions. I appreciate them.

All right. This is Dr. Marc Darrow on living painfree. How do we not do surgery is really what the show is about. How do we take the surgery out of pain? And I do it with regenerative medicine, regrowing tissue using stem cells and PRP. And we have someone coming in here who’s been waiting a couple of minutes, but I want to give out the phone number to the studio. If you want to call me and talk live, I’d love it. the phone number to studio is 866-870-5752.

That’s 866-870-5752.

If you want a free phone consult with my staff and a free book, Stem Cell and Platelet Therapy, Regenerate Don’t Operate, call the office. That’s 800-300-9300.

800-300-9300.

If you want to look at my website, watch me doing these procedures. You can see videos at stem cellinstitute.com. stem cellinstitute.com.

And every page has a spot to email me and I get back to everybody every day.

We’re going to go to Jimmy. Jimmy, thank you so much for calling. You’d like to know more about PRP and stem cells. What is your question?

Caller—Jimmy: I came across your website, and I’d like to know more about PRP and stem cells. I’ve had lower-back issues since I was 25. Now I’m 47, and they’re still ongoing.

Marc Darrow, MD: Okay.

Jimmy: I’ve had an MRI at Cedars-Sinai, and nothing helps.

Marc Darrow, MD: What have you had done, if anything?

Jimmy: Nothing more than acupuncture and chiropractic care, and those are only temporary fixes.

Okay.

Some doctors have recommended surgery, but I’m quite hesitant because I’ve heard a lot about the effects of surgery.

Marc Darrow, MD: You’ve heard about the same things that I unfortunately see every day. Let me ask you this: Do you have pain in your back or in your legs?

Jimmy: In my lower back—my right lower back—and my neck.

Marc Darrow, MD: Those are not surgical issues.

That’s number one. If you were having But I had but I had 3 mm u this protrusion. Okay.

Okay. So, I have I have dis I have disc herniations in my neck and back and I’m not having any pain. All right. Oh.

So, don’t get sucked into that one.

That 3 mm disc bulge or whatever you call it is not an issue unless it’s unless it’s banging on a nerve and you’re having arm pain or leg pain.

Okay. And you haven’t mentioned that you have. So generalized localized back or neck pain to me is not a surgical issue at all. But way too many people get surgeries for that then they don’t get better. So I’d be real careful if I were you not to get a surgery.

so am I am I am I one of the lucky ones to have this or Well, yeah, you’re lucky. You’re lucky because you didn’t have a surgery and you don’t have weakness or pain down your arms or legs and you just have centralized neck and back pain.

And that is a very good subject matter for doing PRP and stem cells to grow back the tissue that’s causing the problem. Most back pain and neck pain is not from discs at all. It’s from the ligaments that hold the vertebrae together. It’s a sprain like an sprained ankle. When you sprain your ankle, you don’t get a surgery. That’s the same thing in the neck and back.

Yeah. It’s weird that I when I stretch, I could hear all this like you said, the ligaments Yeah. start to stretch out and crack.

Yeah. The cracking is more probably it can be the ligaments also that are moving, but it’s probably more the facet joints. You know when you crack your knuckles and your fingers and you hear a pop? Uhhuh. Yeah.

Yeah. That’s the joints separating and nitrous oxide I think it is that goes in makes it feel good.

but in the neck and back it’s the same thing. People crack their neck and crack their back because it feels good and they’re loosening up those facet joints the joints between the vertebrae.

It’s not a good idea to keep doing that.

you can do it once in a while and get away with it, but it feels super good, but what it does, it kind of wears out those joints and causes more pain.

So, I’d be kind of careful for doing it. And if you are doing it, I’m sorry. Go ahead.

When you when you mention it’s like it’s like moving your knuckles and releasing those u gases.

Yeah. but if I do that to my knuckle, it it will only happen one time. If I keep on doing that to my neck and my lower back, I could do it continuously. Wow.

So, is that is that gas or No, that probably is not.

I’d have to see. I’d have to have you do it in front of me so I know what’s going on.

And this is something really important, an idea for you. Don’t believe your images and don’t believe your doctors unless they put their hands on you to find out where the pain is being generated from.

Almost every patient who’s come in over the last 30 years who’s had a failed surgery, when I asked if the doctor touched them, they said no. They didn’t do an exam. They looked at an image and said I needed surgery.

And then they had a surgery and it didn’t work. And then when I examine them, I find out that the spot where the pain is being generated is not anywhere near where the surgery was is was done.

Oh, so we have to be careful. And again, I’m not putting down the surgeons. They do the hardest work in medicine. I’m just putting down the surgeries they do. And I do think before they operate, they ought to be touching the person to find out where the pain’s coming from. And in my humble opinion, not operating on neck and back pain.

I’ve never seen that come out well for anybody.

If they’re having leg pain, there’s a disc sitting on a nerve that might need to come out. You know, they have a weak leg or something like that, that’s a good surgical indication, but not the first thing. The first thing is be conservative.

Always in medicine, first law of medicine, be conservative.

Surgery is the very last thing to consider. There’s so many different ways of healing. My way is not the only way.

You know, doing regenerative medicine with stem cells and PRP is my way, but when patients come in, I give them all kinds of options of what they can do.

I just talked to Mitzi was just on the phone with her husband before talking about her trigger fingers. I told her to go use some hot water in a salad bowl with some Epsom salt and stretch them out before she comes in to see me.

Okay.

I’d much rather people do things conservatively than and then seeing you for consultation.

All right. I’d love to love to have you come in the phone number to the studio.

You can call right now and talk to my staff, get a free phone consult, get more information, get a free copy of my book, Stem Cell and PRP therapy, platelet therapy, regenerate don’t operate.

The number to this to the office is 800-300-9300.

Let me give it out again. 800-300-9300.

Jimmy: All right. I’ll call them.

Marc Darrow, MD: All right. There’s good hope ahead for getting you healed up.

Jimmy: Thank you very much.

God bless you, Jimmy. I appreciate your call.

All right. So, that’s been great. We’ve had some good calls today. Getting close to the end of the show. If you want to catch me right at the end here, there’s still a couple of minutes left. The phone number to talk to me live right now at the studio is 866-870-5752.

That’s 866-870-5752.

If you want a free phone consult with my staff, the office number is 800-300-9300.

And if you want to watch videos of me doing these procedures, go to the website stem cellinstitute.com.

So, I’ve got a another question here.

Oh, end of the show. There goes the banjo. Well, God bless you all. Thank you [music] callers for calling in. I appreciate you all. I appreciate my listeners. [music] God bless you all. I love you very much and we’ll see you next time. Have a great day.

Announcer: You’ve been listening to Living Pain-Free with Marc Darrow, MD. To schedule an appointment, call 800-300-9300.

That’s 800-300-9300.

And ask for a copy of Dr. Darrow’s book, Stem Cell and Platelet Therapy: Regenerate, Don’t Operate, or go online to stem cellinstitute.com.

Again, the website is stem cellinstitute.com.

Living Pain-Free with Marc Darrow, MD, is heard Saturdays at 10:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 5:00 p.m. on AM 870 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.