#69: The Truth About Bioidentical Hormones with Jim Paoletti
The Truth About Bioidentical Hormones
In this enlightening episode of Beyond The Pills, host Josh Rimany sits down with Jim Paoletti, a pioneer in the field of natural bioidentical hormone therapy. With over 40 years of experience and a background as both a graduate and former faculty member for the Fellowship of Functional Medicine, Jim shares deep insights into the power and promise of bioidentical hormones (BHRT).
Together, they explore how hormones impact every system in the body, debunk common myths, and discuss the transformative benefits of BHRT—especially for those seeking natural, functional alternatives to traditional pharmaceutical approaches. Jim also shares a sneak peek into his upcoming book, designed to help consumers better understand the role of hormones in optimal health.
Whether you're a healthcare professional or simply curious about hormone health, this episode will open your eyes to what’s possible beyond the pills.
🎧 Tune in to learn:
- Why hormones are crucial to whole-body wellness
- The differences between synthetic and bioidentical hormones
- What most people (and even some practitioners) get wrong about BHRT
- How to take charge of your hormone health with confidence
Transcript
Welcome.
Speaker:Welcome everybody.
Speaker:Welcome to this episode of
Speaker:Beyond the Pills.
Speaker:I'm Josh Rimini, pharmacist turned healer.
Speaker:And today I am honored to
Speaker:welcome Jim Paoletti to the podcast.
Speaker:Jim is a pharmacist, educator,
Speaker:and industry leader in
Speaker:hormone optimization and
Speaker:functional wellness.
Speaker:Many of you may already know
Speaker:him from his extensive work
Speaker:in bioidentical hormone
Speaker:replacement therapy,
Speaker:or what we call BHRT,
Speaker:compounding and clinical education.
Speaker:Early in my career, his book,
Speaker:A Practitioner's Guide to
Speaker:Physiologic Bioidentical
Speaker:Hormone Balance was a game
Speaker:changer for me as I
Speaker:transitioned into the
Speaker:functional and wellness-based practices.
Speaker:with decades of experience
Speaker:jim has been instrumental
Speaker:in training healthcare
Speaker:professionals on how to
Speaker:integrate hormone health
Speaker:into patient care I'm
Speaker:excited to dive into this
Speaker:his insights and wisdom
Speaker:today jim welcome to the
Speaker:show thank you joss thank
Speaker:you for that great
Speaker:introduction like that um
Speaker:I'm thrilled to be here I
Speaker:love what you're doing and
Speaker:uh I feel honored to be part of it well
Speaker:It was, it was,
Speaker:it was all in divine timing
Speaker:and interesting spaces
Speaker:because I kind of
Speaker:reconnected with you on
Speaker:LinkedIn and I was like, Oh my gosh,
Speaker:like,
Speaker:One of the guys that I
Speaker:learned the right way to do
Speaker:hormone balancing when I
Speaker:was getting into functional
Speaker:medicine and just getting
Speaker:into compounding.
Speaker:This is, you know, we're going on.
Speaker:Seventeen years ago for me,
Speaker:it was just such an honor
Speaker:to have a connection call
Speaker:with you and be like, all right,
Speaker:let's let's go full circle with this.
Speaker:So let's let's talk a little bit about,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:what led you into the world of
Speaker:bioidentical hormone
Speaker:replacement and this kind
Speaker:of what I would call this
Speaker:wellness based pharmacy practice.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:I started my career as a regular
Speaker:behind the counter
Speaker:pharmacist counting pills and.
Speaker:but I was in a area close to
Speaker:a doctor that worked with
Speaker:Jonathan Wright.
Speaker:And so he sent me some
Speaker:literature and tell me how
Speaker:bad perimerin is for women
Speaker:and that we should be using
Speaker:these natural hormones.
Speaker:And so that was the early
Speaker:nineteen eighties.
Speaker:So I got into this very
Speaker:early and the more I read,
Speaker:the more I realized what I'm
Speaker:doing is wrong.
Speaker:This isn't right for me.
Speaker:They can do better.
Speaker:So that got me interested in it.
Speaker:So I started reading.
Speaker:I contacted Dr. Jonathan Wright and said,
Speaker:I need more information.
Speaker:And he hooked me up with a
Speaker:doctor right there in Yelts Springs, Ohio,
Speaker:I think it was.
Speaker:And I just started educating
Speaker:myself and it just went from there.
Speaker:And it turned in right.
Speaker:It turned into this whole
Speaker:career of where you've been
Speaker:teaching compounding pharmacists,
Speaker:how to do bioidenticals, right?
Speaker:How to,
Speaker:how to even prescribe them in ways
Speaker:and recommend doses and doing it right.
Speaker:And your book,
Speaker:the practitioner's guide to
Speaker:physiologic bioidentical hormone balance.
Speaker:really has been a game changer.
Speaker:What inspired you to write
Speaker:it and how has your
Speaker:thinking evolved since the publication?
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:I worked for professional compounding
Speaker:centers and I did some
Speaker:traveling and lecturing for them.
Speaker:And then I worked for a
Speaker:laboratory and I did some
Speaker:traveling and lecturing for them.
Speaker:and I was single at the time
Speaker:and for about two years
Speaker:there I was doing so much
Speaker:traveling I put like a
Speaker:hundred fifty thousand air
Speaker:miles on two years in a row
Speaker:and I really was getting
Speaker:burned out on it I mean I
Speaker:love educating there isn't
Speaker:anything I enjoy more than
Speaker:an audience that
Speaker:appreciates that I can
Speaker:teach them something that's
Speaker:going to help their
Speaker:patients or help themselves um so
Speaker:was it was great what I was
Speaker:doing but you you can't do
Speaker:that much travel and not
Speaker:lose your mind eventually I
Speaker:actually spent two years in
Speaker:a row more nights in a
Speaker:marriott bed than my own
Speaker:home bed um so I decided
Speaker:let's write a book and I
Speaker:could reach more people
Speaker:that way and that was my
Speaker:goal I I I've been blessed
Speaker:to gain all this knowledge
Speaker:and and be taught by some
Speaker:great practitioners
Speaker:It's my responsibility now
Speaker:to educate as many people
Speaker:as I can on biological
Speaker:hormones and how to do them
Speaker:on a physiological basis.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:let's let's talk about that a little bit,
Speaker:because I think just for the listeners,
Speaker:we've got practitioners, we've got,
Speaker:you know, clients and patients that are,
Speaker:you know, hormones are a big thing,
Speaker:anti aging and moving this forward.
Speaker:And I I think when I when I got your book,
Speaker:so your book was recommended to me.
Speaker:When I was going through my own training,
Speaker:because as I was moving into compounding,
Speaker:I started to understand
Speaker:that there's these things
Speaker:called hormones and they're
Speaker:called bioidentical and we can make them.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:I want to know more on how
Speaker:I can do this better.
Speaker:the right way.
Speaker:How can I like learn about this,
Speaker:but also make, not only make it,
Speaker:but learn about it.
Speaker:And so somebody,
Speaker:I can't remember who it was.
Speaker:It was one of my teachers.
Speaker:When I was going through the
Speaker:training of how to compound, I was like,
Speaker:I need to learn more about this.
Speaker:Cause it's just, it's the,
Speaker:in the book you wrote was
Speaker:for practitioners,
Speaker:but I want you to talk to
Speaker:them about this thing
Speaker:called physiological
Speaker:bioidentical hormone balance,
Speaker:the physiological space,
Speaker:because what I've always
Speaker:done is talk to people
Speaker:about hormone restoration,
Speaker:getting to physiological doses.
Speaker:And when I hear that,
Speaker:because even in this world
Speaker:of functional health and
Speaker:wellness and anti-aging,
Speaker:I've been seeing so much
Speaker:around the process of
Speaker:overshooting the hormones
Speaker:and getting supraphysiological.
Speaker:And so I want you to talk,
Speaker:I gotta talk to you about
Speaker:this because you're the one,
Speaker:you're the OG that taught me how,
Speaker:that it's really really
Speaker:important to to move
Speaker:patients down this
Speaker:physiological pathway so I
Speaker:just want to talk to you a
Speaker:little bit about how how
Speaker:your experience in that
Speaker:well I really like first of
Speaker:all the fact that you use
Speaker:the word restoration
Speaker:therapy everybody else
Speaker:calls it hormone
Speaker:replacement therapy I'm
Speaker:going like we are restoring
Speaker:the levels to what they
Speaker:used to be with the same
Speaker:hormone that the person
Speaker:used to make so I I like
Speaker:that restoration therapy
Speaker:which is what I call it too
Speaker:the point is this if we're
Speaker:going to put a hormone back
Speaker:in somebody's body what our
Speaker:target is is what was a
Speaker:level at hormone when it
Speaker:was working optimally say a
Speaker:woman or a man at age
Speaker:twenty five okay that's
Speaker:usually my target range so
Speaker:what we do is we take the
Speaker:average person what was
Speaker:their level and that's your
Speaker:target there's no literature
Speaker:No scientific or
Speaker:physiological reason that I
Speaker:know of that says that
Speaker:person will ever need more
Speaker:hormone than they made on their own.
Speaker:So that's physiologically
Speaker:based on what the human body produced.
Speaker:For example,
Speaker:a woman on the average makes
Speaker:twenty to thirty milligrams
Speaker:a day during the luteal phase.
Speaker:The amount of progesterone
Speaker:you give somebody is gonna
Speaker:vary according to the dosage route,
Speaker:but you want it based on that.
Speaker:So if you're using a topical progesterone,
Speaker:which has very efficient delivery,
Speaker:what's your range?
Speaker:Twenty, thirty milligrams?
Speaker:I see people out there giving fifty,
Speaker:a hundred milligrams of
Speaker:topical progesterone.
Speaker:It's super physiological.
Speaker:There are problems with
Speaker:super physiological.
Speaker:I won't get into all the science of it,
Speaker:but some of the effects of
Speaker:the hormone actually reverse,
Speaker:like estrogens,
Speaker:cardiovascular protection.
Speaker:If you're low on estrogen,
Speaker:you're deficient,
Speaker:you have lower protection.
Speaker:You increase the estrogen up
Speaker:toward physiological,
Speaker:that protection goes up.
Speaker:But if you hit that apex at
Speaker:the physiological level and
Speaker:you keep going,
Speaker:cardiovascular protection goes back down.
Speaker:There are a number of things,
Speaker:like all three of the hormones, estrogen,
Speaker:progesterone,
Speaker:testosterone are neuroprotective.
Speaker:If you go too high on any of
Speaker:them past physiological,
Speaker:They become estrogen and progesterone,
Speaker:lose that property.
Speaker:They're no longer neuroprotective.
Speaker:And testosterone has been
Speaker:shown to actually become
Speaker:neurotoxic at high levels.
Speaker:So these guys that are out
Speaker:there on huge doses of testosterone,
Speaker:I worry about that.
Speaker:I really worry about that
Speaker:because the average male
Speaker:produce five to six
Speaker:milligrams of testosterone a day.
Speaker:Clinically,
Speaker:that might take in a topical
Speaker:application up to ten,
Speaker:twenty milligrams to get a
Speaker:corresponding level because
Speaker:of the way they handle testosterone.
Speaker:But I see guys out there,
Speaker:and I'm sure you do, fifty, hundred,
Speaker:two hundred milligrams of
Speaker:topical testosterone.
Speaker:We don't even know what the
Speaker:risk long term of super
Speaker:physiological levels are.
Speaker:Nobody's studied that.
Speaker:But I go down to the basic
Speaker:common sense based on physiology and say,
Speaker:why would a guy need more
Speaker:testosterone than he made
Speaker:at age eighteen?
Speaker:Okay, so that's physiological,
Speaker:based on the human body.
Speaker:Jonathan Ryan used to say,
Speaker:mimic the human body as
Speaker:closely as possible.
Speaker:I've always agreed with that.
Speaker:And so that's what we're
Speaker:doing in physiological.
Speaker:We're really mimicking what you used to do,
Speaker:what you used to make.
Speaker:Now, ideally, in an ideal world,
Speaker:you know what would be cool?
Speaker:If we educated enough people,
Speaker:To say you're going to need
Speaker:hormones someday.
Speaker:You're going to need even if
Speaker:you don't have hot flashes,
Speaker:you need to protect your heart,
Speaker:your bones, your muscle,
Speaker:all these protective benefits.
Speaker:The hormones provide.
Speaker:Would it be really cool if
Speaker:we get people to win their age?
Speaker:Twenty twenty five somewhere in there.
Speaker:Do your levels.
Speaker:get your numbers.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:I had my daughter when she was
Speaker:back in college,
Speaker:part of the agreement for
Speaker:me to pay her college, I said,
Speaker:you have to spit for me,
Speaker:collect your saliva twice
Speaker:over the next two years.
Speaker:And she actually did it
Speaker:three times over like five
Speaker:years back when she was
Speaker:cycling or anything else.
Speaker:When she needs hormones,
Speaker:I don't even have to look at an average.
Speaker:I got a target, an exact target for her.
Speaker:And I thought, man,
Speaker:you talk about personalized medicine.
Speaker:If we get people when
Speaker:they're before they get in
Speaker:a hormone imbalance to test
Speaker:their hormones at least once,
Speaker:then we can just go right in and say,
Speaker:this is what we need to recreate for you.
Speaker:That's brilliant.
Speaker:I hadn't even thought of that.
Speaker:And I have two daughters, eight and ten.
Speaker:So now I have to bookmark
Speaker:that for my daughter.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:But here's the the concept is beautiful.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so what what you said is like, well,
Speaker:obviously, more is not better.
Speaker:Like men,
Speaker:especially like we don't need to
Speaker:slather on the testosterone
Speaker:and we call it super physiological.
Speaker:That means we're putting way
Speaker:more than the physiological
Speaker:body is making, like you said, like five,
Speaker:six, seven milligrams a day.
Speaker:And we're putting fifty,
Speaker:a hundred milligrams and
Speaker:it's getting absorbed and going way over.
Speaker:This is where I think people
Speaker:have these this
Speaker:misconception around
Speaker:hormones and fundamentals is hormones.
Speaker:They think it's cancer
Speaker:causing and causing all these issues.
Speaker:And so demystifying that around, well,
Speaker:if we,
Speaker:if we restore you to the place
Speaker:where your hormones were at
Speaker:their optimal in the
Speaker:twenties and like early thirties, right.
Speaker:And what a great idea is like, oh, well,
Speaker:let's just baseline you.
Speaker:So when you do need them or
Speaker:and you start to move down
Speaker:with age and all these other things, well,
Speaker:we're restoring you back up
Speaker:to this vibrant space.
Speaker:So that's brilliant, and I love that.
Speaker:So yes,
Speaker:and let's talk a little bit more
Speaker:about the misconceptions,
Speaker:because I think people say,
Speaker:if I get hormones,
Speaker:I have a higher incidence of cancer risk.
Speaker:That's a big, huge thing,
Speaker:and I know that you have
Speaker:your opinion on that,
Speaker:and I've read it in your
Speaker:books about the physiological dosing,
Speaker:but talk to people about
Speaker:these cancer risks and other
Speaker:misconceptions.
Speaker:You talked about Premarin,
Speaker:which is a synthetic
Speaker:hormone that's not derived
Speaker:from humans and how it has
Speaker:these paradoxical effects
Speaker:in the body where they're
Speaker:actually not protective.
Speaker:We thought they were,
Speaker:but then all that stuff came out.
Speaker:So this biological way is
Speaker:putting the hormones that
Speaker:you are already making
Speaker:and they're derived from plant-based,
Speaker:but they look and act and
Speaker:they're very similar.
Speaker:That's why we call them bioidentical.
Speaker:But I want you to talk a
Speaker:little bit about the cancer
Speaker:risks and what you've seen
Speaker:in your practice over these decades.
Speaker:I will be happy to do that,
Speaker:but let me first go back
Speaker:and talk about the dosing.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:Yeah, let's do this.
Speaker:Why do you think that has
Speaker:happened over time that
Speaker:people are getting more and
Speaker:more hormones?
Speaker:In my opinion,
Speaker:it's because we did not
Speaker:understand well enough the
Speaker:interactions of hormones.
Speaker:For example, a woman has hot flashes.
Speaker:We keep giving her more
Speaker:estrogen to control her hot flashes,
Speaker:and she's up to a super
Speaker:physiological level,
Speaker:still having problems.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:she's got hot cortisol that blocks
Speaker:the estrogen from working.
Speaker:Or she has low progesterone,
Speaker:which affects the estrogen receptors.
Speaker:So I think a lot of the problem came from
Speaker:I want patients and
Speaker:practitioners both to
Speaker:understand it's all about the balance.
Speaker:Every hormone,
Speaker:every endocrine hormone
Speaker:affects the function of
Speaker:every other endocrine hormone.
Speaker:if I had one master switch,
Speaker:it'd probably be cortisol
Speaker:or in younger women and men, insulin.
Speaker:But you have to balance them all.
Speaker:You can't just go on and fix
Speaker:the estrogen and
Speaker:progesterone testosterone
Speaker:and ignore thyroid function
Speaker:and adrenal function,
Speaker:and they're not gonna work
Speaker:right at the doses if
Speaker:there's problems in those other areas.
Speaker:So that's where I think what
Speaker:led people to higher and higher doses.
Speaker:To just try to control the
Speaker:symptoms like a guy's not
Speaker:feeling right on his testosterone.
Speaker:We'll give him some more Well,
Speaker:you know what?
Speaker:It's his thyroid that's
Speaker:problem not his
Speaker:testosterone being
Speaker:deficient so That's that's
Speaker:just my feeling on that.
Speaker:Anyway,
Speaker:that's I think it's like I
Speaker:appreciate that and I think
Speaker:I thank you for bringing
Speaker:that up when I've done hormone
Speaker:restoration and talking to
Speaker:patients about hormone
Speaker:balancing and giving them consultations,
Speaker:I tell them that I,
Speaker:I won't work on their sex
Speaker:hormones before we start
Speaker:looking at things like cortisol because,
Speaker:and, and looking at that hierarchy,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:And the way I've explained it to people is,
Speaker:well, you have these stress hormones.
Speaker:We know of cortisol, we know of adrenaline,
Speaker:the fight or flight, right?
Speaker:And then we've got the, the
Speaker:the metabolic hormones like thyroid,
Speaker:and then we have the sex hormones, right?
Speaker:It's not categorized.
Speaker:We know we need estrogen and
Speaker:progesterone and there's
Speaker:estrogen receptors everywhere.
Speaker:But the hierarchy of this
Speaker:hormone cascade is, well,
Speaker:you got to run from the
Speaker:tiger before you can eat
Speaker:before you can have babies.
Speaker:So the body wants to steal,
Speaker:we used to call it a steal, right,
Speaker:to go to the stress hormones.
Speaker:So I like to help people on
Speaker:the stress response system
Speaker:before I even get them into
Speaker:the hormone balancing because I say, well,
Speaker:we can't balance you unless
Speaker:this is already in a good place.
Speaker:And that's kind of what I heard you say,
Speaker:but I've said it to my
Speaker:patients in that way.
Speaker:yeah I'm with you on that
Speaker:totally if you don't look
Speaker:at the adrenals now I may
Speaker:start people off I mean if
Speaker:I've got a menopause
Speaker:woman's obviously low on
Speaker:estrogen progesterone I may
Speaker:start her out on a little
Speaker:bit but we're going to test
Speaker:your cortisol too right
Speaker:because I got to make a
Speaker:physiological dose work
Speaker:okay and insulin too
Speaker:especially in younger
Speaker:people insulin really
Speaker:affects ovarian production
Speaker:of hormone so it's the
Speaker:chief disruptor of the
Speaker:endocrine system in my mind
Speaker:in young cycling women and
Speaker:we we've talked more and
Speaker:more and we've we're we're
Speaker:heading down this path of
Speaker:insulin resistance and
Speaker:obesity and the hot fat and
Speaker:the metabolic fat all of it
Speaker:cascading into hormonal
Speaker:imbalance when people don't
Speaker:really associate
Speaker:things like insulin or even
Speaker:you know visceral adipose
Speaker:tissue or obesity to a sex
Speaker:hormone or to a
Speaker:perimenopausal problem or
Speaker:we don't look at the the
Speaker:stress hormones as we're
Speaker:looking at things like
Speaker:estrogen balancing or
Speaker:testosterone balancing and
Speaker:so I love that you bringing
Speaker:up this hormonal cascade
Speaker:that it's the way I look at
Speaker:it too I've always said
Speaker:this is your hormones are
Speaker:like a symphony and if if
Speaker:if we if we just work on
Speaker:one it's like the trumpet
Speaker:blasting in the symphony
Speaker:everything else is out of
Speaker:balance it's like we have
Speaker:to maintain this balance
Speaker:beautiful harmonics of the whole body by,
Speaker:by looking at it all and look,
Speaker:and this is the premise of
Speaker:functional and integrative health, right?
Speaker:Let's look at the whole
Speaker:picture and not just one little area.
Speaker:So I'm glad that you brought that up.
Speaker:I call it hormone harmony.
Speaker:So we're close on that.
Speaker:But yeah, by the way,
Speaker:you mentioned that the
Speaker:hormones we use are very
Speaker:similar to what the body's produced.
Speaker:They're actually exactly the same.
Speaker:That's another very
Speaker:important thing for
Speaker:patients to understand.
Speaker:If we took progesterone out
Speaker:of a younger person's body
Speaker:and put it on a microscope slide,
Speaker:and we took progesterone
Speaker:out of your compounding lab,
Speaker:the powder that you use to
Speaker:make your progesterone
Speaker:creams and capsules and all,
Speaker:put it on a slide,
Speaker:there's not a scientist in
Speaker:the world who can tell you
Speaker:which one came from where.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:They match one hundred percent.
Speaker:And I think that makes
Speaker:patients feel a lot more
Speaker:comfortable when they know
Speaker:this is exactly what you used to make.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:But cancer... In the day and age of
Speaker:pharmacological perspective
Speaker:we're not looking at like
Speaker:there it's it looks similar
Speaker:and acts on the receptor
Speaker:the same it's literally the
Speaker:same molecule right right
Speaker:that's what you're saying
Speaker:right so that's what we say
Speaker:when we're saying bio
Speaker:identical means it's
Speaker:identical it's not a
Speaker:synthetic form it's not
Speaker:something that's acting
Speaker:like it it literally is it and
Speaker:which I think is really
Speaker:important because we need
Speaker:to make sure that we're
Speaker:using these in the appropriate doses,
Speaker:like you said,
Speaker:but also the appropriate
Speaker:dosage forms and also
Speaker:looking at it from the
Speaker:perspective of it's identical.
Speaker:So thanks for bringing that
Speaker:up and showing it everybody.
Speaker:So cancer, that's a subject that, uh,
Speaker:More people need education
Speaker:on as far as hormone risk and cancer.
Speaker:I mean, cancer risk and hormones.
Speaker:A lot of the fears that
Speaker:patients have about hormones are what?
Speaker:Increased heart attacks, strokes,
Speaker:and risk of breast cancer,
Speaker:ovarian cancer.
Speaker:Those risks are the whole
Speaker:idea that started.
Speaker:We were doing hormones
Speaker:incorrectly in women.
Speaker:Totally wrong.
Speaker:We were given estrogen orally,
Speaker:which increased the clotting factors,
Speaker:which increased the heart
Speaker:attacks and stroke.
Speaker:We don't do that anymore.
Speaker:Well, some doctors still do,
Speaker:but not anybody that's
Speaker:knowledgeable enough on this subject.
Speaker:And the cancer risk,
Speaker:we were giving things that
Speaker:were increasing the cancer risk.
Speaker:And for years,
Speaker:doctors balanced estrogen
Speaker:with synthetic progestins.
Speaker:And synthetic progestins are
Speaker:the exact opposite of
Speaker:progesterone as far as cancer risk.
Speaker:Synthetic progestins, every one of them,
Speaker:at any dose that's ever been studied,
Speaker:increases the risk.
Speaker:I love over the years how they come out,
Speaker:well, this new lower does less risk.
Speaker:No, that's not how you say it.
Speaker:What the drug companies
Speaker:should be telling the doctors is, yeah,
Speaker:there's still a significant risk.
Speaker:It's lower,
Speaker:but there's still a significant risk.
Speaker:natural progesterone is
Speaker:anti-proliferative.
Speaker:It increases apotic action,
Speaker:which means it's naturally killing cells.
Speaker:So those are two actions
Speaker:that are anti-cancer.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And progesterone balances
Speaker:estrogen throughout the
Speaker:body on several levels,
Speaker:from the DNA up to the tissue.
Speaker:It, it,
Speaker:Physiological amounts of
Speaker:estrogen and progesterone
Speaker:have been used worldwide for sixty years.
Speaker:Asia and Europe.
Speaker:In those places,
Speaker:there's never been a report
Speaker:or a study showing any
Speaker:increased risk of breast cancer.
Speaker:In fact, there are two large studies.
Speaker:One had ninety-six thousand women in it.
Speaker:I think it was an Italian study.
Speaker:No increase.
Speaker:With the addition of progesterone,
Speaker:it actually, in a couple of studies,
Speaker:showed a small decrease in
Speaker:the risk of breast cancer.
Speaker:So if the hormones are done correctly,
Speaker:we don't have to increase
Speaker:that risk at all.
Speaker:But you have to do two things.
Speaker:Bioidentical only.
Speaker:Physiological doses.
Speaker:Three things.
Speaker:In balance.
Speaker:Balance the whole system.
Speaker:So I...
Speaker:I wish I'll get this in my
Speaker:book and explain this well
Speaker:in my book that this not a
Speaker:risk that we are concerned
Speaker:with based on what's been
Speaker:done for years now and the
Speaker:results of the studies have looked at.
Speaker:And I think that's, that's a huge piece.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:we're not saying there's no risk
Speaker:in cancer.
Speaker:We're saying when hormones are done right,
Speaker:And they're done in the right ways.
Speaker:In other words, you said it,
Speaker:physiological dosing.
Speaker:So not going above what we
Speaker:already need to make using
Speaker:bioidentical sources that
Speaker:are actually the same as
Speaker:our body and balancing them in harmony.
Speaker:Very simple solution, right?
Speaker:But the thing is, is most providers...
Speaker:They think that something's
Speaker:FDA approved and you're
Speaker:talking about progestins
Speaker:like medroxyprogesterone acetate.
Speaker:That's a big long chemical that doesn't,
Speaker:it looks the similar,
Speaker:but it's not similar.
Speaker:And so I want to make sure
Speaker:that people understand that we can't just,
Speaker:and there's,
Speaker:there's practitioners that are doing this,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:Not just going to the regular doctor,
Speaker:like hormone,
Speaker:we call them hormone doctors
Speaker:now or functional medicine doctors,
Speaker:all the compounders that I
Speaker:know are very astute at
Speaker:this now and looking at it.
Speaker:So we're teaching
Speaker:pharmacists in the
Speaker:compounding labs and we're
Speaker:teaching providers.
Speaker:Now these principles that
Speaker:have been used for years and
Speaker:we're getting good results.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:and what I heard you say is it's not
Speaker:so much is, is if we do it right,
Speaker:we we've shown over the
Speaker:years that there isn't any
Speaker:increased risk.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:I think that's, that's huge,
Speaker:huge around this space
Speaker:because there's been a lot
Speaker:of stigmatization around, well,
Speaker:you're using this hormone,
Speaker:not this hormone, but it's really,
Speaker:they blanketed it on everything.
Speaker:They're saying all hormones are bad.
Speaker:And, and,
Speaker:only in these cases and it's
Speaker:all about that fear right
Speaker:that fear-based system
Speaker:where if we're looking at
Speaker:those modernized studies
Speaker:and the new interpretations
Speaker:of those old studies it's
Speaker:actually included in this
Speaker:whole component of risk so
Speaker:thank you for bringing that
Speaker:up drug manufacturers
Speaker:advantage if they can lump
Speaker:everything together
Speaker:Because then what you do
Speaker:looks just as bad as what they do.
Speaker:Because estrogen causes increased risk.
Speaker:No, you got to identify it.
Speaker:But estrogen,
Speaker:I want to talk about that a
Speaker:little bit more about cancer risk.
Speaker:You can go a step further
Speaker:than what we've already said,
Speaker:balancing hormones and
Speaker:check cortisol and keep it physiological.
Speaker:You can actually look at
Speaker:what initiates the cancer.
Speaker:There are certain metabolites,
Speaker:they're called the catechol estrogens,
Speaker:that can damage the DNA,
Speaker:and that's how estrogen
Speaker:initiates hormonal cancer.
Speaker:A very small percentage of
Speaker:any estrogen a woman's ever
Speaker:produced goes to those metabolites.
Speaker:Now, our DNA is damaged all the time,
Speaker:all the toxins we have in
Speaker:our environment and everything else.
Speaker:And our immune system repairs damaged DNA,
Speaker:so it doesn't become cancerous.
Speaker:Well, as far as a hormonal scene,
Speaker:there's two things.
Speaker:There are ways to steer your
Speaker:estrogens more toward the
Speaker:safe metabolism.
Speaker:That's what iodine does.
Speaker:Iodine is protective against
Speaker:breast cancer.
Speaker:Iodine is good for women.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:women concentrate iodine in a
Speaker:second place other than the
Speaker:thyroid like we all do.
Speaker:It's in the breast tissue.
Speaker:Women concentrate iodine in
Speaker:the breast tissue.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Because it's protective.
Speaker:A lot of my patients over-fifty,
Speaker:female patients over-fifty,
Speaker:takes a small amount of
Speaker:iodine as a protective thing.
Speaker:But there's other things you
Speaker:can do nutritionally.
Speaker:There's antioxidants like
Speaker:Aversatol and
Speaker:N-acetylcysteine that have
Speaker:been shown to steer towards
Speaker:a safe metabolite.
Speaker:You make sure you're methylating.
Speaker:I have a whole presentation
Speaker:on safe estrogen metabolism.
Speaker:So it's in my book,
Speaker:it's gonna be in my new
Speaker:book for patients.
Speaker:Here's how you protect yourself.
Speaker:So even if a patient has
Speaker:what they feel is risk factors,
Speaker:they smoke for a lot of
Speaker:years and they've got
Speaker:family members that have it,
Speaker:they're overweight, et cetera,
Speaker:there's still things you
Speaker:can do nutritionally and
Speaker:lifestyle-wise to reduce
Speaker:those metabolites that initiate cancer.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:thanks for bringing that up because I
Speaker:think a lot of people say, well,
Speaker:my hormones are wrong,
Speaker:fix them and everything else is good,
Speaker:but we can balance hormones.
Speaker:And when we say balance,
Speaker:like some people don't want to go the,
Speaker:the,
Speaker:the restoration route where we're
Speaker:giving bioidentical hormones.
Speaker:So I, I talked to them about lifestyle.
Speaker:I talk about like changing
Speaker:your diet and lifestyle
Speaker:habits to help with those things.
Speaker:Cause we can help with the
Speaker:hormonal imbalances of the
Speaker:hot flashes and the things
Speaker:that are going on.
Speaker:If we do some lifestyle things.
Speaker:So again,
Speaker:diet and lifestyle is important
Speaker:for everything,
Speaker:including hormone balancing.
Speaker:And, and, and that's really important.
Speaker:You did, you did touch on this,
Speaker:which is really important
Speaker:because when we talk about cancer risks,
Speaker:especially with estrogens,
Speaker:the proliferative hormone,
Speaker:Because now I'm doing a lot
Speaker:of DNA testing on my
Speaker:patients so I can see the
Speaker:ways that which we're
Speaker:metabolizing these hormones
Speaker:and then using testing like
Speaker:Dutch testing and things like that,
Speaker:we can actually see in real
Speaker:time the amounts of these
Speaker:different estrogens that
Speaker:are metabolized towards
Speaker:what's called healthy
Speaker:versus the not so healthy versions.
Speaker:And so that's really important as well.
Speaker:If you're gonna do this right,
Speaker:I always suggest, well,
Speaker:let's look at how your body
Speaker:works and let's feed those
Speaker:nutrients and those things.
Speaker:And then when we get you on the hormones,
Speaker:if you really wanna look
Speaker:and make sure that we're doing this right,
Speaker:we can also look there and
Speaker:see how you're metabolizing
Speaker:them down the field.
Speaker:So I think those are really
Speaker:good points that we've made for people.
Speaker:I agree with you a hundred
Speaker:percent of lifestyle um
Speaker:I've actually evolved to
Speaker:the point now where when a
Speaker:patient first contacts me a
Speaker:potential patient about
Speaker:doing a consultation and I
Speaker:haven't filled out the
Speaker:health questionnaire I took
Speaker:a sheet that I used to give
Speaker:a lifestyle there's just
Speaker:some basic lifestyle
Speaker:principles that are good
Speaker:for your overall health
Speaker:well now I give it to them
Speaker:with their health
Speaker:questionnaire and say great
Speaker:how do you do the following
Speaker:zero to ten how good are you at this and
Speaker:So we start the discussion with lifestyle.
Speaker:We start our consultation
Speaker:with lifestyle discussion.
Speaker:And why?
Speaker:Because it's not just,
Speaker:I want you in good health overall.
Speaker:This is going to affect
Speaker:symptoms that we're going
Speaker:to try to alleviate with hormones,
Speaker:but it's not all hormones.
Speaker:I love this.
Speaker:And this is why, you know,
Speaker:the whole concept of tell
Speaker:them what they want,
Speaker:give them what they need, right?
Speaker:And so my men's and women's
Speaker:my programs that we're
Speaker:launching nationwide now is
Speaker:we talk about diet and
Speaker:lifestyle as a key pillar
Speaker:to their health because we can, we can,
Speaker:it's just like with the supplement world,
Speaker:I could give someone twelve supplements,
Speaker:but if they're not working
Speaker:on their stress and they're
Speaker:not working on their
Speaker:lifestyle and their diet
Speaker:and their their their food choices,
Speaker:then all the
Speaker:supplementation and all the
Speaker:hormone balancing in the
Speaker:world won't won't really
Speaker:actually get them to the
Speaker:outcome that they're looking for.
Speaker:And so I'm glad that you
Speaker:that you're using this like
Speaker:I'm using this in the
Speaker:forefront of the treatment
Speaker:protocol to say, guys,
Speaker:Diet and lifestyle is
Speaker:critical to someone's
Speaker:overall health and well-being.
Speaker:And because the hormones
Speaker:aren't just another pill for the ill,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:It's part of the equation.
Speaker:Can't just pop the pill.
Speaker:Can't just pop the pill.
Speaker:the cruciferous vegetables
Speaker:and all the things we could
Speaker:be eating because if you
Speaker:can't eat it you supplement
Speaker:with it so we start with
Speaker:food first there's so many
Speaker:good things in there guys
Speaker:we can we can make this
Speaker:work in a really good place
Speaker:when you change somebody's
Speaker:diet like that isn't
Speaker:amazing how they they can't
Speaker:describe why but they just
Speaker:in a month six weeks eight
Speaker:weeks they feel better
Speaker:Well, that's the key.
Speaker:And then they come back in
Speaker:those six weeks and I was like,
Speaker:guess what?
Speaker:That's how long it takes
Speaker:biochemistry to take over.
Speaker:It's these systems and it's
Speaker:the adage of food is medicine.
Speaker:It's food is medicine, food is medicine.
Speaker:Lifestyle,
Speaker:we call it lifestyle medicine
Speaker:now because changing your
Speaker:lifestyle to healthier ways
Speaker:and food is the biggest
Speaker:changes we can make.
Speaker:And those are the free and
Speaker:low cost options.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:you made me think the patient I've
Speaker:dealt with recently,
Speaker:just talked to this last week,
Speaker:she was having memory issues.
Speaker:And she wanted a pill for it.
Speaker:I said, well,
Speaker:there are some nutritional supplements,
Speaker:but diet plays a lot.
Speaker:So she was seeking too much
Speaker:inflammatory foods.
Speaker:Could do a little bit better
Speaker:in a fat ratio.
Speaker:But basically, I said, look,
Speaker:I want you to get a couple
Speaker:blueberries and a half a
Speaker:cup of walnuts every day
Speaker:into your system.
Speaker:And she's amazed how the
Speaker:blueberry and walnut,
Speaker:we haven't got her on a
Speaker:nutritional supplement.
Speaker:She's already improved so
Speaker:much by cleaning up her
Speaker:diet and getting the
Speaker:inflammation under control.
Speaker:And I go, blueberries and walnut.
Speaker:Who would have thought of that?
Speaker:Twenty years ago, right?
Speaker:I love it, but it's.
Speaker:it's what I've teached for a
Speaker:long time is wellness made simple.
Speaker:Like I'm starting to work
Speaker:through this where if you
Speaker:do the diet and lifestyle changes,
Speaker:then come back to me and
Speaker:we'll work on you more, right?
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:and I love where you put in
Speaker:blueberries and walnuts,
Speaker:cause they're super healthy, good fats,
Speaker:great for the brain.
Speaker:In fact, if you look at a walnut,
Speaker:it looks like a brain.
Speaker:So it's literally good brain food.
Speaker:Like how cool is nature?
Speaker:And yes,
Speaker:blueberries the dark colored
Speaker:fruit berry especially low
Speaker:glycemic index berries if I
Speaker:had to be stranded on an
Speaker:island and I could only eat
Speaker:two things those would
Speaker:probably be the two things
Speaker:I would put in there
Speaker:blueberries are so so good
Speaker:for you guys they both go
Speaker:well with the fish you're
Speaker:gonna catch on the island to survive
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Everyone says, what's the number one food?
Speaker:I used to say black raspberries,
Speaker:but I'm going to say just blueberries.
Speaker:The dark,
Speaker:dark colored fruit is so good for you.
Speaker:There's so much
Speaker:phytonutrient density in that,
Speaker:and it's like a cup of
Speaker:blueberries and some walnuts,
Speaker:and look what you got.
Speaker:Pretty cheap, pretty good alternative,
Speaker:and it's good for you.
Speaker:so we got we have one dog
Speaker:that has arthritis pretty
Speaker:bad he gets blueberries on
Speaker:his food every morning my
Speaker:wife my wife is a a newly
Speaker:uh certified holistic pet
Speaker:health coach and she cooks
Speaker:all of our dog's food and
Speaker:to see the transfer
Speaker:of food is medicine so that
Speaker:kind of thing is like
Speaker:getting them off all the
Speaker:commercially available
Speaker:processed stuff just like a
Speaker:patient like my clean
Speaker:fourteen program is just
Speaker:that in fourteen days clean
Speaker:up your diet and see how
Speaker:you feel like that's it's
Speaker:so simple right but we were
Speaker:moving towards all these
Speaker:complex things and yet
Speaker:we're talking estrogen
Speaker:we're talking hormone balancing and
Speaker:there's always things we can
Speaker:do with diet and lifestyle
Speaker:it's just always always
Speaker:there because most people
Speaker:that are out of balance are
Speaker:out of balance there so
Speaker:it's it's beautiful that
Speaker:we're using this as a tool for
Speaker:the forefront and the pillar, like I said,
Speaker:the pillar of diet,
Speaker:the pillar of lifestyle.
Speaker:And then we,
Speaker:we target the supplementation
Speaker:and we target the labs to
Speaker:get the hormones balance
Speaker:rather than just hitting
Speaker:the balance with the hormones.
Speaker:And I've seen functional
Speaker:doctors just hit the hormones.
Speaker:And I, I've talked to people and say,
Speaker:have they addressed your stress?
Speaker:Have they addressed your lifestyle?
Speaker:Well, how's your food?
Speaker:And they're like, no,
Speaker:they're just giving me
Speaker:hormones and I don't feel good.
Speaker:or that the doctor is giving,
Speaker:and it's not our fault, right, Jim?
Speaker:Like we're not classically trained here.
Speaker:Like this is something you
Speaker:have to seek out and do it right,
Speaker:which is,
Speaker:which is talking about your new book,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:The book you're writing,
Speaker:which is more geared
Speaker:towards the client now, the patient,
Speaker:because you feel compelled
Speaker:to get it to the patient
Speaker:level so we can educate the
Speaker:providers as well and
Speaker:educate patients in that space.
Speaker:So talk to me a little bit
Speaker:about the book and what's
Speaker:happening with that.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:the motivation was the fact that my
Speaker:book I wrote for
Speaker:practitioners has been out ten years now.
Speaker:And I still have people come
Speaker:in to me that have not been
Speaker:offered or know anything
Speaker:about the options they have
Speaker:about bioidentical hormones.
Speaker:Or they've heard about it from a friend,
Speaker:but when they ask their doctor, he says,
Speaker:no, I don't do that.
Speaker:So I'm going like, okay,
Speaker:we can't depend upon the
Speaker:physicians because some of
Speaker:them are just too busy and
Speaker:too locked in their ways
Speaker:that they're going to learn
Speaker:something new.
Speaker:Or they're just following
Speaker:the protocol of the drug
Speaker:manufacturers and they're
Speaker:not going to go outside that box.
Speaker:So I thought, all right,
Speaker:let's educate the patients.
Speaker:And what's the best way to do that?
Speaker:Get a book out there.
Speaker:Because I'm not going to
Speaker:travel all over the United
Speaker:States lecturing.
Speaker:I'm married now.
Speaker:I will travel again.
Speaker:I told my wife,
Speaker:people are going to ask me
Speaker:to speak if I write a book.
Speaker:And she said, okay,
Speaker:I'll go to the nice cities with you.
Speaker:But
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:so I'm going to put it out in a way
Speaker:that explains the hormones
Speaker:better than any
Speaker:over-the-counter hormone book I've seen.
Speaker:We're going to talk about
Speaker:some of the things we've talked about now,
Speaker:but I mean, I want...
Speaker:Patients don't have to know the science,
Speaker:but they've got to know of it.
Speaker:In other words,
Speaker:they've got to know too
Speaker:much hormone can look like
Speaker:too little hormone.
Speaker:And basically why?
Speaker:So I'm going to talk a
Speaker:little bit about
Speaker:taxephalaxis or
Speaker:downregulation of receptors.
Speaker:Do they need to know that?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:But I think a lot of people
Speaker:want to understand the why.
Speaker:What they need to know is, look,
Speaker:if you give too much estrogen,
Speaker:it can look like too little.
Speaker:because the brain's gonna
Speaker:downregulate estrogen receptors.
Speaker:It's not gonna work.
Speaker:If you give too much progesterone,
Speaker:it's gonna look like too
Speaker:little estrogen and too
Speaker:little progesterone,
Speaker:because the excess progesterone,
Speaker:you downregulate estrogen receptors,
Speaker:which make progesterone receptors.
Speaker:So we'll put that in simple
Speaker:terms as possible, but bottom line,
Speaker:I'm gonna say bottom line,
Speaker:what you need to know,
Speaker:too much progesterone looks
Speaker:like too little
Speaker:progesterone and estrogen.
Speaker:So if they don't take,
Speaker:any of the howl way,
Speaker:they can take away what
Speaker:happens and learn that you have to have,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:patient has to have some control
Speaker:of what's going on.
Speaker:You don't know if you've
Speaker:never worked with a doctor
Speaker:before if they really know
Speaker:bioidentical hormones and physiological.
Speaker:Kind of, you know,
Speaker:going back to physiological,
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:how many doctors know how much
Speaker:estrogen a woman produces in her prime?
Speaker:How many doctors know how
Speaker:much testosterone a guy
Speaker:produces in his prime?
Speaker:If I have to educate the
Speaker:doctors on anything,
Speaker:I need to educate them on that.
Speaker:But as far as patients go,
Speaker:we need to educate them on
Speaker:the whole picture.
Speaker:And so there's going to be
Speaker:a... The chapter on thyroid
Speaker:could be a book in itself.
Speaker:Okay,
Speaker:because the way we take care of thyroid,
Speaker:first of all,
Speaker:the way we test thyroid is horrible.
Speaker:It's the most inadequate
Speaker:testing for any endocrine
Speaker:disorder there is.
Speaker:Number two,
Speaker:the way we treat it is very poor.
Speaker:So we could do so much better.
Speaker:But I'm going to try to give
Speaker:patients an understanding.
Speaker:Here's what can go wrong with thyroid.
Speaker:Here's how it's tested.
Speaker:Here's how you should fix it.
Speaker:Again,
Speaker:starting with nutrition and
Speaker:lifestyle because cortisol
Speaker:messes up thyroid so much.
Speaker:But then the chapter on
Speaker:adrenal dysfunction,
Speaker:which I'm in the process of
Speaker:rewriting right now.
Speaker:I wrote it once, but
Speaker:Then I got something on my
Speaker:computer called BitLock.
Speaker:It destroyed my hard drive.
Speaker:I hadn't saved it yet.
Speaker:But that's going to be a
Speaker:long chapter because
Speaker:there's so much to go into
Speaker:as far as lifestyle.
Speaker:It's not just, hey,
Speaker:here's what the symptoms are.
Speaker:Here's how you assess it.
Speaker:I think treatment and the
Speaker:variations as far as
Speaker:choices of lifestyle
Speaker:adaptations and how they
Speaker:work for each individual means.
Speaker:There's a lot to go into there.
Speaker:So I think those are going
Speaker:to be the two fattest
Speaker:chapters in the book,
Speaker:thyroid and adrenals.
Speaker:Yeah, adrenals are huge.
Speaker:It's one of my... I'm a
Speaker:big... I guess I've been a
Speaker:student of the word stress
Speaker:for my whole life.
Speaker:And so I've really...
Speaker:really that's really where
Speaker:my specialty is is working
Speaker:on uh adrenal balancing and
Speaker:restoration and and really
Speaker:looking at the the stress
Speaker:response system because I
Speaker:think it's it's it's the
Speaker:it's the key piece to the
Speaker:downstream effects of
Speaker:everything yeah it's the
Speaker:master control of endocrine
Speaker:interactions but so let me
Speaker:talk a little bit about it
Speaker:and then maybe you can
Speaker:share a little bit about
Speaker:what you're doing for um
Speaker:okay things people need to know
Speaker:The effects of stress on
Speaker:your adrenal glands are
Speaker:cumulative and additive.
Speaker:So if you're fifty-two years old,
Speaker:it's fifty years of stress.
Speaker:If you had stress as a child,
Speaker:they still are affecting
Speaker:your adrenal health.
Speaker:Also the fact that some people,
Speaker:quote unquote, manage their stress well.
Speaker:I have somebody,
Speaker:a patient I'm working with right now,
Speaker:she has a high stress job, but she says,
Speaker:but I manage it well.
Speaker:I said, well, mentally you're doing fine,
Speaker:but trust me,
Speaker:your adrenals are still stressed.
Speaker:mean she's still got the
Speaker:symptoms because mentally
Speaker:she's doing okay she's good
Speaker:outlook but you got to take
Speaker:care of your adrenals you
Speaker:can't just stress them
Speaker:forever and not do
Speaker:something if you've not
Speaker:done anything nutritionally
Speaker:then you've drained some of
Speaker:the nutritional that you
Speaker:need to support good adrenal function.
Speaker:So I think people need to
Speaker:look at cortisol more often.
Speaker:I do a four-point saliva
Speaker:cortisol on every patient.
Speaker:I never feel due because, gosh,
Speaker:it's a very high percentage
Speaker:of people that have adrenal
Speaker:issues to some degree.
Speaker:Not terrible, but to some degree.
Speaker:And the lifestyle things
Speaker:that you're going to talk about,
Speaker:uh I don't care if you've
Speaker:got adrenal dysfunction or
Speaker:not they're beneficial
Speaker:period right is there
Speaker:anything you could are you
Speaker:gonna harm anybody no so
Speaker:what do you do josh for
Speaker:well it's it's people when
Speaker:you talk four-point
Speaker:cortisol so when you you know
Speaker:We have a pattern of cortisol, right?
Speaker:We know this now.
Speaker:We don't just make... So
Speaker:getting one shot in the
Speaker:morning or in the evening
Speaker:of your cortisol levels is
Speaker:not representative of your...
Speaker:diurnal or your pattern.
Speaker:So we know that we have to
Speaker:take in a bunch of times.
Speaker:We know that it correlates well in saliva.
Speaker:So you spit in the tube four
Speaker:to six times a day and you
Speaker:can see your levels.
Speaker:And it's a representation.
Speaker:I call it like a snapshot.
Speaker:And like you said, I agree with you.
Speaker:When we have degrees of...
Speaker:of adrenal dysfunction,
Speaker:then there's different
Speaker:levels of that where it's really high,
Speaker:it's sometimes over the curve,
Speaker:sometimes it's flatline,
Speaker:sometimes it's just dysregulated.
Speaker:I'm in the same boat I love
Speaker:testing and seeing it and I
Speaker:also love showing people
Speaker:that the body and the mind
Speaker:have a beautiful connection
Speaker:with each other so our
Speaker:perception of stress like
Speaker:you said of managing it is
Speaker:a key piece so I use heart
Speaker:rate variability training I
Speaker:do heart math um I have big
Speaker:stress response system
Speaker:feeding the adrenals with
Speaker:the right nutrients
Speaker:Getting the nutrient balancing.
Speaker:I love adaptogens.
Speaker:I love mushroom blends.
Speaker:These are things that are
Speaker:really important for people.
Speaker:And yes, it is the smoking gun.
Speaker:If we're going to talk about
Speaker:the root root cause of a
Speaker:lot of dysfunction,
Speaker:we talk a lot about
Speaker:inflammation in the body.
Speaker:But this word stress,
Speaker:we know that our minds.
Speaker:It's not the stress or it's
Speaker:our perception of that
Speaker:creates the cascading effects.
Speaker:We know that there's
Speaker:fourteen hundred chemical
Speaker:reactions that go on when
Speaker:the mind perceives a stressful event.
Speaker:But I just I tell people
Speaker:it's like when you're doing
Speaker:yard work in your yard and
Speaker:you see a garden hose,
Speaker:but you perceive it as a snake,
Speaker:very different in your body.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's just the thought.
Speaker:So we know that our mind can make us sick,
Speaker:but we also know that our
Speaker:mind can make us well.
Speaker:This is why I love Joe
Speaker:Dispenza's work right now.
Speaker:And I'm a big fan of
Speaker:meditation and doing mindfulness work.
Speaker:We do it in our store.
Speaker:Anything we can do to help
Speaker:that stress response system
Speaker:getting out of fight or
Speaker:flight and back into this restful state,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:seventy to eighty percent of our
Speaker:day is in fight or flight.
Speaker:When we were in the caves around a fire,
Speaker:it was the opposite.
Speaker:It was twenty percent of the time.
Speaker:So we're in fight or flight longer.
Speaker:And like you said, it's cumulative.
Speaker:So if you've been in a stressful state,
Speaker:it's going to take time to
Speaker:back you through that and
Speaker:get you into the restful state.
Speaker:So it didn't take you
Speaker:overnight to get there.
Speaker:We teach people how to
Speaker:understand that this this
Speaker:is the thing we can do.
Speaker:But again, you talked about
Speaker:the physiologically of food
Speaker:is medicine in about six weeks.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:the same thing can happen when I
Speaker:treat someone in our stress
Speaker:and wellbeing program,
Speaker:and we teach them these
Speaker:short techniques that they
Speaker:can do five minutes a day,
Speaker:two to three times a day in six weeks,
Speaker:we can change that balance.
Speaker:And so lifestyle is stress response.
Speaker:So how do we manage our stress is a huge,
Speaker:huge piece in my transformation,
Speaker:which is why I teach it to others.
Speaker:Yeah, I agree totally.
Speaker:I think I go on my
Speaker:instructions whenever I
Speaker:talk about a lifestyle and
Speaker:I give them examples.
Speaker:I love lifestyle technique.
Speaker:I call them compensation techniques.
Speaker:You're compensating for your stress.
Speaker:Look, I had one guy one time, he said, oh,
Speaker:I ride my bicycle to relax.
Speaker:I said, well, how often do you do that?
Speaker:He said, oh,
Speaker:I get out every two or three weekends.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:you're stressed every day you go to work.
Speaker:That's what, five, six days a week,
Speaker:and you're going to ride
Speaker:your bicycle once every three weeks?
Speaker:No,
Speaker:you need to do a daily compensation
Speaker:technique.
Speaker:But I always finish this,
Speaker:first time I'm on a mission,
Speaker:in capital letters,
Speaker:for at least eight weeks.
Speaker:I don't want them to draw
Speaker:any conclusions of whether
Speaker:it's helpful or not until
Speaker:we're out there six weeks,
Speaker:preferably eight.
Speaker:I agree.
Speaker:I agree with that wholeheartedly.
Speaker:When you do your saliva test
Speaker:to measure your cortisol,
Speaker:you want to do it on an
Speaker:average day of stress.
Speaker:In other words,
Speaker:if you're stressed Monday
Speaker:through Friday at your job,
Speaker:you don't spit on Saturday.
Speaker:You don't spend it on Sunday.
Speaker:For some people, that's more relaxing,
Speaker:sometimes more stressful,
Speaker:because a family comes over for dinner.
Speaker:You want to try to pick an
Speaker:average day of stress,
Speaker:even if it means the
Speaker:inconvenience of going to
Speaker:the bathroom at work and
Speaker:collecting saliva.
Speaker:It's important to me.
Speaker:The other thing that I point
Speaker:out to patients or
Speaker:practitioners I don't think
Speaker:they're aware of is that
Speaker:when a person's been
Speaker:stressed repeatedly over time,
Speaker:of those cumulative effects
Speaker:is that the message goes
Speaker:down the brain down the hpa
Speaker:axis if the campus
Speaker:pituitary adrenal so they
Speaker:call it the hpa axis that
Speaker:hp axis after a while gets
Speaker:fired up too often it
Speaker:becomes more sensitive in
Speaker:other words the brain
Speaker:becomes more sensitive to
Speaker:stress so what used to be a
Speaker:mild stressor is now a moderate stressor
Speaker:So I tell people,
Speaker:your adrenal should be hearing,
Speaker:you're stressed.
Speaker:And they're hearing, you're stressed.
Speaker:And that's where adaptogens come in.
Speaker:They help want that message going down.
Speaker:And then your lifestyle technique,
Speaker:changing your perception of stress,
Speaker:that's where you want.
Speaker:And that's why that takes time.
Speaker:You can't do that overnight,
Speaker:unfortunately.
Speaker:But I think it's important
Speaker:for people to realize
Speaker:because I've had patients.
Speaker:I have one patient not too long ago.
Speaker:She's sixty four, retired.
Speaker:I think about.
Speaker:Eight,
Speaker:ten months before we did the consultation,
Speaker:she said, Jim, it's not stressed.
Speaker:I'm not stressed anymore.
Speaker:I'm retired.
Speaker:Well, it said right on her form,
Speaker:now retired after eight to
Speaker:ten years of pure health.
Speaker:I said, I'm not treating retirement.
Speaker:I'm treating those eight to
Speaker:ten years of pure health
Speaker:that you are still going to
Speaker:have the effects of because
Speaker:you haven't done anything
Speaker:to reverse those effects.
Speaker:And that's one of the most
Speaker:important things for
Speaker:patients to understand.
Speaker:You need to work on
Speaker:reversing the effects of
Speaker:stress on your adrenals,
Speaker:get your adrenal function
Speaker:back to what it should be.
Speaker:And that's lifestyle and nutrition.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:And that's the key here, guys,
Speaker:is we can give you all the
Speaker:supplements and the hormones,
Speaker:but if you're not working
Speaker:on yourself and doing the
Speaker:things you need to do,
Speaker:I love bookmarking my
Speaker:morning and my evening first.
Speaker:First hour in the morning
Speaker:and the first hour in the
Speaker:day are my self-care days.
Speaker:That's my self-care time.
Speaker:And I bookmark it so I can
Speaker:do my stress management.
Speaker:I can take care of myself.
Speaker:And I put it, I actually, Jim,
Speaker:I teach this to the
Speaker:pharmacist because I've
Speaker:been teaching wellness and
Speaker:pharmacy for a while now.
Speaker:And the people that mentor
Speaker:with me and are in my masterminds,
Speaker:I tell them to put it in
Speaker:their work calendars.
Speaker:Because if they're teaching
Speaker:other people wellness,
Speaker:they've got to do themselves first.
Speaker:And when I put it in my work calendar,
Speaker:it automatically gives me
Speaker:permission to do what I
Speaker:need to do for my work.
Speaker:And so those are really nice
Speaker:little hacks and cheats
Speaker:that I give people.
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:Put your personal time in
Speaker:your work calendar.
Speaker:I like that idea.
Speaker:I've got people who should be doing that.
Speaker:Put your self-care in your work calendar.
Speaker:If you're into health and
Speaker:watching other people,
Speaker:how to be health and wellness, well,
Speaker:you've got to do you.
Speaker:And that's a really big,
Speaker:that's part of your work, right?
Speaker:Your work is to walk the walk,
Speaker:talk the talk and get these
Speaker:things under control.
Speaker:Like I said,
Speaker:none of these hormonal
Speaker:cascades are ever going to
Speaker:be fixed or restored
Speaker:without your part in it.
Speaker:And so I'm glad that we've
Speaker:hit this on many levels, right?
Speaker:How do pharmacists and
Speaker:healthcare professionals
Speaker:who want to integrate
Speaker:hormone health into their practice,
Speaker:what do you think are the
Speaker:first steps they should be taking?
Speaker:Read my book.
Speaker:I agree.
Speaker:Secondly,
Speaker:I would say you want to have
Speaker:somebody that's already
Speaker:doing this and have done
Speaker:this for a while to help you.
Speaker:So if I have a compounding
Speaker:pharmacist that's new to this,
Speaker:I'm going to be like,
Speaker:you need to find somebody
Speaker:who you can ask questions about this.
Speaker:You need to have somebody with experience.
Speaker:You can tackle most patients and do fine,
Speaker:but you're going to have a
Speaker:patient come up that you
Speaker:just don't understand what's going on.
Speaker:I suggest virtual meetings
Speaker:with other people.
Speaker:They don't have to be
Speaker:somebody you can drive over and visit.
Speaker:Virtual meetings are so great now.
Speaker:We have a group of
Speaker:consultants that do what I do,
Speaker:what you do.
Speaker:We meet on a weekly basis virtually.
Speaker:And we discuss case studies, the weather,
Speaker:new nutritional supplements
Speaker:that people are using.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:just all kinds of weird things as
Speaker:far as what comes on the pages.
Speaker:Because I don't care how
Speaker:many years you've been doing this.
Speaker:I've been doing this over
Speaker:four years right now.
Speaker:And they presented a patient
Speaker:this past week I hadn't
Speaker:seen anything like.
Speaker:Lady was born with two uterus.
Speaker:Dr. Justin Marchegiani And that's key,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:It's key because we're all bio-individual,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:This is where personalized
Speaker:medicine is coming from.
Speaker:This is why we test, treat, test.
Speaker:We look at the hormones,
Speaker:we look at the genetics,
Speaker:we look at the bio-individual
Speaker:around nutrigenomics and things like that.
Speaker:That's why I'm so excited
Speaker:about this golden age we're
Speaker:in because these tests
Speaker:aren't thousands of dollars anymore.
Speaker:We can test these things at
Speaker:a reasonable time,
Speaker:reasonable price points,
Speaker:and get people hyper-personalized.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:I've,
Speaker:this is why I've been working with
Speaker:pharmacists and wellness
Speaker:and in functional and all
Speaker:these places is because the
Speaker:best of the best have a coach.
Speaker:Michael Jordan was probably
Speaker:the best basketball player in the world.
Speaker:He had lots of coaches.
Speaker:So we need to make sure that
Speaker:we are learning from people
Speaker:that have been there and have experience,
Speaker:not just trying to DIY the
Speaker:whole thing because we can get the books,
Speaker:you know, right.
Speaker:We can understand and read the books,
Speaker:but that's exactly what I did.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:All right, I need to find a mentor.
Speaker:I need to find a coach
Speaker:because I've read this book,
Speaker:but now I need to get, you know,
Speaker:that's how you get there quicker, faster,
Speaker:and with less resources is
Speaker:when you have a group, you have a tribe,
Speaker:you have people you can learn from.
Speaker:So thank you for bringing that up.
Speaker:I tell practitioners, look,
Speaker:pay another practitioner if you have to,
Speaker:to do this with you on your
Speaker:first few patients.
Speaker:whether you sit on a virtual
Speaker:meeting or go over your
Speaker:notes afterwards and
Speaker:comment on your recommendations.
Speaker:However, have somebody else for a while.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:if I'm teaching a pharmacist how to
Speaker:do a consultation, for example,
Speaker:and how to start this out, I say,
Speaker:you just need to sit in on
Speaker:a few of my consultations for a while.
Speaker:and I'll get the patient permission,
Speaker:and that's how I talk pharmacists,
Speaker:and I think doctors should
Speaker:do the same thing,
Speaker:and the same thing with
Speaker:functional medicine.
Speaker:You don't have to pay
Speaker:thousands of dollars and go
Speaker:to these classes.
Speaker:There's less expensive ways.
Speaker:Do you know Lauren Castle?
Speaker:Yeah, we're good friends.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:she has that program now for
Speaker:functional medicine for pharmacists.
Speaker:It's great.
Speaker:Yeah, I think in this day and age,
Speaker:this is why I created the
Speaker:Rx to Wellness Accelerator
Speaker:program that we've put
Speaker:hundreds of pharmacists
Speaker:through now is you don't
Speaker:have to go back to school
Speaker:to learn the basics of what
Speaker:you need to do to be successful.
Speaker:If you have a tribe,
Speaker:if you have the right people teaching you,
Speaker:and if you're...
Speaker:learning from others that
Speaker:have done it right that's
Speaker:why lauren and she's got
Speaker:the functional medicine
Speaker:pharmacist alliance you
Speaker:know the beyond the pills
Speaker:collective that I've
Speaker:created like these are
Speaker:places where you know none
Speaker:of us got this in
Speaker:traditional school but we
Speaker:went out and learned it we
Speaker:did all the hard work and
Speaker:now we're here to teach us
Speaker:others how to do it quicker, faster,
Speaker:and with less effort and
Speaker:less time because we have AI.
Speaker:We have all these tools now
Speaker:that we can use.
Speaker:And when you're learning
Speaker:with peers alongside others,
Speaker:you actually learn faster and quicker.
Speaker:We've known this in the
Speaker:Cleveland's clinics.
Speaker:We know this in functional
Speaker:medicine from a patient perspective.
Speaker:When you learn from your peers,
Speaker:you actually learn better.
Speaker:So-
Speaker:You might retain that
Speaker:learning better because
Speaker:you're less stressed
Speaker:because you're not on your own.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:and I have a firm belief that when
Speaker:you do it alongside of
Speaker:people that are also going through it,
Speaker:this is why group-based
Speaker:programs are so important.
Speaker:Because if you're going through,
Speaker:rather than just one-on-one,
Speaker:if you're going through it with a group,
Speaker:then you get to experience
Speaker:it with each other.
Speaker:It's part of the community we have, right?
Speaker:Part of the community that
Speaker:feel that we have.
Speaker:If you're going through a
Speaker:metabolic reset program
Speaker:that we have or the stress
Speaker:and well-being program and
Speaker:you're meeting as a group
Speaker:and you're experiencing
Speaker:somebody's experience is
Speaker:going to be different.
Speaker:same but different than
Speaker:yours and you go through
Speaker:the whole process so it's
Speaker:it's the studies have shown
Speaker:this and it's really
Speaker:important so I'm glad that
Speaker:we're bringing this stuff
Speaker:up find your mentor
Speaker:physicians and nurses that
Speaker:uh take advantage of your
Speaker:accelerator program uh
Speaker:that's the next step
Speaker:because that's what we need
Speaker:now because you guys are
Speaker:both doing great jobs of
Speaker:educating pharmacists
Speaker:But I'm going,
Speaker:why couldn't we do this for physicians?
Speaker:That's what I did for years.
Speaker:I was a pharmacist and I
Speaker:educate physicians.
Speaker:That's the evolution of
Speaker:medicine is when we're
Speaker:talking lifestyle medicine
Speaker:and we're talking food is medicine.
Speaker:We're looking at wellness made simple,
Speaker:like functional made simple.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:primary care physicians and
Speaker:pharmacists are at the
Speaker:front lines here and
Speaker:And so my my adaptation of
Speaker:my accelerator program is
Speaker:moving in that direction so
Speaker:we can train these
Speaker:providers to put food and
Speaker:lifestyle at the forefront
Speaker:of their education to their patients.
Speaker:Because you and I both know
Speaker:this awareness is the first step.
Speaker:This is why you're writing your book.
Speaker:This is why I do the podcast, because.
Speaker:awareness is the first step
Speaker:to moving people in the right direction,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:If they didn't hear this,
Speaker:then they wouldn't be aware of it.
Speaker:Once you're aware of it,
Speaker:you can't be unaware of it.
Speaker:You just can choose what you do with it.
Speaker:And so this has been a
Speaker:really awesome conversation.
Speaker:Get his book if you're a practitioner.
Speaker:We'll happily have another
Speaker:podcast when the book comes
Speaker:out for patients because I
Speaker:want people to understand
Speaker:how they can do this,
Speaker:not only by themselves,
Speaker:but be aware of these are the things,
Speaker:these simple things.
Speaker:What is one thing that we've
Speaker:touched on today that would
Speaker:give them just one piece of
Speaker:advice as listeners to do the work?
Speaker:If they're thinking or
Speaker:interested about hormone balancing,
Speaker:what is the one thing we've
Speaker:talked about lifestyle?
Speaker:We talked about these things,
Speaker:but what are the things
Speaker:that we can do to talk to
Speaker:listeners to empower them today?
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:that's hard to put in one short
Speaker:little thing,
Speaker:but basically they need to
Speaker:educate themselves and they
Speaker:need to find the
Speaker:knowledgeable practitioner
Speaker:to work with them.
Speaker:And I usually what I've told
Speaker:most patients I've worked
Speaker:with is you need to find a
Speaker:compounding pharmacist.
Speaker:Because I think compounding
Speaker:pharmacists have been the
Speaker:best at getting educated
Speaker:themselves and probably as
Speaker:knowledgeable as anybody on this.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:I thank you because those of us that
Speaker:are compounding these
Speaker:bioidentical hormones
Speaker:because they're compounded medications,
Speaker:they're not FDA approved,
Speaker:which means we have to go
Speaker:into the lab and we make them, right?
Speaker:These bioidenticals that
Speaker:we've been doing for a very long time.
Speaker:I'm really excited because
Speaker:I'm working on some new and
Speaker:novel dose deliveries that
Speaker:I want to talk to you a
Speaker:little bit about at some point.
Speaker:Yeah, I want to hear about that.
Speaker:Yeah, we're doing some really cool stuff.
Speaker:Like hormones haven't been changed.
Speaker:The delivery systems are
Speaker:getting more bioavailable
Speaker:and we're doing some really cool stuff.
Speaker:I'd love to talk to you a
Speaker:little bit more about that.
Speaker:But the compounders,
Speaker:compounding pharmacists
Speaker:that have been compounding
Speaker:these bioidenticals for a very long time,
Speaker:they have a good depth of
Speaker:knowledge and understanding about this.
Speaker:So if you are a patient and
Speaker:you are looking for
Speaker:get educated.
Speaker:You and I both have been
Speaker:teaching pharmacists and
Speaker:Lauren and all these people.
Speaker:They're starting to do these
Speaker:consultations to talk to people about,
Speaker:is it right for them?
Speaker:What they could be doing?
Speaker:What are the dosage forms?
Speaker:What are the costs involved?
Speaker:What doctors can I use?
Speaker:Because they're already
Speaker:seeing the physicians that
Speaker:are doing it and prescribing them.
Speaker:So then you have a referral
Speaker:network to get the prescriptions,
Speaker:to get them done right, and to do it
Speaker:restoratively the right way
Speaker:like you said the right
Speaker:dose we're storing in
Speaker:balance and making sure
Speaker:that we're we're doing the
Speaker:lifestyle and and
Speaker:nutritional balancing as well
Speaker:Jim, this has been an amazing episode.
Speaker:I'm so glad that I was able
Speaker:to talk with you a little
Speaker:bit about your history and
Speaker:everything going on.
Speaker:I can't wait to see this new
Speaker:book come to fruition for you.
Speaker:Thank you so much for all
Speaker:you've done over the
Speaker:decades for not only pharmacy,
Speaker:but for patients and their health care,
Speaker:especially as it relates to
Speaker:these things called hormone balancing.
Speaker:Well, thank you, Josh.
Speaker:I had a good time.
Speaker:This is great.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:All right, guys, this is a wrap.
Speaker:Until next time, stay well.
