Voice Over: Welcome to the Longevity Formula with Dr. Brandon Crawford. Let's explore the new era of wellness

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Longevity Formula. I'm your host, Dr. Brannon Crawford. Today we have a very familiar face. Actually, this is a guest that we've had on more than anyone. Wow. I guess we like you.

Um, you were, you've been on episode five, episode 25, episode 26. Uh, that was a part one, part two- Oh, yeah ... situation. Yeah. So it's, it's been fun. We love having you. This is Dr. Jerri Levine, or Dr., Dr. Jerri Levine. Um, I would love to introduce you, but I always would prefer that you introduce yourself, because I'm going to miss something, and you have a very unique background.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: So, I g- I don't know. I'm a psychologist. I, um, am also a traumatic brain injury, and so that's what got me into functional neurology, was learning that- There are so many ways to heal without medication and without going through a more traditional way of doing it. In fact, sitting in a doctor's office several months after the accident, I was told I was fine, when I felt like I couldn't find my car in the parking lot, and I knew I needed something more than that.

And so that's what kind of brought me to the functional neurology and the functional medicine, and then it was just... I don't know. There was a, a light went off, and it was like, well, this is what psychology's missing.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right? We're not combining the brain and the body like we have to. So that's kinda how I got here.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. So, uh, when you say psychologist, 'cause you're so much more than that, I... Is, is the term integrative psychologist appropriate, or holistic psychol- Like, ooh-

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Yeah, I think integrative's good. Okay. Because I, I, I don't really use a lot of talk therapy. Mm-hmm. And I think when people think about a psychologist or even a psychiatrist, they think about, you know, sitting down and starting with, "I was born on a dark, stormy night."

I don't wanna do all that. I just wanna- ... I just wanna balance your brain and your body- Right ... so that they work together.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I like when you say, uh, "If you think you're gonna talk to me, I'm gonna put a laser in your mouth, and we're

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: gonna-" Exactly. Gonna get to that midbrain one way or the other.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right. Let's actually get down to the root of the problem, right?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Cool. Well, today I wanna go over, uh, several different things, right? So we've been working together for a long time, but, but doing what we're doing in the office right now in the regenerative medicine space, um, what I'm gonna call catalyst regenerative integration, uh, we've been doing that together for roughly three and a half years.

Um, we've done over 750 procedures together, uh, very successfully, by the way. Uh, fantastic results, and we'll talk about that. Um, but that's really what I wanted to kind of focus on today, because we have so much new data, new concepts, new procedures, new things, right? That since we spoke about this last, we have to update this content, right?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Totally. Okay. We've learned so much.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: We really have, and we continue to learn. That's why I love this, right? Um, and I love that you're open to new, innovative ideas, and g- not only open to it, but constantly looking for it. Um, and I feel like I'm the same way, right? I think so. It's like, okay, we're getting great results now.

How can we make this better? That's a constant question. How can we make this better, right? Um, so I guess, let me start with this question, right? So like I said, we've done this for roughly three and a half years, over 750 procedures. I meant to find the exact number of procedures, but I just didn't. That's a lot.

Um, what have you learned over that period of time?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Ooh. I have learned a lot. First, I, I think I have certainly learned that healing is not linear.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right? Um, and incredibly individual. I think the most important thing that I've learned is that regeneration depends on favorable conditions, and the more favorable we can make the whole picture, all of the conditions, I think the better results we get

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah, I would concur with that

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: So this isn't just administering a therapy.

There's so much more than, that goes into this than just you come in and you're here for two and a half hours and you're out. Mm-hmm. I mean, there's, there's, there's so much more from, from a body standpoint, from a brain standpoint, from a mind standpoint, and I think that the hope and motivation and consistency is just a big part of that whole picture that we present to people that I don't see always when other people are presenting these same therapies.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I like that. So essentially, healing is not something that we can just simply inject into someone. Okay? And what you just brought up is a big topic of essentially we need to prime or prepare the individual, right? Uh, we need to prime or prepare the biologic. Um, and that goes into the quantum world, right?

Into information priming even. Um, so i- when I think through that, I start to think of the concept of a crop, right? And soil. So any farmer in their right mind knows you can't just simply go and throw seed on the ground and expect to yield a crop, right? You have to tend to the soil. You have to prepare it.

You have to fertilize it. You have to till it. You have to do all these things because that preparation is what will determine the yield of the crop. Is that an adequate analogy?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: That's exactly how I explain it.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Perfect.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And, and, and I even take it even a step further because ultimately we're planting crops in damaged soil-

Voice Over: Mm-hmm

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: for lack of a better analogy that- Right ... I can come up with. Right. And so because of that, and because of what it takes to, on the patient end, because of what it takes to get here and what it takes to commit to this and what it takes in follow through, I wanna squeeze every ounce of healing that we can get out of this procedure.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And so if, if we are planting crops in damaged soil, we have to do as much as we can on every possible level to get as big a yield as we can.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. So can you help us understand a little bit more about what that soil preparation and priming may look like? And I know it's different for everyone, and that's what's so brilliant about working with you, but what can that look like?

What are, what's the process like?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: The mind-body process? I know we

Dr. Brandon Crawford: have-

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Or the whole process?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: We need to, we need to differ- What are you- Okay, let's-

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: What are we talking about?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Let's focus on whatever you wanna focus on first, but if, if we first... Uh, let's take a smaller subject, right? Okay. So maybe we just focus on the mind-body component at this point.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Okay. So, so in the mind-body component, my job is to help somebody decide what they really want out of this procedure.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And, and, and I tell parents or, or individuals who are doing this, "This is our wish list." Because you can see as we start to come up with goals and we start to look at the different areas where we really want change, or even that, like it's, it's so scary to hope-

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: that, that this might get better, that this might change- Yeah ... 'cause we're so invested in where we are, that, you know, you can see the Mm-hmm ... you can see it rising in them. And this is our wish list. This is everything we would possibly want to come out of that, right? Yeah. And so we, we come up with those things.

We walk through, in my appointment, then we walk through what that procedure's gonna look like. I don't like surprises. I don't, I know they don't.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: So we go over everything that could possibly happen, and then we get to spend some time, n- now that I've got their nervous systems a little, a little out of balance, because we've talked about things that are scary even though they're good- Then I get to spend some time helping re-regulate that nervous system, or regulate it for maybe the first time in some time.

You know, so many of our parents, caretakers don't ever get any help.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And they're exhausted, and they're frightened, and they're overwrought by the time they get to us. And so I feel like it's really important to, to be able to bring the brain and the body back into some kind of level of balance, right?

Mm-hmm. And luckily, we don't have to talk about it to do it.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's the... Absolutely.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Because I can't, I can't ask a parent who has lived through some horribly traumatic incident with a child to start at the beginning of that and go through it step- Yeah ... by step by step to release it. You can't do that. No.

And there are so many ways. I mean, I'm a cherry picker, and I've had brilliant teachers. And so I take a little of this, and I take a little of this, and I kind of put it all together and, and it seems to work.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. It really does. Um, so i- let's, let's kind of extrapolate just a little bit. Um, so whenever you say, "I don't have to necessarily talk to someone to, to work on them,".

Mm-hmm ... 'cause I, I, I know what you're talking about. But let's kind of elude, uh, as to what that may look like for someone. We did this a little bit back in episode five, I think. We

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: did.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And we talked a little bit about muscle testing and that type of thing. Um, and then also w- why, why does it matter, and I know the answer to this, but again, this is for the viewers, why does it matter, um, to help regulate the caregiver or parent as well?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: So let me start there.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Okay.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: So it matters tremendously because we're all connected.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: All of us. Uh, some of us are closer obviously than others in that connection, and especially within a family unit- There's, there's a very deep connection, and so many times I'm dealing with a patient that isn't able to respond to me, or a child who's just too young to be able to do that, and I can use a parent as a surrogate.

And I love that because it's a two-for-one. I'm getting everybody... Everybody in the room's receiving benefit, right? True. But in that case, I've got a direct line to, to a child through a mom or a dad, or even sometimes a caregiver- Mm-hmm ... that allows that energy to start to flow and not be so stagnant, so, you know, crunched up.

Um, I tell people at the beginning of the appointment, everything they do with me will be weird. And just get ready, 'cause here we go. Right. And I do like to use muscle testing, because your body won't lie to me.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And so the body won't lie, and we can tell what's really going on and what's not, which is really helpful for me.

Because a lot of these people I've not met until this appointment. Yeah. I don't... I can go into the file and I can read the history, but I don't know them.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And so it, it helps me get to the crux of things really quickly, and then we're just a giant ball of energy, is all we are. And if you hit the right places, and you work on getting that nervous system to just regulate a little bit, things just start to come into balance.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. And, um, I've, I've done muscle testing. I've, I've learned it, you know, through my educational career. Um, it's not easy, and you have to do it appropriately. And, um, it's definitely something that, when done correctly, can be very powerful.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Agreed.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Um, and you know, I've, I've seen a lot of providers that do it well.

I've seen a lot of providers that don't do it well. Um, and so, you know, just speaking to, you know, your method's very, very effective. Um, obviously I wouldn't have you in here working with us if it weren't. Um, but it's something that I trust, and I trust your guidance, and you do a great job leading people through this process.

Um, it's a very... You have to be very, um, what's the word? Um, careful, ginger, mm, passionate, but stern, right? Because there's a, there's a, there's a path. Um- And it's not up to us as providers to just simply take someone and go, "There's your path." They have to find that path.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That is their path.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Absolutely, and, and we all come at it a little differently.

I think one of the reasons this works for me and th- my style and the way I do it is because I'm incredibly authentic. Mm-hmm. And what you see is what you get, and so there's not a lot of forced cheer or forced positivity or toxic positivity as sometimes people think emotional regulation is about.

Voice Over: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And it, it's not about that.

Voice Over: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: It's, it's about, it's about, it, it's physiolo- I mean, it's physiological. We're just doing it through the mind, right? Right. So it's about balancing those stress hormones and reducing inflammation and getting clear on a topic, getting clear on a subject, being willing to look at something in a different way, being willing to start to let go of something that has driven you in really negative ways will do all those physiological things.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right. And, you know, essentially, we can talk, we, we can even go down a different path here and talk about, um, quantum fields. We can talk about quantum physics. Um, I mean, this even boils down to, you know, things that Einstein would say that our, the quantum field affects matter, right? Um, and even the whole concept of E equals MC squared, right?

Energy equals mass times C squared. C squared's the speed of light, but it's really a conversion factor for space and time is essentially what it is. Um, so if we can have an impact on that energy field-

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And we do. We manipulate time- Mm-hmm ... all the time.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right, which is doable via physics, which this is not, like, theoretical, um, at this point in time.

Um, and i- if that's true, which it is, then we can also impact matter, right? And that's ultimately what we're trying to do biologically is we're trying to alter, uh, the biological, uh, regeneration, regenerative capacity of matter, right? So we're just really trying to bring everything together that we know that we can use safely, um, that we know works, that, you know, we can help guide people and ultimately promote, you know, the best possible outcome as possible, um, which is fantastic.

So when, when you're talking to someone, I get this a lot, I know you do, and they say, "Well, we did stem cells, and it didn't work."

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: I love this question.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. What do you say?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Okay, well, first of all, that's way too broad. Yes. What do you mean it didn't work?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right? I mean, come on. So- A coup- two big things stand out to me.

First off, sometimes, and I'll, I'll lump this, parents especially have one goal in mind

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And if that non-verbal child in two weeks is not standing on the stage quoting Shakespeare, then this didn't work

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right? So but at the same time, inflammation is way down. All of a sudden they're tracking.

They're processing things they've never processed before. There is some spontaneous speech That worked

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right? And I think over time, and this happened with me and a family member who came and did VSEL.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: So I totally can relate to this one. Over time, when you're with somebody day in and day out, it's really hard to see the little changes, and the little things add up to something big.

And, and I think sometimes we forget, or things just start to get better, and we just accept that as the norm. It's not like it's an advancement. Mm-hmm. And so when I have that conversation with parents or, or individuals who've done this six, eight weeks out, I will go back through the goal. 'Cause if I hear, you know, "Well, nothing's changed."

Voice Over: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Okay. Well, let's go back through the goals. Oh, well, oh, so we did a goal on sleep because you weren't sleeping more than two or three hours a night, and you couldn't fall asleep. It was taking hours. Oh, well, now it probably only takes about 30 minutes. All right, that's an improvement.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: So when I go back through those little steps, it kind of helps people see those changes that have been made.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. I guess if we were to stay with the whole crop analogy, right, how long does it take to grow a tree? Right? I mean, y- you can see very obvious changes soon, right? You can see it sprout. You can see it start to grow, et cetera. You're, oh, hey, look, a little tree. Um, it- the, the concept of coming in and expecting, you know, within one week or whatever the timeframe is for you to have this massive 500-year-old oak tree, right, um, you know, we, we need to just kind of consider that.

Things do take time, energy, et cetera. There's a process to healing, um, and we do everything within our power to accelerate it. We do. We truly do. That's the whole point of what we do.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: However, there is still a time component. Um, and you're right. The, the growth rate, the healing rate tends to be exponential at times.

So we'll see little change, right? We need to acknowledge that. We need to acknowledge the little wins for multiple reasons.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Because they're huge. They are huge. It's like the iceberg, right? Yes. You only see this little bit of ice above the water, but when it shifts, what that took for that to happen is ginormous.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely, and it also helps us as patients Stay on track, stay compliant, continue to, to pursue the path, et cetera, um, it helps with dopamine drips. Absolutely. That's what I'm trying to say, right? Um, and then that then adds up to where we start to see this exponential rise, and that's where... I mean, it's all exciting to me, right?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I mean, look, I'm even the guy that, we can talk about seizures, but I'm the guy that when I get the phone call and they're like, "We did this procedure a week ago and, and they just had a seizure spike this week," and I'm going, "Fantastic," right?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Yes.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And I'm like, "Oh, wait, let me explain this."

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: But the...

and we, now we need to explain that. Um, and we will. Um, but those types of changes, like, they correlate with growth and maturation and calibration within the nervous system, and we need to celebrate that while being medically, you know, uh, responsible and, and doing all the right things, which we do. Um, but these things add up and, and I...

n- and, and now that I've brought that up, we'll talk through seizure, but, um-

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Well, we need to- ... 'cause I have a confession.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Okay.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: So, God, I can't believe I'm gonna tell you this.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Okay.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: So until I... I had heard you say that an uptick in seizures is sometimes a good thing, right? Mm-hmm. That it means connectivity. It m- you understand this stuff a lot better than I do.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yes. Well, maybe.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And I thought, "Uh," I mean, I believe you, but that was hard for me to swallow. Yeah. And I don't even... That's not an issue in my wheelhouse or my family or anything. Mm-hmm. Right? Seizure's not one of our... We have issues, it's just not, seizure's not one of them. And so I was like, "I mean, I get that, and I know you wanna believe that."

And then once I got here and I could see it in action, I could see it in practice, I could see it, yes, there's an uptick in s- in seizures here, but holy cow, what then came behind that, or what came with that was so huge.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yes. Yeah. Um, you know, I've got a, somewhat of a history. You know, my, my mom, she developed seizures, um, after vaccination.

Actually, it was medically documented. Um, so I took a pretty big interest into, um, epilepsy and seizure activity and what causes it and all that kind of stuff. Just the same thing, like, you know, my dad died of a aortic aneurysm, so then I was on a, you know, 10-year journey of understanding as much as I can about the cardiovascular system- Right

and all these things. Um, that's just how my mind works. Um, and then my, my nephew actually has a, a seizure disorder as well. That was... I wanted to understand what cause, what causes seizures. And ultimately, when you look into what medical literature there is, no one knows. It's abnormal electrical activity in the brain.

Great. Why? Okay, well, there's a thousand different causes, right? There could be genetics, there could be neuroautoimmunity, there could be developmental delay, there could be, uh, paroxysm that spikes up into seizure, there could be acquired seizures through brain injury, uh, ion channelopathies. There could be, uh, all sorts of things, right?

You could have sclerosing. You could have, um, the glial system causing, uh, abnormal threshold activation at the neuron. Um, the list could go on. And I'm sitting there going, "They just diagnosed seizures and moved on and, and gave them medication." Yeah. This is so messed up, right? When, when we have the information available to understand, at least to some level, that there's so many different things that could be driving a seizure, right?

It was infuriating to me. Um, and so doing what we do, right? Um, early in my career, we had a huge influx of pediatric brain injury, uh, cases, and we love working with them. We get great results with them. Um, but the majority of them would come in with seizures, and so I was again presented with this seizure situation.

Um, and so what I began to see clinically is that as we would work through these cases, not focusing on seizure, okay, focusing on brain injury and trying to heal and develop, uh, the brain in that regard, is that I would notice in about 50% of the population, um, that seizures would spike at times. There was never a pathological seizure situation.

There was never status epilepticus. To date, we've never had that. Um, but we would have these incremental spikes, uh, typically early on, like when we really hit care hard, right, and we were doing intensive care. And then they would go away. The spikes would fade out, would, would, would drop away, and when that would happen, typically they were below baseline, meaning they were-- their, their baseline status was better than prior, right?

And so I started to go, "Okay, so whatever we're doing, whatever-- whenever we're focusing on developing the brain, integrating these, uh, injured, damaged, inflamed, whatever you wanna call it, uh, brain networks, somehow that drove calibration, for lack of better words, in those networks. Yeah. And when a brain network is developing, it has to fire with faster, with the larger amplitude brainwave, and that's when those spikes can happen and can occur, and it just made so much sense.

Yeah. And then when we started to use the regenerative medicine concepts, and I think about those as accelerators for neuroplasticity, then in my head, I thought, "Okay, then this may drive some spikes," right? And that's exactly what we saw. And, and I would, again, say roughly 50%. Honestly, I think that might be a little high.

Um, right now I, I think that we've gotten really, really good at navigating this in, in knowing how to mitigate that seizure activity. Um, but the other 50%, it just goes away. It just, like, starts to decline. Yeah. Uh, we have a case in the office, um, this week actually. Uh, she came in with, um, chronic irretractable epilepsy.

They have done I don't even know how many medications, even did a lobectomy where they took out part of the brain. Didn't do anything. Actually spread to other parts of the brain. Um, she's been with us for less than a week, and she hasn't had a seizure. She, she started with, um, doing the VSEL procedure with extracellular vesicles and started, uh, intensive care after that, and they're, they're sitting back going, "Are you kidding me?

We went from this chronic seizure state her entire life, and we tried everything that medicine had to offer, including surgery, and in less than a week you've mitigated this?" Right? They're furious but also happy, right? I mean- Yeah ... um, so seizures are something that I love working with, that you love working with, um, really because we do see great results clinically, and it's something that I do have a high degree of confidence in.

Um, just because of what we've seen over these past several year- not just the three and a half years, but, I mean, my entire career at this point in time. Um, so yeah, it's a, it's a great topic. Um, I didn't even plan to really go down that path, but I'm glad we did- I am too ... 'cause I think it was, it was needed.

So how about this? Let's... Can you walk us through some procedures? Um, walk us through- Like VSEL? Let's... Yeah, let's start with VSEL.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Okay. Just the, just the step-by-step? Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah, let's do it.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Okay. So VSEL's easy.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Okay.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: It really is.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: What does VSEL stand for? Very small embryonic-like stem cells.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: That's exactly right.

Thank you. Um, so we lidocaine a couple of really good areas, what looked like good veins ahead of time.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And, and I was the initial guinea pig on this with Dr. Day, and it was, it was really helpful to know for me as, as part of that team, as part of that providing team that It can still be scary, and someone still may wanna scream their head off, but I can guarantee that those areas that have been lidocained don't hurt.

Mm-hmm. Right? So that made me feel better, just knowing that, right? So we lidocaine some good areas. Uh, they come, they come into the lab, and we, we, the medical team, will find a good vein and place a port. Once they get in, they place the port. We draw the blood, then the blood is separated from the plasma. In the plasma are these tiny, tiny cells that are embryonic in nature, pluripotent- Mm-hmm

I believe is the term. Mm-hmm,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And I like using this process because these aren't adult adipose stem cells or stem cells taken from somewhere else that have already been trained to do something. Right. Right? This is not like asking a bricklayer to bake a cake.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And I like that, because they're going to be trained from the ground up, and one of the things that I know that we are so good at is that training.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And so it excites me when we do a VSEL procedure, because I just, I know the steps, and I know what can come out of it. So those cells are separated. Then, which I think is another really key component, then those cells are activated. We wake them up using the lasers, and that process is amazing to me, how it, you can just, I mean, literally bring this whole thing to life.

Voice Over: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And then those cells are readministered into the body through that port. So it was only one stick, which is really nice. Then all that's taken out, and you and I have about a 30-minute window of opportunity where we get to laser the different parts of the brain and the body where we want those cells to go.

Another reason I think we're so successful is there's not a seizure protocol.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: There's not an ADS protocol. There's a protocol for Timmy.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: There's a protocol for Sandy. There's just, there's what that individual needs, and those protocols are never written until usually the night before the Yeah

the actual event. Right. Because, uh, everything goes into the making of that. Yeah. Which I think is, I think is so incredibly important. Yeah. And then we mirror laser. So we use the red laser because it makes the tissue tacky. Mm-hmm. Makes those cells stick better, and green, we know from research that that's the best frequency of light in order to home those cells to get them to go where we want them to go.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: You're right. The red laser we use alters surface receptor proteins, essentially creating sticky spots as the cells are flowing through so they get stuck in the tissue that we want them to be in, and then you're right, the green has a stronger homing mechanism. Uh, the, the whole concept of this procedure is really interesting.

No joke, I was actually outside. I have an outdoor shower at my house. I, you know, love showering under the stars. It's kind of one of my ways of decompressing. Um, and I was just, I was just looking up at the stars, and I was just open. I was like, I, you know, I wanna... Sometimes I just wanna not think, and I wanna try to receive.

I wanna try to listen. Um, when I did this, I had this literal vision, um, just pop into my head, and it was using lasers on cells and using lasers to home cells and whatnot, right? And that was probably five, maybe six years ago, um, before any of this started, right? And so that made me start to look and go, "Okay, is anyone doing this?

Is there a procedure comparable to this? Do I need to develop this? Like, what's going on?" Um, in, and the concept of using light on the blood has been around for a long time, talking about before antibiotics. Um, in the early 1900s, there was something called ultraviolet blood irradiation, and they would extract blood.

They would use, um, light on 5 to 7% of the blood supply. They would put it back in, and this was highly effective. Um, obviously, it went by the wayside once we had, you know, antibiotics and things like that enter the stage. Um, and they just stopped doing it. Um, so there was precedent set, right? There was, there was data out there that says, "Hey, this is a good idea.

Um, why not pursue it?" Right? And so, um, I do love the procedure. Um, I love it because of what you already mentioned. It's autologous. That means we're using your own cells, right? Um, so if someone is worried about using an allogenic cell, right, someone else's DNA, someone else's cell, this is a great procedure.

This is not a PRP procedure.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: No. This

Dr. Brandon Crawford: is probably the, the biggest question I get asked. Like, "Isn't this just a PRP?" No, it's not. It's not, it's not PRP. That's not what we're using. We're using a, a specialized type of plasma that concentrates the VSEL. That's the target. And of course, there's other growth factors and other things in the plasma, and the beautiful thing is we get to imprint information into all of it.

Yeah. Um, and so, you know, it's, it's a beautiful, um, procedure. It's very safe. It's proven to be highly effective. Um, like I said, we've, we've done this a few times. Um, and we've gathered really good data on it, and, uh, we do have a way now that we're going to begin publishing a lot of that data.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Nice.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Um, and so I'm really excited for that.

Now, with this procedure, we also started to include extracellular vesicles. This is something that I, I do feel pretty strongly about, uh, number one, because of the safety profile of extracellular vesicles. And just to kinda give a little information, extracellular vesicles are essentially nanoparticles that the stem cells produce in order to do the reparative regenerative work, right?

So the way the majority of stem cells work, um, they work via what's called paracrine signaling, and that's when that cell goes into the body, it finds the damaged or inflamed tissue, and it starts communicating with those areas and says, "What do you need?" Right? And so once it communicates, then it starts releasing these nanoparticles or extracellular vesicles, and that's what does the heavy lifting.

And so it just made sense. Let's add a bolus of extracellular vesicles and try to magnify this effect, and that's exactly what we've seen. Now, to be clear, the procedure works without the extracellular vesicles, but we have seen that the procedure is magnified with the extracellular vesicles, correct?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Correct.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And, and yes, there's times when you can even do, you know, a, a push of, of EVs, as we call them, um, by themselves. Uh, and we do laser activate the EVs as well. Uh, we have our own proprietary way that we do that. Um, and that's, you know, there are certain situations where we can do that. Um, is there any nuance or any consideration that you wanna go through with the, with adding EVs?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: No, I think that, um... A- And in... That was a beautiful explanation of what they are. Well, thank you. Um, I don't use all those big fancy terms. I tell them that this is the fertilizer.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Okay. I like that.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right? That this is, this is that extra boost we're giving the soil to, to yield a bigger crop. And, and it's, it's tricky sometimes in my appointment because they get so much information about here and about what we offer and about what we have, and it's hard to always go through everything that comes in.

So sometimes when I get to that part where we're talking about EVs, for some parents, they feel like it's the first time they've ever heard about that. Mm-hmm. And it's not an upsell. We did this for a year and a half-

Voice Over: Right ...

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: before we could offer EVs. Right. And, and it wor- I mean, VSEL works. Yes. There's no question, and I wouldn't rearrange my entire life to be here- Right

if it didn't make a huge difference.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: We didn't, we didn't mention you fly in from Atlanta, uh, two, three, four times a month to be with us.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: I know. So I'm not sure how smart that makes me look, but whatever. Um, but when we can, when it's appropriate to add it, I just, I feel like it can make a huge difference.

And, um, I'll t- 'cause... And people ask me if I've done VSEL, right? And I tease 'em, and I say, "Well, no, because every time I try to get on the list, Brannon's like, 'Gerri, we're working.'" And so I have done EVs on multiple occasions, and it's so interesting to me that- That process, they tend to go where they're needed, not necessarily where you want them.

Mm-hmm. But they tend to go where they're needed, and one of the things for me that's happened is my vision, my acuity is so much better.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Which is crazy. I'm 63 years old. My vision's not supposed to be getting better, and I'm not even in reading glasses anymore. Mm-hmm. So it's really interesting to me then, and then had a family member come and didn't do anything for her vision, but she got back to a state where she feels like was pre-COVID.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: So, uh, the cells go, I don't understand it, and I'm not sure how it works, but they go where they need to go and yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: It's interesting you bring up vision, right? Because, um, we did start to notice people would just tell us, "My vision seems more clear," or, "My vision's more," um, whatever, right? It, it, but people would consistently describe their vision improving, and sometimes literally within five minutes after getting EVs.

A- and again, I'm not making claims, I'm just, we're just talking about what people tell us.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And we didn't ask if their vision was better.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Exactly.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Exactly. People would spontaneously say- Yes ... "Oh my gosh, everything's so clear."

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yes.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And sometimes it lasted, and sometimes it didn't.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right. And, uh, you know, I, I have had the benefit of doing VSEL multiple times, uh, VSEL with EVs every time.

Um, and I've, I've d- you know, I had a back injury and, you know, all the things, but, uh, and it, it definitely made a, a substantial improvement in my health. Um, anything from lowering my thyroid antibodies, to reducing my pain, to cognitive performance, to all these different things. Uh, and then I've, I've put, I, I don't know if I've put more EVs in my body than anyone on the-

on the planet. I don't know, but at the end of last year, I mean, I d- I was doing a lot of EVs. I was in a lot of pain. Um, and then even Dr. Madera put them, you know, directly into my spinal canal as well. Uh, so that's how confident I am in the product and in the safety profile, um, which I guess we should kind of explain.

You know, we do use a highly proprietary product- Mm ... um, that we have personally vetted. Uh, Dr. Madera's even been in their lab multiple times to personally vet the, the lab. It's a FDA registered lab, which, um, matters because- Most biologics are not produced in an FDA registered lab. Um, and so not only, you know, does it have that high degree, uh, of regulation and oversight, but the product is just phenomenal.

And so these EVs are derived from amniotic fluid. Um, it's from live consenting births in America. Um, and we use a product that is COVID vaccine free, so meaning they've, uh, screened out, you know, anyone that has had the COVID vaccine. Those products go elsewhere. We do not use those except for now our 2 ml option.

They did not... You know, they no longer have the COVID vax free, uh, f- uh, versions, but we have the 5 ml, 10 ml options that are. Um, so it's very clean, highly regulated, which very much matters. Again, I wanna point to that because so many biologics, it's the Wild West, and there's little to no regulation.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: So you mean these aren't the $50 EVs I can get for my face on Facebook?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: They are not. They are not. Uh, these are- God, that's terrifying ... these are a whole nother animal, right? Not only are they clean and safe and, and all the things, uh, FDA cleared for osteoarthritis in the knee, just FYI, um, but they're also very, very concentrated. Uh, one of the most, if not the most concentrated, uh, EV products on the market that I'm aware of.

Um, so you know, someone the other day, they... Actually, it was this week. They, they did, um, an exosome product, uh, somewhere else, and th- they got good results. You know, it wasn't bad. Uh, and it was a, a very well-respected physician. I respect him. He's doing good work. Um, and you know, it's like, okay, well, what volume did they use?

What was the concentration of the product, right? And, uh, she went and got it and brought it back to me actually yesterday. It was 10% of the concentration of our smallest- Wow ... vial, right? Which a- again, they got a... You know, they got good results. But, but that's just... And it was, it was more expensive than our 2 ml vial.

I mean, it was so- Wow ... so it was 10% the concentration and about $1,500 more than our smallest option, right? Wow. So, you know, there's a lot of unvalidated data out there, and there's a lot of people doing, um, not so ethical things, uh, in this field. So that is something that we collectively strive, uh, uh, strive for, is to be as ethical and professional as we possibly can because we know what's on the line.

We deal... I mean, yesterday we had a big office meeting because, you know, we have life and death matters in the office and, and we collectively have to come together and, and talk through how we're going to ethically navigate that case, and that's just the level of professionalism that we have here, and we've established a system of checks and balances.

And what do I mean? I mean, of course, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm in the clinic, I'm overseeing, uh, patient care. You're overseeing patient care. Dr. Madera, our medical director, is overseeing patient care. We have a nurse practitioner. We have a nursing team. We, we have all the... We have a compliance team. We have compliance officers.

Um, so it's not like even if, even if I wanted to do something unethical- Okay? There's no possible way to get that through.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: No, you wouldn't get through

Dr. Brandon Crawford: the door. 'Cause you guys would kick my butt. Absolutely. Or if the nurse practitioner wanted to do something and, and, you know, "Oh, hey, we'll do it this way and skip this step," no way that's gonna get through our system.

Mm. There's too many people- Yeah ... and too many systems that are, that are at play here to allow for anything like that to, to occur. So- I like that ... all right, we've, we've kind of veered, but, but I think it's good to understand this, right? Right. Because, um, these

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: are- People are trusting us with their lives or their loved one's lives.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And they have to know where we're coming from.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely, 100%. We also have some new offerings, right? Or newer, um, not new, uh, to the world, but new to America, right? And I'm talking about the, uh, the Dzawa MUSE stem cells, right? Um, and I've, I've been very excited for these cells for many years.

Um, Dr. Madera's been excited for them for many years. Um, we were able to, uh, have certain legislation passed last year in the state of Texas and in the United States that allow us, uh, to now begin to properly, uh, legally use these cells in individuals. So, um, do you have any initial thoughts or things you would like to go through in regards to the MUSE cells?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: I think, I think it might be helpful to look at why you would choose one over the other.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: If you're, if you're trying to decide between VSEL

Dr. Brandon Crawford: and MUSE-

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: What, what kind of things do we want to take into consideration?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Well, there's, there's a few different things, right? So number one, we have to understand that I don't have a magic ball.

You don't have a magic ball that we can look into and say, "What is this person going to respond to the best?" Right? Um, at this point, we do not have substantial data to say, this individual would respond better to vCell, this individual would respond better to MUSE. We're gathering that data. We hope to have an answer for that in the near future.

Um, so what do we have? Well, we have a rich clinical history with vCell, where, like I said, over 750 procedures. Um, we've done more than anyone that I know of. Um, and obviously we have our own proprietary methods about that, but so we have a, a rich clinical history showing highly safe, highly effective, um, for, you know, the majority of things that we've done this for, anything from pain, autism, um, seizure, neurodegenerative disorders, um, you name it, right?

Right. We've done this in, in all different types of patient demographics. Um, now on the MUSE side of things, they have a plethora of peer-reviewed published data, right? They have over 120 peer-reviewed published articles on these cells. Um, the majority of that done via IV, right? There's this whole debate about putting it up the nose or IV and, um, we go with the data.

The majority of the data is, is published via performing IV, and there's other reasons to do that, that we can get into if we want to. Um, but there's other considerations. We talked about how vCell is autologous, so it's your own cells, okay? MUSE are not your own cells. They are allogenic, so they come from someone else.

Now, they come from a pre-COVID cell line, right? So that's good. That's been expanded. Um, but it is someone else's cells. So I think that that is probably one of the biggest considerations when it comes to choosing, uh, which one. Do you have anything to add to that?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: If I'm really having iss- like, if I'm really having issues, if I have a, a, a motor disorder or true cognitive problems, those kinds of things Is there an advantage of using a younger, healthier, newer cell than just more of my cells?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Maybe. So MUSE, multi-lineage undifferentiated stress-enduring cells. Um, these cells are mechanistically different than other stem cells, right? So I described the paracrine signaling effect that we get with VSEL. We- that's the same effect that you get with mesenchymal cells, adipose-derived cells, all those cells.

MUSE are different. So when Dr. De Zawa was looking under the microscope, she noticed that there was something different about this 1 to 2% of these mesenchymal cells, and those were the MUSE cells. And number one, they're stress-enduring. So they live longer in the body, they can endure the stressors of being in the body, uh, they can do work longer essentially, right?

Um, but their mechanism of how they work is, is different. And so when they find the damaged or inflamed tissue, they essentially engulf it. They consume that cell, right? That, that inflamed, damaged cell, whatever you wanna call it. And then they produce new healthy cells of whatever they consumed. So there is benefit to, to doing that, and perhaps there's benefit, right, in that situation that, that you described.

I, I, I think the strongest argument in that situation would be against adipose-derived cells, right? Those adipose-derived cells, meaning they're coming from the adipose tissue, the fat tissue in an adult Those cells have been subjected to oxidative stress and, and se- uh, sequestering of toxins and all of these things that get pushed into our fat tissue.

Um, I would argue that those cells become less and less effective as we grow older. Um, the VSEL, they, they are pluripotent. They are, you know, an embryonic-like cell. Um, so there's still benefit even in a 95-year-old doing the VSEL procedure, right? Sure. However, you're right. Like, there is something to be said for getting this bolus of young, vibrant, ready to rock and roll, you know, MEOS cells.

Um, and, and you know, we've, we've now had a really recent comparison, um, of someone with neurodegenerative disorders, right? We had someone with Lewy body dementia. We had someone with Parkinson's. Um, you know, both individuals I believe in their 60s. Um, and one did VSEL with EVs and one did MEOS. And, and they both got great results.

Yeah. Uh, so much so that I wrote, you know, a case study for both of them. Um, and so i- if it were true that, you know, the VSELs were older and, and less effective and whatnot, we wouldn't see that.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right. True.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Um, so I, I don't know that that argument i- is truly 100% valid, but I do think that there is something to, to say for, you know, using such a young, vibrant cell that has this different mechanism, right?

I'm a little long-winded today.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: No. That was ... No, that was a good explanation. I'm glad we talked through that. Yeah. Because that's a question that when I'm doing intakes, that's a question that comes up a lot, "Which way do we go?"

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right. Yeah. And as soon as we have a definitive answer, we'll give it to them.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Exactly.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I, I, I also say there's not a wrong choice.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Oh, agreed. Right. Agreed. We see great results with both processes.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. One other deciding factor, you know, I was talking on the phone with a, a distraught parent, um, about the blood draw. Right? In order to, to obtain the V cells, we do have to obtain a large amount of blood, right?

And so the amount of blood is calculated based on the individual's weight. And obviously if we want the most amount of V cells as we possibly can get, and so we, you know, typically will draw anywhere f- you know, on a kid ... Well, a little baby, you know, we're getting two, three, four tubes. Adult, we'll do 12, sometimes more tubes of blood.

And, uh, yeah, that, that can be a lot, you know, sitting there getting a lot of blood, et cetera. Like, that can be a ... Like you said, we do everything we can to make that a peaceful experience using numbing cream, having multiple people in the room, having highly skilled individuals. Yes. Um, even as much as a, you know, pediatric anesthesiologist, which we're not knocking you out, this is literally just for the skill set and oversight, you know, someone, you know, we, we typically will use Dr.

J. He's, he's fantastic. Yes. Um, highly skilled, just one of the best humans I've ... you know, one of the better humans I've come across. So we do everything within our power to make this blood draw pleasant. To date, we've never not been able to get anyone's blood. True. Uh, even, you know, the screamer and, you know, fighter and whatnot.

And, um, and people usually say something like, "That was much better than I anticipated."

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And it, it's so nice to give a family the opportunity to reframe what it means to get a blood draw. Yes. Because so many horror stories come in the door-

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yes ...

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: about, you know, "We'll do anything, we just can't do a blood draw"-

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: you know, kinda thing.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: We were even able to do that for my son, Nolan. I mean, he had trauma around a blood draw back in his childhood, and, and it was ti- I was like, "Dude, we, we haven't done a blood draw on you in years." I like to, I like to do that every- Sure ... one to two years on my kids. And I'd put it off because he was so traumatized, and, uh, we brought him in, walked him through it nice and slow, used the numbing cream, and it's fine, and he no longer has issues.

Um, so you're right. There, there is something to be said even for that portion of being able to help someone work through that trauma. One thing I'll also point to with ME cells, right? You heard me talk about federal and state regulation and all this. Right. Um, so we do have a very closely monitored system in how we have to legally navigate being able to offer these cells, right?

And we're doing it by the book. Um, that means we have to have a very, um, substantial informed consent process. Uh, the medical team gets involved as well. Um, but that has to happen so that everyone understands the inherent risks and benefit, you know, and can make their own decision because this is their decision.

Uh, we can make our recommendations, but ultimately at the end of the day, that patient or caregiver has to ultimately make the best decision that they feel, uh, is the right path for them. I just wanted to throw that out there. No, I think that's important. Right? That, that's something that, you know... We've kind of gone through, you know, uh, the bulk of the process.

I talked about, um, the Catalyst Regenerative integration method, paradigm, whatever you wanna call it, and I like to break that down into four pillars: prime, place, activate, integrate. So we've talked a lot about priming We've talked a little bit about activation, right? We laser activate, et cetera. We place, right?

Prime, place. I went out of order. Prime, place, and then the activation part, right? So what does that look like? So they came in, they worked with you, they got primed. We primed the biologic. We placed, so we ad- we administered the cells, the biologic, laser-guided, homed, et cetera, and now we gotta activate. What does that mean?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Oh, what does that mean? Doesn't that begin, doesn't that activation... Okay, so on some weird level, doesn't the activation even kind of begin, like, the moment they sign up? Like, aren't all those- I love that you

Dr. Brandon Crawford: went there ...

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: cells always... Like when you sign up for a retreat-

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm ...

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: and it's three months away, but stuff- Mm-hmm

starts happening, right?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yes, absolutely.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Okay. So same thing. That activation begins, I think, the moment we commit to the procedure.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yes.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And then it just, it continues to, it continues to be a part of, of every piece of what's happening, I think. Mm-hmm. Um, from, from when we start trying to regulate the system, not trying, from when we start regulating the system to when we activate those cells, to when we activate the brain and body areas.

It's all activation.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yes. And you're right. And I like that you're thinking on it at, at the bigger level, right? Because you're right. Um, I guess my analogy would be a piece of music, right? You don't experience music one note at a time. Your brain hears the beginning notes, the, the middle notes. I- I- And not only are you experiencing this musical piece, but y- but you're seeing things, you're feeling things.

You're... Right? This, this, uh, w- what would thi- you know, y- this little piece of music that has these, you know, sequential notes of different sounds, w- right? They come together to create an experience that can have a dramatic impact on you, right? And so that's how I kind of view it, right? You're right. These things don't happen individually, right?

It's all together, right?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right. We don't heal in isolation.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Exactly. When I think through it, again, boiling it down to the patient level, so prime place activate, right? So we've got those cells where we want them. Now let's start to activate them, meaning let's make them more metabolically active so that they go to work.

Uh, they're going to do that anyway, but let's... Again, we're trying to find ways to accelerate the process. Um, and so let's say that's a neurodevelopmental case, right? And the kid has unintegrated primitive reflexes. So after we do, um... after we place the cells, then they'll spend an hour working on whatever primitive reflexes we're needing to integrate or maybe there's a vestibular imbalance.

We'll work on that. Maybe there's a cognitive issue, right? And we're... Right? So it's let's now go and selectively target those neuronal pools so that we can increase the metabolic activity and thus increase the outcome that we're going for, and then that begins to bleed over into the concept of integration-

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right ...

Dr. Brandon Crawford: which takes longer, right? We need to continue to repetitively fire these neuronal pools. I would argue people need to continue working with you if they have multiple layers of emotional trauma to work through. Right. Um, whatever that is for them that may be presenting a barrier to them, right? We need to continue to work through that, and that's the integration concept.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right. Consistency.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yes. Absolutely. Uh, repetition is the language of the brain. Answer this.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Mm-hmm. You always do this.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: This will be easy. You'll, you'll be able to get it.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Oh, thanks.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: What role do beliefs and expectations have in the healing process, both for the patient and for the provider?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Well, they have a big role, and it's tricky.

You know? It's like somebody doesn't get sick because they have negative thoughts. Can it contribute? I think it can. Yeah. But that's not... It's n- it's never that simple, and I think sometimes we try to simplify it in ways that, that are just really unfair. I think the most... I think one of the things that- That is super important and that emotional piece is, and I think we, we kind of will underestimate the body's ability to heal when, when the conditions for healing are present.

Voice Over: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right? So it goes back to prime, place, activate, integrate. And, and the most important factor in that to me is feeling safe And, and people don't feel safe always when, when they get here, when they get... By the time, and so many, by the time they- we're like the last resort. Yeah. Like, we've tried everything.

Nothing works. Mm-hmm. We're gonna give this one more Hail Mary and see what happens kinda thing, right? Yeah. I mean, I hear it a lot. And, and the last thing they feel is safe.

Voice Over: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And I think that it's another nice thing about being in the clinic, whether it's a, a neuro hour or it's a, a therapy hour or, or whatever that hour is, I think that our staff does a really good job at putting people at ease, of making them feel safe and appreciated and important, right?

And I think all those things are so important when you're, when, when we go to heal. Because if, if we're in constant fight or flight, if we're in parasympathetic overload, if we're hypervigilant about everything, there's no way for that system to soften enough to let anything else in. Mm-hmm. Right? Healing or whatever.

And, and so many times, the, you know, theta's, theta's tricky, right? 'Cause theta is where God lives. Theta's where the monsters live. Theta's where healing lives.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Sounds like a scary place.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Well, it's, it's all the things. Right. And, and if I'm doing therapy, I'm wanting to get somebody in a theta state. Mm-hmm. If, if I'm wanting them to release something, I wanna get them in a theta state because I know that's how I can get there.

If I want them to heal, I want them in a theta state. And so that one piece of... And, and honestly, I think that when we're working with someone in an intensive capacity where they're also doing regenerative medicine, they get a whole lot of mind-body that doesn't ever happen in my room. Yeah. Because somebody is constantly doing their best to put them at ease.

You know? And, and I think that's a piece that, that we really have to remember is if, if we, if, if, if we can get our minds out of our body's way and just let it heal, it's amazing what can actually happen.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. I remember we were, um, we were in a procedure, and when we're doing the laser activation ponent, uh, component is when we want someone to be very intently, passionately reading through these goals and things that you've prepared for them, right?

By talking with them. It's not like you just threw a dart, right? This was, yeah, very well orchestrated. And I remember, I believe it was a mom, um, and she just could not say the words as you wrote them. She would say things, like you would write... Uh, and I don't remember exactly what it was, but you would write something like, "I will walk" or, "I will run through," you know, whatever.

You're like, "I will," right? It was a statement. "I will." And she would change it and say- ... "We hope for," right? Yes. And, and I'm sitting there going, "Oh, my gosh, the importance of those words, the importance of the belief," I, I can't even begin to discuss how important that is, right?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Oh, it's huge.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: We have to allow room for that to happen.

We don't know if it'll happen. I hope it will. We've seen some miraculous things. Um, so i- not only is it important for the patient to allow room for those things to happen, but it's also important for us as providers to allow room for those things to happen.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Absolutely.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And, uh, I don't, I cannot be the limiting factor in that person's healing.

I, I, I n- will not allow myself to be that limiting factor, so I have to be very open to allowing the energy, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, whatever, you know, we, we wanna say in that moment, um, to be able to take effect. Something that is bigger than us-

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Absolutely ...

Dr. Brandon Crawford: to come in and to do the work. 'Cause ultimately, that's what we're inviting in at that point in time.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Yes.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: What's been your most memorable case?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Oh. That's so unfair.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I know it is. There

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: are so many. I mean, there, there are so many that are important for, for different reasons. Mm-hmm. The one that I know the best is when my own family member came, and who had had some weird cell things happening and some other issues, and so she came and did VSEL.

And again, it's one of those when you're with somebody all the time, it's easy not to notice the little changes. And she's one of those people that always, if you're having conversation about getting something done, she's halfway through it before the conversation's over kind of thing. Mm-hmm. And she had gotten COVID and almost died, and her long COVID lasted a long time, and we were past all that- And this, the reason I wanted her to do VSEL and EVs was something physical that was going on in the moment didn't have anything to do with that.

And she came, she did the process, and then went home And I don't know, we were talking a couple of days later, and she answered the phone and she's like, "I'm back." And I'm, I'm, can be very literal sometimes. And I said, "Well, yeah, it's Sunday. You got home on Friday." "Yeah, you're back." And she's like, "No, I'm back.

I am pre-COVID." And it was like, wait, what do you mean? And then we started looking at all those things, all these projects that she had just been talking about for months and nothing was happening, which is not like her. And she had been talking about an art studio in the back of the property for over a year.

And within a week when she got back after VSEL and EVs, the plans were drawn, the foundation was poured. I mean, boom, boom, boom. It was, it just, it was amazing to see. I think one of the things I love about this the most is that, yes, we all have goals, and there are certain things we want to come out of this, but it is fascinating to me to watch how many different areas this can make a difference.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm. Yeah. My, uh, I wouldn't say this is my most memorable case, but my wife, right? She did the procedure, um, and she kind of said the same thing, right? She's like, "Oh my gosh, I'm wanting to do things around the house. I'm wanting to go organize, create, do this project," like all these things, right? It's like it just gave her, like, this zeal- Yeah

that came back, right? That, and that was not the intentional goal of doing the procedure.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: It was just an awesome side effect.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: And, and at least in the case I was speaking of, that's not changed, and it's been over a year and a half since she did that procedure.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. I'm glad you bring that up because, uh, almost every time I talk to someone about this procedure, they'll ask, like, number one, "Do the results last?"

A- and I tell them they absolutely should last. If, if for some reason there's a regression, we need to figure out why, because that's not normal. We don't want that to happen. Right. Um, and that's exactly what we do, right? I- I- if we're checking in with someone and they're saying like, "Man, I got these results, and then they went away," w- we're checking into that, and that doesn't happen often, just FYI.

Right. Like, rarely. Um, but, you know, uh, when, when you do either of... any of these procedures, right, the goal is to accelerate neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity creates sustainable change. That's the whole point of what we're doing is sustainable change, right? Does it mean in one procedure you go from, you know, point A to Z?

No. There, you know, you're going to get to a certain point. And the brilliant part of this is that it's not like the brain doesn't know how to heal. But I don't know how much intervention you're gonna need along the way, right? Sometimes we just remove some interference, boost neuroplasticity, and that's all you need.

We've had plenty of patients that do this one time, and they are very happy with where they landed. Um, obviously the more severe the case, okay, very severe, severe brain injuries or, you know, something like this where, yeah, we're, we're going to need to continue along the way to, you know, maybe there's more procedures, there's more intensive care, et cetera.

Um, but each patient is going to have a different journey. That's why I tell them, right? Right. Let's do, let's do this upfront care. Which by the way, a lot of people don't understand. You don't have to do intensive care with these procedures. They can be separated. You can do one or the other, you can do both.

It's just so many people choose to do them together. Um, but you know, we're as flexible as we can be with people, right? Um, and so that's why I tell them, "Let's start here. Let's see how you respond. Let's reevaluate. Let's game plan." And that's how we take it,

Voice Over: right?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: This little kiddo, he was non-verbal autistic.

Um, he did intensive care in vCell with EVs with us. Started talking, great results, uh, fantastic results. Um, they came back and, uh, did another round of intensive care, but then did Muse. And the amount of exponential growth that came after that was insane. Uh, they actually called and said, "When we come back, we're doing two rounds of Muse."

Wow. And, uh, so I love that case. It just, you know, he got both forms of the procedure, and I don't know that you can, you know, for sure say that, oh, Muse was better for him. It-- maybe that was just the right thing at the right time. Um, I, I've already mentioned the neurodegenerative cases. I love that. I think that we're experiencing a dramatic rise in neurodegeneration.

We have a population that's living longer, and They need help. You know, of course I wanna help everyone. Love helping kids. We're known for helping kids. We do a great job with kids. Um, but this population is suffering.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: It is.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And there's no good answer out there right now. There's not even, there's no medication, there's no surgery, there's n- there's nothing.

Um, so I absolutely am thrilled about the results that we're seeing in those neurodegenerative cases.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Yeah, I love those. Yeah. I love those.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. Even the biohackers, those are fun too, right?

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Those are fun, too.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: They're, they're so much fun. You know, it's, it's interesting for us, right? We, we get to navigate some very, very, very complex, difficult cases, right?

And so when we get someone, they're like, "I wanna think better, move better, be better," right? We're like- Yeah ... "Let's rock and roll."

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Yeah, those are fun.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. If I, if I can take someone from, you know, not moving in a bed to, you know, walking and talking, right, I can help you think better.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Right, right. That, that, uh, peak performance kind of idea is- Mm-hmm

so fun.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. What else shall we add to this discussion? I feel like we've gone in so many different directions. Um-

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: I do too. I don't know. I think we covered the main things, didn't we? I

Dr. Brandon Crawford: think so.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I think so. I'm sure if we missed something, Donna will tell us.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Dr. Donna.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And she'll, uh, ask us to get back in front of the camera and update this information again.

Hopefully we, you know, we'll do this again soon, and we'll pick another topic, and it's always fun having you.

Dr. Jeri LaVigne: Thanks. It's great being here.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. If there's someone that you know that is suffering, someone that you know that can be better, uh, please share this video with them. I hope that this information has been educational.

We know this information is very important to be able to do the things that we wanna do, and that's to help others live the best possible life that they can. So please like, share, subscribe, do all the things, and until next time, I'll see you later.

Voice Over: We hope today's episode has inspired you to take that next step toward your best self. Remember, the path to longevity is paved with small daily decisions. Your journey is unique, and every step, every choice brings you closer to your ultimate vision of a healthier, happier life. For more insights, tips, and resources, visit drbrandoncrawford.com.