Necessity is often considered the mother of invention. For Tony Robbins, the necessity and desire to find alternative treatments is what led him to explore and discover ways to live a longer and healthier life. On Thursday’s show, Robbins joined Megyn to discuss his new book, Life Force, and the health scares that ultimately reshaped his way of thinking.
From Fear to Freedom
While Robbins enjoyed success at an early age as personal development coach, he struggled with doubt. “You know that part of your brain that’s kind of the fight-or-flight survival part? I didn’t know how to manage that,” he shared. Having overcome a self-described “tough childhood,” Robbins grew convinced that his life was going to be cut short. “Even though intellectually I knew that was insane, I started obsessing about it,” he said. “You obsess on something, it shows up in your life usually.”
The first way it showed up in his life was via his girlfriend’s mother Jenny. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given nine weeks to live. “I think most of us will do more for others we love than we’ll do for ourselves,” Robbins noted. “If it’d been me, I’d probably have gone into fear, but instead it’s like, Wait a second, there are thousands of people that have been in stage four cancer and turned it around and are alive today. Let’s go study those patterns – that’s what I’ve done my whole life.”
One book in particular told the story of a man who survived pancreatic cancer. He encouraged Jenny to read it. “I said, ‘Jenny, I think you can still live. This man lived. Why don’t you read this and see if it’s worth going for. You have no downside if it doesn’t work. You’re just gonna have the same outcome,’” he recalled. Jenny did read the book and apply the principles and beat her prognosis. “She’s in her eighties today, totally alive,” Robbins shared. That experience “changed me from victim and fear to really being kind of a biohacker and transforming my life,” he added.
Biohacking a Rotator Cuff Injury
Another pivotal point in Robbins’ journey came when he sustained a rotator cuff injury while being, as he told it, “an idiot going down the side of a mountain chasing a 22-year-old professional snowboarder and discovering I didn’t have that ability.”
While he was used to living with chronic pain, he said this was the worst pain he had ever experienced. After consulting with four surgeons who encouraged him to have it surgically repaired, he still felt like there had to be a better way. After all, the surgery came with four to six months of recovery and the possibility of not being able to use your arms in the same way. “I’m like picturing me with one arm trying to do a seminar for 12 hours a day,” he joked. “So, I asked about stem cells.”
Robbins had worked with athletes like soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo who was able to return from injury in record time with stem cell therapy. Doctors told him that the treatment wouldn’t be effective for his condition, but he still wanted to explore it further. He was connected with Dr. Bob Hariri – who is now a partner and co-author of his latest book – and was initially dismayed to learn that, as a 53 year old, his stem cells wouldn’t be up for the job.
There was, however, an alternative. “Dr. Hariri said, ‘You need the force of life; you need to get stem cells that are brand new, like four days old,’” Robbins recalled. Using stem cells from the placenta and umbilical cord of newborns, he underwent an IV treatment for 20 minutes a day. “On day two, I woke up with no problem, and I had an MRI that showed my shoulder is perfect,” he explained. “But the second thing that happened was I had no pain in my spine for the first time in 14 years.”
The Regeneration Revolution
This led him to become “obsessed” with stem cells. “I discovered it’s not just stem cells, it’s this regeneration revolution,” he shared. In 2018, he attended and spoke at the Fourth International Vatican Conference about the topic. There, he met dozens of patients (including legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus) who benefited from stem cell therapy, in addition to the scientists and physicians who were innovators in the field. “That gave me the drive to say, I’m going to interview these 150 doctors,” Robbins said. “I want to bring those answers to people, and I have this healing in my own body as a secondary gift as well.” His new book is the result of those interviews.
You can check out Megyn’s entire interview with Tony Robbins by tuning in to episode 259 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.