Episode 007: The Power Of Stem Cells – Speaking with Dr. Timmermans NMD

Sarah (00:01)

Welcome and thank you for joining us once again for this episode of Health Talk by Doctors Health Press. My name is Sarah Cownley. I’m a nutritional therapist and the host of this show. You’re listening to episode 007 titled “The Power Of Stem Cells.” Through the Health Talk podcast, we really aim to bring you the latest in research news and insights that could help you stay healthier and really enable you to enjoy life to the fullest degree. We’re not affiliated with any major pharmaceutical companies and we don’t have a line of vitamins or supplements. We just, we really simply want to supply unbiased information which is based on strict research and credentials and some real life experiences from our own advisory and editorial boards and also through a lot of our guests who are invited onto the show. Yes, Health Talk is new on the podcast scene, but Doctors Health Press, has really been helping to inform its readers about health news and advice since 2003.

Sarah (01:06)

So, if you’ve never been to the website, be sure to head over to doctorshealthpress.com after the show. And don’t forget to sign up for our free e-bulletin. I will talk more about this after the show because I just, I can’t wait to get to the information that we have for you today. Now, if you’ve ever heard of stem cells, but you don’t know much about them, then you need to stick around for this show. I myself really know little about the therapy, but I’ve heard some really amazing stories of how stem cells are really changing the face of medicine. Perhaps one of the most famous cases in the news supporting some stem cells was through the superman actor Christopher Reeve. Now I know he received human embryonic stem cells. Although this was a highly visible case, and I know the topic can get a little controversial at times, but it really did teach us that stem cells have tremendous promise to help us understand and treat a range of diseases, injuries, and a lot of other health related conditions.

Sarah (02:10)

You see, stem cells naturally reside within the body and help you regenerate following an injury. Now as we age or suffer from injuries, we sometimes can’t get enough of these critical cells to the injured area, so this is really where stem cells therapy comes into play. Now our guest today is a doctor who performs stem cell therapy, so he’s really going to help us understand the fundamentals and just kind of walk us through the entire treatment. Dr Timmermans is a licensed naturopathic medical doctor and he’s located in Scottsdale, Arizona, and he’s really got a passion for connecting with his patients and helping them overcome their health concerns and really reclaim their life. This passion is what drives him to think outside the box when helping who are looking to avoid surgery improved their mental capacity or even improve their quality of life. Dr Timmermans, welcome to the show and thank you so much for taking the time to join us today.

Dr. Timmermans (03:11)

Thank you, Sarah. It is a pleasure to be on the show.

Sarah (03:14)

And let’s just start out by, um, if you could just let our listeners know where they can find your website for more information.

Dr. Timmermans (03:22)

Yeah. So the website is regenerative performance.com. You can also check me out on instagram at regenerative performance and I recently started branching out into youtube and so you can find me there at Drew Timmermans NMD as well.

Sarah (03:39)

Perfect. Okay. Now let’s get right into things here. I know you actually have a story of your own as to how exactly you got into this type of medicine.

Dr. Timmermans

I do, yes. Yeah.

Sarah

So could you just let us know a little bit more about that?

Dr. Timmermans (03:53)

Yeah, so I believe it was December of 2012, so I had already accepted, or sorry, I was already looking into going to naturopathic medical school. I was actually on the drive home in Canada on one of the main highways from Toronto back to London where I was living at the time and I visited the school, the naturopathic medical school in Toronto and for their kind of discovery day, which is, you know, you go and you, they show you around campus and talk about their program and that kind of stuff. And so I was actually driving home on the highway when there was a pretty bad accident that I was involved in and then that kind of sent me down this path of chronic pain that lasted for a few years. So after the accident, I was okay. I was working as a personal trainer at the time and I was still competing in track and field.

Dr. Timmermans (04:46)

I had run a varsity track and field at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. And so I was continuing and just come off and national championships and was continuing that training. And so probably about two weeks after that accident I was in the gym just doing my normal, you know, kind of weekly workout and I felt a really bad tweak in my back, which reflecting back may or may not have happened from the car accident. But the more I know now about tissue integrity and how things can shift and change following, you know, major car accidents, which my car was totaled. And so I would clearly classified it as a major accident that, you know, that accident had just potentially set me up for some tissue changes that resulted in the further injury to my back. And so I ended up, I got some imaging and I had herniated a disk and which was probably one of the more painful, most painful things in my life.

Dr. Timmermans (05:40)

Not being able to, stand and brace myself. A funny, funny at the time now, or not funny at the time, but funny now is I actually had a cold during that time as well. And so I was sneezing a lot. And so if anyone has had a herniated disk before, they might know this, but for those who haven’t, and you have a herniated disc that’s pushing against one of the nerve roots in your back anytime you sneeze or cough or you have a bowel movement or anything like that, it increases the pressure on that disc and the nerve. And it sends massive pain through your body mainly where the nerves are. And so I was sick of the time. And so every time I sneezed the pain and just the pressure on the nerve actually took me to my knees. And so it was, it was not fun at the time, but funny to think about after the fact and like excruciating, it was not fun.

Dr. Timmermans (06:34)

So needless to say, that ended my track and field career, and kind of, you know, sent me down a whole different path. So, I recovered for the most part from that for a brief moment. So, probably about six months after the accident, you know, I’d been seeing a osteopathic physician in Canada, I had been seeing, you know, massage, chiropractor, physical therapy, you know, I was doing a lot on my own and I got to a point where I could, I could function well and wasn’t in excruciating pain, but I still had this like, you know, low level lingering pain that stopped me from being able to do any heavy workouts or anything really in a squat pattern or a lunge pattern and things like that. And, I almost, at this point, you know, I was, had accepted my position to come out to a southwest college of naturopathic medicine here in Tempe, Arizona, just start a naturopathic medical school and I almost didn’t come because I was afraid of how much sitting I would be doing in class because of that was when I had my worst pain at that point.

Dr. Timmermans (07:48)

And so on top of that I also was driving my car out from Ontario and that’s a 32 hour drive and I was terrified of that. And so I almost didn’t come to medical school because of it, which is crazy to think about, you know, when I look back. And so I had, I was working with the, an osteopathic physician in London. He was doing some visceral fascial work on me and he actually got me to a place where I was able to tolerate the sitting much, much better. And so driving out to Arizona was probably only a 1 out of 10 pain. So I’m going to fast forward a little bit. So this doesn’t, you know, the story doesn’t become the entire podcast, but I’m, so it was in my second year of Med school and I was still in a chronic pain.

Dr. Timmermans (08:31)

My pain would fluctuate anywhere between a 1 out of 10 on a good day to a 4 out of 10 on a bad day. So not debilitating, but, you know, coming from an athletic background and being a healthy person overall, it was frustrating not being able to resolve that. And so with my background in kinesiology from my undergraduate degree, my track and field background, my personal training background, and then just, you know, always being intrigued, involved in sports medicine and fitness. I’d started to go to a few sports medicine conferences and at a conference that I went to in Florida, they had introduced me to a platelet rich plasma and prolotherapy, which are two of the regenerative injection therapies similar to stem cell therapy that can help the body to regenerate itself. And so I was. So I saw a lecture on this and was fascinated and intrigued by it.

Dr. Timmermans (09:24)

And I, when the time came during one of the breakout sessions to be scanned, but with an ultrasound by one of the lead, doctors who I actually ended up spending some time with in Texas to learn from him, when, so when the breakout session happened and there was an opportunity to get scanned by the ultrasound by him, I put my hand first because I’m like, I want to see if my back can be fixed. And so he scanned my back with the ultrasound machine, found some different areas where there was, some degeneration in the muscle as well as some ligament laxity, which just means looseness in the ligaments. And those are both in my low back. And so the next day he said, let me treat you with PRP, and, you know, give a demonstration to people. And so I thought, Oh man, this is going to be great.

Dr. Timmermans (10:10)

So, he did the PRP injection on me the next day. So for anyone who doesn’t know, PRP stands for platelet rich plasma, which they, it’s a blood draw. So, they take out blood anywhere between 10 to 60 CC’s of blood, so not a lot. We spend that down in a centrifuge and we extract out the layer that is highly concentrated in platelets, hence the name platelet rich plasma that substances then injected back into your body where there’s degeneration and that kickstarts a healing process, which then allows the body to send its own stem cells, growth factors or cytokines and kinds to that area which are then going to help your body to regenerate. And so he did that PRP injection on me and within three months I was pain free and I was absolutely blown away. And I thought, holy cow, this is powerful, powerful stuff.

Dr. Timmermans (11:02)

I need to get my hands on it because I want every person in chronic pain to be able to experience this and at least have a fighting chance at being able to regenerate their injuries and their chronic pain and resolve it. And so that led me into the regenerative injection world. And then naturally with that, I got trained in a prolotherapy, which is just a hypertonic or a very concentrated dextrose solution that is injected into the area and it serves a similar function to PRP, just not as strong. And then about two years ago I started getting trained in stem cell therapies and, I incorporate that heavily into my practice now.

Sarah (11:42)

Okay. Wow. Well, that’s an incredible story and I mean, I guess because of what you went through, it really helps you to have the ability to help others and really understand what they’re going through with their pain.

Dr. Timmermans (11:56)

Yeah, 100, 100 percent. I mean, just that, that level of empathy, I think it makes a big difference when, when working with patients.

Sarah (12:04)

Absolutely. Okay. Now I know you had mentioned some of the other healing modalities that you work with at your clinic, but today we’re gonna be focusing more on stem cells. So for our listeners, let’s start at the bottom. Can you explain exactly what stem cells are and how they work?

Dr. Timmermans (12:22)

Yeah. So, in your body you have a multitude of different stem cells. And so if you look at the different types of cells in your body, it kind of looks like a family tree, right? You’ve got your great, great grandfather way at the top, and that’s your, very initial embryonic stem cell, which that stem cell can become literally any cell in the body. And then as, you know, that one has some kids and you get into the different cell types, you have a stem cells that are directed more towards connective tissue such as muscle, bone, ligament and things like that. Then you have a different type of stem cell. And so those are called Mesenchymal stem cells, which are the main ones that we focus on in the stem cell injection world. And then you have different stem cells for that are called him out of poetic stem cells.

Dr. Timmermans (13:20)

And those are the ones that make your red blood cells, your white blood cells and things like that. And so those are important as well. But the main ones that we focus on are the Mesenchymal stem cells. And so these stem cells, kind of sit in a few places, there’s high reservoirs in your abdominal fat as well as in your bone marrow. But these mesenchymal stem cells also line every single blood vessel in your body, your body. And so when they’re attached to a blood vessel there called the parisite. And when there’s damage near that blood vessel, the parisite gets activated by chemical messengers. It’s told, hey, there’s damage here. And then the parisite leaves the blood vessel and migrates to were the damages to start the repair process. And so the stem cells are essentially like, I’m just a, reservoir of cells that are able to kind of be the orchestrator of your healing process.

Dr. Timmermans (14:22)

And it can tell different cells how to regenerate, but they can also regenerate themselves. And so for example, in muscle we have different stem cells that can turn into muscle cells if other muscle cells get damaged. And so that’s the one of the ways that will, that is the way that we regenerate following, I’ve cut or a broken bone or anything like that. And so we already have those innate abilities to regenerate, heal ourselves, just as we age, that ability declines, which is why kids can break a bone and be back to running around a playground in six months. Whereas if a 70 year old woman breaks a bone, the healing could be a two, three year process and it things might just never be the same and that mainly has to do with just the ability of the stem cells to exert their effect.

Sarah (15:19)

Okay. And what are some of the most common conditions that can be treated with stem cells?

Dr. Timmermans (15:24)

So just about every orthopedic condition or musculoskeletal condition can be treated with stem cells. Cells, the ones that in the research have shown the best results are, and I think this is also too, because the research is still very, very new. Stem cells and an orthopedic chronic pain setting have really only been, it’s only been done for the last 20 years or so. And so while that may seem like a long time, research always falls behind the clinical practice. And so the research is still, you know, building and building. But osteoarthritis is probably the biggest area that we see the research for stem cells and the other types of a regenerative injections. And, and mostly it’s, they’re looking at knee osteoarthritis. So from a research standpoint, knee osteoarthritis is probably the most heavily researched, but from a clinical standpoint, we see phenomenal results with arthritis in the hip, arthritis in the low back. So any chronical back pain, just this past week we treated a lady who had a chronic neck pain following a fusion surgery. And so we, and we’ve so far she’s been doing really phenomenal with that. We treat a muscle tears or any tendinosis or tendinitis in the shoulders, the hips, the knees, so quite a wide variety of conditions.

Sarah (17:00)

And how do you determine if somebody comes into your clinic? Um, how do you know if they’re a good candidate for stem cell therapy?

Dr. Timmermans (17:08)

So, the, the biggest thing that we. So there’s a few different things that we look at. First, we look at their overall health in their constitution. You want to make sure that they’re in a good place for their body to regenerate and heal. Uh, and so not everyone is a candidate because of that. So some patients come in and they have uncontrolled diabetes or they’ve been a smoker for the past 10, 20, 30, 40 years and those are kind of the two big things that we know is going to really impede the result from the stem cells. And so we try to work with them to get their diabetes controlled or get them off smoking for a little bit so that way they can still see the from the stem cell therapies. So those are the first two kinds of flags. And then after that it becomes, do they, is there pain coming from an area that could be treated with the stem cells?

Dr. Timmermans (18:04)

And so what I mean by that is if someone comes in and they are having, if they’re having pain in their low back, but it’s actually coming from a gastrointestinal source. And so some patients can have a, you know, a gastrointestinal condition that could refer pain to the low back. So if they come in for something like that and then stem cells are not going to be indicated because we don’t have a pain generator in the connective tissue in the low back to treat. And so, you know, we look at those things, rule those things out, and then we, you know, as long as we find that, okay, their pain is due to, let’s say I’m some arthritis in the facet joints in the lower back, which are the main connection joints between each level in the, in the spine. Then we, you know, we look at imaging, we talk with the patient, we do a physical exam and if we think that that’s where their pain is coming from and they’ve had other therapies that haven’t worked, then there would be a candidate for stem cell therapy. And then we start those discussions with them.

Sarah (19:11)

And if you do find that someone is a good candidate, how many treatments does it take? Is it just a one time treatment or is it several injections to fully heal the patient?

Dr. Timmermans (19:21)

So each patient is obviously going to be different in each condition is going to be different. There are some conditions which require a little bit more aggressive treatment and what I mean by that is they may need a three month follow up for a PRP injection after the stem cells and so those, those patients are typically the grade four bone on bone arthritis in the knee. So those patients, they may need a second injection, but usually we just do that with platelet rich plasma as opposed to the stem cells. So most of the time what we’ve seen is one injection gives most patients enough of a result that they’re happy with continuing with life. And so what I mean by that is it’s we don’t always 100 percent resolved, patient’s pain with this and they could come back for a second injection, but if they’re 90 percent better or even 70 percent better, a lot of patients go, you know what? My life is a lot better. I can golf now with only a little bit of pain. I can go for walks with my friends and I have no pain and things like, or I can play with my grandkids and I don’t have pain anymore or it’s just very minimal pain, then they elect not to do another injection. And so what we see is the majority of patients get a huge benefit from just one injection of stem cells, but some may need a little PRP booster at about three months.

Sarah (20:56)

Right. Okay. And now, like you just said, I know everybody’s different, but kind of on average, how soon can someone be back up and going after a treatment?

Dr. Timmermans (21:06)

It’s pretty quick. And so there’s two types of responders to the, to the stem cell therapies, the first group, and we haven’t fully figured out how to determine what someone is going to respond like before the injection. So usually we just talk to patients about both responses and then we find out afterwards. The first is because these stem cells are massively anti-inflammatory, but they’re naturally anti-inflammatory. It’s not like taking an end said or a steroid or anything like that that just suppressing the inflammation. These stem cells actually helped to resolve the inflammation from a physiological level that results in it not coming back, and so some patients getting really big anti-inflammatory effect following the treatment and the first one to two weeks, they’re pain free. Now that I’m as that slowly starts to wear off a bit, their pain can come back slightly, but if it.

Dr. Timmermans (22:10)

Let’s say they were at a 7 out of 10, pain in their knees before the injection, maybe it comes back to a four or five out of 10, and then each week as the regeneration process happens in the body. Because this is very different than a steroid injection. It’s not a big blast of an anti inflammatory and then it wears off and all the pain comes back and that that’s the end of the story. Each week your body is actually repairing the tissue where the stem cells were injected, and so if we’re injecting it into a knee, for example, the stem cells are helping to one, decrease the inflammation, but to repair the cartilage and any other structures that we injected into. And so each week the pain gets better and better and better. Most patients are, are going to feel the full effects of the stem cell treatment by three months.

Dr. Timmermans (23:04)

And then again, the healing can continue up to a year. The other set of patients, they actually get a little bit of a flare in their pain, but this is only temporary. It lasts usually no longer than five to seven days and it’s just, it’s a normal process in the body of the body saying, hey, we’ve got some inflammation that we need to take care of and address and then we’ll start the repair process. And so those patients, if they were 7 out of 10 before the injection, they might be eight or nine out of 10 for a week afterwards. But it’s always transient. And then after that, each week is when they start to get better and better and better and better until they reach their full potential.

Sarah (23:46)

Well, that’s great. It’s much more of, you know, a modality to heal rather than just putting a bandaid on it, which is, like you said, the cortisone shots and, and other, modalities.

Dr. Timmermans (24:00)

Exactly. Yep. Yep.

Sarah (24:02)

And the big question everyone always wants to know, are there any risks or side effects with stem cell treatments?

Dr. Timmermans (24:10)

So the, so obviously, so, and this actually leads me into a good talking point and it’s something I hope that your viewers will appreciate it. So in the US, there’s only two ways that you can get stem cells, cells that is a for bone marrow or adipose and it has to be your own. So there are clinics right now out there who are advertising that the embryonic or the amniotic or the umbilical cord blood that they have live stem cells in them when the FDA actually doesn’t allow that. And so, there may be one or two live stem cells, which in the grand scheme of things is basically nothing when we need, you know, in the order of over 10 million cells in order to actually have an impact. And so the way those products are processed, actually it kills the stem cells because the FDA requires that you can go outside and receive umbilical cord treatments that have a live stem cells in them because they’re not under the jurisdiction of the FDA, but currently in the US the only way you are legally allowed to receive any live stem cells is if you haven’t harvested from your own body.

Dr. Timmermans (25:32)

And then the two main areas are going to be the bone marrow and the adipose. So someone promises you live stem cells and it’s coming from a mile run away because, it is, you’re not actually getting a live stem cells and you’re, there’s still good stuff in it, but it’s nowhere near the capabilities of the actual stem cells that you’re getting from your own body. And so, back to your question. So obviously we’re, we’re needing to take stem cells out of your adipose or your bone marrow. And so the, and the main way we’re doing it right now is bone marrow. We’re expanding out into adipose, but right now we’re mainly just doing bone marrow. And so, you know, there’s always a risk anytime we enter a body cavity, so before entering the bone marrow cavity, there’s always a risk of infection, bleeding, those kinds of things.

Dr. Timmermans (26:27)

But we operate in a sterile environment similar to what a surgery would be and we’re taking all the precautions that any other trained physician would. And so the risks are very minimal. Some patients will have some soreness over kind of the low back where we extracted out of the bone marrow, but that usually resolves in two to three weeks as that bone heals for patients who are getting an adipose stem cell treatment, you know, they may have some bruising and soreness over the abdomen and flank when the light boy section was performed. And then again, there’s always a, you know, the risk associated with that. But in the, the instruments and the tools that they have are designed to make sure that you’re staying in the adipose layers and not going into the actual abdomen or anything like that, you know, into the muscle or deeper into the, into the large intestine or anything like that. And so the risks are there, they’re present, but again, we, we take all precautions to make sure that patients, and we haven’t had any major side effects or anything like that since we’ve started, we’ve started.

Sarah (27:45)

And how, how do you have your patients prepare for the stem cell procedure? Is there anything special that they need to do before the treatment?

Dr. Timmermans (27:52)

Aside from, so again, and I already talked about this, the two big flags are uncontrolled diabetes and the smoking. And so those are the two big ones that we really, really stress and work with our patients on beforehand. Outside of that, there’s nothing that patients need to do in order to get a benefit from the stem cells. However, we like to work with patients to, you know, work with their diet and a few lifestyle and some supplements to help them get a better response out of the stem cells. And so we typically put patients on an anti inflammatory diet, which is gonna consist of mainly removing a lot of additives for moving along of sugar, processed food, things like that, trying to switch to grass fed meats if they can, organic fruits and vegetables or at least, you know, eating off the dirty dozen list and choosing those as organic.

Dr. Timmermans (28:53)

And so the diet’s a big thing that we work with them on beforehand because that’s just going to help their stem cells respond better when it’s injected back into their tissue because they are going to be in a less inflammatory state overall. And so their body’s going to heal better. So that that’s the one big thing. And then we also put, usually put patients on a, B-complex that has the methylated versions of those B vitamins and that just helps the stem cells to differentiate and proliferate in ways that are going to be conducive to healing. And then depending on what else is going on, we might put them on something like a high bioavailable curcumin just to help kind of reduce of their inflammatory levels depending on what they have going on beforehand.

Sarah (29:46)

Is it possible to bank your stem cells? So what I mean by this is say a patient comes in to have their stem cells taken from their bone marrow, um, and maybe to save for a later time, I’m just thinking maybe someone who’s been newly diagnosed with an illness and they’re afraid that they may get too sick to give the sample to be injected back into them. Is this something that could happen?

Dr. Timmermans (30:11)

Yes. To my knowledge, I don’t think there’s anyone who’s really storing bone marrow stem cells, the main ones right now that are being stored or add a post. And I, I’m not sure if that just has to do with, it’s easier to store the adipose tissue that has the stem cells just because there’s still a large cellular makeup within the adipose and there’s an actual, there’s still an adipose paste associated with those stem cells. And so I know that there are, there are adipose stem cell banks where you can have your after the adipose procedure, some of that can be banked for a later date. Um, the bone marrow I actually haven’t looked into yet. I think one of the limitations of that is so when we do a bone marrow extraction, we will usually only take about 30 CCS or 30 milliliters of bone marrow out of.

Dr. Timmermans (31:11)

And so most of the time we can, we have enough product from taking out of one hip with a 30 CCS and sometimes we need to take out both to treat the whole area. But we prefer not to just because it’s an added risk obviously of going into two hips as opposed to just going into one. And so, um, because of the volume limitation, I think that that’s maybe why we haven’t really looked into storing the bone marrow. But the Adipose, you can bank that in, store that. And it’s easier to get you out of posting. You can take more of it then you can take for the bone marrow. And so I think that’s also part of the reason why, but yes you can and a lot of people who get the out of posts do store it. Um, again, it’s costly to store it, but if that’s something that you’re concerned about, then banking, that can be a good idea.

Dr. Timmermans (32:07)

I also think that in the next five to 10 years, there’s going to be a lot of changes in the stem cell world in the United States with regulations from the FDA and things like that. And so I don’t know what will change. And so that’s just something that people that we talk with patients about is, you know, there’s a chance you can store your stem cells and when you need them in five years, the FDA might say, sorry, those are our drug and you’re not allowed them, or it could go the opposite way and the FDA is okay with it and you are allowed it. And so that’s just. And I’m not saying FDA is bad or anything like that, I’m just, I’m trying to educate my patients on that. It’s a very gray zone right now with adipose stem cells and the FDA is still working with physicians to try and figure out what everything means.

Sarah (32:59)

Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. And if somebody is afraid maybe that they wouldn’t be able to give, the, the stem cells at a later date in your clinic, you’re going to work with the patient and maybe find an alternative modality to help them.

Dr. Timmermans (33:15)

Definitely 100 percent.

Sarah (33:17)

Okay. And lastly, is there anything that we can do, maybe specific lifestyle changes? I know you mentioned diet that we can kind of do to make sure that we help improve the quality of our stem cells on a daily basis?

Dr. Timmermans (33:33)

Yeah. One of the most interesting things to me is some form of fasting, whether that intermittent fasting and so for your viewers aren’t familiar. Intermittent fasting is where you fast for a predetermined set of time and so the most common time that you would fast would be for 18 hours and so, you know, you go to bed, your last meal was at let’s say 8:00 at night and then you don’t eat for 18 hours and then you get six hours of eating, eating or, you could also do 16 hours of fasting and eight hours of eating. Those are kinda the two more common. But when you. And then those other fast that you can do, you could do like a three day water fast. Some patients will do 10 day water fast, but those are going to be supervised by a physician just because it’s a little bit longer.

Dr. Timmermans (34:25)

But fasting a creates a process in the body where it kind of ramps up your regenerative capacity and because it’s, your body kind of does like a spring cleaning when you fast. And that’s called autophagy and that’s essentially where your body is putting the stress position. And so it prides itself like cleaning out a lot of junk and preparing itself for the long road ahead, which, you know, in our prehistoric times would have been maybe a prolonged fast where there wasn’t much food because it was a long winter or something like that. And so some form of intermittent fasting, is very beneficial for stem cell health. And so that’s something along with, you know, shifting away from a processed food diet, getting more to a whole foods diet, you know, where you’re shopping on the outskirts of the grocery store and just choosing things that nature made as opposed to factories make. Those are probably the two biggest things that people can do in their day to day life that are going to help impact their stem cell health and their regenerative capabilities.

Sarah (35:38)

Okay, perfect, so nothing too hard or scary.

Dr. Timmermans (35:40)

Correct. It’s just putting in the work to do that because it’s a mental aspect, especially when we’re so accustomed to eating all the time, going 16 hours without food. It can be mentally difficult for some people.

Sarah (35:53)

Right. I know it sounds like a long time, but I know I’ve personally done it and once you kind of get over that mental hurdle, then it’s not so bad I can say from experience.

Dr. Timmermans (36:03)

I would agree. Yeah.

Sarah (36:05)

Okay. Well Dr Timmermans, thank you so much and once again, if people want to make an appointment with you or learn more, your website was

Dr. Timmermans (36:14)

regenerativeperformance.com and then they can also check me out on instagram at regenerative performance or youtube to Drew Timmermans NMD.

Sarah (36:25)

Perfect. Well thank you so much for joining us today and really informing all of our listeners about the possibilities of stem cell therapy. I’m sure many of them are going to be heading over to your website.

Dr. Timmermans (36:35)

Awesome. I really appreciate this. This was fun.

Sarah (36:38)

Great. Thank you so much.

Dr. Timmermans (36:40)

You’re welcome

Sarah (36:41)

And thank you to our listeners who have taken the time to listen to our podcasts each week. Now, if you’ve been enjoying the topics that we’ve been covering, don’t forget to give us a star rating to help keep us on track. This way we’ll know what you’ve enjoyed and maybe what we should change around. So before you go today, please do click on the stars and let us know what you think and one of the best ways to keep up on the latest alternative health news is to sign up for our free daily eat bulletin. It’s full of great alternative and natural health advice that’s delivered to you for free to your inbox every morning, and so all you really need to do to sign up is simply go to our website at doctorshealthpress.com. So be sure to take advantage of a lot of our free articles and reports that are offered are on our website because they really do offer a lot of valuable information and if you find Doctors Health Press informative and you feel that it’s really gonna help you in your family.

Sarah (37:44)

Then we really do have a great promotion going on that you might want to take advantage of. You see, apart from our daily bulletin, which is the letter I had just talked about, we also offer a monthly publication and through these publications you really get more in depth information, a lot more about the research and we kind of dig deep into those topics. So these publications, we’re actually offering one at a discounted rate. So like I said, there are packed full of the latest news and research. So if you think you might be interested just head over to doctorshealthpress.com/podcastdeal to see the offer. So again, it’s doctorshealthpress.com/podcastdeal All one word to learn more the offer and until next time I’m Sarah. Account. Lead reminding you that it’s never too early or too late to work towards being the healthiest version of yourself.

Sarah (38:47)

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