Podcast Transcription: Ted’s Stem Cell Treatment Experience: 16-Week Follow Up
Ted Ryce: Four months ago, I went to Dream Body Clinic in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and injected most of my major joints with a total of 750 million stem cells. Today's episode is going to be my four month update. So, if you're curious about stem cells, if you're wondering what my experience is, if I thought it was worth it, would I do it again? 

I'm going to answer all those questions and more. So let's dive in. What is up my friend and welcome back to the legendary life podcast. I'm your host, Ted Ryce, health expert and coach to executives, entrepreneurs, and other high performing professionals.  

And we put this show on for two reasons. Number one, I want to bring you the best content on the internet when it comes to fat loss and longevity. 

The other part is if you are looking to fast track your success, well, I offer coaching and you'll get a good idea of whether I'm the type of person you'd like to hire for that from listening to this show.  

So let's dive in. Just a quick recap. So again, as I stated, I went to Dream Body Clinic in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This is my four month update. And, um, man, I'm going to go over a few things here.  

So I'm going to talk about number one, the functional differences. In other words, how is it four months after versus before. The second thing I'm going to cover are the lessons that I learned.  

The third thing is going to be insights. In other words, what would I do differently? The fourth thing is what I recommend stem cells and the fifth is going to be, you know, what are my, let's say, future expectations.  

So let's dive in. I want to talk about the functional differences here because wow, I'm noticing a big, big difference. For example, what are some things that are different for me? 

And I want to say this before I dive into the functional differences. I've talked to a lot of people that are like, well, how do you know it's not placebo? Because that is one of the, let's say criticisms about STEM cells. We'll talk about the research a bit later and my thoughts on it. However, I want to give you some functional examples here.I get a massage pretty much every week, sometimes two massages, and sometimes it's only once every two weeks, but probably averages out to about once a week.  

And for the past couple of years, when I lay down on my stomach for an extended period of time, and then I get up, it takes me a good minute because it feels like I'm nine years old for that 60 seconds or two minutes or however long it lasts. 

And now when I'm laying down and this is where I really notice it, um, is having a massage when I'm laying down on my stomach. And then the massage therapist asked me to flip over. I just flip over. Now, if you don't have any back injuries, you're probably like, that's not really that impressive. However, if you're like me and you had a herniated disc in your low back and wow, did I have a bad, bad herniation? 

I mean, I could not walk. And when people say that, what they mean is they're walking funny. What I mean is I was crawling on the ground. It was hard to get on the toilet and use the bathroom because of. I mean, I was peeing in a pot. Okay. I won't go into more details, but for 2 weeks, I could not walk. I could not stand. 

I would try and then I would crumple on the floor. That's how bad the herniation is. So, if you had something similar and listen, one other thing, I'm not the toughest guy in the world, but I'm a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I've done a lot of competitions. I've done a lot of crazy things done. You know, I've done some things that put my body through stress and pain. 

And, uh, you know, so when I, when I say that it was a lot of pain, it was, uh, yeah, that means something. Okay. I have a, a pretty high pain tolerance. So anyway, now I'm just hopping up and just changing. And that is. That is a big deal. And that's from my lower back. Now, one thing I also noticed that's different, for example, I trained legs today and a little secret that I've been keeping and is like my leg exercises up until this point. I wasn't doing squats and lunges. I was doing like physical therapy exercises for really long time because every time I started to do squats, I get to the point where I just couldn't load my legs anymore. It was very difficult to load my legs. The muscles are fine. My muscles respond, they grow. But the issue was my knees in particular, my knees would start aching and I would have to back off. 

And it was, It was like days. And let me tell you, I'm a specialist in dealing with injuries and I've been a physical therapist. I've worked with other specialists. I've done so many things. In fact, that's why I got stem cell injections in the first place is I was doing so many things and it wasn't working. 

And I've worked with top physical therapists and I just couldn't get beyond a certain point. And that's why I turned to regenerative medicine, or should I say experimental regenerative medicine, because that's what stem cells, stem cell injections, that's what it's, uh, considered at the moment. So, what are some other things? 

Just in general, my neck. I have a few disc herniations there and it's doing a lot better. For example, I'm just in less pain all the time. I'm getting in better shape than I ever have because I'm just in less pain. You know, it's, it's really hard to quantify the difference to be honest. That's why I'm trying to give you examples. 

But it's, it's such an impressive before and after. And that's why when people tell me it's the placebo, I'm like, dude, I was taking supplements. I was doing all these other things. Why didn't any of those give me a placebo effect then? And I'm just sitting here right now. I trained legs earlier and I trained, I've done things that I haven't done in years. 

So happy right now. Just beyond thrilled with the results. Although I also want to say I'm not a hundred percent and we'll, we'll return to this a bit later, but I'm not a hundred percent. I'm not like, let's go running. Even though, by the way, I did go running. I don't run. I walk on the treadmill with an incline. 

I do the rowing machine sometimes, but mostly the bike. Why do I do the bike? Because I feel my knees. Um, if I run. And it feels like sometimes it can be pain, but it's just like, oh, it's hard to explain. It's if, if you don't have the same feeling, it's not pain like, Oh, I ran. It's like an ache, a deep ache. 

Right. And it's not even that painful, but it feels like, ah, I need to not, I need to really be careful with my knees. That's what it makes me feel like. It's not that I'm in so much pain. I can't walk after it's like, ah, I'm probably going to have a knee replacement. If I keep that up, that's what it feels like. 

Interesting side note is when I did go to Dream Body Clinic, I had a bunch of MRIs done and they told me that the damage in my knees wasn't as bad as, well, what you might expect if I just shared what I just shared with you. And they also told me that my right knee was worse, which my left knee is the more problematic one. 

But now, um, and what they meant by that was there was some damage to one of the ligaments in my right knee. I forget which one, maybe it was the ACL anterior cruciate ligament, but my left knee is feeling a lot better. And then my right knee is also feeling Quite a bit better. But I do feel like I feel that ligament or whatever it is seems to be the ligament in there. 

I guess that's what I'm feeling. I feel something and they told me it was the ligament. So that's what I'm trying to piece together here. And so I'm feeling great. I'm not feeling a hundred percent, but I do feel like, and let's transition to the lessons learned here, like the expectations versus reality, my expectations coming in. 

I want to be honest with you. Okay. I didn't expect that much. I mean, I didn't do it because I'm like, Hey, I'm going to throw my money away and just have these things that these injections and go through these injections and they're not going to work at all. But I didn't have my hopes up that high. I had read a lot of, I've seen a lot of testimonials for stem cells, but I also read the research. 

The research is not compelling. Just straight up, not compelling. And I'll talk a little bit more about that later in my thoughts about that, but the research is not compelling. So I, and I didn't want to get my hopes up either. I wasn't like, this is going to heal me and then have very little or maybe even nothing happened. 

I would have been super sad. So, reality is better than my expectations, but my expectations were really low. I didn't buy into the hype of stem cells. I thought, I thought, okay, this is probably going to do something, but you know, I'll expect a five or 10 percent difference and I've gotten maybe 20, 25, 30 percent difference. 

Something again, it's hard to quantify, right? And I'm really trying to, but it's way more than what I expected. But again, I didn't go in thinking it was going to be a miracle cure. I'm a positive optimistic person, but I also feel like they just, you know, there wasn't enough certainty based on what I read that it was going to work for sure. 

And one of the things that I feel is really important here is that, um, from my experience, so I've had a lot of up and down days, you know, I mentioned my neck is in a lot less pain as an example and, um, my knees, my shoulders. Even my elbows feel better. Although I didn't have injections in my elbows, so it's a little strange. 

They're not as good. In fact, I'll, I'll talk about why that in my regrets, one of my big regrets is not getting my elbows done, but, um, yeah, I, I just wasn't going in with high hopes.  

Another thing that I really liked about Dream Body Clinic is that Josh, the owner. He told me after he got the, the MRIs of my left shoulder and my lower back, he's like, listen, if you would have come, if you would have sent these MRIs to me beforehand and said, Hey, I want to do these joints. 

I would have told you don't expect much if anything. So, he was really straightforward about that. And my low back and my left shoulder have, let's say, experienced the least amount of progress, although that's hard to say,  because they were pretty bad, but I got to tell you, my left shoulder is feeling quite a bit better. 

I have not gained any more mobility in my left shoulder. But the pain is better. Okay. So, if you know me, well, in other words, if you're a client, you've probably seen me show, like, I can't lift my left arm over my head. I still can't do that. Uh, and I've tried, uh, doing, you know, I'm doing a lot of physical therapy exercises. 

In fact, 1 of the things that happened and I'll talk about this in a 2nd, is that I stopped working out for, oh, gosh, how long was it? At least a month. And I was just doing rehabilitation exercises that they gave me. So they gave me some handouts, like you would get in a physical therapist's office of exercises to do. 

And that's what I was doing. And so anyway, I've been doing that and I have not recovered and you know, I'm doing it right now, although you can't see, uh, I have not recovered the mobility in my left shoulder. And that was to be expected because. What Josh and Dr. Eric said is that there seems to be a bone spur in my shoulder blocking. 

Now it, you know, I don't want to get into this because if you talk to orthopedic surgeons, it gets really complicated. Like do you know what blocks movement and, but just relaying the information, I have a bone spur in my left shoulder. It was,  it's something that it was in a lot of pain, my left shoulder. 

And so, yeah, uh, it feels a lot better, but I haven't restored my mobility. And one thing that I want to say now is, um, so people get mixed results with stem cells, and I want to say this. I really feel now again, I want to qualify the statement again. I want you to listen closely feel this is my insight. 

This isn't hard science. This is my opinion, but I really feel that the results of the stem cells and I've got such great results. I really feel it was the combination of number one, I'm already in pretty good shape starting out. So I wasn't obese and a lot of body fat. We know that people with a lot of visceral fat and just a lot of fat in general, it's connected to more joint pains, diabetes, high blood pressure, fatty liver. 

These are things that cause more pain in your body, in your joints. So I was already coming in in fairly good shape. I was a little beat up from all the jujitsu I was doing, but you know, it was coming in in good shape and I also followed their rehab protocol. I did not get stupid. Okay. Maybe I slipped up a couple of times and tried to, you know, do a little bit more than I should have, but very little. 

For example, I had someone else tell me because so many people have reached out to me on social media after I've shared my experience at dream body, one person reached out to me. One guy said two weeks later, he was doing it was like two weeks or maybe a month later. He was doing like crossfit workouts. 

So, if you think you're going to get stem cells and it's going to just magically cure your stupidity. It's not going to happen. All right. So, or if it's going to cure like decades of bad behavior of, let's say, unhealthy behavior, it's not going to do it. It might help, but it's not going to cure everything. 

The foundation is. Exercise, nutrition, being lean, that's the foundation, sleep, stress management. So those are going to affect your results, I feel. And one of the things that I feel like stem cells allowed me to do, which all the other physical therapy that I've done didn't allow me to do. Is the stem cells allowed the physical therapy and after that the strength training routine because there shouldn't be physical therapy is basically strength training. 

Okay. It's not, it's not bicep curls and barbell squats. But you're using exercises to condition the muscles, the joints so that they get stronger and then you need to continue to load the muscles and joints. And so I started out with those physical therapy exercises and transitioned into more. Typical strength training exercises, but still with, you know, like, uh, I don't want to say a physical therapy emphasis, but being very careful about how I'm loading my body. 

So if you're destroying your body with your workouts and you think, oh, well, I'm just going to get some stem cell injections, then go back to the same workouts might not work. Okay. Might not work for a little while, but. If your workouts are causing the problem, then what you need to do is be smarter about your approach. 

And I would say this, the stem cells gave me a good place to be smarter about how I came back in and started training. Although, to be honest, I was really smart in the first place. At least more recently, I used to be an idiot, right? Piling on the weight on the deadlift. Trying to lift as much as possible hurt my shoulder when I was 24, no 22, I think 22 years old, trying to bench 250 with no one else around, got it caught on my chest. 

No one else to no, no spotter to come by and help it, help me get it back up and had to get it back up. So anyway, the point is, but more recently I've been very smart about my approach. So, um, yeah, it's, it, it, so I haven't changed that much to be honest, but I guess I just feel differently about it. I feel like, okay, this is this, I'm going to do this right this time. 

So I guess that's the difference. And so what would I do differently? If anything, I would, I would have stayed in Puerto Vallarta longer. That's the first thing I'll tell you. When I first got the injections and Josh told me, he's like, Hey man, it was a needle party. He, after I came out, he's like, how'd it go? 

I was like, Oh, he's like, come on, man. Be honest. It was a needle party. And that's what it is, especially for me. I got my neck, both shoulders, both wrists, all my knuckles and my fingers and my thumbs, I got both hips, my low back, both knees, my left ankle, my right foot, and my two big toes. So total of 750 million. 

And so, what would I do differently? Number one, I would have, like I said, stayed a bit longer. I came early and then left like the next day after getting the injections. Not great. So that's something I would give myself a few days or even a week. I had to change my flights around it and stay in, um, I just stay in Mexico a week longer before heading off to Brazil so that I felt like I could carry my luggage because when you, the hardest ones, by the way, Uh, where my big toes, those took a long time. 

It was my, my toes would get very sore. My big toes would get sore. And then my knuckles, those took the longest to improve, interestingly. So, you want to give yourself some time to. Depending on what you have done, of course, you want to give yourself some time to recover. That's what I would have done differently. 

The other thing I would have done differently is I would have had my elbows done. I regret not doing my elbows there. They feel a little bit better. I don't know why exactly just a tiny bit better though. It's not significant, significant like the other areas that I've had injections. But they feel a little bit better. 

And the idea, if I had to, if you ask me, well, what do you think? Why do you think they feel better? Some people might say, well, it's placebo. But what I think happens is you get injections in your joints, but the reality is, and this is one of the criticisms of STEM cells is that they start, they don't just stay there because you inject them there. 

They start circulating and they're drawn towards inflammation in your body. So that would be, again, just a hypothesis, not hard medical science, not an expert, but that would be my hypothesis. So that's what I would do differently. If and what advice do I have for you? I think I've kind of already gone over it, but understand that it's not a miracle cure. 

It's not like, oh, yeah, you know, train like an idiot or I'm super out of shape. I've got a huge belly, been paying all over my body. I don't really want to start exercising and dieting. I just want to get some stem cell injections and, you know, maybe that'll do something for me.  

And what I would tell you is stem cells, again, you, they're not going to, they're not the miracle. All right. They're miraculous if you do them under the right circumstances, because I've never gotten results like this from any of the supplements or methods. I mean, I've done, I've, I thought, you know, maybe I'd go drink ayahuasca and do some emotional healing and I did feel a little bit better. 

I've done fasts. The pain comes back after you start eating again. So I've done so many things, right? And this has been the thing. This has been the method that has created the biggest benefit. So just understand though, you got to be doing your part. The other thing is that you may need more than one injection, like four months in. 

I'm going to wait a while, but four months in, I'm feeling like, okay, I could see how this Is not just going to be a one and done thing, depending on your, the level of damage or the level of, let's say, healing that you want, this is going to be like something you need to do more regularly. So, keep that in mind. 

So, let's talk about this. Would I recommend stem cells? Now, I have a little bit of a issue here, right? Because the, because check it out. So, it just to be clear, if you haven't listened to my other episodes. You can get stem cell treatments in the United States, but what they do is they take stem cells from either your bone marrow or they take it from your fat cells. 

But the issue is if you're a 47 year old man like me, your stem cells aren't that great. That's why in part you're having problems to begin with. So that's what they do in the United States. Now, outside the United States, you're allowed to use in different, in certain countries, umbilical cord derived stem cells. 

And I want to be clear here. We're not talking about, what do you call them? Fetal where you remember in the nineties, I think it was in the nineties stem cells created a big controversy because they were taking stem cells from aborted fetuses. We're not talking about that. In fact, there seems to be some, some issues with fetal derived stem cells. 

So, we're not talking about that. So just in case, just throw that out of your mind. That's not what anyone is using for joint injections or for stem cell therapies. . That you would get it. These clinics, they're either coming from, like I said, fat derived bone marrow derived or umbilical cord derived. 

So, in other words, babies are being born all the time. And what do you do with the umbilical cords? You throw them away. What do you do with the placenta? You throw them away. In fact, Peter Diamandis, if you know who that is. The entrepreneur and futurist, I guess. And, uh, what he author, what he is recommending people do, it's like when you have a kid save the placenta and umbilical cord, because you can get those stem cells from your own tissue later on. 

So back to what I recommend them based on my experience. I would go back and probably will go back. And where will I go? I'm going to go to the same place where I had a good experience the first time. So that's what I would say. I have some issues, just a personal issue recommending stem cell therapy for other people because of the level of evidence involved, meaning it's considered experimental, even the stuff done in the United States with bone marrow and fat cells. 

Still considered experimental and if you look at some of the research, some of it sounds good. Some of it isn't so good. Not that it's dangerous, but it's like, it doesn't seem to do anything. Right? So there's all these stories of people who had these incredible recoveries, and then there's stories of people who just were actually the stories are in the research. 

I don't know of too many people who say, oh, they're not like testimonials. Right? So that's what I would say. So, I want to, um, you know, I want to be ethical, but I'll tell you, I want to give you another example. I was talking to my cousin yesterday. And he has a knee issue. And what he said was that he was talking about his knees. 

I was like, man, you know, if I were you, I would go get PRP right away. He's like, actually I did that. And I had two shots and they didn't really do much for me. I was like, and I said, oh, okay, got you. So I have done PRP again. I did it at Dream Body Clinic because they also used it in my low back. And I believe my neck as well. 

So, they included PRP. In those treatments, I'm pretty sure it was for my low back and I think for my neck as well. I don't remember a hundred percent though. Because I was more focused on the stem cells and I didn't even, you know, at the time, this is all new stuff to me. You know, I say I'm a health expert and I don't have any issues saying that I feel like I am for you to judge, but this is an area of health that is really new to me.  

It's really new to everyone, to be honest, but, you know, so I'm trying to understand, however, I'll tell you, I got great results from what I would consider great results. I'll just leave it at that. And I do feel my whole experience at dream body, they were super on top of the protocols, the health protocols, they used a ton of needles through it. 

I mean, it was a ton of waste. Just to make sure that I wouldn't have any issues with any of the needles. There is very low risk for infections and those types of things. Because, you know, there are risks associated with sticking needles in your joints. If you get a cortisone injection, or regardless of any, the injection that you get, there's always risks, right? 

So that's what I would say. I had a great experience there, great results after, and I'll leave it for you to decide, but I'm not going to go, what I'm not going to do is I'm not going to say, hey, you got to go. It's a miracle treatment. It'll change your life. It's changed my life. And I would go back and, you know, just think the world of the clinic there and the way I was treated. 

It was a very nice experience, except for the long MRIs that sucked because I did a lot of MRIs, but, um, no, that wasn't their fault. It was just the situation. Right? But that's what I would say. Right? I would, if you're struggling, if you were struggling like me, I wouldn't hesitate to go give it a try with the consideration that with the understanding that, you know, this is something that it's not, it's not going to be a magic bullet if you're not taking care of yourself. Before and also after so future expectations, what do I expect long term, both in potential for the recovery and of maintenance treatments? 

You know, I really feel like, I feel at this point, I'm not noticing like, big jumps in improvement, except for the fact that I'm able to train and getting stronger, but I feel like I may have come close to the end of the results. 

I don't know that to be sure. Maybe it lasts for 6 months or a year. That's why I'll continue to do these updates, but I kind of feel like I'm coming to the end of the improvements. And so, I'm planning to go there again, and how am I going to monitor the effects moving forward and any scheduled follow ups and healthcare stuff that I'm going to do otherwise? 

I'm really going to stick with dream body. I'm going to in fact, after doing this, I'm going to call Josh up again. I'm going to have a conversation with him. I'm going to tell him about the update and how I'm feeling and. Ask his suggestions, because yeah, that's where I'm at with that. So I am planning on going back. 

I'm really curious to see, will I receive additional benefits if I continue to do this? And I want to say 1 more thing here. I have a lot of injuries as you, as you, uh, might know. And some, some are my fault and some of them aren't some are, for example, I was born with congenital hip dysplasia and what Josh, the owner of Dream Body Clinic was very clear, about conveying to me is like, listen, stem cells aren't going to, for example, if you don't know what congenital hip dysplasia is, uh, I have misshapen the head of my femur. 

In other words, your hip bones that go into the hip sockets. They're misshapen never knew that until recently and what Josh said, hey, it's not going to fix that, right? It's not going to fix broken anatomy or, or it's not going to regrow anatomy in that way. It can help regrow the cartilage on the anatomy, but it's not going to restructure your bones and that type of thing, right?  

So some, I didn't do that. I was born and that's the way I was born. And I've been in some car accidents to where it just wasn't my fault. Um, I got hit pretty bad. And so, and then I've done a lot of stupid things on top of that. So anyway. I'm very curious how do I, how do stem cells fit into a plan where I don't want to get surgeries like a hip replacement or a shoulder replacement or disc replacements in my neck if I can help it. So that's going to be something that I'm going to be working on working out over time. 

So I just want to summarize the key points and listen, stem cells work for me and I'm feeling so much better than four months ago. Uh, also I've used it as an opportunity to really take better care of my health overall and be more careful about how I stress my body. 

In fact, I haven't gone to jujitsu yet. I've, I've gone a couple of times, but I've been avoiding going consistently. I want to see if I can get in better shape first and not just better shape with muscles and strength and VO two max, but can my joints feel better and be more resistant to stress? So, uh, that, and also this might be a thing where you've got to do it more frequently and it's expensive.It's not cheap.  

So these are all the things that I think are the main points. And listen, I want you to follow along. If this is something that's interesting for you, follow along for updates, share the episode, reach out to me with your experiences. If you've had stem cell injections, I would love to hear your experiences. 

Uh, if you have questions about it, feel free to reach out and that is it. Thank you for listening. And in the next update, it's going to be a few more months. I'm really curious to see what happens.  

So stay tuned and I'm looking forward to it. Just like you, I have no idea what's going to happen. It's brand new territory for me. So hope you enjoyed this. Let's keep the conversation going.