Ep 28: Stem Cell Therapy: From Pain to Relief | Erik Scott

Erik Scott shares his personal journey with debilitating pain and his experience with stem cell therapy. He emphasizes the importance of movement and the negative impact of sedentary lifestyles. Eric discusses the role of nutrition in optimizing the body's function and the need for maintenance and measurement in health. 

Erik explains his decision to undergo stem cell therapy and the challenges and benefits associated with it. Eric also introduces his coaching program, Energized Dad, and highlights the importance of accountability in achieving health goals.

Takeaways
Movement is medicine, and the body is designed to move.
Sedentary lifestyles have a negative impact on health and well-being.
Proper nutrition is essential for optimizing the body's function.
Stem cell therapy can be a viable alternative to traditional medical treatments for certain conditions.
Accountability and support are crucial for achieving health goals.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Background
02:00 The Importance of Movement
08:21 The Role of Nutrition in Health
18:20 Eric's Experience with Back Injuries
21:22 Exploring Stem Cell Therapy
25:11 The Challenges and Benefits of Stem Cell Therapy
32:15 Eric's Treatment and Results
41:25 The Future of Stem Cell Therapy
44:20 Eric's Coaching Program and Accountability
51:08 Conclusion and Contact Information

Contact information:

Erik Scott:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eriklscott/

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Transcript

In 1999, Michael J. Fox testified before Congress pleading for more research in stem cell therapy. It's been 25 years. Where do we stand? Stem cell research. Michael J. Fox. 25 years. Where do we stand? Welcome to Adventures in Good Health. I am your host, David Maloof. My guest this week is Erik Scott. Now there are three things that you need to know about Erik. First, Erik is a mindset coach. Second, Erik is the founder of Energized Dad. And third, Erik has a very personal story to share regarding his experience with debilitating pain and stem cell therapy. It's an utterly fascinating story and you have to watch all the way to the end. So let's jump right in as Erik shares his story. Hello, Erik. Welcome to the show. Thanks, David. Excited to be here. So, Erik, when we do podcasts, I normally ask my guests to start out by walking us through their journey. And we're still going to do that because I want to get to know you. I know our audience would like to get to know you, but I'm going to jump right in and I'm going to ask. I'm going to I'm going to say a phrase and I just want to get your gut reaction to that phrase. Okay? Okay. Okay. Movement is life. stagnation is death. My initial reaction to that is movement is medicine. And you know, stagnation, the body is not designed to just sit still all the time and be dormant. And you know, even at the base level of, you know, medical science, going for a walk every day is going to pay dividends to, you know, your everyday health. Your body's meant to move. The joints are meant to move. And it's like liquid gold. right, to keep the body moving. Do you see where as a society? where you just don't move enough? And is that affecting our health? It is because we've become accustomed to, we have comfortable living spaces, right? And we have these great couches, we have these nice chairs and comfortable, age back environments and it looks cold outside, so why go out there? Or it's too hot. Right, you know, I've got this air conditioner, you know, if I let me start the car first so I can cool it down well you know if you look back in time like The human body didn't have all that right? So we've conditioned ourselves to be Just so comfortable that we don't even know what uncomfortable is anymore, right and I I think just getting out and and Like I was saying, even going for a walk is really important. I just came back from a snow skiing trip in Colorado and I live at, you know, real sea level, base level, you know, elevation here in Southeast Texas. And going up to that elevation to the top of the mountains was a bit of a wake up call in some sense, right? But, you know, as I was going there, I had to make sure like, I wanted to feel the cold. You know, I didn't want to put on all these layers that were going to, you know, once I started moving around, going to make me hot and sweat, I needed to feel a little bit of cold to condition myself for those, for that environment. Right. So yeah, it's, it's, it's important. And now a quick word from our sponsor, Dr. Tate's herbal tinctures and tonics. Dr. Tate's offers the herbal blood tonic, Doc's detox herbal male tonic, herbal female tonic. and the herbal fat burner. If you would like to order your tonics or learn more information, you can go to drtates .online. And if you click the link in the description and enter the special promo code Adventures in Good Health 2024, you will receive 10 % off your entire order. For more information, click the links below and now back to the show. It's funny. You mentioned Colorado a couple of years ago. I, my wife and I, uh, drove through the mountains of Colorado and you know, what is the solution to that thin air? Well, they sell little bottles of, of air of oxygen that you can just walk around with and just, just blow it into your nose. You're like, ah, that's so much better than actually preparing, preparing for the higher altitude. Right. I'm saying that, you know, somewhat sarcastically. Yeah. Oh yeah. And you know, it's, it goes back to, you know, we're just talking about movement is medicine, right? So it drink a lot of water. You know, uh, it, it, it makes a difference. It absolutely does. So, so after I put you on the spot, Erik, uh, let's go ahead and just kind of follow back up. Tell our audience a little bit about you. and your journey to this point? Yeah, certainly. I grew up in Southern California. My father was a machinist and my mother was a homemaker and also a nurse and in the beauty industry. But because my father was a machinist, we were outdoors a lot. We were hiking and we were walking and running through streams. And I got into BMX racing. He taught us how to snow ski at a very young age. So always kind of out. doors and because of my father's background and being a machinist in the space and aerospace industry was. we always fixed our own stuff. My father had a saying, I don't want to pay someone to fix something I can fix. So we always worked on our ski gear, we worked on our bikes, we worked on the house, we did everything that we could because we had the tools. And really that kind of gave me this hands -on approach to life. And as I... moved through life and became, you know, a bit more aware of health and fitness and things like that and moving into these different modalities of fitness. I began to understand how important nutrition is, right? And the different types of nutrition, right? And there's, you know, micronutrients, macronutrients. And, you know, then I really started saying, okay, if I'm going to continue on this fitness journey. I've got to fuel my body properly, you know, because otherwise you're going to go do fitness and be real tired, right? There's more than life that you have to do, fortunately or unfortunately, than just fitness and health, right? You've got to optimize your body to function in your career, to be around for your family, and, you know, to have a social life and things like that. So I really started just trying to understand nutrition. And through various injuries that I was incurring in fitness, specifically to my lower back, I was wearing out my joints. You know, I ended up with, um, three herniated disc, three compressed disc and canal stenosis. Ouch. Through a series of, you know, strength and conditioning, CrossFit, I'm a brown belt and Jiu -Jitsu. So I've just. put a lot of stress on my joints and my system. But nutrition has always helped me just edge above, right? So I think from there, I really learned about proper fuel of your body with certain amount of protein, certain amount of carbs, certain amount of fats. And in the AmErikan diet, it's easy to be, I wouldn't say malnourished, but not the proper nutrients. Right? Because you just nutrition. I see it as like finances. You can't manage what you don't measure. I like the way that you're putting that. Um, so, so your background is in engineering. Is that correct? Yes. Yes. Thanks for asking. I'm a systems engineer. I designed super computers to solve the world's most challenging problems. And that can, that can span from. You know, oil and gas companies trying to figure out where the hydrocarbons are on the earth to bring them to the surface for everyday use. That could span, you know, medical research, you know, manufacturing, designing of automobiles, designing of airplanes. Supercomputers really solve and focus on the world's most difficult problems because it takes a very large compute system to do advanced numErikal algorithm. Right. So if you could just say at a simple level, what is a supercomputer? So if you have a laptop, you know, I'll take 20 ,000 of your laptops and connect them together and put them in a big data center and scientists can run their advanced algorithms and create models. Well, you mentioned earlier about measurement. And so this is a podcast where we discuss. natural approaches to good health. So I want to be careful we don't geek out too much on some other concepts. I'm gonna go ahead and dig just a little bit. My background is in manufacturing, engineering, and it's about measurement. And how do we know that we're winning or losing? And there's a concept in the Toyota production system called total productive maintenance. And total productive maintenance is a rigorous regimen of maintaining and measuring the machinery in your factory. Now what does that have to do with natural approaches to good health? So if you're running a factory and you're not measuring the performance of your machines, whether they be forklifts or conveyors, they will break. And when they break, It shuts the factory down. So what does everyone do? Oh, they panic and they cost a fortune to get that fixed. But if you measure and you maintain those breakdowns don't happen and you end up with a healthier factory. Well, what are our bodies? Our bodies are machines that are just made of something, you know, made of different stuff. But so many people or too many people, they ignored the signals that their bodies are giving them. And they, they ignored the maintenance and they don't listen to their bodies. And then something happens and oh my gosh, you know, it, it's expensive. It's potentially dangerous. And I'm a little bit curious, you know, in your background, you know, what do you, how do you take your background, the things that you've learned and apply that to listening to your own body? Yeah, you know, I like this question because it's easy, you know, especially for men to say, you know, I'm too tough. I don't need to go to the doctor. You know, this isn't a good time for me, right? But, you know, through our life, we're going to be sore. We're going to go through ups and downs and some various things. Maybe you slept wrong. I slept wrong on the couch the other day. I shouldn't have been sleeping on the couch. I should have been... in the room and I had a big crink in my neck that lasted for a few days. It eventually went away with some stretching, but I think, you know, the more you're in tune with your body through nutrition and some sort of basic fitness routine, you know, for example, I wake up really early every day before 5 a .m. because I have a family, but I need to set aside time for myself to build myself up as I'm the core pillar. of what the family is needing, but you know the family needs me, my job needs me, and every other portion of life. So I really feel that you know once you're on a healthy regiment and you veer off a little bit, your body knows. Your body will start telling you, hey you've went off course, but you have a plan, you have a blueprint to follow, so it's easy to get back on. And I think, don't be hesitant to seek out, you know, some sort of professional guidance when you need it, right? Whether it's herbs, whether it's sports medicine, you know, I always say it's better to seek out professionals that operate at a higher level to help give you a plan to operate against. versus finding a bunch of failures in your own system and then seeking help after. So having a plan is good. Following that plan is great, but I can say from personal experience, and I'm sure a lot of people in our audience can say, sometimes you fail the plan. You fall off the plan, or for whatever reason, you get off the plan. There's a failure. How do you turn failure into success in terms of getting back on the plan or, realigning your life. Yeah, so I would say failure is good, right? Because if you're always winning, what does failure taste like? Like, what does that even do to you? How does it impact you? Does it put you in a down mood for several days? Just revert back to the plan. Unless something's wrong with the plan, right? Why did you veer off, you know? And like you talked about in manufacturing, there's the meantime between failure. Each component will last so long. Right. But unfortunately we don't have that information. We don't, the human body doesn't really have that information right there. If it is, it's withheld, right. By, by, by some sort of data science and whatnot. But, um, Each day is you start at zero. So if you over consumed something or under consumed something the prior day or you fell off the plan and maybe it's been a week of this, you can't make up for that. Just start at zero each day and go back to the plan. Right? And another thing we have to think about, and there's a great book called The Supple Leopard. Throughout our life, you're given so many credits. Right? In your body. You have different maybe amount of credits than I do, than I started out with, right? But if I'm always withdrawing those credits and not resupplying, it's like a bank account, right? At some point, you're gonna run out of these credits in terms of how your body functions, the recovery aspect of what you're able to do. So you gotta replenish. You know, you've gotta reset. David Maloof (17:08.078) And sometimes maybe if it's too hard to get back on the plan, go talk to somebody. I'm having trouble with this plan because maybe, maybe just, and there's some, there's some self -discipline in it too, right? Right. You know, to be honest, I don't like my plan sometimes, but I know I got to do it because it works. You know, um, maybe there was some tweaking that needs to happen to, you know, Instead of going in the front door, you go in the side door or the back door, right? You know, it's, it's subtle changes, but you know, as human beings, we often, you know, once we're doing well within a process or system, we think we need to modify it to make it better, but you generally don't. There, um, as you've been following through your or following along your journey, um, have there been setbacks? I mean, you mentioned, it sounded like some injuries. Uh, have you, have you experienced some setbacks and if so, you know, how have you been able to overcome those? Yeah, certainly. You know, through these 28 years of fitness and some various car accidents and I've had some back injuries, but I've always just shoved it off to the side, to the corner, you know, I'll give it a couple days and the flare ups will go back down and I'll be able to go out and, you know, go lift some weights or go for a run or whatever it is. And I've always just shoved these scenarios off to the side thinking, hey, I can, you know, get through this. I'll go find a supplement that'll help me with the inflammation or help my joints, right? Well, you know, fish oil, some collagen. or something of that effect that has a little bit of research behind it. But I was losing sleep. And sleep is your best recovery tool, hands down. It's so studied, it's proven. There's wind down methods that you need to do. There's things that you could do to your bedroom to improve sleep. But in my case, when I was... Rolling from side to side during sleep, I was in aggravation of a pain level of maybe an eight or a 10. It hurt to sleep. Yeah. So that's a problem, right? Cause everything else starts cascading downhill because of that. So I finally seeked out a wellness center in Austin, Texas area. And, um, you know, what I had learned through. engaging with various medical professionals was I needed to go speak to someone that has some sort of a outdoor or fitness background than me because I need them to understand what I did outside of their office, right? This particular gentleman was a former Green Beret Special Forces medic and was running a wellness center. So that was different. I said, this is different. I've known some other people that have gone there with some good results. And he actually worked, you know, he employed some various stem cell recovery methods and different things like that. But, you know, we talked and he recommended an MRI. And through that, you know, even my insurance company didn't want to pay for an MRI. It's like, well, this is real basic. analysis, right? You know, they said, no, go get an x -ray first. Why do we need an x -ray? That's going to waste time. An x -ray isn't going to show us deep down in the system where the problem is, right? So I had to go through all of this and, you know, came back. I had three herniated discs. I had three compressed discs. I had arthritic degenerative bone disease in my lower back. I had canal stenosis. So this is a big stack of problems. Right. And, you know, prior to that, I was working with chiropractors, I was working massage therapy. You know, I did every possible thing I could. I worked with physical therapists, you know, the stretching the bands and so forth. Tried all the supplements I could, but you know, at some level, right, you're not going to fix really broken components of your back. Right. With, with basic, you know, medical practices. So even my chiropractor said, look, you know, there's this podcast out there where Mel Gibson's father went and. to Panama to do some stem cell treatment. Go listen to that. So I did. And I talked to the gentleman running the wellness center and he said, yeah, you know, go look into this stuff. I've got stem cells here, but I believe what you can get out of the country is much more better. You're going to get a higher quantity dosage and a shorter amount of time and spend probably less money than I'm going to have to charge you. Right. So. From there I went on this stem cell therapy research effort for quite some time. So stem cells, I'm no expert on stem cell therapy by any means, but my understanding is that it is considered an alternative therapy, an alternative to high powered pain medications and potentially surgery. I also did not realize until just recently, how much research there is in terms of stem cells as part of the integrative medicine, whereas you have what is a traditional Western medical procedure that is also working with certain herbal treatments. And this is medical research to find out which herbs seem to help the stem cell process. I think that's very exciting. Let me, I'm just, I'm just curious. How are you feeling today? I'm a hundred percent. I feel great. A hundred percent. Yep. There is some tightness in the lower back region that I'm working with a sports medicine facility on. And these are really high level folks. I've got NFL players sitting right next to me on benches. I've got other athletes and boxers and I'm sitting around going, I'm just a regular guy when I'm in here. They're using the same methods on me, but this more maintenance at this point. Um, but yeah, you know, stem cells is under the category of regenerative medicine, right? And if you think about it, we all have stem cells in us right now. And their job is to go around and do repairs. Right. Over time, the effectiveness of wears down the number of them wears down. And, you know, it's in America right now, the FDA is just not allowing full blown stem cell therapy. And you know, what does that mean? Well, the golden cells, if you look at beginning of life, the stem cells that are in the umbilical cord are MSC stem cells. Those are the best grade. That's what you want. Right. And in Panama, there's the stem cell clinic. In Medellin, Colombia, there's bioaccelerator, which is where I went for treatment. There's a place in Tijuana now called CPI. but they're focusing on MSC stem cells, right? Here in America, you're gonna get a watered-down version. They're really not gonna be able to tell you how much they're putting in you and all the background on them. And also what the FDA is challenged with is some of the clinics in America are making really obnoxious and obscene promises. There's no promises. Like you said, there's ample research out there right now. But just with anything, people want to take advantage of what the possibilities are and make claims. And also there's the big pharma aspect, right? How's big pharma going to get involved with this? Well, it's very hard because they can't really generate stem cells. So what I did - It's an interesting approach. Yeah. That are, are in the United States, it sounds like our medical industry, um, is struggling to keep up. They are in Western medicine, and I've talked to doctors about this. Western doctors are trained to... analyze the symptom and treat it with surgery or medication, right? It's cause and treatment, cause and treatment. It's not, it's not, you know, it's a different approach at these stem cell clinics. You know, when I engaged bioxcellerator and why I went there is cause they focused on backs, back recovery, specific treatment for the back with the spinal surgeon and. It was a deep analysis of my particular injury, deep analysis of my MRI and talking to the doctors over video chats. What was... Better for my situation is because I was pretty healthy. I wasn't overweight and I didn't have any surgeries. I haven't been opened up. I haven't been operating on it in these areas. Right. Cause I was seeking alternative medicine. You know, I could have, you know, had some surgeries to possibly correct some of this, but there is no correction for spinal stenosis. So what is the question? What is spinal? You said stenosis? Yes. What is that? It's when your vertebrae start seizing together your back, your vertebrae in your back, it just starts seizing together and that just the sound of it sounds pretty, you know, scary, right? But I wasn't, that wasn't the main focus, right? It was, it was for me, it was the disc herniations, the compressed disc and, and the arthritic degeneration of the bones in my lower back area. And, They felt that they could really do something for me. And they had a lot of testimonials. I did the research. They've got people speaking about their treatment process there and the outcomes and so forth. So I went ahead with this. But you're gonna go do it self -insured. You're gonna pay for it out of your own pocket. There's no insurance company. Even with corporate AmErika, big insurance companies, they'll say, Yeah, there's some things that we can cover. What do you want to do? And then it's turning in no, you know, at that point, but, um, that really limits this treatment, this therapy to people with means. Yeah. Who have the, the, the funds or the credit that they can, that they can do that. And that is, um, very unfortunate aspect. It is, and that's why it would be great for the FDA to really dive into this and get more involved and hold some sort of level of accountability versus this traditional medicine solution that we have now. Because with any medical process, there's no guarantee. You might get someone that's really knowledgeable to say, I'm going to give you a 70 % to 80 % success rate. a lot of other variables in there, right? That they, no one knows about till you get opened up, right? And you know, for me to make this successful, I had to go on an anti -inflammatory diet for three months while I was waiting on my appointment. And then talking through, you know, I reviewed the process, the treatment process with the... former special forces medic at the wellness center. He's now, you know, a PA and he yeah, I would do it. You know, this looks good. And then, you know, when I talked to friends and family and other medical professionals here in the U .S., it was, you're crazy. Why would you go to Columbia? That sounds dangerous. And why are you putting stem cells in your body from someone you like, you don't even know nothing about these things, you know? Like you could come out worse. I said, well, you know, it's, I'm already worse as it is. I'm bad. This is bad. Like I can't even sleep. And I've got confidence in my research. I've got confidence in the people I'm talking to, but there is some medical professionals here in the U .S. that believe in stem cell therapy and we're supportive of it. I've got some friends in the medical industry that I talked to and they said, yeah, absolutely. You know, go for it. But the thing about the anti -inflammatory diet that I had to go through to ensure a better rate of success is I had to get rid of all the inflammation from food in my body. That included alcohol and coffee, right? So it's almost a dry, no frills, dry kind of, you know, almost a vegetarian diet. And maybe I had some shrimp in a salad every now and then. But the idea there is... If I go to get the treatment under the diet I was in, the stem cells, once they're put in my body, are going to go after the inflammation. and to solve the inflammation problem instead of solving the injury problem. Right? So, you know, there's sonars, there's imagery put right above your injury area. In my particular case, you know, I was put under local anesthesia for my back. I had nine injections in my back, all in this precision areas of where the injuries were. So that's exactly where the stem cells went. And... It was a simple process. You know, I had 13 total injections while I was there, David, you know, because of all the fitness I've done, the jujitsu over the years, I had my knees treated, I had my elbow treated and a shoulder, right? I actually wanted both shoulders, but when I was evaluated, they said, no, you've got enough movement in your left shoulder. We're not, we don't need to do that, you know? So there I felt like, wow, this isn't a sales thing, right? And you know, when I book, when I... My treatment lasted for one week. Every day I had a certain amount of hours I was at the clinic. I went into a hyperbaric chamber to remove all the oxygen from the blood cells and things like that to put me in the best state possible. But also, you know, it's pretty important that I didn't feel like a number. I felt like a real person that was under a treatment. It's the first time I've had it any type of doctor at any level spend an hour going over all my MRIs with me That is in fact yes in fact in Colombia in Medellin I had to get I think yeah three more MRIs because I just US insurance just wouldn't you know let me do it and the three MRIs that I paid for in cash or the cost of one MRI here That does not surprise me. Yeah, it's amazing, right? But yeah, you know, there was post -treatment work that I had to do. And the sports medicine doctors, they said, you know, here's what you can do going forward, which is pretty much almost anything, but here's where your limitations are going to be because of the situation. Now, when did all this start? In June of 2021, I had my first MRI through the wellness center. I had the treatment with bioaccelerator in Columbia, April of 2022. We waited one year and I went and got an updated MRI at the same facility here in Texas. And the nice thing about that is they, that facility did a. emerging report analysis from the first MRI till now. So they did a comparison. They did and I told them nothing about the stem cell treatment. I would have preferred to talk to the person, the doctor looking to develop the report to tell them, but you know, it's almost better that I didn't though David because I ended up handing that report off to Columbia for their analysis, but that report showed. No more herniated discs, no more compressed discs, and canal stenosis was gone. Wow. But no surgery. No surgery. You said they did local anesthetics? Yes. And over the course of a year, using stem cell therapy, you were able to show significant improvement in your back. Yeah, and the MRI, and I sent the imagery back to Bioxcellerator. They actually gave me some snapshots and happy to share. But I've actually got proof that I've got... fluid back in my discs that were herniated. We've got a side -by -side analysis one year before, one year after, was showing herniated discs with no fluid, herniated discs one year later with fluid. And tomorrow, actually tomorrow, it's great that we're talking today because I'm excited, I'm going to go get another MRI because the... clinic is reaching back out and says, you know, we want to do another update. We want to do another comparison. We still want to track your recovery. You know, how are you doing? You know, so please go get another MRI and share that information with us so we can look at everything again. You know, so it's, it's this amazing continued communication, you know, that we have. And, you know, when I was going through the physical therapy, cause that's a part of post -treatment. You still need to do some physical therapy. But I was working with a sports medicine chiropractic doctor in Austin, Texas area. And I brought her the report, the post report, right? From the two merged MRIs. And I said, what do you think about this? She says, this is amazing. I don't even know anyone that I've ever worked with that went to this level of regenerative medicine treatment. And she said, well, I said, if you were to pull anything out of the report, that highlights this situation, what she's, she said the canal stenosis. That's, I've never heard of that even being cured. Like in our industry, in our profession and what we study and what we're able to treat, that doesn't happen. I think it's, it's key that people research and they become educated because ultimately we own our health. I mean, we can have doctors, natural paths and herbalists and people on our team to help us, but ultimately it's our health, it's our bodies. And from my experience, the more education you have, the better decisions that you can make. And, um, you are actually the first person I've ever met who underwent stem cell therapy. Uh, I find this very interesting. I love how you did a lot of the research on your own, but then you also got other opinions, uh, and you weighed everything. And then ultimately you, you made your decision. Um, yeah, I appreciate that. And, you know, I was careful not to do confirmation bias. you know, to just go talk to people that can confirm what I want to do. Right. Just to help it sink in a little bit more. Yeah, I'm on the right track. You know, I wanted to hear anything, you know. But most of all, you know, I think in this area too, and you mentioned you've found a good amount of research. There's more and more out there. But what you'll hear first is this is too new. There's not enough. Results. You know, well. What about any new medical procedure here in the US that they want to try on somebody that, you know, because of a certain scenario, I mean, there's no, it's new, right? So in this case, you know, it's, it's really important that I was rest assured that my stem cells were dedicated towards me. They were in a laboratory environment. They were under strict control and you know, they were ethically sourced with, with, you know, cooperation with the local hospitals and that that's a sore point for some folks. But you know, the interesting thing though, David is what really happens to an umbilical cord anyhow at birth? Because that's where my stem cells came from, is an umbilical cord. Right? And the most part, like, I don't, you know, I don't, I don't, it's interesting because what are we doing with these umbilical cords, right? I have an 11 month old daughter. And now there's a new service in the US. It's called cord banking, where at birth you can pay for a service to put the umbilical cord in a temperature controlled environment for your son or daughter to use at some other point in life for health related scenarios, because it's their own stem cells at the beginning of birth. So I... Maybe we're on to something here, but if that's a service right now, and we weren't necessarily sold on the fact that it's going to fix broken bones and things like that and all the research I did, they were claiming other kind of recovery techniques and stuff that you can use for banking the umbilical cord. But yeah, I just wanted to share that with you because I thought that was interesting. You know, that doesn't get brought up too much. You know, if there's a service now for babies, right, the parents can make a choice to bank an umbilical cord. And you can do it for life. Like maybe she never needs it. Maybe my daughter never needs it. Or maybe she gets into some sort of illness or breaks a bone or, you know, some sort of sports related scenario or who knows, right? But there's a resource. for stem cells that you'll have. And it's hard to say for sure 20, 30 years from now, 50 years from now, how those cells can be used as the technology continues to develop. I think, again, people need to be aware that it's out there, it's available. To me, it's almost like a savings account towards your future health or the future health of your child. It sounds like there's some very strong benefits. When, when, as you've gone through your journey, um, through your life experiences, I mean, are you in a position where you're able to help other people, uh, where, where they can reach out to you or, I mean, do you work side by side with other people in terms of their fitness or nutrition or things like that? Yeah, certainly. And, you know, because of all of this, I went back and hired a coach to develop the best version of me. And you know, with proper macronutrients, a nutrition plan, a fitness plan, I know quite a bit about fitness, but it's always good to get some other insights. And through that, I've now worked with the coach to help me establish my own fitness and nutrition programming that I'm doing online. So I've got to focus to help dads, right? I could help anyone all over the world, male, females, but it's really... You know, with what I'm running now and what I just launched is Energize Dad. It's to help folks that are stuck. If you're stuck, you don't know where to turn. You know, you need to do something. Um, you know, the best resource is to work with someone that's been there. Absolutely. And that can develop a plan that's custom for you based on your current situation, based on your goals. But you know, One of the questions I ask folks is how committed are you to achieving this goal? Whether it's weight loss, whether it's fitness, whether it's more energy, because it's easy to come up with these lofty, you know, I want to be better scenarios. But then we work at just stripping everything down to the studs and let's build up slowly, right? Build you up to... Understand what nutrition is about. Properly use nutrition. Do sensible exercises. And then have that energy, have that value that you can give to other people, especially your own family. And so that's something new I've just done. And I think between all the challenges and the failures and having to rebuild myself after injuries, I've got a lot to share in that space. Sounds like you do. Um, I think you're absolutely correct. Pretty much everyone can benefit from that type of coaching. Um, the one thing that I could say about men, um, dads approaching middle age is that there's an aversion to getting help or asking, uh, or they get, or they get wrapped up in, in their life and their career and families and things like that. And what I have found is that women and moms tend to be more likely or more open and maybe more willing to seek whereas men, and I don't want to sound like stereotypes and all, but I'm just saying from my experience, men don't seek help that much. And so having someone who has a program, who's walked that path can help break down some of those barriers. to improving one's life. So I really like that you're putting that focus. Yeah, and I give people 24 seven access to me, right? You're working with me directly. It's just not like you're going to a gym for one hour with the coach. We meet once a week on a video call. We could do a one -to -one or group, you know, based on, you know, different capabilities and budgets and so forth. But, you know, I think the ROI on mental health, is, is it's both immediate and long term. You know, when I say mental health, it's having a clear mind, right? Getting rid of some of the vices that may be holding you back, right? Whether it's too much sweets, maybe it's too much drinking, maybe it's too much of something that is getting in the way of. you know, progress, right? And I think it's just important to, yeah, anyone can go on the internet these days and look across all these different platforms and say, I'm gonna build my own plan, but who's gonna hold you accountable? That's what a self -disciplined mindset coach will do for you, is hold you accountable, right? We're gonna review every week how you're doing. There's check -ins. And if things aren't going right, you need some direction, some guidance, and or if I see something in across the software platform that's not looking right, I'm going to ask questions. But it's, it's someone to hold you accountable because it's easy to say, and I heard this the other day from a friend, we were over here watching football. He wants to lose weight and he says, well, you know, I can put my plan together. I can do this. I can get a plan. Of course. What happened to the plan that got you where you are? You know, was that your plan too? To just totally blow your health out of the water? You know, there's no accountability. If you don't have the accountability, it's easy to slip, right? And you asked earlier in the show here, what do you do when you slip? How do you recover? It's relying on your plan and maybe your mentor that you can reach out and ask questions to. I like that. I like that approach. And the accountability and the one -on -one is a pattern that I've noticed through the episodes that we've done is even working with natural paths. It's that one -on -one. Sure, you can get a book, get on the internet, and sometimes that's great. Nothing beats. that one -on -one accountability. You're not always gonna get that from a family member or a friend. Sometimes you need someone else with that expertise to hold you accountable. And if someone is seeking that, Erik, what is the best way that someone can reach you? Yeah, Instagram's probably the best way. E -R -I -K -L -S -C -O -T -T. Instagram, Energized Dad, Erik L Scott. I've actually put my program out. I put, you know, what I teach out. What you see on Instagram is what I do every day. It's what I help people with, you know, and also I think it's important to, you know, what you talked about is, you know, the accountability, but if you could go read a lot of books, listen to a lot of shows, but you have to implement. You have to be able to implement. what you're absorbing and what you're being taught. And it's hard to just do that on your own. And another takeaway that I might add real quick is if someone is starting on this journey, don't expect everyone else around you to be excited. Don't try to pull people in to do it with you, especially if there's resistance. Focus on you. Let the results speak for themselves. People will notice. There's something different. You know, why is Erik's been off, you know, he's been working on something for three months. He looks different. You know, maybe I should ask about it because sometimes it goes polar opposite when you try to pull people in and to get them to be a part of it. Cause you're all really excited about it. You know, I used to work at a location where a lot of the folks, they had this Zumba. class that they were going to the bird into the or the conference room that do zumba and it really did seem to help some of the people who are participating but there was a certain amount of peer pressure and some people were being dragged into that and i don't think they got much benefit from that that's exactly what i'm talking about it really was actually seeing people you know improve themselves that's what filled up that room full of people who wanted to participate they had to want to participate Yeah. Let your, let your results be a walking billboard. Your results just speak for themselves. Yeah. So Erik, I'm going to, uh, for anyone who is listening to the podcast or watching on YouTube, uh, your contact information will be, uh, in the podcast or YouTube description. So people can just, can just click that link. We don't want people writing anything down as they're driving down the road, listening to the podcast that that is not good. Um, But I really appreciate you coming on the show, sharing and telling us your story. People love to hear stories. And you had a unique story about, you know, your journey and what you did to take a more natural approach to what sounded like a very serious and painful medical situation. And you're willing to share your knowledge. And that's what this show is all about, sharing the knowledge and sharing the experiences. So thank you very much for coming on our show today. David, I really appreciate it. I hope there's some value add for the listeners and anyone can reach out to me and ask any kind of questions. I'm open to dialogue and so forth. But yes, thank you so much. Thank you, Erik. I really think Erik added a lot of value to use his term to the conversation. Um, what did you think? What did you think of Erik's story, but also of the possibilities for stem cell therapy? It is definitely an interesting topic. Well, thank you very much for watching and thank you very much for subscribing. Subscribing really helps with the algorithm. So until next week, this is David Maloof, exploring natural approaches to good health. That does it for this episode of Adventures in Good Health. We would like to hear from you regarding this podcast and any suggestions you have for future podcasts. Please subscribe and leave a rating or a review.