Podcasts

Straight Talk With Art Levine About KAATSU

April 22, 2020
20 min read

For who? Work-at-home employees, student-athletes, competitive athletes, retirees
For what? Functional movement, strength, flexibility, mobility, KAATSU At Home

Straight Talk is a weekly half hour talk show hosted by Art Levine and broadcast on cable systems in Long Beach and 40 surrounding cities reaching 650,000 cable viewers. In its 19th year on air, Straight Talk is the most watched and respected cable talk show in the greater Long Beach area. Levine interviewed Steven Munatones on July 27th 2019 [link here] about KAATSU.

Transcript

Coming right up, Straight Talk with Art Levine, our guest tonight, Steven Munatones, CEO of KAATSU Global, as we continue our 26th anniversary year. Straight Talk is brought to you in part by the Port of Long Beach, a leader in international trade and environmental stewardship. And the Press-Telegram, your local news leader for over 100 years. And Scan Health Plan for your health and independence.

Join us for tonight’s edition of Straight Talk. And now your host, Art Levine. Good evening and welcome to Straight Talk. We have a great show for you tonight. Our guest for the entire show is Steven Munatones, who is the CEO of KAATSU Global.

Steve, welcome to our show. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. KAATSU means additional pressure. Correct. Explain. So the technology was created by a Japanese doctor, a true medical visionary, who wanted to engorge the limbs and blood for a variety of purposes. And so we put these bands on and it provides additional pressure. And that is the meaning of the term in Japanese KAATSU, additional pressure.

Here’s a picture of Dr. Sato. Sato on the cover of this book. And Steve, you’ve devoted your life’s work based on this concept. Correct. You’ve worked for 14 years, basically, without compensation. Correct. You are committed to mainstreaming this device, which we’ll show later in the show.

Absolutely. I first met Dr. Sato in 2001, and he showed me what he was doing, primarily with elderly people, 60, 70, 80-year-olds. I was totally fascinated, and I asked him, “How can I learn how to do this?” And he said, “Well, return to Japan,” which I did religiously four times a year. And he took me to hospitals, medical clinics, sumo wrestling, professional baseball teams, and he showed me how to apply his methodology across all forms of humanity, old, young, male, female, injured, healthy. And I was totally fascinated, and I knew that was what I needed to do with the rest of my life. And you’ve been doing that? Yes, since 2001. And this has changed lives? Absolutely.

We have had quadriplegics be able to move. We’ve had paraplegics being able to walk. We’ve extended the life of professional athletes. We have enabled young kids in high school to go on to NCAA careers. We’ve helped morbidly obese people. We have helped people with broken fingers, ribs, clavicles, heels, you name it.

It seems too good to be true. On the face of it, when I first saw it, it did seem too good to be true. But when you understand the human physiology and what Dr. Sato had discovered, and you open your mind to what is possible, that is what medical researchers, physicians, and now the Veterans Administration are now discovering.

So what he came across back in the 1960s and ’70s, first experimenting on himself and then those around him and now have expanded to 47 countries, now traditional mainstream medicine is acknowledging that there is something there. You said ’60s or ’70s. That’s 50 years ago. Yes. He had something that he discovered 50 years ago. Correct.

…that does what seems like miraculous cures, and yet it hasn’t been mainstreamed. Correct. Because it’s so hard to believe. And what he had to do… It’s too good to be true. Because his vision, our vision, is to enable anyone, anywhere, doing anything to either rehabilitate themselves or to improve their physical capabilities. Unbelievable.

Yes, this runs in the face of modern medicine, which is a medical care provider helps you get better. What Dr. Sato had always envisioned was the person themselves helping themselves to get better at their home, at their office, during travel, anywhere, anytime. In our next segment, we will show you this remarkable device. And it was difficult for me to believe that this could do what Steven just described.

But you have countless, countless examples of people that in all walks of life that have been saved is a little strong, but their lives have been changed. Correct. The human body has this incredible ability to heal itself or to get itself better. Yes. And this is actually the catalyst to enabling that natural mechanism to proceed.

Forgive me, but it sounds like you could put a lot of doctors out of business. No, the medical community still has their specialized knowledge about what they do. They still need to do surgery. They still need to help individuals get better. What this is doing is it’s overlaying. It is enhancing what physicians, physical therapists can do to help the body get better. Get it rehabilitated faster. So instead of being on crutches for six weeks, now you’re only on crutches for two weeks. Instead of not being able to walk after a surgery, now being able to get up and walk within a week. So you’re missing less work. So you can go out and see your children’s baseball games faster. Do it faster and you reduce costs. Oh, yes. And costs are one of the great challenges in our medical field.

Most first-world countries, the demographic changes, meaning there are more older people in this world, means that the medical costs, overall medical costs are increasing. As people get older. Absolutely. And so what we want to do is, instead of forecasting medical costs going up, we want to change that equation and help them come down. We help them come down by rehabilitating faster, quicker. And nature seems to provide us with the opportunity of self-healing.

Absolutely. So if you break your finger right now, you sort of tape it, and it will heal itself. If you break a rib, there’s not really much you can do. With things like KAATSU and good diet and various other things, you can actually enable your body to heal itself better. Wow. Well, you won’t want to miss the next segment when Steve will show you this device and you can judge for yourself. We’ll be right back after these messages.

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We’re back continuing this remarkable conversation with Steve Munatones, the CEO of KAATSU Global. And as we mentioned in the first segment, KAATSU means additional pressure. Correct. That pressure is put on by this device which this company sells. Correct. And it’s now been wrapped on your arm. Correct. We do that during the break. So let’s see how it works. So we put a band on. It’s pneumatic, meaning that air is shooting inside. So what we mean by additional pressure is when I shoot the air inside, the circumference decreases. And when that happens, you get a pooling of blood in the limb. Very safe.

The blood goes in and it’s being reduced coming back. That is a catalyst for a variety of biochemical reactions in the body. Natural, safe, biochemical reactions in the body. There’s a hormonal response. There’s an increase in the vascular elasticity. And all of these mechanisms in the body that have been very well documented from Europe to Asia to the United States is the means in which the body can heal itself faster.

So these simple bands begin the process. So let’s push the button and see what happens. Show our audience what this is. So it’s a little handheld device. The tubes are connected to the band and somebody puts this on within a matter of a few seconds and you turn it on. And so when you turn it on, you can hear the band inflate.

Sorry about that. You hear the band inflate and that’s all you do. It’s automatic. This reminds me a little bit of blood pressure. Yes. This does the opposite of a blood pressure cuff. A blood pressure cuff occludes or cuts off the blood supply. This actually keeps it in. That’s a very, very profound difference. And explain why it works.

And why it works is, I don’t know if you can see in the camera, but this is my natural skin tone, and this is my hand, which has more blood in it. This hand right now has the color as if I was doing push-ups as if I was doing physical therapy, but I’m just sitting here. So actually, on a cellular level, my left arm is exercising, or it could be rehabilitating, or whatever I wanted to do.

As I’m sitting in my office, as I’m sitting in an airport lounge, as I’m lounging at my home watching television, I could be doing this. And that does the same thing as lifting weights in a gym or push-ups at home. Correct. Correct. It’s my kind of exercise. We do that with people. Maybe they have a sling on their arm, a cast on their leg. Maybe they had a knee surgery, a hip surgery, so they aren’t as mobile. NFL players use this when they tear their chest muscle, and they can’t do chest presses. Yes. So now, instead of getting a barbell and pressing, all they need to do now is actually do this movement. Wow. And my arm right now is actually getting tired. Amazing.

Amazing. And this works for athletes? Athletes. Our oldest user is 104 years old. How old was he when he started using the device? She actually had severe dementia. Severe dementia. She was bedridden for two months. Her eyes were closed. We actually put this on comatose patients for increased muscle tone. In her case, very remarkably, after two months of daily use, 15 minutes a day, her eyes opened and she was able to walk, et cetera, et cetera. Really remarkable, really remarkable. And baby boomers are coming of the age where more and more medical problems normally arise. Correct, correct.

If we can help someone rehabilitate themselves faster, if we can allow them to not be in a cast for as long, this means their medical care, their duration of their medical care, and their total cost of their medical care will come down. This is never going to replace the expertise and knowledge of a medical professional. What it’s going to do is enable that medical professional to apply their skills in a much more efficient manner.

And this has enormous impact on the cost of medical care. Absolutely. One of the reasons, I’ll turn this off for a moment. One of the reasons it was discovered in Japan is Japan is the most rapidly aging society in the history of mankind. Back in 1999, the Japanese foresaw the time when half of their population would be over the age of 65. That demographic change will be coming to the United States.

We’re probably, depending on who you speak with, 20 to 40 years behind the Japanese aging rate. Just out of curiosity, why do the Japanese age so quickly? A, they’re living a lot longer. Diet? Diet is one. Also, you will see 70, 80, 90-year-olds walking about town. They don’t take the escalator. They don’t take the elevator. They’re walking upstairs. They’re doing something physical all the time.

And this somehow got embodied in the culture? Absolutely. They were a country of fishermen and farmers. So physical labor was nothing they ever shied away from. Now, the health of the older people is actually, in some ways, better than the younger people who are stuck at a desk behind a computer. And that sedentary lifestyle, which is affecting everybody in first-world countries, is really affecting the metabolism of the younger people. When you and I were young, we rode bikes, we walked around town, et cetera. Nowadays, kids are on a computer, on their phone. Okay, we’ll be back after these messages.

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Continuing this fascinating discussion with Steve on KAATSU additional pressure. This will impact the health of our aging baby boomers. Correct. Very much so. Right now we have a project that has huge potential with the Veterans Administration. There’s 54 million Americans who can go to VA facilities from Long Beach to New York.

Many of those people have diabetes. Many of those people are slowing down. Many of those people are getting older. So we have to find ways to reduce that budget, to make their healthful lifestyle part of what they’re doing. And this is one of the initiatives that we’re doing with them and many other people. Well, the application of KAATSU is very broad.

Military, Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, Special Forces have adopted this. Correct. Correct. And in the course of their training, we are not changing anything they’re doing. They are doing what they’ve been doing for generations, preparing for warfare. What we are doing is, just like we do with health, we overlay KAATSU to enhance what they’re currently doing. Wow.

Pro sports, NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, hockey, soccer. Correct. All use this. Correct. Correct. Because if you think about the life of a professional athlete, it’s a limited career. And generally, you’re going to increase your salary at the more years you are in the league. But you have a propensity for injury.

So the faster these men and women can get back into the field to play, the longer and more profitable their own professional career will be. And you have an example with Danny Woodhead. Correct. Danny Woodhead was a four-time Super Bowl winning running back with the New England Patriots. He was traded as he got older in his early 30s to the San Diego Chargers, now the Los Angeles Chargers.

But he tore his ACL. Here he is an undersized running back towards the end of his career. And he just tore his ACL, which would put him out basically a whole season. He came to us in October. His orthopedic surgeon recommended he start KAATSU, and I told him that he would be back running by Thanksgiving. He did not believe me.

Three days before Thanksgiving, he texted me a picture of him running. Nice. He didn’t lose. He didn’t have muscle atrophy. He was able to continue his range of motion and he was back on the field of play. That enabled him to extend his career even longer. And I understand he signed a multi-million dollar contract. Correct. So a very small investment on a simple device enabled this particular individual and many other individuals to extend their career and continue their livelihood.

And finally, college sports. There are 70 universities. Correct. And many of them are adopting MIT, Alabama football, Kentucky basketball. Amazing. Yes, we have everything from division one to division three schools, everything from basketball to swimming, water polo to volleyball. And you told me during break that more division three have adopted it than division one.
I don’t understand that. So division one athletic budgets are smaller, by necessity. They don’t focus on the athlete as much as the Division One schools. So the budget that they do spend has to have a bigger bang for their buck. And something like a KAATSU device actually enables them to have a bigger bang for their buck. Amazing.

The future of KAATSU, the future of medicine you’ve suggested is anywhere, any time, anyone, and one more. Yes, anyone, anywhere, anytime, and anyone. Wow. So in other words, you can rehabilitate yourself anywhere. Not only you don’t have to always go to the physical therapist. The physical therapist has expertise for you, but you can continue that physical therapy at your home, at your office, during travel. So the length of time it takes to get back to a healthy status will be faster. It’s remarkable and still counterproductive, counterintuitive to me that something that works so well and has such a profound impact has not been more widely adopted.

Because it’s counterintuitive. Because on the face of it, how is this relatively simple process doing such profound things? And that takes a leap of faith. So the people who we are working with, if you think about it, the Navy SEALs, the NFL teams, these are out-of-the-box thinkers. We are working with some of the best orthopedic surgeons out there, the leaders of their field. They think outside the box. They’re thinking, not what is my income now?

What is truly the best for my soldier, for my player, for my patients? And those are the people that we began a relationship with, that we provide our expertise. They share their experiences with us, and we go forward. You really are a missionary. This is my life’s mission, and this is why I spent 14 years not being compensated, truly learning this technology, re-engineering the products in order to share it with everybody. Wow. Okay, we’ll be back with the rest of our show after these messages.

You’ve been planning this moment for a long time. It couldn’t be a more perfect moment. And you have the perfect ring that will tell her, “I want to love you forever.” But nothing is perfect.
Don’t listen to that guy. He got the ring at McCarty’s. McCarty’s makes a moment.

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Our guest Steve Munatones has coached nine USA National Swim Teams. The program has been adopted by the SEALs and the Army Rangers and Special Forces, 69,000 total currently used by the Veterans Administration. It’s really amazing to me, but it works. Correct. And we want to touch people’s lives. The quality of life of someone who’s injured, who has gone through surgery, it’s difficult enough. If through our technology, we can make their rehabilitation, their recovery better, we have achieved our goal. This is what we want to do. We really want to touch people’s lives and help their body get better, faster, quicker, cheaper.

Thank you, Steve Munatones, for joining us. He is truly a man with a mission. Thank you. Thank you at home for watching, and please join us next week for the next edition of Straight Talk. Good night, everyone. Straight Talk has been brought to you by the Port of Long Beach, the Press-Telegram, and Scan Health Plan. And remember, Straight Talk is viewable 24/7 at straighttalktv.com.