#1113 – The Expat Files: Stem Cell Treatments, Healthcare Systems, and Expat Life in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now that I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started Alright, this show goes out on December 24th So merry crimble to everyone and to all my Jewish buddies out there who have Christmas trees go for it Kids love that stuff and adults do too. Oh, and if you want to hear something that's seasonally funny

[00:45] You might remember me talking about how I went to the stem cell clinic in Puerto Vallarta Just about a month and a half ago now thing is, you know, I've got two younger brothers in pretty bad shape One's 50 and he's got something like 14 heart stance his heart ejection fraction is 30% So he'll be on a transplant less soon. So stem cells They're known to work directly on heart muscle and even as an intermediary step to see what happens after that Who wouldn't do it? Well, I can tell you exactly who people who say but insurance won't pay for it But come on if that could strengthen your heart muscle and avoid a transplant who wouldn't do it You'd be surprised some Americans even really smart ones won't even get their ugly yellow or discolored front teeth fix because insurance won't pay

[01:31] Are you one of those? In fact, I remember this really beautiful girl in high school sat right next to me She had a gray discolored front tooth. It was just sad to see your parents wouldn't fix it I ran into her years later and yeah, she had it fixed But I think it still left a self-esteem problem that lasted a long time So anyway, my brother of course his insurance won't pay for stem cells at a 20th or a 50th the cost of a heart transplant Oh, but they'll pay for stents transplants and bypasses. Oh, yeah, same thing with knee and joint replacements In fact, my own brother told me the other one whose knees and shoulders are all screwed up from sports injuries Just a few months ago He was scheduled to get a prosthetic knee and I said man Are you nuts have you heard about stem cells and how they can quite possibly rebuild your cartilage enough so that you don't need A new knee and his very first question you guessed it will insurance pay for it. I

[02:22] Said well the pay for the artificial knee and would have done it had I not suggested stem cells which he'd never heard of So Americans have been brainwashed with medical treatment. It's all about the money not the quality or efficacy of the treatment But you knew that already, right? Well, maybe not all about the money But there's lots of money in it and it's hard for someone to accept a totally new kind of treatment That'll cut out a huge amount of income for doctors hospitals clinics and prosthetics manufacturers So anyway, my brother said will insurance pay for it. I said never mind. I'll pay for it We're going to the stem cell clinic along with my other brother with the bad heart, of course Well as luck would have it a day before they were supposed to fly down to Porta Vallarta via Chicago Oh airfield my brother with the bad knees shoulders and arthritis and remember he's only in his 50s

[03:11] But he walks like a zombie uses knee braces a cane and even gets a wheelchair at the airport Anyway, because of his bad joints his arthritis his high blood pressure his thyroid issues his night terrors and vertigo he was taking 22 prescription medications a day and the day before he was supposed to fly out of O'Hare field to Porta Vallarta He was in the shower had an attack of vertigo fell down and broke off his front teeth I know I know I started this out as an upbeat Christmas story, right? Well, I'm getting to that. I know you're wondering How am I gonna get there from here? I'm kind of wondering that myself So he ended up in the emergency room spent four days in the hospital up in Chicago and never made it to the stem cell clinic That was a month and a half ago now fast forward to early December just two weeks ago

[03:56] Now if you've been listening to the expat files lately You'll know that I mentioned expat Eddie was in the Dominican Republic and he stumbled onto a stem cell clinic That's not highly publicized at all. No glitz. No glamour. No stylish English website a nice website to be sure but it's in Spanish So gringos and expats just aren't gonna find this place no matter how hard they try and if they do and hit that Spanish only website Well, you know how well gringos speak Spanish. They'll get flummoxed and skip over it in a hurry Anyway, it's early December just a couple weeks ago. My brother's up in the States contemplating getting a knee replacement Since he blew off the stem cell appointment in Porta Vallarta when you think about it, though, what better candidate for stem cells, huh? Anyway after Eddie told me about the stem cell clinic in the Dominican Republic the DR

[04:42] I went down there myself to visit and it's everything you want in a natural health care center and because no glitz no glamour No marketing machine The prices are half what they are in Porta Vallarta So anyway, my brother got out of the hospital up in the States recovered a little bit and I brought him down So for all you guys and gals out there who've been asking me how much this stem cell clinic costs and how long you got To be there etcetera, etcetera. Well, let me tell you about my brother He's a test case a really good test case too Because when we walked in the office and the doctor saw that he's on 22 different medications That rolled his eyes and raised his eyebrows and he instantly took a pen and started slashing through the list and cut his medications Down to 14 right then and there and he said, you know after the stem cell treatments

[05:27] We should be able to get you down to just about five or six by the way He said you're taking so much medication. You've been taking it so long I'd be willing to bet your vertical issues and some of your other problems brain fog and sometimes slurring your words are related to Drug interactions who knows the doc knew my brother was a walking pharmacy Then he said, you know, we could give you stem cells right now and it'll help but he said it's not optimal The best way to do this is to detoxify your body at all The errant chemicals and drugs out of your system that is clean you up and clean you out before we give you the stem cells So you're not up against all the inflammation those drugs are causing So they worked out a three-week treatment. The first two weeks is detox No, not from alcohol, but from years of a bad American diet and all those prescription drugs. He's been taken

[06:14] Oh, and I forgot to tell you my brother's about 40 pounds overweight Oh and the one with the heart trouble the one who had the 300 million stem cells at Puerto Vallarta Along with me about a month and a half ago He's about 60 pounds overweight, but he was for a long long time a hundred pounds overweight And that's what did his heart in so anyway, my brother with all the joint problems is gonna be in the Dominican Republic for a total Of three weeks two weeks of chelation and ozone IV along with a few other treatments And at the end of week three, he'll be getting his stem cells and going home But remember my brother's body's about as shot as a body could be he's a pretty extreme case over the years He's had all kinds of cartilage and ligament surgeries due to sports injuries He was a hockey goalie scouted by the NHL, but he never got that far

[06:59] He that's first surgery at 19. He's got both knees and both shoulders completely shot In fact, he's got to take a load of pain pills every night just to fall asleep because his shoulders bother him so much So he really is the perfect case for us to monitor here on the show for this new stem cell clinic Oh, and this is what happens the first two or three days you get down The steps are similar to the stem cell clinic in Puerto Vallarta. Let's say you start on Monday Well on Monday, you have an hour-long consult with the doc Then you're sent to a local lab where they do some blood work Though you can bring your own blood work and radiographic work down if it's recent And if you got knee shoulder or joint problems where they're gonna inject stem cells then the next day Tuesday You're scheduled for a CT or tomographic scans on the joints They're gonna inject then Wednesday might be a day off for you for them to analyze all the data

[07:49] However, if you're loaded up with all kinds of drugs and pain pills like my brother and are on a terrible American diet They'll start detoxing you right away Well, this is the thing I really like about this clinic in the DR as opposed to the one in Puerto Vallarta They'll start detoxing you right away. Whereas from what I can tell in Puerto Vallarta They don't offer that kind of treatment at all It's just purely stem cells and some other kind of treatments But it never mentioned detoxing people before getting the stem cell I suppose because people fly into Puerto Vallarta just to get stem cells. They're in a hurry They get them and go people are busy. They can't stretch out the appointments. It's boom. Boom. Boom Plus, you know, they got to stay in a hotel or try to pretend it's kind of a vacation But I can see if a person has taken a ton of medications Detoxing before the stem cells would certainly be on the menu That would really be a sound and logical way to proceed even if it takes an extra week or two

[08:38] But you know Americans were always in a hurry, right? Who's got three weeks to spare to go to a clinic like that unless you're retired Or heading for a couple of knee and shoulder transplants like my brother Now, of course, there are people who arrive at the DR clinic and they insist on just getting the stem cells And they're in and out in three to five days depending but at least they do a full workup and offer the detox thing if necessary I have to tell you i've been in that stem cell waiting room in office four or five times now And I haven't seen a single gringo lots of Europeans though and sort of upscale wealthier locals By the way, since i'm down here with my brother in the DR at the stem cell clinic I've had a chance to talk at great length to the stem cell docs who unfortunately only speak a slight bit of english But the senior doc in the clinic whose wife is at the front desk is 100 swiss and her english is perfect

[09:23] She's the office manager and i've had some long talks with her too Since a lot of you listeners have been asking me about this place I've got my eyes and ears open always collect an info and I know they'll have to be an english Liaison and intermediary for gringo's next best take advantage of this place english speakers will need some hand holding You know filling out the forms going to the labs consulting with the docs transportation and hotels and all that You know do whatever necessary to help an english speaker get through the process Well the doc's wife the swiss office manager who speaks perfect english is working on it right now Because I told her there are plenty of gringos and expats. I know who have a lot of interest in coming down But they have to have an english speaking intermediary She knows she'll have to convert all of their intake forms into english. They're in spanish now So anyway, they're working on it and i'll keep you posted

[10:10] And of course i'll keep you in the loop on how my brother's doing Oh, and by the way a few weeks ago when my brother first came down The clinic gave him the option of getting the blood work done in the states You know, they'd give him a lab order to take to his lab up in the states And that would cut a day or two off his trip to the dr However, the labs in the dr are so inexpensive My brother chose to go to their labs It only cost him something like less than a hundred bucks for a complete blood workup and that's without insurance So anyway, my brother had a rental car. So we drove to the lab He walked in we took a number of about 10 people in front of him I figured about a half hour wait, so we went back to sit in the car for a while Meanwhile a big black kind of battered old SUV pulled up right next to us in the parking lot A fat older guy with a beard got out walked into the lab got his number

[10:55] Came back out Walked over to his car opened the passenger door sat in it and didn't close the door Now the dr is hot Really hot but the parking lot was shaded so You could sit in your car without turning on the ac at least for the time being Just rolling down your windows and maybe cracking open a door to get a breeze was enough So this fat bearded guy's right next to me because i'm in the driver's seat of the rental car He's in the passenger seat of his kind of battered black SUV and he says oh Gringo's, huh? He said it in good but broken english and I recognize it as northern european english Now this guy did not look latino He was in fact kind of a redhead mixed in with lots of gray Meanwhile, my brother and I stick out like sore thumbs because we're really white tall blue eyes and well gringoish

[11:43] By the way, I gotta tell you the capital of santo domingo It's a huge city something like six million people is off the gringo tourist trail When people go to the dr They don't go to santo domingo for vacation and sun and fun They go to puntacana The western tip of the island where all the white sand beach resorts are which is around three or four hours away from santo Domingo by car Anyway, this rotund bearded european guy says hey in his staccato northern european english Will you do me a favor? I've got to go back into the laboratory clinic Can you keep an eye on the things in my car? He said i'd like to leave the windows rolled down the hatchback up because I left my window open last night and it rained and the car upholstery and some of my clothes got wet He said i'll be back in 10 minutes and I said sure we'll keep an eye on it Now you got to know that was part of the gringo advantage kicking in because you just don't ask a stranger

[12:33] To watch your car with the windows and hatchback open Sure. It was a gated guarded parking lot So it was pretty secure in that respect, but you just don't ask somebody don't know The only explanation is he saw we were gringos the stereotype of gringos is that we're pretty honest and dependable And most of us are except in california and maybe costa rica So anyway, he went in and naturally my brother and I were curious What does this guy have in the car that got all wet and needed to air out? So we got out walked around and looked into the hatchback You won't believe this there was a complete and really nice santa clause outfit with a big red sack for santa's toys Hanging over the back seat drip drying. This rolly polly guy's job was being santa clause No damp and moldy santa clause outfit for him santa clause needs to make a good impression, right?

[13:19] Tis the season with santa. It's all about image now If you think i'm making this up I took some photos of this guy's SUV with the back hatch open Send me an email to expat files at gmail.com and you'll see exactly what i'm talking about Anyway, enough said about that. Don't forget just two months from now. My expat insider seminar will be kicking off february 18th 2022 oh and i've got some people looking for roommates, you know There's a single and double occupancy price and the double occupancy price is more than a thousand bucks cheaper If you divide it by two and occasionally single folks want to get that deal, too But you know, they're single so we connect the people that want to do that so they can talk to each other See if they're compatible and stuff and if it's a go each one of them saves almost a thousand bucks off single occupancy price All you have to do is put up with the other guys snoring sleepwalking and or bad bathroom habits

[14:06] or not For a week and save almost a thousand bucks at every single seminar except I think the first one Some people requested roommates and every single time except one it worked out really well And if you want to know what happened that one time it didn't work out Well i'll tell you in person just come down to my february 2022 expat insider seminar For all the info and sign-up details just go to expat plan b.com. That's all one word expat plan b.com And that b in the plan b is not spelled like a buzzing insect. It's the regular letter b Just go to the seminar link at expat plan b.com And don't worry keeping with the woke curriculum. You're all used to up in the states All seminar attendees will be getting a participation trophy By the way, let's talk about getting residency because some people come to the seminar applying for guatemalo residency when they get there

[14:55] But this applies to any latin american country you're going for residency in you know, you'll need an fbi report Unless you're not from the states like for example, if you're from canada, you'll need an rcmp conduct report Otherwise known as a clean rap sheet And remember those residency requirements say that you'll need those docs apostilled, which means in the case of the us Authenticated by the u.s. Government, but you should know that your docs aren't all apostilled at the same agency For example for your birth certificate. You'll have to get it apostilled in the state. You were born in You do it by mail on your state government's website. There is a section called Authentication of documents you click there and you can do it all by snail mail takes about two weeks But that fbi report has to be apostilled by the feds Now why they don't do that or include that process when you order an fbi report

[15:43] I don't know because it's the same federal government right typical shit for brains bureaucracy Anyway, you get your fbi report and the big hassle there is you have to submit fingerprints So you'll have to go down to your local sheriff's or police station and get fingerprints done You can't do it at home with finger paints No matter how good you are at it from your own visits to the slammer or not So you get the fingerprints yeah mail it into the fbi your fbi report comes back in about two weeks I know that for a fact because I just helped my brother do it about four months ago So you get it back in two weeks and then you have to have it apostilled so you go to the u.s Government website to the authentication of documents link And they'll tell you there how to do it and where to send it And here's another odd thing about the fbi report. They won't send it to an address outside the country

[16:32] So if you're applying for residency and you're living outside the u.s You'll have to have it sent to a relative or a friend or something and then have them send it by ups or dhlu Though you will be able to access it online because they'll give you a password A little card with scrambled numbers on it so that every time you go to that fbi website You have to plug in a password and a code to look at it I just have to assume they've double passworded it Because hackers are breaking in government sites so often and making fools out of them like they needed any extra help Oh, and here's something if you're getting residency, you really need to know that is if you're getting social security or social security disability When you're going for residency You have to prove to them that you're making a certain amount of money a month And you're not living off the resources of the country you're moving to That's why it's so easy for pensioners and social security recipients to get residency

[17:21] They can generally prove they're over the necessary amount just with that yearly printout from social security or disability Now remember we were talking about the fbi report and birth certificate getting apostilled, right? Well, what about that social security or disability income statement? Well, guess what? No one will aposteal that thing because it doesn't have a real government person's signature on it. It's just a printout, right? So then what well many latin countries will accept the social security printout For residency applications as long as that printout comes directly from the social security office Located at the social security desk in the embassy of the particular given latin country that you're applying for residency in Clear his mud, huh? In fact just a couple months ago a retired gringo listener living in the dr Told me he went for residency there and found out it was impossible to get a federal aposteal on his social security statement

[18:10] And even if he could the feds won't send an aposteal doc by mail outside the us as mentioned So he was stuck momentarily till he visited his dominican lawyer Who told him to call the u.s embassy in the dr and ask for the social security desk and request a copy With their stamp and seal on it He said he emailed him got back a computerized response saying they'll get back to him in a week or so That's good, huh? And then he called the embassy getting an automated response that said the social security desk was open for two hours in the morning From 10 to noon and to call and ask for so-and-so extension numbers So he did that took him four days to get through every time he called between the correct times 10 and noon He'd get another recording saying hold the line We'll answer your call within 20 30 40 even 50 minutes

[18:56] Whatever and when he tried to stay on hold after about 15 minutes each time he got cut off completely and man That's a moment of phone rage. I know it Well, how about you you've been on hold 15 or 20 minutes and it cut you off, too At that point you want to bust somebody's nose. I know the feeling eventually in four days He got through by speed dialing at exactly eight o'clock on that fourth day And the lady at the dr social security desk She spoke perfect english at u.s embassies in latin countries have pressed two for english Well as it turned out the social security lady told them with all the covidid crap They would not let him come down and pick up a hard copy personally himself After all falsie and puddin head biden say it's a plague So they emailed him his social security statement and he printed it out Nice copy in color too and his dr lawyer submitted it to the residency immigration department and it went through fine

[19:43] Though the lawyer said pre-covid that would have never flown Moral of that story That's why people absolutely need to be in close contact with their personal latin lawyer because the rules are always changing even within different countries They can be bent and only your lawyer knows how far to bend things speaking of bending the system I'm still getting a steady trickle of emails from people saying johnny I heard that expat eddie story a month or so back where he went to get vexed This sympathetic dot just loaded up the syringe laid it down on the countertop right next to eddie winked and said here's your Vax and walked out at least I think that's how it happens every time eddie tells a story that comes out a little different As it turns out, you know, there are sympathetic doctors in every latin country. So how do you find him? Well, that's what all these guys and gals and these emails are asking me Now I don't suggest you do anything illegal

[20:31] But the way expat eddie found that guy he asked his latino lawyer latin lawyers They know everything they have to and they too will never tell you or of course you're doing anything illegal But they always know a guy who knows a guy if you know what I mean Wait a minute that statement was sexist. There was something cancelable about it, right? Should I have said he knows a girl who knows a girl? Or he knows that they who know they Well, I'll tell you what not in latin america I've tried to explain what's going on with the cancel culture to Many as smart latinos and they still don't get it They don't think the us has gone completely off his tracker only because they don't believe or even understand what cancel culture is They've got this really great image of the us burnt into their mind from so many years of hollywood and friends retired asians America's got talent and the flint stones

[21:17] They just don't see that the us has completely fallen apart for latinos who've never lived in the states They preferred the hollywood and disney version All right now for something completely different but of great interest now. I realize the world runs on plastic. Everybody whips out the card Personally i've got one credit and one debit card The debit card I use only I mean only to pull out cash at a cash machine in front of or in a bank I'll never buy anything with it I just know way too many people who've got fraudulent charges on their credit and debit card statements In fact, I don't think i've known a single person ever even in the us who hasn't had a fraudulent charge They had to fight now. I'm not saying you shouldn't use your credit cards when you're traveling around I mean you can't avoid it sometimes like with airlines and hotels that includes all the online stores, too

[22:03] Though as for walk-ins at hotels, you can't give them an expired credit card and pay cash when you leave They'll never know the card wasn't valid unless you actually charge on it The thing is not so long ago even here in latin america people rarely use credit cards now They use them for a $2 purchase at mcdonald's So i've kind of settled into one little rule for myself I'll use credit cards where you can't get around it like booking an airline flight online But i'll still never use a credit card in a restaurant or eating establishment nor any hardware department store either It's a rule i've stuck to for 30 plus years now Why no restaurants the staff seems a lot looser There's a lot less security that credit or debit card goes through a lot of hands and gets appeared at by a lot of eyeballs Before it gets processed. So yes, that's right I always have some cash on me and I always have at least 500 bucks in us funny money in my zipper belt

[22:51] Which I always wear when i'm going out Now if you do have that plan b going, you know You'll need a bank account here in latin america and you'll get a credit card and debit card along with that You'll have online banking too And if you're lucky you'll be able to click for english even so not everything will be in english on that website Hey, nothing wrong with that. It actually helps you or forces you to learn your spanish, right? Thing is what if you look at your monthly statement and see there's a fraudulent charge on there? Imagine how tough it is up in the states when you have a fraudulent charge all the hoops You have to jump through all the numbers you have to call all the time wasted being put on hold It's bad enough when it happens up in the states But imagine now it happens to you and your credit card charges are in spanish Your online banking site is mostly in spanish and when you call your bank your receptionist answers in spanish, too Nope, you don't want that to happen to you. In fact, it's never happened to me yet

[23:38] I've had latin bank credit cards for a quarter of a century now God that makes me sound so ancient, huh? So up to now i've never had a fraudulent charge I know what it's due to the fact that I don't charge much at all Only online and never at restaurants food joints gas stations or appliance stores So think about that once you get down here to latin america, that is if your plan b is on the move By the way on a related note, you want to hear a story? Sure you do Turns out gringo expat friend of mine knows some spanish says he wants to open his own bank account in guadamala Instead of paying a local lawyer 50 bucks to help mopen one his girlfriend who's a call center manager in guadamala city She said she'd be his reference So he went to the bank used her as a reference got his account only took him about two and a half hours Of course, he had to provide three months of bank statements from his bank back in I think it's cincinnati

[24:27] Plus a letter of reference from his bank in cincinnati, you know saying he's been a good long-standing client Anyway success next day. He went on his online banking couldn't get in he hoofed it down to the bank He waited and waited at customer service an hour and a half later They produced three forms he had to sign Then the attendant picked up the phone called another department in the bank in another building somewhere He had to repeat his credit card numbers and type in his password on the keypad She told him to go to his internet banking site on his cell phone. It asked him to put in a new password, etc And he was in Next day he was home He wanted to move some money from his dollar account at that new bank Into his quetzal local funny money guatemalan money account He went online put in his password clicked on internal account transfers

[25:13] And nothing happened. He hoofed it down to the bank again Waited about 45 minutes at customer service. The lady produced another form from the sign He signed it and she said in 24 hours. Your account will be completely activated and it was But think about it The guy wasted at least an entire day just hurrying up and waiting and he knew spanish Moral of that story get your lawyer or lawyer's assistant to go down to the bank with you and open an account So what if it costs you 50 or 75 bucks? It's worth it unless you got way more time than money The question is though, why didn't they do all that stuff in the very first day while he was sitting there? Now, you know why they call latin america the third world. Is it a slap in the face? Is it rude? Is it a cut down? Nope, it's just the way it is There's first second third and fourth world and there's a reason why those designations exist Anyway, you'll like this a recent study of credit card cloning around latin america

[26:03] Says that for under 10 bucks You can go on the dark web and buy all the information printed on four million different credit cards for under 10 bucks each And as far as latin america mexico porta rico and brazil were found to be at the highest risk of having their details stolen and sold Or cloned in latin america fact is it says you can go online the dark web right now and buy 220,000 credit card details from cloned or stolen brazilian credit cards and 350,000 stolen or cloned Mexican credit cards and it says porta rico has a higher degree of credit card risk than any of the 50 us states And get this one if you want this article send me an email to expect files that gmail.com and i'll send it to you It's pretty interesting. It says mexico brazil and porta rico might account for the lion's share of stolen credit cards in latin

[26:50] America though funny enough buying the details of these cards on the dark web is not expensive The average cost was just two dollars and 36 cents per card in mexico and six dollars and 54 cents in brazil Among the easiest and cheapest to buy in all the regions most likely because in those countries They have low limit credit cards and thieves can only extract up to the limit Now the latin country that's least likely to have credit cards cloned or stolen is venezuela a country of 28 million people that had only 750 credit cards cloned all last year That's because the credit card limit ceiling on venezuelan bank credit cards is under 10 bucks Yep, that's the limit and more than a month's salary for most venezuelans You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america

[27:36] If you need some help with your own plan b we can schedule a one-on-one phone or skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week long expat insider seminar in central america Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan b. Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com nos vamos