Welcome to “Healthy Vision,” the talk radio show to help you conquer your vision loss. Dr. Edward Kondrot is a board-certified ophthalmologist and homeopathic doctor, author of four bestselling books. “Healthy Vision” is dedicated to bringing you the latest information for a lifetime of healthy sight and to help you conquer your eye problems.
Dr. Kondrot: Welcome to “Healthy Vision.” This is your host, Dr. Edward Kondrot. I’m here every Sunday evening to help you restore lost vision and educate you in new techniques and new research that can restore lost vision. This evening is going to be a very exciting show. I now believe stem cells can be an important modality to help you restore your lost vision.
Many of you know that I investigated stem cells three years ago and didn’t think the technology and methods were appropriate. My wife and I were in Germany. We visited the largest stem cell treatment center and looked at the results they were achieving with macular degeneration and glaucoma. They were marginal at best. Now I believe that we have the suitable stem cells. We have the technology that can make a difference and improve lost vision.
With me this evening is Dr. Dennis Courtney. Dr. Courtney is well-trained with this kind of cell technology. He’s going to share with us why there is this new resurgence regarding stem cells. What is different?
Dr. Courtney, thank you so much for joining me on “Healthy Vision.”
Dr. Courtney: Thank you very much for inviting on your show this evening. I’ve been very excited. I can feel your excitement level rise. It’s equal to but nor surpassing my own.
These stem cells are at a nice place, and they fit in with what the Dr. Ed Kondrot programs already bring to this arena. Adding stem cells just blows a hole right through the roof.
I’m hoping the benefit to people who have such restricted vision and loss of vision, and that whole group of people who have been told nothing can be done, is that they can feel some sunshine coming through the window and their day can be brightened up. It’s a pretty scary place they’re at, thinking they’re going to lose their vision and maybe even go completely blind, and that nothing can be done about it. If you’ve taught the world anything, that is no longer even an option. The stem cells will take us to a new place.
Dr. Kondrot: Three years ago, I investigated the autologous stem cells. Let’s talk a little bit about what is new and different about the stem cells we’re beginning to use at the Healing the Eye and Wellness Center.
Dr. Courtney: You stumbled across the very new thing because the autologous stem cells have been around for quite some time. These stem cells literally come from a person and go back into the same person. There are body cells we can donate, treat them in a laboratory way, harvest our own stem cells, and give them right back to a patient. In some cases, this has been having a wonderful opportunity to get the chronic and acute conditions dealt with.
I feel the autologous stem cells would be the ones that would let us both down in the aging population. There are three autologous stem cells that are most widely known. One is something called PRP. That’s been around a really long time. A newer one that has recently fallen out of favor with the FDA is the fat stem cells. I think everybody would agree bone marrow stem cells are probably the better source, but they are a little cumbersome to harvest because you have to go into the femur with a very large needle. That doesn’t even sound good to me.
I’m a Pittsburgh Steeler fan. Often on a Sunday while I’m watching a game, I hear the announcer mention, “So-and-so will be at the south side medical facility tomorrow getting his injections.” They never really specify what the injections are, but what those injections always have been are PRP, which are platelet-rich plasma. You literally take a sample of blood from a person, spin it down with a centrifuge, and the supernatant that lies just above the cells is very rich in health-oriented and health-saving components that we can then give back to the individual.
The difference I see is this is age-related. If you’re a Pittsburgh Steeler, you’re 25 years old, and your blood sample is from a 25-year-old given to yourself. These are going to be highly enriched with these factors. As we age, these factors drop off markedly. By the time we get into our 60s and 70s, the viability of these factors has probably dropped to about 10 percent to 15 percent. In our 20s, the level is somewhere up near 50 percent to 60 percent.
If you were to look at autologous stem cells in cases of macular degeneration, which are more often than not found in the elderly population, I don’t see how you could expect much benefit coming from PRP, fat, or bone marrow. The level of the health-producing factors has dropped off so much. It would be very difficult for it to revive any cells, especially eye tissue that has been lost considerably.
Dr. Kondrot: What you’re saying is in the past when we took the autologous stem cells, which are cells from the person, we were taking cells from somebody who had macular degeneration, glaucoma, or aging. These cells didn’t have the real potential to stimulate the healing or regeneration. That is the biggest problem.
Dr. Courtney: That is exactly the story. Now we’ve moved into a new arena. The new arena is to use not autologous but homologous, meaning that the cells don’t come from you. They come from another human. This particular human is a baby.
This is not anything to interfere with normal deliveries and all that crazy stuff we heard recently with embryonic stem cells or Planned Parenthood shenanigans. I think you may recall that.
These either come from amniotic stem cells where women who are going to have a scheduled C-section have their health histories followed. They consent to having the placenta donated after the baby is delivered. Ordinarily, the placenta would just be discarded. They’re able to harvest these very juvenile, vibrant cells in high numbers and then prepare them to be stored. That literally means they have to be frozen until such time as we’re going to use them in the office where they’re thawed. Amniotic stem cells are great.
Another kind of stem cell has just come recently to my attention in the last 30 to 60 days. This is hot. We now have a supply of umbilical cord cells which blow away how well the amniotic cells work, and they were working well. These cord cells hold the real secret to being successful with all the patients we would like to help with their eye diseases because they’re so vibrant, young, and juvenile that they are able to take hold of and replenish diseased cells in somebody whose vision has failed them. We’re able to revive and get that cell functioning again through the help of these stem cells.
Dr. Kondrot: This is really exciting. We’re talking about the cord cells. One advantage is that they are thousands of times stronger and more viable than autologous stem cells. They also have the ability to differentiate or change into different tissues.
I don’t want listeners to think this is taken from fetal tissue. The cord is normally discarded after the child’s birth. This is something that is truly miraculous and available.
When we come back, we’re going to be talking more about this exciting development.
Welcome back to “Healthy Vision.” This is your host, Dr. Edward Kondrot. With me is Dr. Dennis Courtney, and we’re discussing a very exciting development: the use of stem cells in the treatment of eye disease.
Before we move on, I have to make a very important point. These stem cells are not miraculous in themselves. You need to have the right nutrition, oxygenation, and health of the body for these stem cells to do their magic.
The analogy is the farmer who purchases very expensive seeds. If his soil is dry, he doesn’t have any water or the right nutrients, and there’s no sunlight, the seeds are not going to prosper. They’re not going to grow into a plant. Likewise, before we put these stem cells in your body, we need to have you at optimum health.
Dr. Courtney and I both agree that we too have a protocol established to help get you prepared for these stem cells. Dennis, do you want to talk a little bit about your thoughts on this?
Dr. Courtney: We’ve talked about it many times. A good word to use and one we both have used frequently is that stem cells are sort of like seeds. Where a seed takes hold in the ground, the quality of the soil that that seed is planted in will determine how great of a crop or how wonderful-looking the flower will be based on the nutrients found in the soil. It’s the ability for no toxic or harmful substances to be in that soil.
In a very similar way, we have to prepare the body part in question – namely the back of the eye – for the reception of these cells by optimizing the very tissue in the back of the eye. This tissue has been diseased, which is why the person is suffering from whatever malady they may have, whether that’s a macular problem, glaucoma, retinopathies, and the like. These are not healthy cells now, but we can go far and long to improve the integrity of those cells so that when we do give the stem cells, these stem cells are landing on very fertile ground. The more fertile we can make that ground, the greater the likelihood will be that we’ll have quite an impact on that person’s health and, in this case, their vision.
I’ve always said, Dr. Kondrot, that you’ve done such a great job putting these three-day treatment programs together. I’m convinced that a person who might like to do stem cells really has to do that three-day program first and let us get this thing going so that the back of the eye creates these fertile conditions I’m talking about. When we finally can do stem cells, they will catch hold, develop, disseminate, and flourish in the retinal tissue that’s dysfunctional.
I hope you agree with me that getting these people in preparation first only to then follow them with stem cells should be the process or protocol we want to follow. We want people to be assured that the best opportunity for them to get their vision turned around is by having sought out what process would accomplish this best, and I think that’s by doing the three-day program first. Six months later, at that point think about if you’d like to do the stem cells.
Dr. Kondrot: The three-day program is essential. During that three-day program, we evaluate for nutritional deficiencies, which is much like doing a soil analysis. We also evaluate the blood flow and the oxygenation, which is like looking at the water which is essential for the seeds to grow. The other crucial thing is we look for toxicity, such as heavy metals that might be present. Heavy metals will definitely interfere with the proliferation of these new stem cells.
Most stem cell experts look at these aspects before administering stem cells. Many of the failures with stem cells are the result of somebody having heavy metals, toxicity, decrease in circulation, or poor oxygenation.
Many of you are familiar with the three-day program. If you’re not, it’s an intensive program where we do a nutritional evaluation. We do microcurrent stimulation, which improves blood flow and oxygenation. We also do oxidative treatments. All these things are essential. Our goal is when you make the investment with stem cells, you will have a much greater probability of getting excellent results.
Dr. Courtney: I’m glad you agree this prep is mandatory. There shouldn’t be a rush to have this job done in a sloppy way. It needs to have been planned out in a rather surgical way to make certain that the likelihood is that they will be successful. I think anyone listening right now would only want it to be done on their behalf with that idea in mind.
When you were in Germany, they were mostly autologous cells. I understand that, but the results weren’t there. Maybe besides autologous, they just weren’t prepping people well enough and getting the tissue in the back of the eye fertile enough to handle these seed implants that were going to be delivered. With the newer products available being so multi-potential, vibrant, and juvenile, with the right prep, we should have some fantastic results.
Dr. Kondrot: An important takeaway point is if you are considering stem cells, make sure you inquire about the type of stem cells being used and what type of preparation is being done.
I’d like to ask you, Dr. Courtney, to give some comparison on the cord cells we’re using in terms of the numbers and potency compared to the autologous.
Dr. Courtney: I’ve been really amazed by the level of sophistication in these products. Let me share with you what I’ve learned recently. I was using amniotic cells first in my practice. A 1 milliliter vial of amniotic stem cells contains 1.5 million cells. That impressed me. I thought it was a really sufficient number.
The doubling time for these cells is what’s amazing. Once you administer them, they start to double at three-week intervals. You may administer 1.5 million, but three weeks later they’ve doubled to become 3 million. Three weeks later, there are 6 million, and so on and so forth. I thought that was a wonderful number of cells. It was doing a wonderful job for the people who were receiving them.
The most recent product line to come to my attention has literally blown me away because with this umbilical cord blood supply that we now have, the 1 milliliter vial no longer contains 1.5 million. It now contains 32 million cells, which begin their doubling process from the moment you start administration of them. Three weeks later, it’s 64 million. Three weeks after that, it’s 128 million and then 256 million.
The numbers are so exponentially in favor of the person who’s receiving them that, to me, the best option available is the cord cells we can now get. There’s only one company that makes such a product with so many cells in them. This isn’t estimated. It is the actual number. They actually can count them. I don’t know how they do. Each vial has its own specific number on it.
Dr. Kondrot: That is amazing, the difference of 32 million to 1 million. You know these stem cells are extremely powerful.
Folks, if you think you might be interested in learning more about this, give the office a call at (800) 430-9328 or email the office at [email protected].
When we come back, we’re going to be talking more about how these stem cells are administered and what you can expect. We’re planning to do this program over a two-day period. Part of one day is preparation and the other is administration of the cells. There’s a lot more to talk about. We’ll be right back after this break.
Welcome back to “Healthy Vision.” This evening, we’re talking about stem cells and the amazing benefits they will have in restoring lost vision. Dr. Courtney, on break we were talking about a patient with an amazing recovery. Do you want to share that?
Dr. Courtney: I’ve scoured the literature to find out when stem cells have been used in cases of ophthalmology. I came across a fantastic positive result with a gentleman who had a previous stroke. He’s also afflicted with glaucoma, so he had a couple of really bad strokes of luck. He received some initial treatments called HBO where he could have his stroke dealt with well, and he was no longer unable to walk. He was using a walker, but he was still doing well.
His vision was completely lost. He was completely blind. According to the clinician who wrote the article, he was seeing black. How terrible must that have been for that fellow?
He consented to do stem cells. They did a unique rigging where they threaded a catheter through the groin up to the carotid artery and delivered the stem cells at the carotid. It was a little more involved than the standard way of administering them, but here’s the take-home. Three weeks after the stem cells were administered, the gentleman was reading the newspaper. How about that?
Dr. Kondrot: Amazing. With the microcurrent, oxidative, and detoxification treatments we’re doing, we’re already getting very good results. When we combine those with the stem cells, I am very optimistic that we should see some phenomenal changes.
Let’s talk a little bit about how we are administering the stem cells. We are not putting these stem cells directly in the eye. We are going into the circulation. If the eye is properly prepped, the stem cells will then migrate where they’re needed. Maybe you could explain this phenomenon to the listeners.
Dr. Courtney: Explaining our protocol may be important here because we’ve already worked with each one of these patients. They have had a three-day program, and they had fantastic results at the end of the three days. They walked away smiling from ear to ear. They have been at home now doing all the nutritional and detoxification things one could do in order to optimize that soil we were talking about. The back of the eye will be as plentiful in nutrients as one could have it.
When we do our stem cell program, we’ll bring the patients in on a two-day program. It has to do with optimizing perfusion at that point. You’re not going to be able to correct a nutritional deficiency or remove toxic substances in a day. That will have already been done.
The perfusion to the back of the eye, or the amount of blood flow, can be amazingly augmented through the use of a BEMER. A BEMER is a German device that gets optimal blood flow to the blood vessels you have in literally eight minutes. It’s completely innocuous at that. As you get a BEMER treatment, you really can’t feel anything, but the technology is able to produce that level of blood flow to all parts of the body, in particular here to the back of the eye.
Dr. Kondrot: Then we’re directing that BEMER, which is kind of like a pulse electromagnetic field, to the area in the back of the eye to improve blood flow.
Dr. Courtney: Exactly. There’s a pad we place over the eyes that assures the eyes are getting a disproportionate amount of that stimulation. Obviously we want to ensure the eye receives optimal blood flow. Once we’ve made certain we have the blood flow up, we will administer an IV dose of the stem cells. We’re going to put 1 milliliter – the 32 million cells – in 150 cc of saline. Over the course of 30 to 40 minutes, it will distribute to a lot of parts of the body, and certainly to the back of the eye itself.
These stem cells are seeds for sure, but they’re very unique seeds because wherever they land, they can become the very cells of the tissue they landed in. If they land in the retina in the back of the eye, they now develop and grow into a healthy retinal cell.
It’s because of this ability to bring these vibrant cells that have the ability to divide and become the very cells you need them to become that gives them the opportunity to take an eye with an age disease and make it juvenile once again, to get it functioning as it did at a much earlier time in their lives.
We should see a very good turnaround in whatever eye disorder we’re treating after we’ve completed this two-day program, knowing full well we’re going to optimize perfusion before the stem cells are given. Then we’re going to make sure we optimize the perfusion after the stem cells are given, over a two-day period. That perfusion is going to be our ace card, our go-to, which will make all the magical things happen.
Dr. Kondrot: That’s why it’s taking two days. We want to make certain there’s a good perfusion during that early stage, to make sure the stem cells go to that particular area. When the patients are discharged after the two-day treatment, we’re going to be changing proprietary frequencies with the microcurrent that may stimulate those stem cells. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, Dr. Courtney, but a company I’m working with has identified certain microcurrent signals which have been patented to stimulate stem cells and get them to differentiate and grow.
The second thing we’re going to do is change the microcurrent protocol in their eye treatment to specifically get these stem cells to work more effectively.
Dr. Courtney: There you go. Dr. Kondrot, I consider you to be the master of the microcurrent device. I was unaware that there are certain frequencies to provoke stem cell stimulation. It does not surprise me that you are aware of such frequencies. It’s a great addition to how they should leave us at the end of two days with that new microcurrent program on their device.
Dr. Kondrot: I’ve been using those frequencies with the existing eye protocols. For listeners who may not be familiar, we customize our microcurrent machine to deliver unique frequencies for your eye condition, whether it’s dry macular, wet macular, glaucoma, or cataracts. They are unique frequencies.
The limitation, as Dr. Courtney mentioned earlier, is we’re using these frequencies to stimulate stem cells, but in the aged individual these stem cells may not be as viable. We’re not able to push them to do the differentiation and regeneration. That’s one of the reasons why if you’re elderly and you cut your finger, it takes a little bit longer to heal. If you have diabetes or toxins in your body, it may not heal at all. You have stem cells, but somehow they’re not functioning properly.
This is one of the unique aspects of these specialized stem cells. They are extremely viable and potent, and they have the ability to differentiate into different body tissues. I think this is going to be wonderful for patients.
When we come back, we’re going to talk a little bit more about the requirements we have. Earlier we mentioned that we feel it’s important that you go through a period of time, if you’re going to be investing in stem cells, to get your body to the proper level of nutrition, reduce any inflammation, and improve the oxygenation. We’re currently doing all of these things during our eye program, so it’s essential that you begin with that.
For those who might be interested, please contact the office at (800) 430-9328 or email [email protected]. We’re going to talk more about this exciting news for stem cells for the eye. We’ll be right back after this break.
Welcome back to “Healthy Vision.” Dr. Courtney, I think we need to talk a little bit about the three-day program. We call it a three-day program, but it’s actually five days for the patients because they arrive the day before. We want to make sure they get the right testing and that they’re acclimated, comfortable, and ready to go on that first day. There are three intensive days of treatment. Then the fifth day is a wrap-up where we go over instructions and make sure they’re comfortable.
I am very pleased that you are now in charge of all the Kondrot three-day programs at the Florida Wellness Center. You have just completed your first program, I think under a lot of stress because many of these patients came expecting to see me. You did a phenomenal job, so let’s hear about your experience. Tell me about your interpretation of the three-day program.
Dr. Courtney: It was an honor to be named by you and for you to have enough trust in me to try to step into your shoes, which is pretty impossible to do. With that in mind, the fact that you selected me to pinch hit for you while you did some other things has been quite an honor. I look forward to continuing to do this job as best I can, never really filling those shoes but at least trying each and every time.
I just got done this past weekend with the first group that came through the Florida Healing the Eye and Wellness Center. We had our group of five because we like to keep this small. I’ve been running these programs out in western Pennsylvania for about three years now. I get great results, but I’ve never had a group where all five hit it out of the ballpark by having such amazing turnarounds. Everybody gets good results, but the way this worked this particular time with my first group of your people was that they all got outstanding results.
The three-day program is a way we’re able to bring very aggressive modalities. After all, they’re there every day for the three full days of the program at 9:00 in the morning. They go until at least 4:00 in the afternoon. It is one modality after another. They’re in a schedule. They have to make certain they complete all tasks every single day.
We’ve assessed them before we begin these treatments. Then they’re going to undergo three days of rigorous treatments. The very last thing is we reassess them to find out what and how much of an improvement they made in an objective and quantifiable way.
That system of pre and post testing has always amazed me with how well people leave with a big smile on their face. They entered very apprehensive, of course. They’re frightened, fearful, and afraid. They’ve been told by their very intelligent eye doctors that in their case, there’s nothing that can be done. This is a phrase you and I just gag at when we hear it because we know it’s not true. That’s what their doctors believe. That’s what their doctors have told them. We go a long way to erasing that as a possibility. It is no longer in the cards.
By the time they leave our three-day program, these people know they have a salvageable eye condition because they are well on their way to restoring vision they had lost a long time ago. Their doctors continued to monitor them as they slid down a hill into despair without being able to provide any rescue. The three-day program is the rescue.
That gets the ball rolling. Once it’s rolling, that will allow these people to return home. They literally have everything they used while they were in the program in their possession. They own all the devices and modalities we used over three days, and they’re going to be able to continue them at home equally as well over one month, three months, six months, and a year. They will get even greater gains by having pursued those modalities at home.
The three days gets the ball started. It has fantastic results in three days. It certainly proves something can be done because they’ve demonstrated what got done in three days, and they’re looking forward to see what can happen for them as time moves on upon their return home.
Dr. Kondrot: I think it’s important we talk a little bit about the key components of the three-day program. One thing we do is a Myers cocktail, which is a very potent intravenous mixture of vitamins and nutrients, which is essential. Many people, even though they think they have a good diet, are still nutritionally depleted. Not only do we educate them on making appropriate changes in their diet, but we give them a highly fortified vitamin mixture to jumpstart the healing in their body.
Then we do daily treatments of microcurrent, which is really the foundation of the program. Microcurrent is a technique I’ve been using for well over 10 years. Microcurrent uses a very low level of current which stimulates cellular activity, circulation, and oxygenation. All these things are essential. Basically, the microcurrent is waking up dysfunctional retinal cells and nerves.
In addition, we use oxidative treatments, which are extremely powerful to help regenerate the body by increasing oxygen levels. We combine that with light therapy. It’s an amazing combination of treatments. It’s astounding what it does to restore lost vision. Then the key component of this program is we really want to educate the patient on being able to then go home and use these treatments daily and continue this whole process. It’s very exciting.
Dr. Courtney, now that we’re adding stem cells in six months, I think this is going to be a huge boost. Many people will reach a plateau around six months, and we just need something else to really push the body to heal at that additional level.
Dr. Courtney: I think you’re right. They get a huge gain in three days. By the time six months are up, they continue to get gains, but they’re not at the same level of improvement. We’ve always been looking for a way to get back to major turnarounds. I think this thing with the stem cells will be the major of all majors.
A combination of your three-day program along with doing stem cells at six months for these patients who wish to be part of that program will take this to a level you and I have not seen yet. I’m looking forward to being part of that exciting possibility with the stem cells, not being able to hurt anybody. We can’t harm you with stem cells. These cells are of such a level of age that they cannot differentiate to any harmful cells. They can’t become a cancer, for instance. That can’t be done with the kind of cells we use. We can only do good. We cannot harm.
I’m looking to get major turnarounds, even at the six-month point and beyond, for those who have completed the three-day program to begin with.
Dr. Kondrot: Thank you so much, Dr. Courtney, not only for sharing all this exciting information but also for being an integral part and running the Florida Healing the Eye and Wellness Center and doing the three-day program.
Folks, if you are interested, please give the office a call for more information at (800) 430-9328 or email the office at [email protected]. We’ll be happy to send you out some literature and a free report.
Thank you, Dr. Courtney. This is your host, Dr. Edward Kondrot, wishing all of you good health and clear vision.
