Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) for PCOS and Hormonal Imbalances with Jim Hrncir, R.Ph

Jim Hrncir Interview
===

[00:00:00] Kat Khatibi: Welcome to the show. Today’s guest. Jim Hrncir is recognized as one of the pioneers of modern pharmaceutical compounding. Jim is responsible for the formulation of many bio-identical hormone, dermatological, nutritional, and anti-aging compounds in wide use throughout the U S he has worked in radio and TV, including multiple appearances on Dr. Phil as a hormone expert, as a member of the board of the Alliance of pharmacy compounding, Jim is passionate about the benefits pharmaceutical compounding can bring to patients. In this episode, we’ll be talking about hormone replacement therapy, bioidentical hormones, and how they can help conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, and so much more.

[00:00:42] So if you have hormones, at some point in your life, they might get a little wonky. And this episode is for you.

[00:00:50] Hello. Thank you so much for being with us here today.

[00:00:54] Jim Hrncir: It’s an honor to be here with you, and thank you for asking.

[00:00:58] Kat Khatibi: So tell us a little bit about you, your credentials and why you specifically went into pharmaceutical compounds.

[00:01:06] Jim Hrncir: Uh, been a pharmacist since, uh, 79. I’m not a young guy. And then we started opened this pharmacy in 84 and I wanted to do it based on customer service. And then, we started doing compounding, some dermatological. I got kind of good at dermatological compounding for doctors. And then, we had an event and the event was, is that my wife had a hysterectomy and oophorectomy.

[00:01:31] So at 28 years old, I had a menopausal woman on my hands. And so, and she’s, you know, this, this wonderful human being, I mean, beautiful, talented photographic memory, you know, I mean, she was just a dynamo, uh, managing a department store in addition to help start the pharmacy. So she had a lot of irons in the fire and could do them all.

[00:01:52] And then after the hysterectomy and oophorectomy, um, she’s menopausal, I’ve saw her degrade. Just so rapidly. And it just, it broke my heart because I thought, you know, I had this perfect woman and love her to death. I got to try to fix her because I’m a fixer, I’m a caretaker. And so, the doctors, what they tried did not work.

[00:02:11] Oh, we’re just going to give her some Premarin and she’ll be fine. Well, she wasn’t fine. She was worse. And so I came up with the idea to use the first, and I invented the first transdermal estradiol gel, which is a natural bio-identical hormone. And all of a sudden I’m starting to get my girl back, you know?

[00:02:28] And so from then on we’ve had an incredible, advanced mind in our knowledge of of hormone balance, and all that. And we’ve been right on the cusp of all of it because we were there at the very beginning. That led me to, to think more broadly cat. When you have things in your personal life that don’t work out with traditional medicine.

[00:02:48] And most of my friends are traditional medicine doctors, not bad mouthing. I mean, it’s just that sometimes what they have, what they’re selling doesn’t work. And so then I started looking more broadly. And so I started getting training from naturopathic physicians and, and people in natural medicine, trying to figure out what is going on.

[00:03:06] What, how can I fix things that traditional medicine says, well, you can’t do anything for that. And that led me to two classes and all over the country. And eventually I started teaching integrative medicine, which is what we call it now, back then, it was just natural medicine in the eighties and nineties.

[00:03:23] And so, that’s what I now teach to doctors who are traditional medicine doctors and say, I’d like to learn more about that. And so it’s need to be evidence-based. And so I, cause I’m in a precarious position as a pharmacist, I need to. Be evidence-based so that the doctors don’t go, oh, that’s just fluff.

[00:03:42] You know, they need some science behind it. And so not only do I teach them protocols on how to practice, but I also teach them some of the science behind their, some of the studies that show, what this really is, has an effect that has been studied in science and can has a positive outcome for patients because that’s really the measure of all of our, there are phases, are there positive patient outcomes.

[00:04:07] So then that led me from 1984 to now.

[00:04:12] Kat Khatibi: So let’s just get right into bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Let’s start off with why is big pharma lobbying against bio-identical hormone replacement?

[00:04:25] Jim Hrncir: Yeah. I don’t know if you remember, the women’s health initiative study of 2002, which said that, oh, women, if you are using hormones, if you’re using estrogen and progesterone, they didn’t specify which one they said, you will have an increased risk of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, dementia.

[00:04:43] I mean, they named all these things. And actually, big pharma was took, it, took it on the chin because at the time Premarin pregnant mare’s urine, which is truly, it truly is that they catch the urine of pregnant horses and dry it and put it in a pill. That was the number one drug in the world, in the world, $2 billion.

[00:05:05] And this is in 2002. And so all of a sudden their sales dropped plummeted to, weigh down on. And I was just thinking, like 600 million over, uh, And so they go, oh my gosh, we’re losing sales because of this study. And so women in America, 80% of them got off their hormones, just dropped them.

[00:05:28] And women were making the choice that I’m too scared to use hormones. So I’m going to use nothing and big pharma didn’t like that. And then the women that were making a choice, because at the time I should back up at the time over 50% of women who were menopausal were using hormones over 50%. And so all of a sudden we’ve got 80% of those women just dropping off and big pharma goes, wait, we’re losing all these sales.

[00:05:55] And then the women started choosing natural alternatives, which is bio-identical hormones, biologic, identical, and as compounders we’re filling that need filling that new. We also understood the concept of hormone balance, not just giving estrogen, it’s about a balance of all the hormones for a woman to be optimal.

[00:06:14] And so women were doing better. And we now have, from that point to now, we have 8 million women and men on bio-identical hormones compound about it hormones. And that’s a lot of folks. Matter of fact, that represents more than half of all patients are using hormones in us. So obviously we’re a target for.

[00:06:34] Kat Khatibi: I have so many questions. First off there was a woman, a while back Ts Wiley, and she was on a podcast. And I listened to saying that women should have their periods using hormone replacement therapy as long as possible because once ministration stops aging advances quickly.

[00:06:51] So what are your thoughts on women artificially continuing menstruation and avoiding menopause? Is there any correlation with increased health youthfulness, longevity, or do you think that’s not the right.

[00:07:05] Jim Hrncir: There are several different pro uh, protocols for replacing hormones for women. If we’re going to talk about women right now, and those protocols vary, there’s one protocol that uses saliva testing and they use micro doses.

[00:07:18] I mean, we’re talking, of a biased Virginia to estrogens. They use like 0.6 to five milligrams as their top dose. Whereas there’s a middle of the road group that, that I have been teaching and my doctors enjoy. They understand it, they can relate to it. And I use like a bias five milligrams as my starting dose for a menopausal woman, which gives, um, About the same amount of estrogen as a patch.

[00:07:44] Okay. And so they understand that and they go, but they get bio-identical hormones, both estriol estradiol. So that’s great. Well, then you have some other protocols. You have the pellet protocols where they’re implanting these pellets under the skin. And, uh, and those doctors are typically being taught to use super physiologic doses, which means in lay terms that they’re using doses that way exceed what is normally seen in the human body.

[00:08:09] Like for instance, uh, you know, you’re just a kid, okay. You look 12, I don’t know how young you are get, but you look 12, you know, which is great. Um, so, uh, they would, they would look at you and they’d go, you know what, if I tested your testosterone and I said, okay, I’m getting a, I’m getting a, an, a level of about 50, which is a really strong, they’d say, you know what?

[00:08:32] We need to have you at two 50. And I, and I’ve got women coming into here regularly with pellet therapy that have 450. That’s a man, that’s not a woman. And a, and they’re saying, that’s what you need to be. And that’s when you use super physiologic doses, you risk a lot of side effects and those women are coming in with hair, falling out with acne.

[00:08:53] You know, they’re angry, you know, they’re, they’re gaining weight. They’re not feeling good. So again, we’re trying to figure out how to use balanced hormones and, uh, and the pellets. In my opinion, fall a little short on that women feel great at first on the pellets, by the way, they feel phenomenal. But then that, that, uh, steroid euphoria from the hormones wears off.

[00:09:16] And unfortunately they start feeling bad. So it’s not a sustainable therapy in my opinion. And then finally, we’ve got the Wiley protocol. Well, when I was testifying at the national academies of science, engineering, and medicine in Washington, DC, when the FDA was doing a study on hormones, they targeted pellet therapy and the Wiley protocol as being therapies, they felt were dangerous.

[00:09:38] Okay. Now this is the FDA talking, not me talking as FDA said, we feel like those two are dangerous. So we’re going to try to put a stop to compounding of, of hormones compounding by no hormones, the Wiley protocol. And this is her opinion, she, and everybody opinions are like, we were in, everybody’s got one, I’m sorry.

[00:10:00] From west Texas, we say weird stuff like that. So, in her opinion is that women should have periods. I don’t care if you’re 60, 70, 75, you should still be having a period. Well, there is no science and believe me, I read it every study that comes out because I want to make sure that I’m doing the best job for my patients.

[00:10:20] And I have not seen any studies and any experts other than her that says that you have to have a period to stay healthy. Okay. Now what you do have to have. And this is very important. And by the way, um, before I go to the next point, Ken, I’d like to say that she uses doses, that vary throughout the month, similar to a woman’s, uh, hormones as a very throughout the month as well.

[00:10:45] But those doses are really high. I mean, oftentimes higher than premenopausal women. Okay. I have a little, I’m getting a little nervous about that. And, uh, and so those women tend to not do well long-term and plus they get tired of having that monthly visitor. And so what we do, in my protocol and the protocol that is the most widespread in the country and biomedical hormones is we try to maintain a thickness of the uterus.

[00:11:13] Um, that is safe. If it’s too thin, then women are having discomfort and they’re having bleeding. If it’s too thick, then they’re having bleeding. They’re having risk of uterine cancer. They call it endometrial cancer of the uterus. And, uh, and so what we try to do is use a balance of estrogens, you know, estradiol estriol, progesterone and testosterone, in order to keep the lining of the uterus in a safe level.

[00:11:42] Okay. And they can measure with a transvaginal ultrasound. So I urge all my women to once a year go in and get this trans vaginal ultrasound. And it’s a really easy procedure. And they measure the thickness of the uterus uterine lining, and they find out, okay, this isn’t a safe area and it’s not a big deal.

[00:12:01] Any gynecologist can do this, this, uh, ultrasound. And, uh, and it is a, it’s a nice tool for us to know that yes, we’re doing a good job with balancing those cells inside the, uterus. Okay. Because we do have to keep those healthy. Does that help answer the question that, that, uh, that there are all these protocols and, and the Wiley protocol is just one of them.

[00:12:24] And again, it’s one that was targeted by FDA as being possibly dangerous. So, because they do use levels that are so high, I mean, much higher than what we see in, in a typical woman.

[00:12:37] Kat Khatibi: When I was younger, I remember Susan Summer came out with her book that she talks about hormone replacement therapy, and there was a ton of scrutiny and all the doctors were attacked in the book.

[00:12:48] Do you think they had any reason, was there anything in the book that they were talking about hormone replacement therapy, that you think that maybe they were wrong or do you think they were overreacting?

[00:12:58] Jim Hrncir: I mean, the doctors who were criticizing her that book, and, and again, most of my friends are traditional doctors.

[00:13:04] Okay. Because I live in the world between patients and doctors, you know, that that’s what a pharmacist does. And as an integrative medicine or natural pharmacist, I have to tow a line, you know, I have to be believable to my traditional docs. And, so again, that means me being evidence-based and so forth, and all of a sudden they start seeing my patients doing better than their patients.

[00:13:27] And they’re seeing my patients happier and healthier and better sex lives and looking younger and they. Go see Jim and whatever that stuff is, he’s doing. Just, just see him and tell him, tell me what to do. So, I get a lot of referrals from traditional guys, but they have to see it. It’s almost like, you know, doubting Thomas having to stick hand in the wound.

[00:13:48] They have to see my patients doing better before they come over to the dark side of natural medicine, you know, and, and say, you know what, there may be something to that because my patients are healthier and they’re happier and they’re having they’re successful in that they feel better and their brains are clearer.

[00:14:06] And, and so they, these doctors have to see that firsthand and get that feedback from patients before they start saying, maybe there’s something to that, you know? So they are traditionally skeptics. They’re taught in medical school to be skeptics, to say, you know what? I can’t just take every single opinion and make that part of my belief.

[00:14:27] Now here’s, here’s a funny thing, and doctors consider themselves scientists. But, um, my best friend is the head of the largest physicians group in Texas. Okay. So he’s a big deal. Internal medicine doctor, you know, he is a brilliant, but traditional medicine. And, uh, and he said, Jim, 80% of the doctors in my practice, you know, 400 doctors do not know how to tell the difference in a study from, from relative risk versus absolute risk.

[00:14:56] You know, relative risk says, oh, you got a 26% increased risk of breast cancer. The significant biostatistics say the 26% increased risk is actually zero, because that means 0.5 patients in a thousand. And that, that 0.5 patients in a thousand, it gets breast cancer could be eating Big Macs. In other words, there’s no correlation between the hormones.

[00:15:18] And breast cancer. So most doctors, they’re really good guys and they’re good doctors and they are working within their belief system, but they tend to dis any opinion that is not coincidentally with theirs. Isn’t that true of all of us though. We’re all human beings, right? We all put on our panties the same way in the morning.

[00:15:39] I don’t put on panties. You know,

[00:15:43] you can tell, been married 43 years, but, uh, anyway, so human nature just says, I’m not going to, acknowledge a belief system. That’s different than my own, unless I see firsthand that there’s something to it. So when I teach classes again, I’m trying to teach classes of these traditional guys and say, okay, here’s how you do this.

[00:16:06] Here’s why we do this. And here’s the studies that support.

[00:16:09] So, yes, it’s natural for them to diss it.

[00:16:13] Kat Khatibi: No, I know how it is. My husband does functional medicine. He’s an acupuncturist. So he has had so many interactions with doctors. The patients will come and see him and get better. And then they would tell their doctors and the doctors will be like, that’s impossible.

[00:16:28] That’s just hooey. That’s not a real thing. And then they would come see him, get their stuff treated. And they’re like, okay, maybe there’s something to this because, there’s always something that you don’t know.

[00:16:41] Jim Hrncir: You know, Kat. Just like the story I was telling you about my wife, um, before then, if you’d have told me that you need to compound biomedical hormones for her to be happy and healthy.

[00:16:51] I just said, nah, you know, we can, we’ve got, we got Premarin. We got w she’ll be great. Because I hadn’t experienced it. And it’s just human nature. And, uh, and so we’re trying to get the word out right now, and again, the word has gotten out. I mean, here we have 8 million Americans, using hormones that are compounded natural hormones.

[00:17:11] So apparently a lot of people have gotten the word, but I can say that the FDA is also not on board with us, compounding hormones, the FDA, um, matter of fact, the outgoing, director of the FDA, Scott Gatlin, who is a doctor, a medical doctor, he spoke at a conference. I was attending in Houston, two years ago.

[00:17:32] And he said, you know, inside the FDA, we have an anti compounding culture. And, uh, and we do not believe in what you do. And we are doing everything we can to get rid of you. And so, I mean, we’ve intercepted emails, said, oh, this legislation by Congress and we’ll put another nail in the coffin of compounders.

[00:17:54] You know, in other words, they’re trying to wipe out an entire industry that is helping millions. And, I’m talking not just hormonal patients, I’m talking about patients that have reversed auto immune diseases on, and I’m doing thyroid for, and I’m helping children with autism. I mean, I’m doing amazing work.

[00:18:11] I’m helping soldiers with traumatic brain injury and PTSD recover and be reintegrated back into society. And compounding allows me to do all that stuff. So just think of the millions beyond just hormone patients that we’re helping and FDA is, has it in their crawl that, that were dangerous and that we need to be eliminated.

[00:18:32] Now there have been bad compounders. I mean, you may have heard. That a compounding center in new England that killed some people. Um, and they were a bad actor and, uh, and they were doing horrible things. They were inspected by FDA three times, FDA failed to act the state board of pharmacy in Massachusetts.

[00:18:53] Um, inspect them three times, fail to act, allow this bad behavior to continue. And they killed some people. So, I feel like the FDA is culpable there. The, the state board of pharmacy in Massachusetts was culpable over those deaths, but that’s a bad actor. And just because there’s a bad actor, doesn’t mean you need to wipe out an industry.

[00:19:12] Um, like I know bad doctors, I know bad CPAs. I know bad lawyers who are unethical, but you know what? They don’t legislate them out of existence. They regulate the bad guys, um, into line, and we’re regulated. Way regulated. I mean, if you knew how regulated we were, you would think that we’re almost acting as manufacturers because we have so many regulations on how we need to do this, how safety protocols, you know, our patients are getting incredible products out of us.

[00:19:45] You know, an example, the, we weigh powders, let’s say hormone patterns, okay. We weigh those on a scale that costs $5,000. It’s an analytical electronic balance, um, that has printers attached to it that we can prove how much we weigh. And it’s $5,000. We have a $20,000 machine that just simply mixes the powders, you know, the inactive with the active, so that whenever we make a capsule.

[00:20:08] The actives are spread through the capsule evenly $20,000. We’re investing in technology. We have a $25,000 machine that mixes the creams. You know, when you get a hormone cream, that mixes, these creams is, in other words, we care so much about our patients. It’s not a matter of profits.

[00:20:26] It’s about taking care of patients, getting positive patient outcomes.

[00:20:31] Kat Khatibi: I totally know all about what you’re speaking when it comes to overregulation, trying to get almost rid of an industry by causing so much, but that’s where we’re living right now. That’s what we have to work with.

[00:20:44] So. How could bias against compounding pharmacies limit the options available to doctors treating patients?

[00:20:52] Jim Hrncir: That is a real concern because as I said earlier, if I was, I was, I guess I should back up. And so that was testifying at the study that FDA commissioned at the national academy ketamine’s of science, engineering, and medicine.

[00:21:06] So I go into this group and here is this committee that the FDA has commissioned this study. They’re supposed to commission the study and then step away. Well, no, they, and there’s a law that actually says if the FDA commissions a study or any government entity commissions, a study through the, uh, your medicine, then that entity has a step away and allow the science to happen.

[00:21:29] Allow all of the. Data to be gathered and then to come up with a conclusion. Okay, well, FDA inserted themselves in the middle of that entire process, which is illegal. There’s a federal law that says they can’t do it. They had influence on who is going to sit on the committee. The committee members, they also, had lots of influence on who is going to be, expert speakers, in order to influence the committee.

[00:21:54] And then after the study was completed, then the committee had to come up with recommendations and conclusions based on the data. And that committee allowed FDA, people and ex FDA people who are anti compounding to influence their conclusions. In other words, the conclusions had nothing to do with the testimony that they heard.

[00:22:17] They already had a predestined conclusion from the FDA and all they did is just, they spent $2 million of taxpayer money to get a conclusion. That was nothing, but it just an opinion piece. Yeah. I’ve presented for three hours, to this committee, giving them all kinds of science and patient outcomes, positive patient outcomes.

[00:22:36] And instead they didn’t. And I gave him studies, you know, lots of studies that had been done, on the biomedical hormones, proving that they’re effective and they’re safe. They decided to not allow any of the studies that I recommended that they, use. They wouldn’t allow any of the testimony that we gave.

[00:22:55] And I was not the only expert. There were lots of experts that were very scientific and there. Uh, delivery and, and they instead and ignored all of that and came up with the conclusion that FDA told them to come up with. And so therefore FDA is trying to, and in there, they’re probably going to try to make some kind of a statement coming up.

[00:23:16] And I hope the women and men who are listening, understand that your ability to choose compounded hormones, which should be your choice could be taken away. If FDA tries to legislate or tries to regulate us completely out of existence. And that’s a crying shame because our outcomes are better than pharmaceutical outcomes.

[00:23:39] We know that we probably get as much as a 20%, reduced risk over some of the pharmaceuticals. Just like blood clots in the legs, DVTs, we have a 260% decrease risk of blood clots. If you’re using transdermal, estrogen, oral progesterone, and a transdermal testosterone than if you are, um, using Prempro, which is, oral Premarin, an oral Medroxyprogesterone acetate, which is chemicalized.

[00:24:09] So women need to understand that they have, they don’t have zero risk, but they had the lowest risk if they use a compound of ethical hormones. And that is my opinion, but it is an opinion backed up by a lot of science.

[00:24:24] Kat Khatibi: They still prescribe a hormonal birth control, which has a way more risks.

[00:24:28] So, it’s just, they are picking and choosing what they’ll allow.

[00:24:32] Jim Hrncir: You know Kat. That’s a, that’s a funny statement you just made. I have a lot of women who get to menopause. They sell, I’m not using those hormones. I would, those are too dangerous, but their whole life that you took birth control pills, which increased their breast cancer risk.

[00:24:46] By 20%, they increased their clotting by 30 or 40%, you know, blood clots and DVTs. And I’m just thinking, all I want is I want patients to make educated and informed decisions. I want them to have the right information and then use that information to make an educated and informed decision about their own health.

[00:25:05] Because I can’t tell them what to do. I have a strong opinion. And if they ask me, I’ll tell them that sounds like a little therapy. Don’t have strong opinion about that. Do you wanna hear it? But, uh, but, uh, I, I let my women know that if you want to hear my opinion, I’m going to give it to you. And I’m going to give you the science that backs that up.

[00:25:22] And then I’ll let you make a decision on whether or not you decide to use. And, uh, and so just like an example, 80% of breast cancer risks, 80% of breast cancer cases are in women who have never taken a hormone, that is shocking to me. Women who have had breast cancer and go back on hormones, have a reduced risk of recurrence than women who do not have a reduced risk.

[00:25:46] Now will you’d have thought they’d be the highest risk wouldn’t you. And that was released at the big cancer symposium in San Antonio just last year. Matter of fact, using mercy, Arizona released a study just a few weeks ago that says that, and I’m more scared of dementia than anything. So I’m bringing this dementia thing up, women who use hormones.

[00:26:04] Women who use bio-identical hormones, I should say, have a 78% decreased risk of developing dementia as they age now, 78% decrease risk is amazing. I mean, that’s amazing. And women who are using the pharmaceutical hormones have about a 50% decrease risk, but my identical hormone, uh, gals 78% and almost all entities now recognize that a woman should be on hormones for as long as she wants to have to feel good.

[00:26:37] In other words, there is no, oh, you’re 55. You need to go off hormones. That is totally been thrown out of north American menopause society, the endocrine society, and all other traditional and natural medicine societies have all thrown out. The idea that women should not be on hormones more than five years.

[00:26:54] In other words, you stay on them as long as you want to feel good. When you want to start aging. Get off your hormones. Do you want to age fast, faster Kat?

[00:27:03] I don’t want to age faster either. You know, I mean I’m 65 and, and, uh, and I, and I’m not afraid of getting old, but I don’t want to hurry along. I want to continue to be as optimal as I can be. And at my age, I can tell you by doing the right things, which I’ve known how to do the right things for a lot of years.

[00:27:22] Um, I am aging more slowly than my buddies and that’s, I’m not bragging. It’s just a matter of science. That I have better cholesterol. I have better triglycerides. I have better weight control. I don’t ache, I don’t have any aches and pains. My brain is clear. I’m living pretty optimally, other than stress, I tend to put a little bit of stress on myself, so I could do better.

[00:27:46] Kat Khatibi: So tell us about the economic impact that the FDA overreach could have on pharmacists across the country.

[00:27:54] Jim Hrncir: When you think about 7,000 company pharmacies in America, and almost all of those 7,000 pharmacies are doing, hormones, compounded hormones for their patients. Now, if you take that away, that means you’re taking away a big chunk of their livelihood.

[00:28:10] Um, yes, of course the most important thing is what they’re doing for patients, which is helping patients achieve better health and better quality of life. That’s those important thing. But economically those pharmacies, the majority of them are going to close down. I mean, we’re talking death of an industry.

[00:28:26] And not just those pharmacies are affected. Let’s think about the far reaching consequences of all the suppliers that supply those pharmacies. Cause we have, we have 20 suppliers that supply us, with, the little bottles that we put the cream in and, and the chemical suppliers where we buy those.

[00:28:44] And when they buy the chemicals from FDA inspected facilities. And what about, all of the, shipping, we’re shipping these to patients and so shippers are gonna take a hit. So it all only across the economy, there is going to be a huge hit. What about all the employees? I’ve got 32 employees here and they make more money than their cohorts who are working for the chain drug stores.

[00:29:05] Okay. They’re making good money. My pharmacist, I have seven pharmacists on staff, including me, eight pharmacists actually. And I don’t need that many pharmacists I’m way over employed, but I like to take care of patients. Okay. So that means eight pharmacists are going to be out on the street.

[00:29:20] How can you justify economically killing an industry, just because of a prejudice that has no science backing behind it. It’s just a prejudice by the FDA.

[00:29:33] Kat Khatibi: So you’re saying they’re going after compounding in general.

[00:29:36] Jim Hrncir: Yes. They want it, they wouldn’t eliminate all compounding, but they know that if they eliminate hormone compounding that the majority of us will go under and they’re the, and we’ve actually in the intercepted emails that say that was their strategy.

[00:29:50] Okay. So it’s not like we’re just making this up as well. This is probably what they’re thinking now. They’ve told us, cause freedom of information act. We were allowed to get, their emails, their internal emails, they’re sending among each other. And it is very damning. Excuse my language, very damning to hear, what they’re saying about us, and especially based on the fact that we are doing so much good for so many.

[00:30:16] Kat Khatibi: Yeah. We had a friend that was a compounding pharmacist. He had his own little pharmacy here in Miami somewhere, and he had his patients and that would come in . It was a great little business. It completely supported himself more than he would make if you worked for a CVS or whatever.

[00:30:33] And then her started gettingin kind of like mafia type, shakedowns like, oh, come work for us. We’ll pay you this amount, shut down. And he didn’t do it. And then the city went after him. It was a big mess. So have you noticed maybe any of your peers experiencing similar issues when it comes to the bigger pharmacies?

[00:30:55] Jim Hrncir: Yeah, I actually, have been offered, for the purchase of that pharmacy from one of those entities, and then, a few years ago. I should back up, pharmacists have always been involved in pain management. Okay. And pain management, is something that we can help with.

[00:31:10] Like my wife had a knee replacement surgery here, poor, poor my wife. The reason I really good at integrative medicine is because everything that can happen to a human being has happened to my wife. And she doesn’t mind me talking about it by the way. So she gave me permission. Yeah. And so she had knee replacement surgery a year and a half ago and she, can’t take opioids.

[00:31:29] You know, she has an intolerance to opioids. It is in, so she was hurting. I mean, the surgery is a complete knee replacement. So I did pain creams for her knee and the nerve pathways and was able to keep her out of pain without having to take pain pills. Okay. Without having take opioids. That pain medicine is valid.

[00:31:48] It’s ethical, um, that we were using these transdermal, um, pain creams that we can use to block pathways, but there were some business guys, not pharmacists, but business guys who saw an opportunity. So they started overbilling cause they, there was a billing, um, capability in those days that allowed them to Jack the prices up for maybe a $300 compound.

[00:32:11] They were charging $15,000 for it because of this formula that had been allowed. And so they started, actually inventing patients. They were bringing patients and that didn’t even hurt giving them prescriptions. And, and bottom line is there was abuse among the small number of, we call them pain, cream pharmacies.

[00:32:34] And so they were making millions and millions of dollars. A day. There were some here in, uh, in my area and the two owners, two business guys were both buying custom golf strings for themselves. Okay. So unfortunately, ethics, bad ethics are in every profession you hear about doctors who are billing, Medicare or procedures they didn’t do.

[00:32:59] And you hear about lawyers who are in and own schemes. When you hear investment counselors who were in on Ponzi schemes, so there’s bad guys in every profession and these were bad guys and, but they were trying to buy up all the pharmacies at the time, because they wanted to eliminate all the pharmacists, sit there as, because they thought this is going to go on forever.

[00:33:15] A lot of those guys are now in jail because there was a lots of fraud involved and, they needed to be in jail, and the doctors who were supplying them need to be in jail too. I had a doctor come to me and said, Jim, I wrote, 40 pain, cream prescriptions. Yeah.

[00:33:30] And I want you to do all my pancreas. I hear you’re the best compounder in north Texas. And I want you to do all my patrons for me. I said, when I’m in my mind, I’m paying okay, 12,000 to $15,000, times 40. How many millions is that? I can’t even add that high to be honest with you. And, and he said, but, what are you gonna do for me?

[00:33:45] And I said, well, doc, I’m gonna make the best cream and possible. I’m use the best chemicals, the best bays. I’m gonna tell the patients how to use it. And they go Jim Jim Jim. What are you going to pay me? He said, give me 60% of my prescription and I’ll send them all to you. And, you know what, there’s bad guys in the physicians and the pharmacists and the lawyers and the CPAs and so those guys exist.

[00:34:11] And, uh, and I I’m feel, I feel sad about it. And, uh, the organization I belong to a company pharmacies, we actually, were horrified by that practice. And because we’re all good guys, most of us were really good guys where ethical money is not our motivator, our motivator is helping patients.

[00:34:29] You know, we’re caretaking people, you know, want a caretaker is. So we developed a code of ethics and, and so we make everybody in our organization. If you want to be a member of our organization, then you have to subscribe to that code of ethics. And we actually came up with a code of ethics and we subscribed to it.

[00:34:46] And I can’t say anything other than it makes me feel good. I can sleep at night.

[00:34:52] Kat Khatibi: No, you’re absolutely right. I mean, that happens in every industry, not just in the medical field. I remember working for a clinic and there was Medicaid fraud. I remember physicians working with pharmaceutical companies. Oh, if you hit this many, we’ll send you to Hawaii.

[00:35:09] I mean, that’s just how it works, unfortunately.

[00:35:13] Jim Hrncir: By the way my wife would love your backdrop, you know,she’s a blinger. And so she would be so crazy if she got, I can’t wait for her to see the podcast because she’s going to love your background. Cause she’s a, she’s a very art artsy, you know?

[00:35:27] Kat Khatibi: Yes, I’m very, childlike, I guess

[00:35:31] Jim Hrncir: it’s working for you.

[00:35:33] Kat Khatibi: All right. So, in your opinion, why do you feel hormonal imbalances are so common? Because I think that they’re, they seem to be worse than like our great grandmothers had is for women, especially going through menopause.

[00:35:48] Jim Hrncir: No, I’m not sure that they’re worse now than they were then. Um, and, and there there’s reasons why they could be worse and I’ll get to that.

[00:35:55] But in those days, women were very stoic, you know, when they went through menopause, a lot of them went a little crazy, you know, because I don’t know. It just like I saw my wife, all the emotional and physiologic disturbances in her when she had the hysterectomy and oophorectomy, um, It is real. I mean, you know, you feel depressed, you feel anxious, you know, your brain goes foggy.

[00:36:18] You know, you don’t feel like yourself. And so it’s, it’s understandable that in those days they would put you in an insane asylum. If you started exhibiting symptoms of being touched, that’s what they call it. Oh, she’s touched, you know, by the whatever the evil spirits are. And so they would put them, they would lock them away.

[00:36:39] And so women were stoic. They didn’t talk about how bad they felt. Now women are more open about talking about, okay, here’s how I feel. It makes me, and, and so it’s okay to talk about it now. And, but, but there were still women who are still reluctant to talk about it. They just go, you know what? My grandmother made it through it.

[00:36:56] I can make it through it, but you know, you’re not going to make it through life with the quality of life that you can if you use these hormones. So, so yes, you should use them. Yes, you should have better quality of life. And there’s so many impediments. To over the last few years for women to even use hormones that I’ve, I felt bad for them.

[00:37:16] A Yale study showed that there was, hundreds of thousands of needless deaths, early deaths in women who were too afraid to take their hormones because of hormone hysteria from that 2002 women’s health initiative study, which turns out was completely bogus. The entire study has been thrown out now.

[00:37:35] And, and it was thrown out by the original researchers. They said, you know what we got. After following these women, we’re seeing women are having reduced risk of breast cancer, reduced risk of heart disease, reduce risk of dementia, reduce risk of osteoporosis. I mean, reduced risk of colon cancer. And they, it took them a few years to admit that they were wrong, but they admitted it.

[00:37:56] This is a very biased study, which means that it wasn’t good science, you know? So I’m glad that they came through, but isn’t it interesting Kat that you never hear. Good news. You only hear the bad news, oh women. If you’re using hormones, you have a 27% increased risk of invasive breast cancer.

[00:38:14] But then when they would come out and go, oh, you know what we found out, it’s not a 27% increased risk. It’s a, it’s a 20% reduced risk of breast cancer. You don’t hear that on the news, do you? Yeah, it’s good news. And the good news is not sensational. Bad news is sensational. You know? So it seems like our newspeople sometimes do us a disservice.

[00:38:35] Kat Khatibi: Well, that’s why, views have gone down so much.

[00:38:38] Jim Hrncir: What about a, can I evade your question a little bit, but I can say that in this day and time, you know, we are stressed out, you know, and when you’re stressed, unfortunately that causes a disfunction in the brain and in hormones downstream because the brain has an area called the hypothalamus.

[00:38:57] And, uh, and I’m not gonna test you on this later. So don’t worry, but the hypothalamus is an area that since this hormone levels, since his thyroid levels, since his cortisol levels and it, and it then sends signals through the pituitary, um, through signaling hormones, down to the ovaries, it says, Hey, ovaries, I want you to produce more estrogen or less estrogen or, or, or men.

[00:39:20] I want your testes produce more testosterone or adrenals. I want you to produce more cortisol, you know, or less cortisol. So there’s communication going on from the brain that control center down to all these glands. And, uh, when we’re under stress, then that drives cortisol higher and higher and higher.

[00:39:37] And unfortunately our bodies were not made to fight the saber tooth tiger 24 hours, seven days. We’re supposed to go fight the saber tooth tiger. Then go back to the cave and rest a little bit with cavewoman, you know, and then have a little fun with caveboy and then go back out and about the woolly mammoth, and then go back to the cave.

[00:39:57] And we’re supposed to have levels of stress followed by a relaxation. We don’t do that. We put so much pressure on ourselves and especially as type A personalities that then unfortunately we drive our cortisol higher and higher and higher. And unfortunately that means that the brain gets shut down. The brain says, oh, we’ve got toxic levels of cortisol.

[00:40:20] I am going to, I’m not going to block all signaling on cortisol. So next time we know the adrenals are putting out any cortisol or DHEA or adrenaline and you feeling tired and depressed and anxious. And you’re wondering what’s wrong with me. And, the bottom line is that the brain is just said.

[00:40:38] You’re in time-out, it’s not that the adrenals are tired or fatigued it’s that the brain is dysregulated is dysregulating the adrenals because they’re not being told what to do anymore. The communication has broken down. So, and that’s true of the ovaries. And so we unfortunately see, stress causing a reduction in hormones.

[00:41:00] A prime example, buddy of mine was a vice president for American airlines, very stressful position. So at 59, his testosterone was 400. He retired a year later and, uh, and within six months, his testosterone, jumped from 400 to 1100. And only thing he did was retired. Know he didn’t start using testosterone, stress played that bigger role.

[00:41:26] It, it reduced his, Testosterone by two and a half times. So that tells you that if it’s happening on, man is having on the women as well. And then what else have we got? We’ve got toxins, toxins, we’ve got phytoestrogen, we’re drinking out of plastic models, which gives us estrogen feedback to the brain.

[00:41:42] The brain says, oh, I’ve got this excess estrogens. And then here we are drinking plastic bottles and getting phyto estrogens or plasticizers of which have estrogens. And we’re getting all of this, mixed data coming into the brain, no wonder is confused. So does that help, stress and toxicity probably are the two big.

[00:42:00] Kat Khatibi: Yeah, I would say so.

[00:42:02] Could you tell us a little bit about the importance of custom tailoring hormone treatments instead of the one size fits all approach? And I wanted to ask about what you think about those wild yam progesterone creams that everybody’s using. Now, I’m worried about that.

[00:42:20] Jim Hrncir: Yeah, I am too. Matter of fact, I’m even seeing estrogen creams being sold without a prescription.

[00:42:26] And you know what, the north of the, NASA (could not hear this section??), the, national casual sciences, you’re going to medicine. One of the recommendations was that women who are choosing bio-identical hormones are not smart enough to make their own decisions about their health care. Now that offends me, cause most of the women that I deal with are pretty darn smart.

[00:42:46] They’re savvy, they’ve done research, they know what they’re doing. And they also said doctors who are choosing to prescribe biomedical hormones for their patients are not smart enough to make good decisions for their. Yeah, who do they think they are? We came to this dance with these hormones in our body, you know, by God or higher power or nature, whatever you want to believe in.

[00:43:08] And you know what, the fact that they’re here probably means that they were the best thing for us, you know? And for them to say anybody who chooses to use the same hormones that are in your body is stupid offends me. And that was what , these idiots who were supposed to be so smart, concluded. And so that makes me mad.

[00:43:27] I’m a based right now. I’m sorry. If I’m blushing on. You can tell, I get a little angry about that. So there is a, when we use. Bio-identical hormones that are compounded. We’re allowed to adjust the doses based on each individual. And, and it takes feedback. It takes feedback from the patient to the prescriber to say, and or the pharmacist.

[00:43:50] I’m always helping my guys to say, I’m having these symptoms. What are those symptoms mean? You gotta be able to interpret those symptoms. I mean, I’ve done houses and thousands of patients, so I know what to expect. I teach it, I do labs and, doctors do labs, so we can look at the labs and we can go, Hmm.

[00:44:05] The labs show that you should be having hot flashes. Are you? Nope. Not having any hot flashes. Well then I’m not going to adjust your dose of job if you’re not having hot flashes, cause you’re feeling good. So there’s an art to this and that art can not normally be achieved by a woman just buying some over the counter for gesture, which who knows what’s in it.

[00:44:24] You know what I mean? It’s not regulated by FDA. And they buy some estrogen cream over the counter and who knows what’s in. Or the yam creams, which are supposed to be converted to progesterone well, but her body’s knocking, burning out for gesture and already, why would putting some precursory, GAM, uh, steroids in your body make you make more?

[00:44:44] It won’t okay. I mean, the ovaries are either going to make it, or they’re not in, by putting that on the skin is not going to make them make more progesterone. Um, so I have a problem with that. What I need is I need to work in a triad with the patient and the physician and the pharmacist, um, to make the best decisions for the patient.

[00:45:07] If the patient has to give really good feedback and the more they’re educated, the better feedback they give me. And, and so we work as a team as opposed to it’s all on the patient to do it themselves, with something that is going to work, or the doctor is looking at labs on even talking to the patient and making decisions, which doesn’t work either.

[00:45:26] We got to have that triangle. You know, patient doctor and, pharmacists in order to get the best outcomes for these patients.

[00:45:36] Kat Khatibi: So a lot of the women who listened to this podcast, they have PCOS, endometriosis, thyroid problems, other hormonal imbalances. So when you have access hormones like estrogen dominance, really high testosterone can hormone replacement therapy help in those cases?

[00:45:54] Jim Hrncir: Um, absolutely. Um, you’re I know that you’re pretty savvy on this topic on let’s get started with PCOS. Okay. Uh, pretty savvy on this topic for premenopausal women. And when we do a labs on, I usually try to do them on day 19 of your cycle. If they not, if they, one of your cycle is first, the first day of your period, I usually look at may 19 cause they 19 is the highest level of progesterone for the month.

[00:46:20] Also, your estrogen is the second highest of the month. So it gives me a good snapshot because I can’t do labs every day on you just look at your whole cycle. I would like to, but who’s going to do that. So I do a snapshot of one representative time of the month that tells me what’s going on.

[00:46:34] And in addition to getting estrogen level estradiol levels and progesterone levels and testosterone, by the way, , we also get, levels of luteinizing, hormone and follicle, stimulating hormone. And ladies, if your luteinizing hormone at that time of the month is double or triple the follicle-stimulating hormone FSH.

[00:46:55] That means that you probably have PCLs. Okay. Now there’s two types of PCs that I encounter. There’s typical and there’s a. Um, typical PCLs oh, I get so far ahead of myself. Sorry, my add brain. And so here you’ve identified as having, a high luteinizing hormone. And what that translates into for the lay person is that, that my brain is asking for my ovaries to make more progesterone from the Corpus luteum, which is the exec that’s that burst.

[00:47:27] But the Corpus luteum in the ovary is not producing that progesterone. So these women are all progesterone deficient, and that means they’re going to have, unsteady periods, they’re going to have, unfortunately a lot of other side effects associated with this hormone imbalance because they don’t have enough progesterone on board to balance her estrogen.

[00:47:49] What we try to do is we try to, to. In the typical pace, we’ll talk about atypical next. Okay. I mean the typical PCOS case, then we’ve got to replace that progesterone and get their hormones rebalanced. We also need to look at these gals because in the typical case, they also have insulin resistance.

[00:48:12] Insulin resistance is when, you’re eating a lot of carbs and the carbs drive, insulin levels higher and higher. And then the body sees so much toxic insulin that it quits using it. Okay. To convert sugar, to. Glucose energy, unfortunately, that causes these PCs gals. When they’re younger, there’s thin because this extra insulin is eating up all their sugars.

[00:48:36] So they’re, they’re stick thin, but then as they get older, they start putting on weight. And, and unfortunately, it continues because they become insulin resistant. So we need to do take measures to stop the insulin resistance, which means eating a controlled eating style. When I have the best luck with is if you want to label it.

[00:48:53] And I don’t like to label diets or eating styles, but paleo eating style, which is really healthy, free range, um, meats and cold water fish, wild caught, um, vegetables that are low, less than again, index, no starchy vegetables, um, eliminating grains, totally 100%. And we find that and also local, less than we can disprove.

[00:49:17] So, okay. Stick berries (??), for instance, an example. Good example. So, so when we eat this new eating style, all of a sudden it’s a little store coming down. Um, insulin receptor sites become more sensitive. We start seeing these women losing weight, and we also see a lowering of something called aldosterone, because when women have high levels of blood sugar, um, blood glucose, it signals the body to increase levels of an enzyme that converts progesterone into, aldosterone.

[00:49:50] And, and then enzyme starts working overtime. And what does aldosterone cause it causes you to retain fluid. Unfortunately it caused you to have acne. Um, it causes hair loss, which, and it causes hair gain on plays. You don’t want it like your arms. You see a lot of PCOS gals have, have a dark hair on their arms and they have acne and they’re gaining weight and, and they’re feeling PMSy, and, and usually they’re depressed and they usually have high cholesterol, high triglycerides, especially in the thirties and forties.

[00:50:18] And so they, they’ve got a rough road to hope unless they’ve got a, some kind of, uh, therapist or therapy that is helping them to control this insulin resistance. So that’s typically what I see. I’ll reverse PCOS all the time with patients, and also by the way, endometriosis and other things are also, um, there’s a study done.

[00:50:41] Uh, in a specifically on endometriosis that showed a 75% reduction in the inflammatory aspects of endometriosis, which means how bad the case is by simply going, grain-free eating paleo, eating style. In other words, it’s so powerful because grains, for instance, are inflammatory to a hundred percent of people who eat them 100%.

[00:51:03] And, they playing the gut, they inflame the brain and they are, they’re not your friend. They’re also obviously going to cause you to gain weight because they are converted to sugar almost instantly like eating a candy bar. We love breads. We love pasta. You know, we love all that stuff.

[00:51:20] Unfortunately, it’s just not the best foods for us, you know? So anyway, women who have these gynecological problems are seeing incredible reductions in their symptoms by simply changing their diet that’s before we even start the hormone therapy. But let’s just say we put the progesterone. Wow. Now we’re going to start making some progress on these gals.

[00:51:38] We’re going to really see them feeling better. They’re going to fill them sleeping better, um, having better weight control and we’re going to see them, um, having less anxiety, uh, and, and better mood, you know,

[00:51:52] Kat Khatibi: I saw a lot of studies that when your estrogen levels decrease your human growth hormone can also decrease.

[00:52:02] And if they fall around the same time, can you get hormone replacement therapy for human growth hormone. And is that a good idea?

[00:52:10] Jim Hrncir: your body is designed to work for a certain number of years, and then nature is designed you, your hormones to decline you go through menopause.

[00:52:17] You know, you go through perimenopause and levels, start fluctuating wildly. Okay. Matter of fact, almost as bad as puberty. So from 40 to 50, there’s this wild fluctuations in hormones as the typical woman, as they decline by the time a woman is 40, she’s lost 80% of her progesterone already.

[00:52:35] She’s only lost 20% of her estrogen, but is it continues to decline. Estrogen continues to decline. And so by 49 to 52, typically a woman has, has finally hit menopause, um, which is defined as they’ve quit having periods. Okay. And so the question is what else is going on in the body? Well, hormones are not just sex hormones to help you with have a good libido and have breasts and, and have periods.

[00:53:03] You know, no hormones are neuroactive steroids. I mean, they work in the brain. As I said earlier, 78% decrease risk of dementia if we continue to use the hormone. So these are neuroactive steroids. They’re. Anti-inflammatory steroids. So here we have inflammation in our body, which is the biggest enemy and that’s why we age is we’re in inflamed and down-regulating.

[00:53:24] Um, so when we use the hormones, we’re fighting that we’re fighting that downregulation of nature. We’re not saying, Hey, nature, I’ve done. Take me, as I say, in west Texas, you know, nature wants to call you out of the herd when you go through menopause, cause all of a sudden women have a higher risk of heart disease than men.

[00:53:41] Within two years, they started having clots and higher risk of breast cancer and auto-immune diseases and dementia and osteoporosis. Number two killer of women is osteoporosis. These aren’t having all of these bad things happen because the hormones go away. And so we’ve got to fight this aging by using the harder.

[00:53:59] And maintaining balanced hormones, premenopausal, perimenopausal, and post-menopausal. And in, in your answer about growth hormone, I check growth hormone. And if you ever wanted to check yours, ladies and men, you should check IGF one insulin like growth factor one that is the active form and the stable form of growth hormone.

[00:54:20] You can test growth hormone in the blood. Unfortunately, growth hormone is very pulsatile. And so unfortunately it’s going up and down all day and you can’t get a good level. However, IGF one is a stable level and you can tell, okay, this is my, my level of growth hormone. And so what I look for is I look for people who are in the bottom one third of the normal range.

[00:54:42] If they’re in the bottom one third of the normal range, then I know that if we give hormones is going to upregulate all of their systems in their body, not just the sex hormones is going to appear up regulate. The thyroid system is going to upregulate. The brain is going to upregulate the cardiovascular.

[00:54:56] It’s going to upregulate the immune system. All of these systems are going to start upregulating, working like they were when you were younger and, and growth hormone is just one of those systems. Okay. So if I S if I see that the growth hormone doesn’t rise enough, then we’ll think about doing things to increase growth hormone.

[00:55:15] Like for instance, you can do natural things. For instance, uh, fasting, intermittent, fasting, increases, growth hormone. We know that for a fact. And especially if you do the fasting, like early evening on through to the next morning, that’s the best time because that cause growth hormone is released.

[00:55:32] It. And so we want it to optimize at night and if you’re eating late, then that means you’re producing insulin and insulin is, is unfortunately competing with growth hormone, every sites. So, and it decreases the production of growth hormone. So what we want to do is we like to have that fasting, um, in the evening, so that growth hormone will be optimized.

[00:55:56] And also the effects of growth hormone will be optimized because growth hormone, isn’t the anti-aging hormone. It’s not a big growth hormone. Uh, it actually is a repair hormone. So it’s only, it is powerful. And, uh, occasionally though we will give growth hormone to patients. Um, and man, when you have a person who’s low and growth hormone, we start giving growth hormone, which is expensive by the way.

[00:56:19] It is amazing because all of a sudden gray hair starts turning back to normal color skin just starts looking 10 years younger. Um, and then they feel amazing. And so it is powerful, I’m not sure it’s for everybody, but it is powerful. There is another thing that we can use called Sermorelin Sermorelin is growth, hormone releasing hormone.

[00:56:39] And I have a lot of doctors of my doctor prescribing Sermorelin, which is much less expensive and it causes the body to release more growth hormone. It doesn’t actually give you growth hormone in itself. It has caused you to release more growth hormone. So Sermorelin is that number? It’s a little injectable and it, it works nicely.

[00:56:58] Kat Khatibi: Okay. So, I wanted to talk about weight and hormones for a minute. So we know fertility levels are they say they’re nearing extinction levels. Now. And I see a lot more women with hormonal imbalances when they’re young, maybe because of the birth control. I don’t know. And at the same time, everybody in the U S seems to be gaining more weight and now other countries are all starting to gain more weight.

[00:57:23] So when it comes to weight and hormone levels, what do you think can be done for most people to lose weight and balance your hormones?

[00:57:32] Jim Hrncir: Let’s talk about premenopausal women and then menopausal women. Okay. And then we’ll talk about man, me being one, you know, even though I’ve only had girls in my house, it seems like, you know, I still retain my man man cards.

[00:57:45] So, so pre-menopausal gals. if you are estrogen dominant, which you talked about and estrogen dominant doesn’t mean you have too much estrogen, it just means that you don’t have enough progesterone and testosterone to balance you. Okay. And, and so they tend to put on weight in the hips. And so you’re going to see, um, the lower body, around the hips, weight gain and the body.

[00:58:08] What it’s doing is it’s creating fat to store excess toxic levels of estrogen. And, uh, and man, I have had patients who, who had all this excess estrogen dominance, uh, weight, and they went on maybe a real. Yeah, heavy-duty pass weight loss program. And they started releasing so much estrogen out of those fat tissues that they felt a morning sickness, like, like they were pregnant.

[00:58:34] So, so yes, estrogen body stores that excess estrogen in fat tissue. So it creates fat tissue. It stores it in there. But then, we look at menopausal women and menopause women who don’t use hormones tend to be heavier than women who use hormones. Okay. And that’s been proven study after study, that when your hormones are the highest, when your twenties, you have, you don’t have weight problems or you have less weight problems.

[00:59:02] And, if you have a healthy eating style, which unfortunately America has the SAD style, you know, the standard American diet, the SAD. So unfortunately we’re, women are blaming. Their weight gain on hormones. The reality is that study after study, after study, as I said, show that women who are using the hormones have a better time of controlling their weight.

[00:59:26] So that myth should be thrown out the door. Now I can say that if a woman is only using estrogen, as opposed to using a combination of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, in a balanced fashion that they will probably, tend to gain a little more. And because it causes an increase in a blood binding protein called sex hormone, binding globulin, and as that sexual binding globulin goes up, it unfortunately ties up testosterone and estrogen, which then, causes a lowering of your metabolism.

[00:59:59] And then, and again, when you use, when you have the estrogen alone, especially, or oral estrogens, if you’re using oral estrogens, this sex hormone binding globulin goes up and that sexual money globulin also, has a corresponding rise in thyroxin binding globulin, which is the globulin in the blood that grabs thyroid hormone.

[01:00:17] And it prevents it from working. And so, yes, you’re going to have a slower metabolism. Oral hormones tend to cause more of that central money globulin rise, then transdermal, estrogen with oral progesterone and transdermal testosterone. So if you want to do optimal ladies, do transdermal Estradiol and Estriol oral progesterone and transdermal testosterone.

[01:00:46] Those are going to be the women who have the best chance of maintaining their way. Now, w we can talk all day long about eating style, because if you look at most people, I don’t know how many people I have come in here. I do a lot of weight management, on paid (pain?)Patients. And when the light goes on in their brain, when they finally figure out it’s what this elbow action is, is what’s caused them to gain weight.

[01:01:08] It’s not hormones. It’s not this. It’s not that it is. It is what they’re eating and their choices. And when we change those choices and develop a new eating style, cause I don’t like to be calling it a diet, but a new eating style. That minimizes insulin release and, uh, and maximizes, cell restoration.

[01:01:26] All of a sudden we had people who have their weight controlled, and I’m thinking about a few patients just in the back of my mind, but that, that I saw the light come on, light bulb come on in their brain because I talked to him two or three times. They just didn’t get it all of a sudden when they got it, all of a sudden weight just melted off of them.

[01:01:42] Now in men, there’s lots of misinformation about testosterone therapy and, me being 65, and living a stressful lifestyle, running this operation, my testosterone level is not what it should be. So I do use testosterone and, and men who use testosterone or who maintain Solidus estrogen levels have met her with.

[01:02:02] Um, matter of fact, they have less chance of adult onset diabetes, and by 20% lower risk. These hormones, we think of them again as being like, man, we think all testosterone that’s for boom boom in the bedroom we’ll know it is for your brain and for your metabolism and for insulin glucose balance and heart health.

[01:02:20] It’s for all these other things in the body that we don’t think about, you know?

[01:02:25] Kat Khatibi: So let’s get into the specifics of how someone would take hormone replacement therapy from a compounding pharmacy. Your doctor is going to recommend this. Do you need a prescription? Do you go straight to the compounding pharmacy?

[01:02:37] How does that work? And then how are they administered? And can you with the transdermal stuff, get that on your partner or your pets or anybody?

[01:02:46] Jim Hrncir: Maybe laugh a little bit because that happens a lot. So, but I’ll get to that in a sec. Um, what I can say is the steps are. Cause patients need a path. They need a path to follow, to get to a good, practitioner. So oftentimes the company pharmacist knows the practitioners in the area that are doing a good job with hormones, because when you go to your traditional doctor, unless they’ve been like some of my buddies who have seen our successes, they’re not going to prescribe anything but traditional hormones and the patients are not going to be as well controlled.

[01:03:24] So go to your compounding pharmacist and say, okay, who in this area does a good job with hormone balance? And, and it, oftentimes my patients elect to have a consultation with me and they, we talk about it. I educate them about the risks and benefits because a lot of them are scared. I said, I don’t want to have a heart disease and I don’t want to have, a stroke and I don’t want to have breast cancer.

[01:03:45] And I don’t want to have dementia, and heard that those hormones will cause all that, you know? And so they had this indwelling fear by my, the stupid lay media that is putting out misinformation. And so I’m really sad about that. And so anyway, I dispel those myths and, and we get their brain in the right place.

[01:04:02] We get their heart in the right place. We get them educated. I give them lots of studies and data just so they can say, okay, if you ever want to go over this and read this, go ahead. You want, would go to sleep one night, just read these studies, but they feel better. And then I say, okay, I’m in, it’s like sending.

[01:04:18] In a restaurant to the right table, and the right waiter inside, I sent him to a doctor or a nurse practitioner or a PA that suits them and what their expectations are of this therapy, you know? And so I don’t just sit. I’m just one practitioner. I have lots of practitioners in my area that I’ll send these patients to based on their expectations of what they want in a doctor and are in this relationship.

[01:04:46] Now the prescriptions come back here to the company pharmacy. And, and we then look at those evaluated and go, okay, this looks right every now and then we see that docs who aren’t maybe as experienced or maybe made a booboo and misprescribed. And so we correct that, because we’re the last bastion of hope there.

[01:05:04] Right. Because we were teaching doctors how to do this. And so fortunately we can help correct errors before they happen and mess up. We get then compound them. And what I would suggest again, I said it earlier, if you’re going to use estrogen, I suggest using a combination of estrodiol, which is most powerful estrogen in the body and history, all which is the weakest estrogen, but it’s also protective.

[01:05:28] It gets breast cancer and it makes you feel better, you know? And so we use those two estrogens in a transdermal on the skin, uh, fashion. Now, some women who don’t want to get that on their babies or their grandbabies or their pets, we elect to use it in a place that maybe they won’t be contacting those folks.

[01:05:51] And so we use a very tiny amount and we’re talking. Um, the half of the size of a pencil eraser labially on the Lavia because the labia or mucus membranes, which means they’re tissues that absorb hormones, almost like a sponge. And so I have a lot of my ladies who use labial applied estrogen. Now the same thing, testosterone, either topical or ladle.

[01:06:15] And then, uh, on the progesterone studies showed that it’s most protective. If we take it orally, um, a lot of women want to use it transdermally and I’m saying you’ll, I’ll do that. But oral has a lot of benefits, less risk of breast cancer or better protection against breast cancer, I should say. and also, , the oral has a calming effect and most of my ladies who are needing hormones are needing.

[01:06:40] They’re having anxiety, they’re having sleep issues. And oral progesterone is converted to a metabolite called allopregnanolone. I won’t test you on that, but allopregnanolone is one of the metabolites progesterone. When you take it orally that helps hit GABAA receptor sites and give receptor sites make you feel calm and sleepy.

[01:07:00] And matter of fact, UT Southwestern med school, university of Texas med school here in Dallas, did a study of women with PMS. They found out that women with PMs had low, Ella pregnenolone levels, which means they have low progesterone levels. And so we give progesterone the helps with, uh, PMS. So, so those are the best ways, for the women to use the hormones.

[01:07:22] Kat Khatibi: And how about getting them on your pets?

[01:07:25] Jim Hrncir: okay. True story. And if I showed you my phone, you had seen my dog, Daisy and Daisy is, I don’t know why, but I guess I’m maybe old it’s in the middle, but that’s low, bad dog, you know? And so a little Daisy, um, she, we had her fixed, you know, and, uh, and it, all of a sudden she starts, her vulva starts swelling up.

[01:07:46] It looks like she’s fixing to have a period. And, uh, and we just, and Jane, wasn’t paying attention, you know, a lot. And, uh, and she unfortunately got some extra hormones on poor little daisy’s only 12 pounds, it got some hormones of Daisy. So Daisy started going, Hey man, I got hormones. I’m going to have a period.

[01:08:03] You know? So anyway, we, we started being more careful and of course, Daisy went back to normal in no time, but I have had. Patients and who ignored my warnings about this? Cause I actually have a sheet where I get it to, I say, here’s where you can use your hormones. And transfers is a big issue. Careful, careful, careful had a grandmother who was using her hormones, faithfully and taking care of her grand baby.

[01:08:28] And the baby started getting precocious puberty and went to children’s and children’s calls me up and said, Jim, is this grandmother on topical hormones? Or no, this may be, has precocious puberty. I said, I said, what is the family name? And I said, oh yep. I know exactly who that is. And uh, and she’s using transdermal hormones.

[01:08:48] So we switched her, uh, to the labia. And she was, and the daughter forgave, the grandmother, the mother, and so she was able to continue to love on her little grand baby. But I get calls from children’s hospital, both in Dallas and in Fort worth, about, questions about transdermal hormones, because they know that I’m one of the experts on that.

[01:09:09] So yes, it is a big deal.

[01:09:11] Kat Khatibi: Does it have like a time limit where it will fully absorb, and then you can touch the area. Other people can touch it. It’s fine. How long is that? Usually?

[01:09:20] Jim Hrncir: What about patients? You know, she, it, her husband had only been married five or six years, even though they were in their late fifties, you know?

[01:09:28] And, uh, and so she said, Jim, I’m going to give you too much information, but. Man when my husband puts on his testosterone cream on his chest, I don’t know why, but I just have this urge to just, we come out of the shower and I just want to press all over him, you know? And, and I tested her testosterone levels and she had an 800, she’s supposed to have a 50 or 60.

[01:09:46] She had an 800, so she’s absorbing his testosterone. And I said, we gotta convert him to testosterone shots because you’re absorbing, I’m not gonna tell you to quit doing what you’re doing. Cause I love y’all being married and happy and all that kind of stuff and have a good relations.

[01:09:58] But I got to get all the topical testosterone. And I’ll be honest with you. I don’t normally have that problem, but I do have instances where it’s a big deal. And so we just, we just pivot to a therapy. That’s going to take care of that. But a yes, poor little Daisy was a victim of a topical hormones from an expert from experts.

[01:10:18] So it could happen to anybody, you know?

[01:10:21] Kat Khatibi: Are there any risk to bioidentical hormone replacement therapy? Or it’s better than not taking hormones at all?

[01:10:31] Jim Hrncir: But let’s just think about what are the percentages of risks out there in the studies, because there’s been studies on this since the eighties.

[01:10:37] Okay. Um, and 90% of the studies agree. And when you have 90% of studies, we call that a preponderance of evidence, which means that, the studies all agreed to the same conclusion. And the conclusions are, is that women who are using hormones have a 50% decrease risk of breasts of, excuse me, of heart disease.

[01:10:56] They have a significantly decreased risk of osteoporosis, which is, I said earlier as the number two killer of women, they have a decreased risk of dementia. They had 78%. According to that study recently, they have a, a decreased risk of breast cancer by as much as, and maybe even more 20% of a women who are using.

[01:11:15] Okay. So what we do is we compare the risk compared to women who are not using any hormones. and so in my opinion, that’s the best measure that I can give is if you use hormones, you get reduction over. If you’re deciding to do what your grandmother did, which is used no hormones. And so I’m a big fan of using them to reduce risk.

[01:11:36] Now I tell my women over and over and men to over and over and over, because you’re using hormones doesn’t mean that you can’t have any risk, but you have a reduced risk. Let’s talk about breast cancer. Um, 12% of women are going to get breast cancer period. Now, as I said earlier, 80% of women who get breast cancer never take a hormone.

[01:11:56] So what does that mean? That means that hormones are not the causative factor on breast cancer. However, if a woman gets breast cancer, she wants to blame it on something. She don’t want to blame it on the fact that she’s been eating at McDonald’s every single day. Excuse me. McDonald’s I have a friend who owns several of them.

[01:12:14] She don’t want to blame it on the fact that she’s doesn’t exercise. She doesn’t want to blame it on the fact that she doesn’t, have take the proper supplements to break down estrogen. She wants to blame it on something and it’s just human nature. I mean, every one of us wants to. And so I’m not blaming the ladies for one to blame somebody, but the reality is you’ve got to look inward and you got to say, okay, what did I do to cause this, what can I do better going forward?

[01:12:37] And so when we look at these risks, we’ve got to think what’s the best way for me to have the lowest risk possible. We can’t eliminate risks, but what’s the best way for me to have the lowest risk possible. And that is to use the hormones in a balanced fashion and it has to be balanced.

[01:12:55] Kat Khatibi: So what would happen to people who are dependent on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, if they suddenly got rid of compounding pharmacy.

[01:13:05] Jim Hrncir: I would be really sad for those 8 million patients. And that number is climbing every day because both men and women are not stupid as, as north America, as, as the, excuse me, as the, NASA (??) Said in their conclusion on that study, women and men are not stupid.

[01:13:22] They are pretty smart. They’re pretty savvy. They know what works for them, and these are working for them. And wouldn’t it be sad if all of a sudden there was no access for these patients to have these hormones and I, in 2007, the FDA got a complaint from a drug manufacturer.

[01:13:38] Okay. Big pharma that, that estriol, which is one of the natural estrogens that we use in our formula, uh, represents a health risk to the women of America. You know, it’s so funny. That was why pharmaceuticals, that lodged that complaint, uh, to the FDA and the FDA then banned estriol. If you look at why pharmaceuticals, they had to patented medications, hormone medications in Europe that had Israel in it.

[01:14:06] So apparently European women and American women are completely different. That’s a joke. It’s facetious. Um, and so anyway, all of this was, was about a drug company, trying to get us to quit compounding hormones with estriol because it was one of our advantages. And so they were trying to gain a competitive advantage by having FDA ban estriol.

[01:14:27] Well, what did women in America do? They rose up this tidal wave and they started calling the FDA. They sort of calling congressmen and the congressmen finally got so upset. They said, FDA, stop it. And the FDA backed off and said, okay. Estriol is okay. But, but in other words, your voice matters. And I want to make sure that you understand that because right now, um, FDA is attempting to put together a case to ban hormones from women.

[01:15:00] And the only way that I can say that you can influence that is to go to compounding.com. So http://www.company.com. I want you to put in a testimonial about how competent hormones have helped you. And, uh, and these testimonials are going to be fed to Congress. We have thousands of them right now, but every Congressman needs to see his constituents, um, in his area, uh, writing testimonials.

[01:15:27] And once those, all these testimonials get into the website, then we have a national campaign going on, right. Where we’re trying to expose Congressman, and women Congresswoman, and, the lawmakers in addition, doctors and patients to the benefits of the compounded hormones. And so your voice matters, your voice makes a difference, and you may think I’m just one person, but just think of all those one people who in 2007, overturned a horrible, bad decision by the FDA and were, and we were continuing to allow to compound with estriol, which is life-saving for a lot of women.

[01:16:06] So should we also send emails, letters, petition to anyone else? Our local Congress.

[01:16:12] On the, on that website, you will not only see, the ability to Roger your testimonial and it’ll go into the database, which means that the Congress will say, Hey, we’ve got, we’ve got 52 women in your area who have already written testimonials.

[01:16:26] You know, which means a lot to them, by the way, whenever they see these things. And in addition, you can write your, an email. It has, it has a way to contact your Congressman on that website. And you can write an email directly to your Congressman and say, Hey buddy, or our gal, my Congressman is a woman.

[01:16:43] Matter of fact, I helped her get elected, and she’s an Ireland, you know? And, uh, and make sure that your voice is heard directly to Congress or through the website. I just told you about, and if you wanna, if you want to get onto an email list, I mean, I got you on email lists. We can keep you updated because FDA.

[01:17:00] Made the action official yet, but when they do, we want to alert everybody so that we can make sure and rise up just like last time and in defeat this kind of thing, because we have to keep these for patients, the access for patients.

[01:17:15] Kat Khatibi: So where can everyone find you online and which social media platforms are you the most active on?

[01:17:22] Jim Hrncir: I’m on Facebook, facebook, I’m in a Jim Hertz or, and I, I have posts a couple of times a week, you know, that I do, I try not to overpost I’m not an over poster. I’m not gonna let you know when I’m going to the bathroom or, and I, I get on a rant every now and then, and ride something, wrote about supplements, which supplements are helpful for COVID for instance, and it was one of the most watched I did a, uh, online.

[01:17:50] Seminar on weight loss, and 5,000 people tuned into it, you know? I do hormone seminars on that as well, but mostly I just do little tidbits, just to let you know what’s going on and what my belief system is and what the science says. And so Facebook with Jim Hrncir her and then last point is pharmacy links to Jim Hern, sir.

[01:18:09] So you can get it on that as well. Yeah, I’m doing this podcast to really help my business personally. I’m really doing this podcast to get awareness of the public about what’s going on out there. Now when people do send me a question, I answer it. Okay. And, uh, and so they go on my website on Las Colinas, pharmacy.com, that’s Las and sub Los with Las Colinas pharmacy.com.

[01:18:35] And when they put a question on the website, I answer it and I answer it, um, pretty quickly, because. I don’t know, I feel like everybody needs information and they need the right information. And so I just, I don’t know why I feel like I need to say the world, but I really do care about everybody and they don’t have to be my patients for me to care about them.

[01:18:55] Kat Khatibi: Well, thank you so much for your hard work and everything you’re doing to keep bioidentical, hormone replacement therapy and option for everyone.

[01:19:04] Jim Hrncir: I can’t thank you enough for doing the work you’re doing because you’re bringing awareness to this as well. And, uh, and so you’re a hero in my eyes and, uh, and also a hero in bringing, um, health ideas to people who, who are being bombarded by, by traditional ideas that aren’t working.

[01:19:22] So thank you for what you’re doing too.

[01:19:25] Kat Khatibi: Well, thank you so much for your time.