Bonus Episode: The Must-Know Secret Formula for Optimal Health: Customized Healthcare Solutions with Ray Solano of PD Labs & LaValle Performance Health

In this episode, Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee are joined by friend and colleague Ray Solano of PD Labs, a nationally licensed compounding pharmacy that provides professional-grade pharmaceutical supplements at affordable prices. As both a certified clinical pharmacist and nutritionist, Ray helps each of his patients feel better and manage chronic health conditions with a customized blend of prescriptions, nutritional supplements,  and lifestyle changes. Ray is also a practitioner of holistic, regenerative healthcare at LaValle Performance Health and host of the HealthyChoicesXM Radio podcast, a show that delves into hot topics in healthcare and offers tips on diet, exercise, supplements, and overall health. To learn more about this groundbreaking approach to preventative, holistic medicine, visit LaValle Performance Health online or call  512-219-0782 today!

Voted top Men's Health Podcast, Sex Therapy Podcast, and Prostate Cancer Podcast by FeedSpot

Dr. Mistry is a board-certified urologist and has been treating patients in the Austin and Greater Williamson County area since he started his private practice in 2007.

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Phone: (512) 238-0762

Email: Armormenshealth@gmail.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

<silence>

Speaker 2: 0:07

Welcome to the Armor Men's Health Show with Dr. Mystery and Donna Lee.

Speaker 3: 0:15

Hello and welcome to the Armor Men's Health Show. This is Dr. Mystery , your host joined as always by my indispensable producer and business partner, and wonderful all around gal Donna Lee . Hey

Speaker 4: 0:27

Everybody. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 3: 0:29

I'm a board certified urologist. This is a men's health show. This show is brought to you by NAU Urology specialist. That is the urology specialty group that I started in 2007. We are six physicians and multiple advanced practice providers that is PAs and nurse practitioners. And we have a commitment to taking care of the whole you from the nipples to the knees,

Speaker 4: 0:48

Nipples to the knees. We are in Round Rock, north Austin, south Austin, dripping Springs, where we can check all your nipples and all your knees. Well, maybe with an orthopedic specialist. Um, you can call us at (512) 238-0762 in our website, armor men's health.com.

Speaker 3: 1:03

For those of you that listen on the radio, you will , uh, know this name a long time member of the Austin Radio Community. Uh , so glad to be joined by Ray Solano . Welcome back, Ray. Well,

Speaker 5: 1:15

Thanks for having me.

Speaker 3: 1:16

So why don't you tell , uh, our audience , uh, what you do and, and , and what your show was about when you had it on the air? You

Speaker 5: 1:22

Know, we , we started this 10, 15 years ago, is giving people choices in their healthcare . It's not just prescription medications, but you have to change your lifestyle before you're gonna be able to get that health challenges. 'cause many times people just forget about what they eat, they forget about what they do, and they just expect a prescription drug to fix it. So we started at the basics and we had an open discussion. This is really where the foundation, you know, Austin, this actually started here. It's actually quite that movement . Like a movement. Right.

Speaker 3: 1:51

Quite interesting, right. You were doing this type of regenerative medicine and advice on people taking control of their health well before it's become so much in fashion today.

Speaker 5: 2:01

That's right. And we, we gave people education of some nutritionals , uh, deficiencies of prescription medication. Many people didn't even realize that most of the medications deplete nutrients like magnesium and coq 10. And , and now it's mainstream. So before we were cutting edge of, of giving people that information. So we think we've , uh, changed a lot of , uh, lives over the years. How

Speaker 3: 2:25

Would you describe your educational background and kind of , uh, you know, what , what you do?

Speaker 5: 2:29

Many, many pharmacists don't spend a lot of time in nutrition training. I'm a board certified clinical nutritionist that really understands the clinical significance of the body and how it reacts to nutritionals and homeopathy medications. So all these things are very different medications , uh, that we really look at the whole body experience. So that clinical, I guess , uh, I , the training in clinical nutrition makes a huge difference in people's overall health. 'cause you see the big picture, not just one particular drug.

Speaker 3: 3:04

And I see that a lot, you know, when you have someone that just trained in science, right, and math and technology, and they approach a problem, then you have somebody that just like, you know what I would consider hippie medicine, you know, just kind of, you know, whatever they read on the internet and whatever their feelings are and their chakras are, they come at a problem and at some point they're both a little less believable. But when you have somebody that's trained on both sides, they can both provide the scientific background of why something like eating right. And, and, and taking supplements and sleeping well is also going to help you. And then, you know, really the smarter you are, the more you know, it , it , it seems natural and obvious.

Speaker 5: 3:44

Uh , exactly. You know, we, we looked at the gut-brain , uh, connection. You know, this was something that was, wasn't talked about , uh, years ago. But if your stomach is not functioning properly, your brain is not gonna be connected, and you're gonna have neurotransmitters that are out of balance. So the people that need to understand is so significant. What you eat and how your GI track is functioning makes a huge difference in your overall outlook on life and your personality. And also, by the way, how you sleep at night, the most important thing. So we, we , we look at those functional basics and then build up from there.

Speaker 3: 4:21

And you have a clinic in which you help take care of or give advice and a roadmap to patients as they're looking to live longer and live healthier. And as, as our population ages, we're gonna have more and more pharmaceuticals to keep you going, you know, <laugh> . But don't you as a , as , as a listener, wanna keep going? Well, can you describe to me what being , uh, you know, somebody that sees you in your regenerative medicine clinic, like what are you doing for them and what are the most common changes that you make in their lifestyle? Well,

Speaker 5: 4:50

We take a common sense approach , uh, to medicine. We're looking, we have a proprietary platform. Dr. Jim Laval put together a metabolic code program that really has some artificial intelligence that takes the trends in your blood tests and where you're going. Okay. So the trending is you may have a high blood pressure , uh, excuse me, high blood sugar levels. You may have some , uh, particle levels, but how they all interrelate and how they're moving can give predictive of where your health's gonna be maybe 10 years from now. You're at a high risk. So you can give yourself a roadmap and how you can change that course. That's something that's really not really practiced today. Where are you gonna be 10 years from now?

Speaker 3: 5:33

It's really important. You know, I talk about cancer diagnosis oftentimes , you know, at the time of cancer diagnosis, that patients are asking what changes they can make to their lifestyle. Right. And I, you know, I made the comment , uh, several shows ago that really the only pill you can take is the one that goes back in time, 10 years for you to lose weight, eat better, get more sleep, exactly. And take fewer, you know, and infl inflammatory things. And so really starting early is key in terms of the most common thing that you would want to change or things that you'd change in somebody, say in their thirties or forties so that they can have a healthy fifties and sixties. What, well , what , what do you think a couple of the , like the big, big important things are? What

Speaker 5: 6:12

We're finding is the, I guess the jet fuel that runs in our body is our blood sugar levels. Okay. And this, that is an inflammatory condition when people have high blood sugar levels that, you know, we, we feel that it should be, or blood sugar levels should be in, in 85, 90. And unfortunately, many people, even in the forties have blood sugar levels that

Speaker 3: 6:36

In the one tens one 20 .

Speaker 5: 6:38

And that's considered normal. That's normal. So when you have this inflammation or this fire

Speaker 3: 6:43

Constant inflammation, your body every day , every day , every meal,

Speaker 5: 6:46

Yeah . Every meal. And then all of a sudden your blood pressure creeps up and then you have cardiovascular disease

Speaker 3: 6:51

Because when you're 30, your body can like, handle it. That's right. And like make up for it. But then all of a sudden, and that's why everybody's like, I don't know, I turned 40 or I turned 50 and everything came apart. That's right. Everything came apart because, you know, your blood sugar levels were running too high before

Speaker 5: 7:05

It , and it, it , you know , we, I'm fortunately, we start when we , the children, we'll be feeding our kids when they're , uh, they're young, the amount of blood of sugar that is consumed and it cascades from there. So we start with that. Something is very simple,

Speaker 3: 7:19

And that's why, you know, in our clinic we have a nutritionist and, and really what she focuses all a lot on is, is reducing inflammatory intake Exactly . With through the diet. And that's often through sugar. And I think that, you know, it's such an important thing by reducing sugar. Even if you have a higher fat diet, your cholesterol will go down and people are always amazed.

Speaker 5: 7:39

Isn't , you know, it's , it's so simple, but it's sometimes very hard. People just can't make that change.

Speaker 3: 7:44

You're , you're a partner , uh, Dr. Jim Laval we've worked with in the past. He, he has a , he has a , a unique approach to cancer management where he uses, you know, sequential , uh, nutraceuticals and different types of compounds to help reduce, you know, the impact that cancer has in even advanced cancer patients. And, and I found that to be amazing. I think that partnering with somebody like that, that looks outside of the box, gives you a special edge when it comes to regenerative medicine.

Speaker 5: 8:08

You know, there are certain ways you can stop the body from replicating cancer cells. And there are, you work when you work in concert with the body as opposed to blocking it. You can really do miraculous things, let the body heal itself. So this is kind of the nutritionals that we put together, bind nicely to the receptors. So upregulate the ability for the body to kill its own cancer cells. And there's a whole , uh, philosophy behind that. Working in concert with chemotherapy, working in concert with traditional therapy, and be able to, many times, the nutrients that are lost during that therapy, put those back in. You know, just because you've, you may be cancer free now, it's important to repair some of the damage that has occurred, because guess what? It may come back. So it's really important to let your body put them in charge of fixing itself.

Speaker 3: 8:59

And so many listeners out there, when you're diagnosed with cancer, and I see it in the eyes of the patients, they really think that I as a doctor, actually have a solution that's gonna work for everyone every time. And as a doctor, I'm always surprised at how different people react to the same therapy . So there is something about each individual person and each individual body that's gonna make the therapies work or not work. And finding providers that are gonna help, you know, separate you from the, the masses to help your therapies, I think is important. And that's true of cancer and general health conditions. Yeah,

Speaker 5: 9:31

I'd look at it as a team approach. It's not exclusive to one. And it's really important that the patient understands what the journey's going to be and how they can be in charge to help fix themselves. So they gotta be good patients.

Speaker 3: 9:44

So if somebody wants to become a , a patient of, of , of your regenerative clinic, how do they reach you? What's your number and your website?

Speaker 5: 9:50

Our phone number for our, our clinic is 5 1 2 2 1 9 0 7 8 2 . And our website is laval performance, L-A-V-A-L-L-E performance or our , and our pharmacy is , uh, easy to get reached. Uh, as well. We, I actually answer the phone. How's that? I love it. PD labs rx.com and , uh, you know, we're able to be able to give you a lot of answers.

Speaker 3: 10:15

Donna, can we put all that stuff on our , uh, our notes for the podcast?

Speaker 4: 10:18

Of course. And Dr . Mysteries forbidden me to answer the phone. So you can call us though at (512) 238-0762. Visit our website, armor men's health.com. You could submit your question there. If you have a question though for Ray Ano , you can submit those questions there as well. And listen to our podcast wherever you podcast.

Speaker 3: 10:35

Hello and welcome back to the Armor Men's Health Show. I'm Dr. Mystery , your host, board certified urologist all around . Good guy. And I'm joined by my co-host Donnel Lee. That's

Speaker 4: 10:44

Right. All around . Good gal. Thank you so much for listening to the show,

Speaker 3: 10:47

Donna. This is a show that's brought to you by NAU Urology Specialist. That's the practice that I started in 2007. You function as the business development manager. You are the practice administrator at some point. And now you're my wonderful sidekick on the radio. That's

Speaker 4: 11:00

Right. I couldn't handle anymore, so I just keep demoting myself, <laugh>. Now I'm just your sidekick. I

Speaker 3: 11:06

Love it. That's lovely. You still have a bigger office than I do. How do people get ahold of us and become our patient?

Speaker 4: 11:11

Our number's 5 1 2 2 3 8 0 7 6 2 and our website, armor men's health.com, where you can submit your questions, we'll answer anonymously or Dr. Mystery or any of our lovely guests like Ray Solano here. And remember to listen to our podcasts wherever you listen to free podcasts. We're in Round Rock, north Austin, south Austin and Dripping Springs.

Speaker 3: 11:28

So , uh, once again , uh, we're joined by Ray Solano , a Austin Staple for those of you that listen to this on News Radio , KLBJ. And if you're listening to us on , on the podcast , uh, I don't know , you have a podcast somewhere, don't you, Ray? We

Speaker 5: 11:42

Do. We , uh,

Speaker 3: 11:42

What's the name of your podcast?

Speaker 5: 11:44

Uh, healthy Choices is our podcast and we're all over the place just like you.

Speaker 3: 11:48

Well, I love it. I love it. So , uh, Ray , uh, you're a pharmacist by training and really , uh, have a focus on , uh, nutraceuticals and lifestyle management. You had , uh, a show right here in Austin that really focused on it. And in the last segment we talked about your regenerative medicine approach, an individualized reapproach on , on helping us live longer. And that's not just for healthy people, right? I mean, sick people can come and try to live longer too, right?

Speaker 5: 12:14

Well, that's right. You know, once you, it's important that people realize they can turn the course for chronic conditions. They just don't have to just live with it and do the, take these medications for the rest of their life. There's some lifestyle changes that you can do. It starts with their diet and their, their choices in what they do on a daily basis so that you can really turn the course. So you have the freedom to enjoy your later years.

Speaker 3: 12:39

But, you know, when it comes to chronic conditions, you know, I'm a doctor and you're a pharmacist. That's right. Drugs are still important.

Speaker 5: 12:46

They , they do make a difference <laugh> ,

Speaker 3: 12:47

And they really do make a difference. So when it comes to drugs though, you know, the large pharmaceutical companies have to produce large volume things that pass a number of FDA type things, but it , they don't always have kind of the best solution for delivering drugs for every single individual. Right.

Speaker 5: 13:06

Well, this is how pharmacy started years ago. You know, the physician would call and say, I need this medication or this substance, and I'd like to have it for in a capsule form or a solution. And it came up, pharmacists came up with the concoction, or they came up with the delivery method and the patient got what they came up with. And it worked. Unfortunately, when a pharmaceutical manufacturing company, they have just one solution, and unfortunately, one size does not fit all. So this is where the triad relationship with , uh, physicians to come up with different delivery methods so that the patient gets exactly the dose they need without the side effects and they're able to stay on it and compliant.

Speaker 3: 13:47

The issue that really focused my mind on how important a compounded drug is when it is, when we were giving estrogen to women vaginally to help them prevent urinary tract infection and for sexual functioning, and a good percentage of them were allergic to the , the commonly available medication . So I went to you guys , uh, in your former role and other compounding pharmacies, and we got different bases, right. That, that the women could test and then make the drug up for them. It gave me more control as a physician to be able to say, well, I can't help you. Right . You're allergic to it. I , I'm afraid you're out of it. And I feel like a lot of people who have bad reactions to medications, it's not just the drug or active ingredient, it's what the pill has in it. Right.

Speaker 5: 14:32

E exactly. And also the dosage of the drug. Okay. It could be many people are fast metabolizers, some of the people are slow metabolizers, so they may need half the dose. So people are always cutting up tablets or they're cutting up this and they're not getting anywhere close to what's supposed to be or even know what it is. So that's the reason why we personalize medications to the different types of bases, the different types of doses, and also whether they wanna do it as a nasal spray or they want to do it as a tr

Speaker 3: 15:02

Because, you know, for us, pills make a lot of sense from the drug companies standpoint. Right . It's fast and it's, you know , <laugh> and , uh, not everybody's gonna do well with a pill sometimes. And, and how the body takes the medicine in changes the way the nose absorbs it. Right . The way the , the the , the tongue absorbs it. Right. The way the gut absorbs it. I mean, we could, we could even put drugs up the anus, you know . That's right .

Speaker 5: 15:25

We still

Speaker 3: 15:25

Do. Yeah. You know, to , to , to , to absorb. So if a one size fits all may not work for everyone. So if you're out there and there's a drug that you need but don't tolerate for some reason, you know, open your eyes, go to a physician or a pharmacy, that may give you a better option. So we're gonna talk about a couple of different options that, that you've developed that , uh, you know, may give patients some options. So , uh, the first one we'll talk about is testosterone. So testosterone, you know, in our clinic we do pellets, we do injections, we do creams. They have some that go creams that go in the nose. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> , some that goes on the scrotum, some that goes under the armpits. But we don't use a lot of pills. And the reason we didn't is that, you know, historically we felt that pills of testosterone led to a higher rate of hepatocellular carcinoma or liver cancer. And so we got away from it. But newer research kind of got, you know, it's , it's , it's not as big of a deal. But what are the problems with taking an a testosterone pill?

Speaker 5: 16:22

Well, it's important to realize the bo the liver takes over when you're metabolizing oral testosterone.

Speaker 3: 16:29

Most of our listeners probably don't know what the liver's for.

Speaker 5: 16:31

Well, it, it's, it's a way detoxifies, whatever you take in orally,

Speaker 3: 16:36

Everything that we eat

Speaker 5: 16:37

Goes to

Speaker 3: 16:38

The liver , goes through the liver,

Speaker 5: 16:39

It goes to the liver and , and

Speaker 3: 16:40

Cleans

Speaker 5: 16:40

Detoxify. And it cleans it up. And sometimes , uh, certain drugs, when they go through the, the liver , uh, the body has increases. Its liver enzymes and things that are negative. And that's why sometimes we want to bypass the liver because it, we don't want to inflame the liver as , uh, and that's the reason why we do injections. So

Speaker 3: 16:59

If it's not in your stomach, you and you, and it goes in your body, there are ways to get into your bloodstream. Right, right. That don't go through your stomach. Exactly. And so testosterone, when it goes through the stomach and through the liver, may lead to increased , uh, sex hormone binding globulin, perhaps increase in estrogen and perhaps perhaps the creation of little benign lesions in the , in the liver. That's right . And so you've developed a way of giving testosterone orally that bypasses the stomach. That's , how does that work?

Speaker 5: 17:25

The new technology has been able to take , uh, drugs and put it in a phospholipid , uh, minuscule or a covering. And we're finding that , uh, pharmaceutical companies are taking testosterone and doing it orally and being able to get some of the same results. However, one , like again, one size doesn't fit all. And many times there is some reactions to that. So we've been able to make that even better and making a faster absorption rate and with a much lower dosage. 'cause we always think less is better. Just just an amount of drug that's needed. Right .

Speaker 3: 18:00

Lowest effective concentration.

Speaker 5: 18:01

Exactly. Yeah . Less side effects. And so we've been able to develop a chewable form of testosterone that has been able to get all the positive benefits you would have for an injection without the negative of spikes and all the negative effects , uh, that would , uh, that you would have with liver. So this is something that's unique. It's different. Uh , we have a unique patented process and use an FDA approved drug and we think that , uh, we have something that your patients would really enjoy.

Speaker 3: 18:29

So this is the chewable testosterone that avoids the liver. Is that That's right. Is that the general idea?

Speaker 5: 18:34

General idea. And there's no needles. A lot of people don't want to have testosterone Yeah . Replacement 'cause they don't want to do injections.

Speaker 3: 18:40

Needle fatigue is something that we see quite frankly . That's right . So another area that people have needle fatigue is when they have to inject, you know, vasoactive drugs into their penis to be able to get an erection. This is classically known, you know, in our, in our field as trimix. And, you know, the idea of sticking a needle , uh, into your penis is off-putting to some , I mean, I don't know why that's

Speaker 5: 18:59

The first thing they go is, Ooh , I don't.

Speaker 3: 19:01

And , and, but, but you've, you've kind of, you know, helped shepherd a different form or a different way of delivering this vasoactive medicine into the penis. Describe it.

Speaker 5: 19:10

It's a dry freeze dried powder. We take the same drug that's injections and put it into a unit dose , uh, syringe that enter urethral into inside the opening of the penis and gets the same effect as the, as the injections. So again, this is a little bit more manipulative, but it's painless. No needles, same drug.

Speaker 3: 19:33

So, you know, putting something inside your urethra may not be as bad as putting a needle into the side of it, but not necessarily palatable to everybody. But for those of you desperate , uh, and , and where nothing is working or the pills are not tolerated and you don't want an inflatable penile prosthesis, this is certainly something that we would encourage people to try. Right.

Speaker 5: 19:52

And no scarring as well.

Speaker 3: 19:53

So your approach to pharmaceuticals is out of the box , just like your approach to regenerative medicine. You're really , uh, an amazing pioneer and a great resource to this city. So thank you for what you do, Ray. Well,

Speaker 5: 20:06

Thanks for having us. You know, we want to educate people and let 'em know they have choices in their healthcare.

Speaker 3: 20:11

If people want to consult with you and learn more about your brand new pharmacy and your wonderful regenerative clinic , uh, how do people get ahold of you in terms of phone numbers and websites?

Speaker 5: 20:20

Well check out our website, PD labs, rx dot com's, a wealth of information on our website, a lot of educational pieces. And our phone number is (512) 219-0724. And guess what? I still answer the phone. I love it.

Speaker 4: 20:34

Hey Ray, tell us about your open house, the date, and where they can find more information.

Speaker 5: 20:38

Yeah, check out our website, pd labs rx.com. That's April 12th. Uh , grand opening starts at three o'clock and there's some happy hour at five. And , uh, our educational conferences on April the 13th.

Speaker 4: 20:49

Awesome. Call us at (512) 238-0762. We might meet you at that happy hour. There we go. Our website is armor men's health.com. And remember, you can catch our podcasts wherever you listen to the podcast.

Speaker 2: 21:00

The Armor Men's Health Show is brought to you by NAU Urology Specialist. For questions or to schedule an appointment, please call 5 1 2 2 3 8 0 7 6 2 or online at armor men's health.com.