Hi this is Pamela worth from encourage your Wellness podcast and today I have Chris and Eric Weiss Physicians and they have an amazing story as well as are helping so many so many people with with their treatment plans and so really happy to have you here today so thank you thanks for having us thanks for having us it's great to be here so tell everyone a little bit about your journey and and how you've learned so many different things and and where where your focus is today yeah
Christine : yeah okay well my our journey is that we have a son who's autistic it started probably at 13 months and we knew we had two other sons who are older and we knew that something wasn't quite right with him and this took us on a very long journey of educating ourselves and our son you know at the time there wasn't Google he this was 1995 and you know everything was using a phone and dialling up people you know that we knew from The Med medical field and and what not and it ended I actually quite well you know he's doing very very well he lives on his own he is independent he drives he has a job but in between we had a lot of therapies that we did that we that helped and things that didn't and in the meantime we both wrote a book on our journey and we knew that we were the peak of autism because at the time our son was diagnosed no it was 1 in 10,000 and now it's depending on where you look one in 25 so it's an explosion and I just felt that we we're in the beginning of this journey and that we had to help those behind us so we sort of did a blueprint of what we did to help our son and wrote this book for the people that the moms and dads that are looking for answers
Dr. Eric : you know I think as a physician you know usually we know how to treat things you know and God forbid but if your son or daughter gets leukemia you know the pediatrician knows what to do you meet with a pediat pediatric oncologist you talk to the radiation therapist you talk to the the chemotherapist and it sets you on this this conveyor belt of of treatment and there's a beginning of treatment there's an end of treatment and may end up with a bone marrow transplant nobody knows but they know the game plan and when we were told our son you know was on the autistic Spectrum there was no game plan you know they they didn't say get speech therapy get this get that you know go to this website none of that was available and so it was a a trial and error trying to list our son's strength his weaknesses where he needs help and then trying to look into what you know what is listening therapy what is visual therapy you know what is you know floor time you know and all these things and Chris kept detailed notes and you know her job was to kind of find the therapy my job was to vet it and you know we reassessed every three or four months is this something that's helping our child or not helping do we think we can see a benefit or no and the the culmination is the book to give you know parents you know not necessarily a blueprint or or a guy but at least reference material because Chris you know at the end of every section there's notes there's highlights there's web pages there's phone numbers there's things that you can call you know looking for help.
Pamela : which I think is incredible and I think so many people just need to understand where to start looking where to start asking questions who can they trust who can they not trust because there's so much information out there and some of it's real and some of it's not first what's the name of the book?
Christine : Educating maren marsten is his name so it's called educating marsten
Dr. Eric : it's on Amazon it's on you know any you know Barnes & Noble any place you want to find a book but it's essentially dedicated to him it's what we did to get him where he is today
Pamela : so he's now in his 20s right?
Dr. Eric : correct 28
Pamela : which is awesome and you've also been doing stuff stem cell treatment on him, correct ?
Dr. Eric : that is correct
Pamela : so tell us a little bit about that because you know there's different types of stem cells and you don't know again that's a whole journey in itself you know which stem cells can you trust where are they from and some people say it's illegal and some people say it's not and it kind of depends on whether the type of of stem cell if you will and where it came from and love you to touch on that.
Dr. Eric : yeah exactly I'll answer that since I'm kind of involved in that and there are three chapters. In the middle three chapters of the book are all on stem cells that I wrote kind of a a basic knowledge and understanding
Christine : it's in layman's terms so it's a little easier to understand you know not quite too medical too Medical
Dr. Eric : But to make a long story short there's basically two types broad categories of stem cells there's embryonic stem cells which come in from an embryo and there are things that embryonic stem cells are used for but these stem cells are derived from aborted fetuses which obviously has a lot of moral and ethical issues and are FR upon by by many of the churches and then there's adult stem cells in adult stem cells are designed to heal that's how our bodies heal you know every cell in your body has a a defined lifespan so when a muscle cell reaches end of its lifespan and dies there's a stem cell close by that makes another muscle cell so you don't lose muscle mass and so that's how our our body works and there's a different type of stem cell that makes a muscle cell versus a liver cell versus a kidney cell versus you know all these types of things so the type of stem cells that that treat autism or adult stem cells they come from live healthy birth babies they come from the umbilical cord in the umbilical cord blood so you know 99% of all umbilical cords and umbilical cord blood are thrown away every day a few women and our families decide to to bank their Core Blood and blank Bank their core in case their their child ever needs some type of of healing but these cells that are found in umal Cord Blood there's five major stem cells and they've been shown to exert tremendous healing capabilities and since they're so new even though it's a birth it's still an adult stem cell because about halfway through the second trimester the baby's no longer forming it's just growing you know it's kind of a completely formed individual it's growing so the embryonic stem cells are gone now we have adult stem cells and so they've been used in a lot of healing you know for a lot of different things from diabetes to Nee arthritis to the leukemias and Lomas all sorts of things Bilal cord stem cells are are new to autism but they're not new to Medicine they've been given therapeutically for over 60 years now so.
Christine : it's like a repurposed drug.
Dr. Eric : correct so touch on that later but what was found out was that autism the vast majority of children with autism probably have neuro inflammation this was an autopsy study that that they did on children with autism that died from other causes from house fires to to drownings to car accidents Etc and when they looked at their fresh brain specimens they all had brain inflammation and due to other research mostly in the traumatic brain injury side it was found out that the mingal stem cell which one of is one of the stem cells found in umal court blood can turn off brain inflammation and not only turn off brain inflammation but turn on brain restoration which means turn on New Growth new connections which can really start healing and so the the first thing The Landmark paper came from Duke in 2019 but before they looked at autism they did stre FY because copy is also an inflammatory disease and what they showed is these children that got umal Core Blood 90% of them their cerebral poy got better then they repeated it with autism and about 60% of the the children got noticeably better you know significantly better U and they were objective testings they had new Connections in their brain they had you know more energy on their EEG stuff that went from abnormal to towards normal and so that's the the basis getting back to what you thought about legal versus illegal and that's a big I guess source of disinformation in the United States that the FDA regulates drug companies they don't regulate doctors U and so umal cord blood is given for almost 80 different diseases so it's kind of on the US formulary it's a it's a substance it's a it's a product that's available is it FDA approved for autism no not yet and there's people who are working on that specifically Duke and and other pharmaceutical companies but the fact that it's on the formulary I can I can get it and and other doctors can get it too just like you know ior mechon was kind of repurposed from river blindness to to covid letis which a lot of women know about which grows eyelashes that's a glaucoma medication it was just noticed that your eyelashes grew when you put theop in your eyes so so there it it's available not a lot of doctors do it but it helped our son so much that my wife you know convinced me that that this is something that you know I need to do and I'm a surgeon you know and I you know started giving up surgery and starting you know helping these children because it was night and day for our son
Christine : wasn't easy to convince.
Dr. Eric : yeah I tried to tell her I had a day job you know I was busy enough but but it's a a tremendous amount of healing can take place unfortunately it's not everybody and it is expensive you know I'm not here to minimize that but it can be the difference between night and day well
Pamela : I think that's amazing my mom has stage four cancer and she's had 90 days to live for a little over five years.
Dr. Eric : wow that's a long 90 days
Pamela : yeah she's been she's been getting stem cells as well and and through an IV and and that's been helping her body heal which has been pretty amazing.
Christine : what are the differences she feels?
Pamela : she has energy. she has an appetite she I mean and the cancer is not growing
Dr. Eric : lot of people we all talk about the stem cells that are found in aord blood but there's a really cool cell that nobody's probably ever heard about is called a hunter killer cell and umbal core blood is chocked with hunter killer cells
Pamela : right helps for NK cells grow as well
Dr. Eric : yeah right exactly those are the same cells and so those seek out and Destroy malignancy
Pamela : yeah which is pretty awesome so for you as a doctor you now will also give people stem cells for certain things that they need do you have a certain protocol that you follow is it all people that would like stem cells are allowed to come to you and get them or is it certain instances
Dr. Eric : I like to practice evidence-based medicine and and so there's not that many great studies out there where they actually studied it certainly you know Protocols are are published but but nobody's really ever looked at you know as one better than this how do you do it so I went to Duke and Chris and I met with the people up there and we kind of talked to them about it so I used you know essentially the Duke protocol and you know I I try to keep up with the reading for the people that that get it I try to ascertain as if they're a good candidate you know I don't want to just you know take the money so children with you know severe genetic abnormalities let's say there's there's R syndrome and something called Rick syndrome there's XY y there's fragile X there's a lot of different genetic abnormalities that are lumped into the autism diagnosis and if it looks like they have that it might not be a neuroinflammatory disorder it might be a genetic disorder so there's really no good studies on on children with genetic disorders so I kind of say let's wait and let the let the science catch up and see if you know there's something we can do
Pamela : so someone is thinking about doing this how much does it typically cost and I I would imagine that it needs to be over a certain time period for a year or two because the it takes the body so long to kind of catch up and start healing nothing's automated and you might think it's not working but it really is because it's such a slow process for the body to kind of turn itself around
Dr. Eric : correct correct because you essentially you have to make new Connections in your brain if you think of a child that's nonverbal when he becomes verbal it's not a light switch you know the inflammation gets treated first then they have the ability to speak almost so then it's almost like a newborn you know they have to start you know listening and hearing and and write babbling and words but the Duke study showed that they started to be able to measure progress at a month and it continued to increase for six months at six months it plateaued but it never went down again and that kind of means that you know new connections were made and and things like that and so I try to be upfront with parents and and their protocol was based on weight so the weight of the child and about one to two million cells per per kilogram and I think that you know most kids are probably in that 30 20 to 30 to 40 to 50 kilogram range so it's usually one to two bils sometimes three and that can range from you know $4500 up to $122,500 and it it I know it's pricey and I don't mean to to to poo poo it but when I took my son to the University of of Illinois Chicago it was $20,000 you know and I think the good thing between us is that you know I I don't have to make money doing this I just have to not lose money you know I I have a a good surgical practice that pays the bills I do it out of my office I use my same nurses so you know it it's not that big of a money sump except for the product itself and so we try to offer it as as the most reasonable thing we can
Pamela : pretty awesome so if someone's thinking about doing this how what sort of questions should they ask how would they know the source of the stem cells or how would they start to understand or verify if it's any sort of research or thoughts around any of that I you know obviously you've been doing this for so long I'm sure there's good places and not so good places and unknowns and all kinds of things that maybe somebody says they're giving it to them but maybe it's something different and how to find a trustworthy
Christine : that's a great actually a great question and a lot of a lot of parents ask that question and we want them to ask that question because where we get our stem cells is is the best I mean they had the highest viability we've actually gone to the lab you know for our son we went to the lab I wanted to see that it wasn't in the back of someone's garage you know I'm you know I got to see it look at it and we met the man who runs the lab it's an amazing but you can tell about the lab it's
Dr. Eric : yeah it's the the lab the headquarters are in California but the lab itself is now in Las Vegas and I think it's pretty interesting they moved to Las Vegas because there's more direct flights to Las Vegas than anywhere else probably in the United States and so that when you know a woman has a baby and she donates her cord and blood it's a quick flight to the lab because the the blood and the Bo has to be there within 48 Hours you know processed and then and then Frozen I think you would vet at any lab just like you would vet you know almost anything you see who runs it you know is it doctors is it the United States you can ask them where they get their stem cells from I always tell everybody where I get my stem cells from my lab is in the United States they only take you know donors from the United States all the donors are screened genetically as well as for any type of infectious disease the lab maintains good manufacturing Pro processes and good tissue processes which is very difficult they're you know they're accredited by the FDA they they you know they have a full compliance division you know it it's a First Rate organization they hold patents patents on you know transport packaging processing and so they do have good viability but I think that you just call and ask I you know anybody who comes to me I've to on the phone you know they they usually call the office I send them some information but I try to PE speak to them plainly because parents are you know freaked out a little bit I mean we were freaked out right I I didn't want to go to Panama I didn't want to go to to Mexico and that's not to say they're not you know great organizations I I called them I spoke to the people in Panama and they just didn't have much experience of treating kids over the 18 and really didn't treat kids over the 18 my son was 22 but the landmark paper that described the brain inflammation they had a person as old as 44 and they still had brain inflammation so to me it's all about talking to the medical director or the the head guy and just find out what the plan is and and and and vet them as as you would if you're going to get heart surgery you know what do they do how are they trained what are their thoughts are I send my patients papers you know I go you know this is my thought process your six papers that you can read which I base my decisions on
Christine : and also one of the reasons that it's expensive is because they test you know the mom the dad you know for all these genetic testings and really I think it's one out of nine
Dr. Eric : yeah one out of nine one out of eight get gets accepted
Christine : so they still had to test you know all nine which is a lot is very expensive and they've processed all the blood and they've sent it there they've done everything but really only one out of nine is accepted because it passes all the genetic you know all the HIV the you know all the testing that has to be perfect so that's why it's expensive too and then it comes to our office as a transplant it actually is in dry ice minus 80 you know we had to get a refriger Ator that's 80 to store it and you know that's expensive to ship it that way and you know so there are just certain things that you can't you know that are that are going to cost that much no matter what we do
Pamela : so do you find then that so when someone comes in do you do it through an IV and then do you do it once a month like the entire sitting you get the whole thing or is it over a period of days or how do you yeah
Dr. Eric : I do it all at once because that's kind of what what Duke did you know their initial study was a one-hot deal there's never been a study really that's looked at multiple doses you know people need to remember this is in its infancy you know the the the first description that these worked in autism was you know came out in like the summer of 2019 followed by the pandemic which nothing happened you know there were no follow-up studies so the next round of studies is is ESS just has already started and a good study takes about a year or a year and a half and so it it's we're we're progressing Duke has some studies that are finishing up I believe in January or February this year but the you know the United States a phase one studies it's safe and that's been done a phase two study is does at work and that's what they're doing now a phase three study is doed in administration and they haven't really started to work that out yet and then a phase four study is this better than anything currently on the Market well the face four study doesn't need to be done because there's nothing currently on the market and so people are are gathering tremendous amounts of information right now and not everybody's doing it you know it's just a handful of medical centers
Pamela : And then do you find that people come back once a month for say six months or how often?
Dr. Eric : That's the big question is how of you know especially when somebody starts talking or you know I've had kids that when from not being trained and not having you know normal bow movements to within two weeks of the treatment you know being completely pot trained and having normal bow movements and speaking you know and starting to speak right and so the Duke study in these cells are designed to last in your body three to six months they don't last long term that's another thing is that people think these cells go into your body and live you know that you know maybe they'll make cancer maybe they'll make something that's not the way they work they're they're as Chris says they're kind of generic cells they don't have self on them so unlike a kidney transplant or a liver transplant they don't need to be typed however as the more they divide and the more they work the more they express self then the more your body clears them so they're gone at about six months and so I think it makes sense to treat it six months maybe as early as three but I I don't think there's there's you I don't want people to throw good money after bad I want to say let's let's get it's six months or so if we see something that's happening then let's let's consider doing it
Christine : And it really is simple I mean there are you know when you have an autistic child they're scared anyway they you know they're coming into a new environment you know we know all that because we lived it we've lived it so we have trained you know nurses that this is all they do for us know what to do they they can calm the child we have sedation if they need sedation if they don't you know we have a emergency nurse but she all she does is the Pediatric IV so yeah she just does pediatric IVs and this woman can come in and boom she gets it almost every time and you know we want it not to be a crazy scary experience for the mom and dad and for the child
Dr. Eric : And for us you it's hard to hold the child down and you know give him an IV as a surgeon I you know I have to sew up a child in the ER much rather sedate him so I can you know numb him up and have just sew them up calmly instead of you know holding them down
Christine : there are some kids that we just have to numb up their there's a lot of children and they're really good they just stick their arm up we numb it up and in an hour they're done and that's it you know so
Pamela: totally separate but I would imagine that you also talk with people about other things like making sure they're not eating too much sugar or something
Christine : right well what that's what I mean I always she's a dietitian I'm a dietician by trade and so I'm I the best thing is to clean up the gut that's the number one thing is to really clean up the gut you know let these kids you know get off sugar and and any kind of you know wheat or gluten and milk you know get them off all that and get them as best they can so when the stem cells get there they it's not just cleaning up the gut it's you know going because the cells go to the most inflammation they migrate to inflammation so if they're going to just go to your gut and then someone says well I really didn't see a huge difference maybe it's just because their gut was so bad at the time
Dr. Eric : But they usually see an improvement in the gut symptoms you in fact we we have a child like that who just had terrible gut issues constipation alternating with diarrhea bloating you know very skinny didn't eat it within two weeks it was night and day this you know potty train normal bow movements but the cool thing is he gained about 30 pounds you know because he eating didn't hurt anymore he was still you know essentially nonverbal but his his father was actually a a physician or is actually a physician and so you I just said these things migrate to inflammation and maybe now that we you know we check the the Box on the gut let's you know let's try it again in three or four months and see if we can't stimulate the brain
Pamela : that's awesome is there anything that we missed anything you want to touch on
Dr. Eric : I don't know I feel for you know we're part of this club we never wanted to be parents of autistic children right and you
Christine : it's a long game you know people you know they that's what I learned it's a long game you you can't just give up you know when one thing doesn't work you know this is you have to go the long the distance and the reward is at the end you know you you have to really work hard with these you know investigating what's out there you know making sure they're they're like you said legitimate whatever therapy they need because there's a lot of snake go salesman at least when I was out there there were you know and and don't just go to traditional medicine you know make sure you're going to you know.
Dr. Eric : In fact I think traditional medicine may not be your best place because a lot of times they just say you know it is what it is
Christine : I mean that's what we we saw but some there are great people out there but that's what we saw so we looked at alternative things and and that's how we found stem cells because we were you know looking at alternative things out there and and that's where we found you know
Dr. Eric : I think too the one thing I wanted to mention is there's a woman a Dr Weathersby at Florida State she has a website called autism navigator.com and it's an amazing website and for for people especially people in rural places or people they don't seem to have you know maybe a pediatrician that specializes it in a neuro you know psych person you can upload videos and her whole team will evaluate your child and and then offer their input on on where to go how to help and she's a Pioneer and early you know intervention and early diagnosis and she's you know diagnosing kids you know around two years of age and even a little younger six months yeah so I would highly recommend that I think because you just get another pair of op eyes in a woman who's devoted the last 20 or 30 years of her life to looking at this and helping many families and so she would be something I would just happen to mention and we have it on the website yeah I think my website educating mar.com or even North Florida stem cells.com has a link to the autism Navigator because I really believe in that and then the last I would say is their life's not your life and I think that we had a problem that you know our son was never going to go to high school SCH and prom and you know college and things like that but I can tell you he's happier than he's ever been and he's living a complete life and you know he has friends you know is he doing what we kind of foresaw no but right is
Christine : he perfect no you know he still has you know some gaps but he's way better than I ever dreamed in my life that he would be I never thought he was is going to you know be driving a car I never thought that he would have a you know a job where he you know he does very well and I never thought he would live on his own so you know he's made these you know this progress and it's it's amazing and I just want people not to you know give up you know there are people out there who are just like you and I who are looking for answers and there are answers out there
Pamela : amazing thank you guys so much I really appreciate you sharing your journey and another another way for people to get help and to help themselves as well as their families and so this is bad
Dr. Eric : I think this this can be cured somehow In Our Lifetime yeah
Pamela : Thank you both so much
Dr. Eric & Christine : Thank oh thank you.