Peptides, GLP-1s, and the Discipline of Better Questions: Transcript

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Everybody is [music] talking about peptides, doing peptides, buying peptides from everywhere. It is the wild west. Unapproved peptides. They're often promoted by influencers. Everyone is on freaking peptides. If I could only pick one peptide right If you guys still haven't started taking peptides These amazing peptides Schedule a peptide consultation. Drop the word peptides. I've been injecting peptides for 2 months. I injected All of these things are Peptides? It is [music] a drug in other countries. It's called I've watched TikToks of women saying, "Where are [music] you guys getting this? I don't care if it's for a lab rat. And how do I get it?" Like they literally are desperate. Super effective peptide for helping the immune system. Oh, [music] wait. So, I can take this? Impossible. What is it? How are people getting it? Because I understand it's really not even available other than on the black market. Other countries, it's widely used for people with cancer or immune-mediated diseases. [music] And if you think about what kills people as they age, immune dysfunction. It's a very cool peptide. It's also very [music] neuro-anti - inflammatory. Lose weight. But don't attack me. Don't attack myself. [music] Before we go too far, just a quick favor I'd love to ask for you to take [music] a moment and double-check and make sure that you have subscribed. If you've enjoyed any previous [music] episode or you know you're going to enjoy this one, please make sure you do that. Hit that like button. And as always, let me know what level you are. I'm level 57. I'd love to hear what level you are. My guest today, Dr. Elizabeth Yurth, is a double board certified physician in physical medicine, rehabilitation, as

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physical medicine, rehabilitation, as well as longevity and regenerative medicine. She's internationally recognized as an expert. She is the founder and the chief medical officer of the Boulder Longevity Institute in Colorado, where they practice precision medicine, peptides, metabolic health, and the longevity of their patients. Her practice is focused on finding the underlying drivers of disease and dysfunction. And her gift is translating very complex, sometimes overwhelming medical terminology into like common sense language that we can all understand. And she's considered by many one of the leading experts in the area of peptides. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Sustain, thank you for having me. I'm actually honored to be here. Well, this is an audience that is excited to learn from you because we have so many questions. She is we are a little overwhelmed by all of the advances, I guess, and we see supplements we're supposed to be taking and hormone replacement therapy and now there's all these peptides and pills that we're supposed to be taking and injections that we're supposed to take and we're get 10, 000 steps a day, wear a weighted vest, get on a vibration plate. There's like all these things and they're all expensive Right. and it's all overwhelming and I'm really excited today to have a conversation where you can just kind of tell us like this is an extra thing, it's nice to have, it's not necessary and break all of this down for us. That's probably the most difficult thing in the kind of medicine we do, right? In our lives today. You know we're super busy and now somebody we read, oh, I need this supplement and then I look, oh, I need all my hormones. And now peptides into the picture. It

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And now peptides into the picture. It becomes impossible. And I you know, one of the things I've learned having been in practice now, our clinic's been open 20 years, it's one of the longest running longevity clinics in the world, is and is that people you can't overwhelm people or they just won't do anything. They become paralyzed by this. And so one of the things we've learned is how do you do this in a sensible fashion that's still going to serve a purpose, that's still going to get you where you want to go, right? And I'll tell you kind of my my rules around that and that's that you you don't have to do everything at once all the time. Mhm. So if you think a little bit in your life, you know, your life goes through cycles and and so should you be doing that with your supplements and you know, and and peptides as well. Think about things as being done sort of in different cycles. Yeah. Why is it people often refer to you as the godmother of peptides? I've been doing peptides a long time. So I remember when started doing peptides, there was a bunch of us sitting around a little room in New York, and and there was one pharmacy who would make peptides for us, and there was probably uh 15 of us who sort of started really saying, "Okay, we want we need this. We want this." And this this pharmacy that we worked with that was kind of developing these things with us. So, there was really a very, very small group of us that were learning about this and doing this. And and now you look it really was probably a group of 10, 12 physicians, one pharmacy making these. Everything was pretty, you know, pretty well kind of controlled. And now it is the wild west. Now, everybody is talking about peptides, doing peptides, buying peptides from everywhere. Mhm. The last conference I was at, longevity

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The last conference I was at, longevity conference is I was at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, you know, when I first started, there was probably 500 people. Now, there's, you know, 5, 000 people or more there. And and there were probably at least 10 to 15 peptide companies. Most of them selling their research-grade chemical peptides to people. And people walking around and you know, and that's that worries me. Okay. So, this morning, I put collagen peptides in my coffee. I applied skincare that has topical peptides for my skin. And then I injected BPC-157 and TB-500. All of these things are peptides? And that's what's confusing cuz everyone's using this word peptides. And I I Can you help us understand what what does that word even mean? Yeah. So, let's talk about what a peptide is cuz I think people sort of think of them as this weird sort of foreign or molecule. But, really peptides are a lot of them made by our own bodies. Okay. Right. So, there is thousands of peptides that your body makes. And so, they're not just some foreign chemical out there that somebody invented. They really a lot of the ones we use, like you talked about BPC, are innately made by our body. So, simply what a peptide is is a chain of amino acids. That's all it is. So, a protein is greater than 50 amino acids. A peptide is less than 50 amino acids. It's really a smaller chain of amino acids that acts in your body like a signaling molecule. Okay. It has a very specific signal. So, that's one of the things that makes them

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that's one of the things that makes them both very effective, but also very safe. Hormones actually sort of network around and do a lot. Right. Peptides actually have a little bit more of a target. When you look at at things like BPC, so there's a whole host of peptides. There's peptides that are not made by our body that we you know kind of synthesize that that people are developing more as drugs. Okay. peptides that you make. So, just like you think about replacing your hormones. Mhm. Right? As you get to be older, we have we don't make our own hormones anymore. Right. Yeah, you know, I I can't make my own estrogen. My ovaries aren't working well. I can't make my own testosterone. I don't make enough progesterone. So, basically we replace those. The same thing actually happens with peptides in our body. Interesting. And that's I think one of the the misunderstood things. Mhm. Is that your body, like you said you took BPC. Well, your body makes BPC. It's actually a peptide made by your gut. Mhm. It's a gastric peptide. So, it's made by your gut. It kind of protects your gut because the gut takes a lot of insults all the time. But also to circulate around and help heal other things. As we get older, just like your hormones drop. Yeah. Your peptides drop, including BPC. So, you look at a little kid and they hurt themselves. They're better in 10 minutes, right. and I take like months and months to heal something. Yeah. That's one of the reasons is because we don't have some of these endogenous signaling molecules to tell us to heal. If that's the case and we know that we can go off of symptoms and also testing to figure out where we're insufficient in terms of our hormones. Right. Do you recommend should people be testing to figure out if they're if they

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testing to figure out if they're if they have insufficient levels of some of these key peptides? There's really not a way to test most of these key peptides, right? There's not you know, even when we look at things like like these are bad substances in water. There's not really an easy way to test for BPC or you know so we just don't have a technology to test for circulating BPC or the thymic peptides so much, right? Do you think we will in the future? Well I and and if you get technical yes there is you you can go through some very elaborate research processes to to actually find these using a a sort of a electrophoresis patterns and things like that but it's difficult it would be time consuming very expensive. Will we get to that point where where testing them will make a difference probably not because honestly when you look at these molecules and their safety profiles that even dosing a lot of these very high is very safe does it really matter? What we want to know is am I getting the effect that I want? Right. And that can be difficult cuz we would like to say okay well you know am I feeling better maybe yes it'd be nice to have markers to say what markers can we look at that tell me this peptide's actually working for you. When you're working with clients in your clinic someone comes to you you're obviously running hormone panels doing their blood work listening to their symptoms etc. Do you use that as a basis for here's where the peptides I would start with? Definitely. So that does help as a cue. Okay. Right? So when you look at peptides that go down as you age there's a few there's really a handful and when you talk about replacing things I would kind of think about replacing the things that we're losing, right? There's a lot of other

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losing, right? There's a lot of other cool things out there you can do but if I can replace the things you're losing right then I'm going to go a long way to help keep you healthier longer. So the peptides that you kind of lose as you age BPC being one of them then there's what's called the thymic peptides. When you're a baby you have this giant gland in your chest it's called the thymus gland and that gland produces thymic peptides. One is called thymosin alpha one one is thymosin beta four or TB 500 kind of a fragment of that. So those thymic peptides are really important. About puberty your thymus gland starts to shrink. By the time you're old like me, it's nothing. It's a little fatty nub doing nothing. So, I don't have these thymic peptides. If I don't have thymic peptides, my immune system starts failing and I can't heal as well. I can't So, so thymosin alpha-1 is one of the main immune modulating peptides. Can you say that peptide again for us? It's called thymosin alpha-1. Okay. And when people say, "Oh, you know, peptides don't have any human data." This is a peptide that has massive amounts of human data. It is a drug in other countries. It's [clears throat] called Zadaxin. So, in other countries, it's widely used for people with cancer or immune-mediated diseases. And yet here, it's a harder peptide to get. Should be easier now because we've gotten some changes in the regulations on peptides recently. But, thymosin alpha-1 is a really critical player. And one of the reasons, and you've probably seen this in your network of women, is there's a lot of autoimmune disease, right? Oh, so much. [clears throat] So much. Yeah. And and a lot of it's probably undiagnosed. of it's undiagnosed, right? Just women who have these kind of ongoing arthritises or things like that.

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arthritises or things like that. So, one of the main reasons is when the thymus gland, think of that as it as sort of it's it's educating your cells what to do. So, it tells you your body, "Okay, this is a virus, attack it. This is cancer, attack it. But, don't attack me. Don't attack myself." Once you don't have that thymus gland educating your lymphocytes, then your body starts to go a little haywire. So, what if I give that back? Then I'm going to keep my immune system healthier. When I look at somebody who comes into my office who has a lot of symptoms of autoimmune disease or markers of autoimmune disease, thyroid being a a really common one. It's so many women have autoimmune thyroid disease. And you look and you can see markers of thyroid antibodies. That tells me this person is making antibodies against themselves. You can look at some simple things on lab work. For instance, when people get a regular CBC, complete blood count, everybody who gets it, you know, your doctor orders that every year in your panel, they just don't look at it the right way. They actually look at something called the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio. Say that again. called neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio. When you look at the white blood cells This is why I could never be a doctor. [laughter] All I got to do is you look at the the white blood cells and there'll be a little thing that says neutrophils this percent, lymphocytes this percent, monocytes this percent. Super easy. But your doctor never talks to you about it. Right. When those neutrophils start to go up and lymphocytes start to drop, it means your immune system is starting to fail. Mhm. And if you think about what kills people as they age, cancer, viruses, those are all immune dysfunction. Yeah. In fact, maybe every disease of aging is an immune dysfunction. So once we see that, we see that drop in lymphocytes, that's a cue to me, oh

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that's a cue to me, oh I've got to get this person back on board with something like the thymus peptides, right. So so those labs can be really helpful there. Now things like BPC a little harder, right? But BPC is also a really metabolic peptide. It helps with metabolism. So now if I see somebody who has Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. So it's So if you see somebody who has insulin resistance, you're starting to see insulin levels climb, right? They're not frankly type two diabetes yet. Sure. But their insulin's starting to climb, I can actually pull BPC into the mix at those points. So there's a lot of labs that will sort of suggest to me peptides that we need. When we're thinking about longevity, you know, obviously inflammation is tied to almost every preventable disease. Inflammation obviously is going up as we're aging as hormones are in decline. If we're looking at all the peptides available and speaking, I know this is very generic, but most people, I assume women over age 50, uh have a higher level of inflammation. So is there one peptide in particular you're like that almost everyone is a good candidate for fill in the blank? I'm going to say that that and this might surprise people. And it's because of two things. Number one, it's a super effective peptide for helping the immune system, but maybe all those factors you're talking about. So the thing you're talking about is inflammaging, we call it. So it's basically this chronic inflammation of aging, which is caused by immune system dysregulation. So, I say, okay, thymus alpha one is an incredible go-to that is a little harder to get. So, if we look at one peptide

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to get. So, if we look at one peptide that could go a long way to helping all those people with a whole lot of things, including metabolic control, including immune dysfunction, including cognitive protection, it's actually going to be the GLP-1 agonist, your Ozempic. Yep. Okay, but what if a woman isn't doesn't need to lose weight? It's probably a misnomer about these, right? They're not just weight loss drugs. So, GLP-1 receptors aren't just responsible for weight. They have They're on your immune systems, they're on your brain cells, they're on your liver. So, basically, that system regulates a whole lot. So, what you can do is dose these at a level where people don't have any side effects, they still have good appetite, but they're getting enough in to modulate the immune function, to modulate liver metabolism, to glucose metabolism. These may be the best longevity drug we have in our armamentarium right now. Really? And what you do is you just find a dose that you don't know you're on it anymore, right? Your appetite is still good, you still want to eat, you still want to drink, you don't you know So, what you usually typically do, the question is, what is that dose? And it's going to be different for everybody. But what I typically do, and it kind of depends on what I'm treating, right? Is I sort of bring them up to a dose where like, yeah, I'm starting to feel maybe a little bit like I don't want to eat as much, things like that. Now, I back them down to a level where they have they don't feel it all, but I know they're getting a little bit of of help to their immune systems. You look at even the GLP-1 agonist in things like arthritis,

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things like arthritis, it's incredible the data out there about it. My fear and my experience in the industry that I come from and the women who, you know, been following me for years because of weight loss, right? I know that a lot of things I did and preached definitely contributed to women's disordered relationship with their weight, with their bodies, with food, and just like this is purely anecdotal, but I've seen so many women in my community who are like, "Oh, wait, so I can take this, lose weight, and tell everyone I'm just doing it for inflammation, and then their eating disorders kick in. And then they are getting underweight and excited about the fact that they can see their muscles, but they're losing muscle. And it it just that piece that we're I don't think most doctors or people who are doling the stuff out on TikTok are screening for uh either the potential for an eating disorder or past eating disorder. That definitely is a concern, right? We see these people and you see them in the movie star population and everybody where where they just got excessive with their like love of being really skinny now, right? From from the GLP-1s. Um you know, and I think that's where you have to be as a physician, if I have somebody who's portraying those kind of behaviors, then it's probably not going to be the right peptide for them. And I think that's where the problem with these being so available now through every network online that you can imagine where somebody is just handing these out, you fill out a questionnaire, and you hand them out. This is where you need somebody with guidance. I'm not going to keep giving when I see somebody now who's obviously trending that direction. And

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obviously trending that direction. And that's where you got to know your patients, you have to understand your patients. Then it's not going to be the right choice for them. I'm going to pick other choices. Yeah. You and I are in a warped world dealing with all you know you deal with But if you look at most of the world, they actually aren't in that you know But cautiously, you're exactly right, and I think we do have to be aware that these are really powerful drugs, and you really can abuse them in that way. But a lot of people who are just in a chronic inflammation state, a chronic you know, just want to you know be healthy and muscular and fit, which is probably you know, where we're sort of trending to as we're getting away from this kind of fitness paradigm, this you know, just want to be skinny paradigm to a a muscle paradigm, right? That those people actually can show huge benefit from this. Mhm. The gym that I work at in Miami, um I'm not going to name the gym right now, but I always hear everybody, especially the bros in the gym, talking about a GLP, I guess we're calling it GLP-3. Yeah, right. And I have not had a conversation in the the gym recently where someone hasn't told me that they're doing this and they're on it. I also have a lot of friends who are in fitness competitors in Miami this it's just a standard. What is it? How are people getting it because I understand it's really not even available other than on the black market. Tell me your thoughts on all of this. This is basically there's three GLPs. They keep gaining a little bit and we're going to have, you know, four shortly, but you've got the GLP-1 agonists just working on GLP receptors and then you got exenatide and then you've got tirzepatide, which is working on two

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tirzepatide, which is working on two receptors, GLP and GIP. I don't want to go into all of the effects of that, but what that allowed us to do now is actually improve weight loss. Like semaglutide was good, tirzepatide was better. Does that mean when you say improve weight loss, does that mean people are able to lose more faster or does that mean they're able to lose and maintain muscle? More lose weight more effectively. Not necessarily faster if you dose them appropriately, but more effectively. People with just the GLP-1s didn't didn't do as well or a side effect profile limited them from being able to dose it enough. So, tirzepatide allowed us to dose a little bit higher with less side effects and it was about 20% more effective. I mean, people lost more weight, but you still have to be careful about muscle loss, right? With both of those drugs. I will sort of want to I want to get out of that, you know, really GLPs do not cause muscle loss. Right. That's That's a myth. In fact, back in the old days when they first came out for diabetes, a long time These are old drugs. They're not new drugs. They've been around in some form or another for a long time. So, we started using them, you know, for other purposes, I don't know, 10 years ago. And when they first came out, they were actually designed to help diabetics to not lose muscle. So, preferentially they do not cause muscle loss. The big thing is nobody wants to eat enough. Right? It's very hard. Now, if you've done a GLP-1, it is very hard to want to eat enough, especially protein. You want to eat, you kind of trend to you know, things that are I don't know, maybe a little more comfort fooding or things like that, and you

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fooding or things like that, and you don't eat your protein. So, people who are getting enough protein, that's a lot, right? I mean, you're you're you know, it's you know, at least a gram, 1 to 1. 2 g per pound of body of lean body mass. It's a lot of protein. I mean, somebody who needs 120, 130 g of protein, that's hard to do, right? So, when you don't have any appetite, trying to get somebody to eat 120 g of protein is not easy. So, they lose muscle, and then they blame it on the drug. It's not, they blame it on what they're eating. And the other big thing is they don't drink. The other big thing these things do is they inhibit thirst. So, you actually don't know you're thirsty when you're on GLP-1. A forgotten thing. Not just you don't know you're hungry, you actually don't know you're thirsty. If you do not drink, your muscles will rapidly lose mass, because muscles are need a lot of hydration. So, that's one of the big causes of muscle loss is hydration. It's one probably one of the the least known facts is that this is a lot of the not drinking. So, that muscle loss, take it out of your head as being a cause caused by these. It's caused by the diet loss, right? Sure. But, that's hard. It is hard because of diet. So, and then we go to the So, we've got the GLP-1s, GLP-2s, which are better, more effective, less side effects. And then we went to retatrutide, which is a GLP-3. It worked on GLP, GIP, and glucagon. So, when you add the glucagon in, you preferentially preserve muscle. So, it's not so much It's interesting to me that people are using it, you know, kind of in in the like my my 18-year - old son, 19-year - old son is in a frat, and everybody's using it. And these are not boys who need to lose weight, right? They They They're just trying to put on

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They They They're just trying to put on muscle. But, [__] doesn't really put on muscle. It allows you to maintain muscle while losing fat. So, for the bodybuilder population, it's great, right? When you're in that cut phase, where you really you need to just maintaining all your muscle, but want to lose as fat as much as fast possible. As a double board certified physician, as someone who has decades of experience studying, and this is your focus as peptides, it has got Like, it drives me nuts. I can't imagine how much it must annoy you to see just everybody doling this stuff out. For example, read a true tide. Um how are they Like, tell me your thoughts on all of that. Well, I can tell you we So, we only use peptides that are made by compounding pharmacies that are registered pharmacies doing things in a very sterile fashion. They're Everything has been tested. Most of those peptides you see online from all these companies, they say on them this is research grade, and it actually says on the bottle not for human use, right? So, if you look at them, they all say not for human use. One of the workarounds some of the companies have done now is they say for physician use only. All that's done is it's laid the the onus of problems onto the physician, yeah? Right? So if I want to use a for physician use only, and something bad happens to you, it's my fault, not the pharmacy that made its fault, right? So, that's sort of a just a workaround. And the reason that they're not for human use is because they don't have to pass the same level of inspection. I was just talking to somebody at the conference I was just at who took five

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conference I was just at who took five of these research peptides and ran them through a really detailed chemical analysis. All five of them contained really high levels of contaminants. So, you're talking about things like arsenic, lead, mercury. Those are things that can be very high levels because in a research chemical, you don't have to worry about having those. And you or I who are injecting this into our body, you should worry. Whereas the the pharmacies have to go through a much more rigid to make sure there's not contaminants, make sure that the the stuff that's in there is in there. Interesting, the content of the peptide ended up in most of them, at least four of the five, being reasonable. It It did have what it said in it. What was the bigger problem was the contaminants, which is scary because you are injecting these into your body, sometimes at a pretty high dose, and people aren't thinking about that I'm injecting arsenic or mercury or lead. You know, that's that's a huge problem to me, and that's rampant. So, remdesivir type is not yet available. None of the compounding pharmacies can make it yet. They have to wait until they have been can get the raw ingredients, so it has to sort of hit hit a a certain point. They can't yet. So, any of these that are coming from research sites, meaning they are tested only for research purposes, meaning they are not tested nearly as high for sterility or for impurities. Scary. And the thing when you go online and and see these, you know, sometimes I get on this algorithm, every single influencer who's saying Click the link in my bio. Here's the code word you need to use. They're all saying, "This is a a top quality

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saying, "This is a a top quality pharmacy. They It's completely sterile. We're using certified US physicians." You know, they they use all the buzzwords, but they're Right. Unless it's done from a a 503A 503B compounding pharmacy to, you know, prescribed to the person, right? Not just being sold out of my office. This is a prescription medication prescribed for a certain person. That's the only real way of getting these Mhm. in a true fashion. And that's not what's happening when you're seeing some of these internet sites and things like that. And And that's a shame. And because it's scary because what it can do is cause a lot of problems, a lot of side effects, and create a situation where a lot of these peptides could get pulled from the market, and they're really helping people. Actually, that's my scariest to me. It's It's one of the scariest thing. I mean, I'm I'm terrified about what can happen to people, obviously. I have so many more questions for you about peptides, but I feel like it's really important for my audience to understand how do you find a doctor who's reputable to oversee this to ask you the right type of intake questions to assess how you're responding and then is working with one of these credible certified pharmacies. Right. I think that that takes number one asking them the questions about, you know, what is your training in peptides? How long have you been using them? Where are you getting them, right? And you know, ask them which pharmacies are you getting them from, right? You can look are these truly 503A 503A 503B pharmacies? The So I think that takes people really asking about it cuz there are doctors I do know physicians who are

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doctors I do know physicians who are using research peptides. It's cheaper for them to do that, right? It's they can buy them cheaply so upsell them. So there are a lot of physicians using research peptides. So then look at your bottle. Cuz this is a nice little clue. If your bottle says not for human use or or for physician use only, it is did not come from a compounding pharmacy. That bottle should have your name on it as a prescription. It should be a prescription written for you just like when you go to your pharmacy and you pick up a prescription, right? It says your name what the dose is. That bottle should say your name and what the dose is. If it doesn't, then it was repackaged by somebody meaning they maybe took this out of the little bottle that said research use only, right? But every peptide I prescribe has to be individually prescribed for the patient. It should say Colleen Johnson on it. This is the dose you take, right? If it's a if I hand you a little bottle that doesn't say anything on that is likely not a prescription medication from a pharmacy. So how do we find a reputable source when everybody is telling us that they are a reputable source? Everyone online is saying, "No, this is a you know, this is a super reputable pharmacy. Everything's sterile. You're going to get what's in the bottle." Like they're all saying these things, but how do we actually know and should we be taking advice from somebody just because they have a a bunch of followers on Instagram? I If it's It's always my biggest beef, right? Is that, you know, the the busy physicians aren't there on Instagram a lot of times, right? They're seeing patients and doing things like that. So, some of the best physicians you're not going to even find on Instagram. I try to get out there on Instagram cuz I want people to

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there on Instagram cuz I want people to learn this stuff, but but you know, keep that in mind. There are some really good doctors out there who don't have, you know, a million followers on Instagram. I think that the key is talk to the doctor before you see them or talk to their office and say, "How long has this doctor been been doing peptide therapies? How long have they been doing longevity medicine? What, you know, what is their training in this?" I think you need to ask those questions because there are physicians now who are doing a 2-day certification. I can tell you you don't know peptides in 2-day certification. It's taken me years and years to learn and understand peptides. I I think that that's going to be the key is is sort of having that conversation like we have at our clinic when you call, you'll talk to a person and she'll she'll talk to you for, you know, 30 minutes, whatever. And you know, understand the when you talk to this whoever that intake person is, say, you know, "Just tell me about the doctor. You know, do they do peptide Have they been doing peptides for 5 years?" Have they been, you know, doing them for 2 months? And and see if you can get some clear answers. Do you think that we need to work with a physician because again, a lot of the sources online, they're telling you, "Oh, you'll be working with the doctor, "but you're never talking to that doctor. Do you think that it it's important that we're actually working with someone we're speaking with? I think there's some really good, knowledgeable health coaches, nutritionists out there, but I think they should be working with a physician who you at least interact with somewhat, right? I I cuz I'm not going to downplay I think there's some really brilliant, you know, I know a uh a trainer who knows freaking more about peptides than half the world, right? But he works with a physician, hand in hand

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he works with a physician, hand in hand with a physician. So, you're still seeing the physician alongside. Because the physician is still who's looking at all your labs and going through all this and I think they had me done and having understand you. I'm not going to downplay that I do think there are good resources of people out there. They should be working with a physician who can then actually prescribe the drug for them. And when you said certification, is it a certification or a a board certification? Those things are different, correct? So, there's a board certification in anti-aging and regenerative medicine. Right, so you can go to a board certification. I'm board certified in anti-aging regenerative medicine through University of South Florida. So, there is a board certification. It'd be nice if people had that. But, that doesn't really tell you have any training in peptides cuz you actually don't need to be trained in peptides. So, there are a lot of peptide certifications uh coming up. Most of those are 2-day courses where you take a little quiz at the end and you get handed your plaque with certification. I think that that's nice. It shows that at least they engaged in some training, right? But, when you hear that, don't think oh, this person is automatically knowledgeable. Make sure you know, well, how long have they been actually practicing this and doing this? I'd like who have been doing it a little bit longer, who have been in this world a little bit longer, going to training courses consistently to learn about this. It also changes. It reckon, you know, like we talked about the GLPs. Uh this is a field that's changing so rapidly that unless you're going and continuously learning, then, you know, so we have a whole we work with a a company called Nucleus Pro where we're doing this ongoing education of the providers all the time to make sure that they're staying up-to - date because we realize the stuff you learned 3 months ago actually may be

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you learned 3 months ago actually may be different. I guess the point I have to make is that I feel like we're so obsessed with being living longer, being fit, being thin, having what, you know, I'll take what she has, right? It's almost like the movie The Substance where she knows all of the downside. She knows all of the risk, but it's like I don't care. I've watched TikToks of women saying, "Where are you guys getting this? I don't care if it's for a lab rat. And how do I get it?" Like they literally are desperate. I think it's and and that's where unfortunately, in you start seeing the bad things happen, people are going to do that, right? There's so many crazy things that we take risks at doing. And and people are like, "Well, I don't know anybody who bad things happen to." You're going to start seeing more bad things happen to people. Now, all I can do is say, you know, to me to inject something that got off into the from the internet. I can't like to me that's such craziness. Like I just buy something off the internet, inject it into my body. I I like you have no idea what you're doing. It's like it's just almost odd to me, right? It's kind of crazy. I I people like you and I are doing it. So, you know, normal people are doing it. I think does it cost more money to do it the right way? It does. These you know, compounding pharmacies are going to be more expensive than buying from research. But this is your health long-term. You might not be seeing these effects for a long time. You know, cuz it may take a while for these levels to you know, sometimes worst case quickly. I just had a patient who took a research chemical peptide and had a horrible immune reaction to it. Had a horrible inflammatory immune reaction. Almost died from it. And you know, and

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Almost died from it. And you know, and that's that's such a you when you see those scary things, you hope it scares people away. But you know, people people want easy, quick, cheap Yes, we do. We're speaking primarily to a audience of women who are over 40. Um they're perimenopausal if not fully menopausal. If you had to pick like the five most helpful peptides for her to consider, what would those be? You started with the GLP-1. So, I think GLP-1s are great. You talked about BPC. I think BPC is something it's it's so incredibly safe. There's you you could massively dose BPC and probably never get sick from it. Mhm. It actually does have some effect orally. So, you can actually buy it as an oral supplement from some places. Uh you know, there's one called gutides that is a BPC KPV together orally. It doesn't work quite as well orally. It still works. And if you have gut issues, it's tremendous orally. That's so good to know. taking a lot of anti-inflammatory drugs, it's very protective to the gut lining to take it orally. So, if you're taking anti-inflammatory drug, you know, like Motrin a lot or Celebrex or something because you have arthritis or pain, then you take BPC along with it, you will very likely avoid the risk of having ulcers and things like that from that. So, really protective to the gut. Or if you have a history of ulcers, or if you have in colitis, this is a really important thing. And it does work super well orally. Systemically, it works a little bit better for metabolic health and for joint health and for muscle recovery and things like that. Okay. So, injectable does work better for that tissue repair.

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tissue repair. So, it does work better injectable for that. But, you can buy it over the counter supplement as BPC and, you know, and get it from a, you know, a good company. But, it is very safe and it's a that's an easy one to take. So, I think everybody needs BPC. I do think and this kind of depends on on the person. Mhm. But, a lot of people need growth hormone secretagogues. So, we've all heard about growth hormone, right? And, you know, and and how the wonders of growth hormone. Problem with taking growth hormone is that it's a super physiologic dosing, meaning it is much higher than your body would ever make. So, what happens is side effect profile can be quite high. Like, people get a lot of swelling in their legs, carpal tunnel symptoms. Sometimes they'll start to get growth of their nose or jaw because those tissues will keep growing through life, oddly. You know, and and From which peptide? From growth hormone. If you're taking growth hormone. So, growth hormone is not a peptide, right? But growth hormone itself. The other thing about taking growth hormone consistently is you actually really suppress any of your own production. So, it could be a really big problem. So, we use a lot of peptides that are called growth hormone secretagogues, meaning your pituitary still makes growth hormone, it just doesn't make it as well or as much as you did when you were younger. And we actually don't need as much as you do when you're young, you're growing, but you need some for repair and anabolism. So, you can't really grow muscle or keep your bones strong if you don't have enough growth hormone. And those levels, just like all your other hormones, drop, right? You can measure a marker called IGF, insulin-like growth factor. IGF is is

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insulin-like growth factor. IGF is is when growth hormone is secreted, it tells the liver to produce this IGF. So, if I measure IGF and it's low, and optimal is going to be like 170 to 190. If it's low, then you're likely going to develop osteoporosis. You're likely going to lose muscle, even if you're keeping all your hormones perfect. So, it becomes very important for some women. Not everybody has you know, low levels. Most do, but not everybody, [clears throat] right? So, you can use what are called secretagogues. There's one called CJC and one called tesamorelin. And what those do is they tell your pituitary to make a little bit more growth hormone. And then you combine those with another peptide, and these are usually mixed together, called ipamorelin. It's like putting on the Yeah, so think about what it is as filling the gas tank while you're stepping on the gas. So, it allows you to release more. You do this at night before you go to bed. That's when our growth hormones surge, and you'll repair much faster and better. So, you do a hard workout, you're going to be ready to go back to the gym the next day. Are those peptides you just mentioned, are they less effective if you're taking them individually? Do they need to be combined kind of like a They are less effective, but not ineffective. The growth hormone-releasing peptides, like ipamorelin, are pretty effective on their own, but they work much better synergistically. So we we mix them as CJC ipamorelin or tesamorelin ipamorelin. So, those are the ones that are most available. We choose tesamorelin when or it's a little bit stronger for people. Uh so, people who have really lower levels. It's also really good for people who have visceral fat. Those women who are kind of, you know, have that that apple shape. Sure. Really helps get rid of visceral fat. What about the growth hormone should we be concerned with if we're thinking

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be concerned with if we're thinking about our risk of breast cancer or rogue cell growth or or even, you know, growth-stimulating a tumor? It's always a concern, right? When you're raising growth hormone, are you Is there actually really zero evidence that these will cause cancer, right? Now, all of us have some cancer cells growing potentially, right? So, you know, will that escalate those cancers? There's not evidence to support it. Now, I will cautiously say I don't use them in somebody who has active cancer. Okay. Except, because of the releasing peptides, Ipamorelin doesn't actually change your levels at all. It just causes your growth hormone to be a little more effective. And Ipamorelin has been shown to help cancer patients actually survive longer cuz they have better appetites, they eat a little bit, they lose less muscle. So, it's actually been useful even in cancer patients. The growth hormone releasing hormones, which are the CJC and Tesamorelin, will make you make a little bit more. So, those may be a little riskier. But, there's zero evidence. In fact, women who were who had higher levels of IGF and then got breast cancer tended to fare much better. So, really there's not a lot of evidence to support that, even though in theory you're thinking, "Okay, I'm causing growth." And I do stay away from them because of that in my patients who have active cancers. Like, but we're not seeing that people who are taking these have more, you know, more cancers or more aggressive cancers. In fact, we're actually seeing the opposite. Okay. So, what what about from a longevity or beauty standpoint? These are huge, right? So, the so the the growth hormones peptides are actually really important for skin integrity, you know, for muscle mass, you know, so so they they make you look

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you know, so so they they make you look better. That's why movie stars all take growth hormone, you know, it's like it it does make you look younger. It does. Mhm. You know, probably of anything we do, it may have the most effects in kind of that in that realm. So when you lose this growth hormone, you get more wrinkly, you get more saggy, you lose more collagen. And you talked about, you know, from a um sort of a beauty perspective, you're using some some peptides, you know, so collagen hydrolysates, which is People forget that collagen is a peptide. A collagen hydrolysate is a peptide. It's a very effective form. It's a powder form, right? You take it orally. It's very effective. You know, I used to poopoo collagen, but if you look at the data, it's very effective. It helps in both joints, um pain, skin. So I think that that's something that's so easy for everybody to do, right? Yeah. Uh you know, that that's an easy peptide to add. One of the best peptides for skin is what's called GHK copper. And you probably have seen this in face creams cuz some of the face creams will have GHK copper in it. GHK copper is really what's responsible for collagen synthesis and collagen remodeling. And so it does help topically. If you do it as an injectable, it's kind of working all over your body to epigenetically change genes. So you actually get 500 genes that are positively regulated to help collagen integrity better, help wound healing be better. So it has a very positive effect used as an injectable periodically. So you basically kind of cycle on and off this to improve collagen function and collagen synthesis throughout your body cuz remember that's everywhere. It's in

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cuz remember that's everywhere. It's in your blood vessels have collagen, your heart has collagen. There's There's It's not just your skin, right? Joints have collagen. So So we don't think about all the other tissues that are collagen dependent. So GHK copper is taken systemically. I I do love it as a face cream, too. So you can get a compound like we do a compound with you know, GHK copper and a little estrogen or you know, estriol in the face. You compound things like that together and you can even add a little like called argireline and leuphasyl which have like a Botox kind of properties to them. So there's really cool things you can do with it with some of these peptides topically as well. Does that peptide impact hair regrowth? It's a big concern. And or is there another peptide women might want to consider for hair regrowth? GHK copper is and that's if you look at a lot lot of the hair kind of serums that we we use GHK copper is is definitely advantageous there. You usually have to micro like you know, microneedle. Taking it systemically helps, but usually you have to microneedle into the scalp. Which I did once and I will say I would rather give birth um without an epidural in the desert. It was so painful. But it did work. Yeah, it does help, you know. Scalp microneedling is painful. We actually use something We like a little pro knocks or we Oh, I wish I had that laughing gas. Yeah, cuz it does hurt when the scalp is really sensitive, right? But even doing it you're like even if you get a little like serum and you get one of the little sort of home micro needling devices you might have at home, which aren't hardly painful and they put on there has been an effect from that. Mhm. Um so the other peptide that's really shown to be helpful for hair growth because it's another one for kind of tissue regeneration is thymosin beta 4, also known as TB 500. They're a

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beta 4, also known as TB 500. They're a little bit different, but most people hear TB 500s will kind of use that term. Okay. But that actually is a really regrowth. Think about that from it brings new blood cells to the area. So there's some really good data on that systemically. So taking systemically you should have a little higher dose in helping regrow hair. Okay. But hair growth is really hard, right? There's a lot of reasons for hair loss. Right. And so you kind of have to discern what the reason is. Is this, you know, androgenic meaning that that the androgens are too high, you're making too much DHT, in which case you've got to block the DHT, things like, you know, dutasteride or finasteride. So you better block the DHT. Or is it immune-mediated, right? So we're seeing that a lot of women particularly this kind of post-COVID there was a lot of COVID hair loss, right? People got COVID and then they had all this hair loss. So that immune system kind of attacked the hair follicles. So then those people are going to have to tackle more of the immune system, right? Using things like thymosin alpha 1 we talked about or low-dose naltrexone, which is a a drug basically that we can use to help with that. So you kind of go after the good of the etiology. Uh you know, and and then if you think about other causes is stress. Yeah. Probably the biggest cause you see in women is stress-related hair loss. Uh and hormone-related hair loss, but but stress-related hair loss. So how do we get stress under control? Which is difficult. And you know, any of you guys who are under chronic stress, it's like, "Oh my god, how do I You know, people tell me meditate. I'm trying to meditate. I do all these things." It it it's hard, right? You try to get stress under control when when you're trying to do 10 million Send my whole family away. And all work and everything.

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all work and everything. It's called Selank. You try to take all these things we're talking about. Yeah, it's really stressful. Yeah. You know, so so really do have to get people to, you know, learn to meditate, learn to use things. I'm horrible at that. You and me both, sister. So, you know, so there is devices like this little brain tap you just put on your head, right? And this kind of lights that flash and sort of puts your brain into that same state without me having to really work hard to do it. Yeah. Uh I I do think, you know, I've done a lot of Joe Dispenza's work, you know, trying to to get better at meditation. I think it's super important. I'm just not quite there yet. So, I do use a lot of tricks. But interestingly enough, there is some peptides that help with stress management as well. Which ones? Do tell. There's there's a nasal spray peptide. And the nasal sprays are cool because you actually can get a very direct route to the brain through the nose. And so, there's a nasal spray peptide peptide called Selank. Selank actually came to what's called a bioregulator. say that again for me? Selank, S E L A N K. Okay. Selank actually came out of Russia. So, there was a a doctor in Russia, Dr. Khavinson, who developed all these what we call bioregulator peptides. He done for the Russian military. And the Russian military was under all of this stress, right? So, he was looking for something, how do I keep them alert, awake, but mellow. And he came up with Selank. So, he there's actually a lot of Russian data on this, human data on this. Wow. These were very hard to get in the US for a long time, but now we can get a few of them. Selank being one of them. What we can do is use this as a nasal spray. And it has a very nice just keeping you alert and awake, but settled. Wow. Yeah, it's a very cool peptide. It's

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Yeah, it's a very cool peptide. It's also very neuro anti-inflammatory. When you think about most of the brain diseases, the cognitive decline, Mhm. like Alzheimer's, things like that, they're more they start with inflammation in the brain. We talked about that, inflammation. Well, that happens in the brain. And that leads to cognitive decline. So, the Selank is really anti-inflammatory to the brain. So, my women who are just in this just I like constant stress mode, they're also likely in a neuro inflamed mode and I really need to convince them this is not just you know affecting you cuz you're going to you know lose muscle and all you know and feel horrible, but it's also affecting your likelihood of developing cognitive decline. And we really so it becomes a much more important piece than just you know learn to relax and be like oh you know a big deal. Uh it actually is a very critical piece to that. And when you see people relax and and lower cortisol and things like that you'll see hair regrowth, you'll see muscle regrowth. You see them get back into this anabolic state. You see them look younger. And look younger, right. Yeah. Is there a peptide that signals bone remodeling? So there is, you know so it's actually a drug, uh you know that's that's out there now called Forteo. So it's it's really what it's called teriparatide. We used to be able to get it as a peptide, now it's a drug, it's an injectable you give yourself every night you give yourself a little injection of this. When we look at the the bone the drugs that that stop you know stop bone loss, most of them fall into the the um it it into what's called bisphosphonate category. And those got a lot of bad rap because they caused the bone density would look better, like you go oh wow your bone density got so

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you go oh wow your bone density got so much better, but the bone was weaker. And those are the drugs you've heard about that cause jaw resorption, femur fractures, and those are still the the main drugs that are out there like Fosamax, the drugs that actually are still widely used and they're scary because you can see people improve their bone density significantly and they they have a much higher risk of fracture. So create this more fragile bone, denser bone but more fragile. Interesting. You can actually use So when you look at a DEXA scan, it's telling you the density of your bone. It doesn't tell you the strength of your bone. Dense bone is not necessarily strength. So a lot of people are now doing a test called REMS uh R E M S. So REMS actually it's done through a little ultrasound uh wave off the bone so it's actually really simple to do and you have to find somebody who does it but but it actually tells you the strength of your bone. Mhm. Which arguably is more important than the density of your bone, right? If I have dense bone, but I walk and fracture my leg, Yeah. Not very useful to me. I just recently had a DEXA scan and have been able to so strange, been able to improve all of my markers with the exception of my spine. Interesting. It's like is that probably genetic? Yeah, um you know, well you hard to say. You know, there there is you know, you when you see somebody who has preferably spine, you know, over other things, I would actually look at other potential reasons for that because there is certainly sometimes where you know, is there sort of a calcium imbalance? Sometimes that's more mitochondrial dysfunction when you see that the spine is really dependent

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see that the spine is really dependent on that. So it's it's it'd be interesting to deep deeper dive into that, right? Yeah, my next project. Yeah, so yeah, I cuz there is some very interesting reasons for that. Even when you look at, you know, do you have enough testosterone on board, things like that, right? Some of the things like that Yeah. like that play a role. That's also a place where growth hormone secretagogues can be huge in the spine. Spine's very dependent on anabolism, having an anabolic meaning a pro-growth state. You need to be in a very pro-growth state to improve the lumbar vertebrae quality. And so if you're not quite anabolic enough, I know you look at you and say, "My gosh, you're anabolic, right? You got all this muscle." But but maybe maybe still not enough like I'd be curious what your IGF levels were, right? Are they high enough? Yeah. You know, cuz if your IGF levels I have women who, you know, they look great like you, but their IGF levels are 75, 80. They're not going to get lumbar bone density, right? So I'd be curious what your IGF levels were. I don't remember. I'll take a look. And maybe you've already answered this, so please forgive me if it it's a repeat question, but is there a particular peptide that really aids in building muscle? Definitely the when you look at at building muscle, the growth hormone secretagogues are probably the the biggest place in particular you would say you're the biggest fan of? If you really want to go gung-ho, tesamorelin with ibutamoren and ibutamoren are going to be your best in that realm, right? Both Is that two that you would be taking, or is that one? And it's two It's usually mixed together. So, typically Let me clear up that you do not want to buy peptides that are all mixed together in one syringe. Are they selling them that way? out there. So, yes, like there's a product called Glow out there that is a

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product called Glow out there that is a mixture of five different peptides in a bottle. You know, it's got GHK copper and BPC enzyme, you know, and it's ridiculous. When you mix peptides together, peptides, remember they're chains of amino acids, right? So, if I mix them together, if I mix two chains of amino acids together, and this guy likes this amino acid better, it forms a completely different peptide, right? So, I form it together, and now I formed a new peptide that I don't even know what it is. And I don't even have the peptide. So, when you take these peptides and you mix them in the same vial, you have no idea what's happening. You know, you you're creating some weird peptide that you don't know, and maybe no effective peptide at all in there. So, these And there's a lot of companies that are selling them that way. Oh, here's your longevity mix, and it's got five different peptides mixed up. It's just dumb. Um so, you really but CJC, ibutamoren, and tesamorelin ibutamoren do appear to be able to be mixed together successfully. It's been tested without changing each of either of those. So, tesamorelin ibutamoren actually were designed to help So, tesamorelin is actually a drug. It's called a Grifta. It's actually available as a drug. If you have HIV, and you have muscle loss, sarcopenia, and increased visceral fat from the HIV drugs, this is an approved medication. Your insurance will pay for it. The rest of us, no. So, you can get it compounded as tesamorelin. But it isn't an approved drug. Tesamorelin is very powerful. It's actually what it was designed for, for getting back muscle and helping lose visceral fat, losing losing fat. So, it's probably the strongest. I have trouble with it a a little bit cuz maybe a little too strong for me. I do get some side effects from it. But most people love it.

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people love it. Mhm. Uh you know, so so that That's pretty anabolic. The other thing you can do, and people will will run for these kind of shorter courses is remember I said that the growth hormone when it's released signals the liver to make IGF. IGF is what actually your body then utilizes to help your muscles build. Breaks down when you exercise into something called MGF, mechano growth factors, and those are what cause the muscle growth, right? So if I really want to boost up IGF, what I'll do is right after you do your workouts, I'll be give yourself a little injection of IGF, right? So now I've really at that time you need it the most, you've gotten this big surge of IGF. I just gave you an injection of it. IGF can go to the muscles where it gets broken down into these growth factors that actually cause the muscle to build. So there's little tricks like that you can do. Those are getting more kind of into to the extremes. I would say, you know, if you look at one thing that's going to go cover a lot of bases, you go to your growth hormone secretagogue peptides. Okay. And your hormones. You mentioned one of the ways that you it's probably pretty good indicator that you're dealing with a rogue pharmacy or a rogue distributor is price. So let's talk price. So for that woman who's like, "Geez, you know, I just bought a vibration plate and I've got all these supplements that I'm taking. What what is she looking at spending on and I'm sure each one of these is different? Each one of them is different, right? There's some very expensive peptides like we use some of the mitochondrial peptides are very expensive. You know, the growth hormone secretagogues are not super expensive. Give us a range. They're probably in the $ 100 a month kind of range, you know, BPCs you know, probably even less than that. Uh the thymic peptides I'm selling one

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Uh the thymic peptides I'm selling one that's a little pricier, that's probably getting into the couple hundred dollars a month. You know, so so because unrealistic to do all these at once, right? So that's what I tell people when I think about peptides, I try and cycle people. I don't want to overwhelm you number one with taking eight injections. Mhm. And number two, most of us couldn't afford that. Right. sustainable. So what we do instead, and and I love to to think about life in these kind of circadian rhythms, right? Both our circadian rhythm of our day is important, but people forget that the circadian rhythm of our year is important. That our body is designed to do different things at different times. So I tell people winter is not a time you should be really trying to grow and it's actually we were designed to hibernate in winter, right? We designed to kind of rest and recover. And your body knows that. So if you're trying to push through and work out really hard and get stronger, you're actually fighting natural biology a little bit. It's much harder to muscle build in the winter than it is in the summer. And that's not cuz it's cold out, it's because your body senses that this is the time I'm supposed to be resting and recovering, getting ready for spring when I'm going to need to start growing more. So what you can do is say, "Okay, I'm not going to do my growth hormone secretagogues during this wintertime, right? I'm going to wait until springtime. So I'll cycle like a growth hormone secretagogue during spring and maybe summer, right? And then fall and winter not." And so fall and winter you're going to think, "Okay, winter recovery, right?" Now that's where you're going to be using your BPC. So that way, you know, when you start thinking about things these ways, different seasons doing different things and cycling in the peptides that

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things and cycling in the peptides that way, then it becomes much more cost-effective and much simpler to do. So if I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to spend my money and I have I've got a budget that's not unlimited, what are we looking at and I'm sure there's a range, but what are we looking at in terms of cost? Peptides are not cheap and there's a huge big range of cost of peptides and you know, you can go up to thousands of dollars a month, to $ 100 a month. I think the key is if you're seeing peptides for like $ 50 a month, it does probably that's not a legitimate source for it. They are more expensive than that. I I the variation depends so much on what how you're dosing it. And it's really why I say to people, you know, there are when we cycle these peptides, it becomes it it becomes reasonable to do because you're not doing in you eight of them at one time, you're doing one or two at one time and then switching over. So I think that it becomes cost-effective to do it even though they are pricey. What is one of the most um cost-effective or I guess, you know, most reasonable accessible peptides. I think probably the most reasonable accessible peptides now are going to be GLP-1 agonists, right? Those you can get now from regular pharmacies at a very reasonable cost, right? With your GoodRx. And then the growth hormone secretagogues are actually relatively reasonably priced, too. Let's go back to your question about the five peptides cuz we kind of covered BPC. The growth hormone secretagogues, then I would put the thymic peptides. Again, my goal replace what is being lost. The essential pieces, just like hormones. I would never think a woman

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hormones. I would never think a woman could age well without estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. Why do we think we could age well without the peptides that I made when I was 18 now are not existent in my body. I can't. So, those are BPC, growth hormone secretagogues, the thymic peptides, so that's thymus alpha-1 and TB-500 or TB-4. So, those, you know, kind of those four. Mhm. And then the last group, which becomes a little bit more crazy and a little bit kind of a little bit more, okay, this is I think something that's essential, but maybe harder to find, harder to do. And those are what I call the my mitochondrial peptides. Okay. So, think about your 12-year - old or your 5-year - old. They You know, like, "Oh my god, how do they have so much energy?" You're like exhausted watching them, right? Yeah. Cuz they have this robust mitochondria making so much ATP that they have energy to spare. As you get to be older, your mitochondria do two things. There's less of them and they're not working very well. Mhm. So, your battery is this big, his battery is this big. So, how do I get my battery back? Yeah. That's improving the mitochondria because that's where that battery is. It's inside the mitochondria. That's what makes the ATP. Okay. So, I can use peptides that improve mitochondrial function. And there's a few of them, you know, so there's one that's really important for brain mitochondria called humanin. Oh, yes. And that's super critical for neural function. Uh it gets really depleted in co - after COVID. Have we that. any testing on using that with uh Alzheimer's patients? Yeah, the guy who discovered it who unfortunately died kind of early named it humanin cuz he said, "I can bring back the human to Alzheimer's patients and dementia patients." Wow. I

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patients and dementia patients." Wow. I I will say I have not seen it reverse my Alzheimer's patients, but it's very preventive. And caught in early stages of cognitive decline, it makes a huge difference. Replacing these peptides and so what I say is maybe if you can stomach it, humanin twice a year for even just a 10-day course. Wow, okay. It's like a 10-day course. And then a couple times a year. And again, we're talking about doing these things for like 6 weeks a few times a year. These These are not things you have to do constantly. So I'm going to eat like like, you know, maybe my fall I'm going to hit with this mitochondria restoration with SS-31 or humanin and then my age with the treatment. So SS-31 is a peptide that actually when as you age, your mitochondria start to change their their sort of shape. If you guys have ever seen a picture of mitochondria, it looks like a little flower on the inside. Remember that kind of from your textbooks? And the reason it's shaped that way is the inner membrane has a shape so that we can kind of create this electron charge that collects here and then it creates this force where it makes ATP. If the mitochondria membrane now looks like this, it's all flattened out, I can't do that. I can't efficiently make ATP. I don't care what you do, you can't make the mitochondria work better until I fix that. What SS-31 does is it repairs the cardiolipin. It repairs that inner mitochondrial membrane. So your mitochondria are working again, right? So now you can rev up a lot more. So I think a couple times a year you've got to repair the mitochondria. All of us. And exercise is by the far the best, but you know, even the best exercises, even talking about people who are diligent with your exercise, people are going to lose mitochondrial function no matter what. So I do think you need to replace that. So that's going to be So that's the fourth you got. Your BPC, your growth hormones,

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got. Your BPC, your growth hormones, your thymic peptides. And then the last one, the other thing that goes awry as we age is that our pineal gland, which is kind of our circadian sensor. So think about the pineal glands in the brain, it's the light-dark sensor. Think about, you know, when you look at older people, you know, when they get to their 80s and 90s, you know, they're sort of their their sleep gets weird, right? They're sleepy during the day, they're kind of awake at night, they're just off, right? Their whole circadian rhythm's off. It's because the pineal gland actually calcifies with age. They can't get even if they're in the light and using their blue light blocking glasses and doing everything perfect, the pineal gland can't sense it anymore. So, that's a problem, right? So, what we have to do is say, "Okay, there's another thing I'm losing and just like my thyroid's getting worse and my ovaries are getting worse, I'm losing my pineal function. So, I need to get back with the pineal gland does. So, twice a year, so I usually use the solstices, the winter and summer solstice as my okay, I'm going to give back a little pineal function." And you can do that with with either what's called pinealon a peptide or I like what's called epitalon. So, e p i t a l o n, epitalon, and you can do like a a 10-day course of it, right? The solstices to kind of get the circadian such seeing a reboot on their circadian rhythm. And when you've done that, have you experienced a improvement in your sleep? Yeah, exactly, right? Exactly. You sort of readapt, you reset, and and start fresh again, right? It's a really nice sort of reboot of the system. Those are your five and you didn't include a GLP-1. So, I like I said, the GLPs I think are

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So, I like I said, the GLPs I think are I'll put it kind of my baseline of a longevity peptide. And I I'll say I just, you know, I will say it is a peptide that also goes down as we we make GLP, but it does go down as we age, too. So, it's a I I will say I think if if from a longevity perspective, you know, doing a low-dose GLP-1 maybe on and off throughout time is just a really good longevity tool. If I really want to go for kind of keeping my body in repair mode all the time, I'll take those, you know, those five peptides. But, I'm going to put the GLPs, I think, almost everybody should be on a GLP. What about the rebound after coming off of a GLP? I mean, I think for myself I not done a GLP-1 even though I know about all the extra benefits. There's many reasons why I haven't. Um one of which is I still want women to know you you still it is possible to lose weight uh without one. Um I I think we're all we've all been brainwashed. Whenever we see someone who's lost weight, we're like, "Ah, they're taking a GLP." We just assume we can't do without. But also my fear is like something that I would take and then stop taking. I I don't want that ramification. Is there truth to that or is that a myth? Well, there's chitchat. So, 70% of people after they get off a GLP will regain their weight. Sometimes more than it was. Um and so this why it's so important to number one use these correctly, which is not losing massive weights in 6 weeks. I just saw a woman who lost 30 lb in 6 weeks. I go, "Okay, that's impossible and stupid." And if you massively lose weight, fat cells contain all your toxins. Toxins are stored in fat cells.

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toxins. Toxins are stored in fat cells. I massively get my fat cells lysing, I release a whole lot of toxins. These people are doing a high dose of GLP, losing weight fast, you know, feeling like crap, just not wanting to eat. They lose muscle, they lose hair, and they release a whole lot of toxins. All bad things. If I use a GLP effectively in the right dosing, they're going to lose a pound or two a week. They're not going to lose or two a week, which is we know it's a safe weight loss, yeah. a safe weight loss, right? They're not going to be losing these massive amounts. What's going to allow them to do that? Now, I want to argue with a little bit that I agree with you that we do want people to understand that that you can lose weight other way, but you we all know those people who you you're like, "They have done it." Yeah. And you really trust them. Absolutely. All I've eaten is chicken and vegetables and I exercise every day and I'm still not losing weight, right? And if you look, genetically there are people who truly are just low GLP. They will not lose weight, right? It's a hormone. So, can you consider this a little bit like hormone replacement as well? That there are people who need it, right? So, in those people who really Remember, 30% of the did not gain the weight back. And most people who gained the weight back, when they looked at them, had them a genetic pre - predominance to actually overeating, right? There's a lot of genes that make us not have satiety very well. We don't know when we're full. We're not aware of it, right? So, can you retrain that? Yes, to some degree. You know, so that's but but there's only about 30% of people who don't have that at all. They've really good control of their eating. They've got really good balance. And they tend to be the people who you're like, you know, remember growing up these women you're like, "Oh my gosh, she can eat everything. It

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my gosh, she can eat everything. It doesn't matter." Right? Yeah. And you know, and you're like really jealous of them. Well, those people also maybe have a genetic sort of predisposition to being on that thinner side, right? Versus the the women who are kind of designed to be on a little on the heavier side. And I So, I think that we have to look a little bit using these not as a crutch, but maybe as a replacement therapy as well. So, it might well be that once you've lost all this weight in a sensible fashion, right, that you need to still maybe stay on a low dose or cycle on and off of these because you're sort of fighting a little bit of what your your genetics are doing. And so, you will gain the weight back. And And I'm talking about not the person who just went back to eating like crap, but if if you really did, you know, sort of retrain your eating and and lose the weight slowly, you shouldn't regain the weight unless there is that is your tendency. Mhm. Right? Yeah. And I know you know them. I mean, you deal with all the women all the time. And some of them may be coming to me with made-up food diaries. But for the most part, I I I've had women who for 20 years I could not get to lose weight. Well, okay, so this is the conversation I have in my head all the time, and I try not to have it out loud cuz I want to offend people, but the GLP-1s are not making your body magically burn more calories. The weight loss is coming from eating less. Not only. So, very interestingly, the GLP-1s, which is why they're being used in addiction as well, actually have a very big effect on kind of on on some brain centers that are controlling controlling fat. And so so and behaviors, right? So, it's

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and behaviors, right? So, it's not just eating less, it's actually a change in behaviors to get more dopamine, things like that, uh, that will also help you to lose fat. So, it's a change it's change in eating habits, yes, but even in people who have kept the same diets that were put on a a GLP Yeah. a lot of them lose weight, even with the same diet that they were following before. And it has to do with a change in the in in the the brain function dopamine regulation. That's why they're incredibly effective for binge eating disorders. Like incredibly effective for those women who like have constant food noise, right? That's a that's it's so it's not just eating less, it's this this change in this feeding behavior that change same change in the feeding behavior seems to signal the body that, you know what, it's okay to let go of fat. It's okay that you you So, the body has a signal points. That's why you get to these fat loss points and you get stuck. They're these signaling points where the body is is very much like, "This is my safe comfortable place. I need to tell my body that's not a safe comfortable place." This is a comfortable place. It seems to retrigger that mechanism. As it relates to the dopamine function, um, I'm just curious, what if any impact would it have on someone who struggles with dopamine regulation, like people who have been diagnosed with ADHD? I think it could be helpful in that group. Now, remember it's a weak in that realm, right? But it can be helpful and we'll we'll see people with sort of ADHD behaviors feel better on this. We'll see people with anxiety disorders feel better on this. Do you see the opposite, too? You know, so there are women who seem to get a little depression sometimes from like the the feel just off um, from the GLPs. I I'm not really sure of the

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GLPs. I I'm not really sure of the mechanism of that, honestly. the description of people saying like it just kind of like dulls everything where like nothing's that exciting, nothing's that Yeah. And I honestly I guess I don't quite understand the mechanism of that. I think it's some of those people it might be a little immune reaction to it. Mhm. There might be something more to the story cuz if you look at this mechanism, it shouldn't really cause that behavior, but it does. It's It's the the number one people like who I who is I just don't like this drug. I just don't feel right on it, right? I don't feel good on it, right?" Uh but for the most part, if you look at what it's doing to the brain, it shouldn't have that effect and it definitely does in some people. There's also people who feel incredibly fatigued on it. I think some of those people are just, you know, we all have our own immune systems are going to react to things. I do think those people who just get a little bit of an immune reaction to it. Mhm. I'm going to ask you a hypothetical question. You don't have weight to lose. You're going to be on a deserted island. You want to live as long as possible. So, you want to be all the things. You can take one peptide with you for the with a a lifelong supply. Which peptide are you taking? You know, honestly, like this question asked this question a lot. It's probably going to be if I look at all the mechanisms of protecting my liver, of protecting my kidneys, of protecting my heart, of protecting my brain, it's going to be a low dose GLP-1. That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, they are that amazing in everything they can do. When you start looking at the benefits of these drugs at a low dose, the benefits I mean, even, you know, the study just came out showing that they failed the Alzheimer's trials, right? They were these were really looking at this Alzheimer's. They failed to reverse Alzheimer's patients' cognition. But, when you read the article, every parameter that was looked at that should

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parameter that was looked at that should be related, like even P-tau levels, which are inflammatory the levels of the brain, got got reduced. So, it was an eight, you know, the trial was not done long enough probably to see reversal. And maybe we can't reverse it. We can certainly prevent or stop its progression with these cuz every marker showed we were doing something, right? And I look at what it does for my osteoarthritis patients. And that's independent of it what they've shown is is not fat loss dependent. We used to say, "Well, it helped osteoarthritis cuz you got skinny. You had less load on your joints." No, it was not a load dependent thing. It's so anti-inflammatory to the joints that we saw this this very, you know, huge effect. So, you know, when you look at and you know, and it's liver protection. If you find out I'm on a a desert island and I'm stressed all the time, my liver's is to get a problem. My liver's going to be a problem. My heart's going to be a [clears throat] problem. Every one of those things can be affected by a little bit of this, too. What do you think the future, having said that, of GLP's looks like in terms of our whole population, then? And so, number one, we are going to get oral forms that will work. So, I think that that's on the horizon, and I think they are going to be successful. So, they're that's released on the market as of right now, at the time that we're filming. Right. Do you think in other like the right timeframe? the orals right now that we are are released on the market, right? Um I do think they work for fellows. They're not as effective as the injectables for fellows, but they do work. How do They're too high of a dose for what we're microdosing, right? So, the question is, how do I take those oral doses and microdose them down? Uh you know, that's where compounding pharmacies are going to come in for me to say, "Okay, I want a dose, you know, that that is not for that." The problem

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that that is not for that." The problem still is, what is that dose? Cuz I think it's going to be like right now, I could take a GLP, and I can literally have you inject this much less, you know? And find the dose that's perfect for you, because I I have the capacity to just pull up exactly what you need. Will I be able to do that with an oral oral capsule? It's going to be a lot harder, right, to be basically make doses that are so specific to you. Cuz really, I do want And I don't even We have nobody's any idea right now, you know, how much do you absolutely need? But we do know that probably a little bit more is better, but I want to stay below that threshold of you having, you know, like I take a low dose GLP, I feel nothing. Like my appetite's still good. I still, you know, I have an energy. I feel good. I'm not nauseous. I don't you know, I feel great. So, that's the dose I'll I'll take continuously. You don't have to do it, you know, if you're exhausted of your you know, of of doing your injections, then you you know, I mean, these are twice a week, so it's not bad. But then, do it for a few months, stop for a few months. I mean, I think what we have to you know, when you're looking at all of this stuff, including your supplements, there are some few baseline supplements everybody needs all the time. You all need magnesium. You all need vitamin D3 with K2. You all need your you know, B vitamins. You all need creatine. But a lot of the supplements that that I love, like spermidine, alpha-ketoglutarate, NMN, all this stuff, I love. They can be cycled on and off. You don't have to be so pressured I've got to take 50 supplements. I can do, you know, a handful of this eight and then another time I've got, you know, so I've got my five baselines and then I sort of play with the other ones on and off. Our bodies don't need, in fact, probably it's bad to have the same stimulus going

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it's bad to have the same stimulus going all the time. I love your approach. That makes so much sense. It kind of takes the pressure off. Takes pressure off, right. For those who are, like, okay, I I need to treat with Dr. Yurth, how do they reach out to you? Is that something that's a possibility? Yeah, I don't take a lot of new patients, but I have partners who do who work with me who are, you know, very well trained in this kind of medicine. So, we we are taking new patients. So, you go to bodhi longevity. com and there's a little new client information and somebody will call you and walk you through everything, what's the best approach is for you, and you know, and how to work with us. Uh but, I also have a learning academy. Go to bli. academy. We have a learning academy and it's kind of it was actually designed for just regular people so that you can look at your labs and go, oh, you just saw lymphocyte ratio. Oh, you know, means all these things that the doctor never looks at with your labs so you can learn how to do it. It's something like that. Yeah. Can you give us that domain again? It's called bli. academy. It's it's our human optimization academy. So, there's courses in there to learn how to read your own labs, uh you know, understand them in a way that your doctor never will. It was actually designed for just lay people and now probably about half the group is doctors. [laughter] With these great Q & A sessions where people, you know, ask about cases. It's really fun and it's it's a great way to to understand this and learn this and ask questions that you know, are are haunting you about this kind of stuff. But, I you know, I think that it is hard to find doctors who are really tr - well trained in this. We're working on that. So, you know, I'm involved in organizations that we're really are trying to do do good education out there cuz there's a lot of certification courses popping up that

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certification courses popping up that are being taught by people who don't know anything just because it's a it's such a huge market now. Yeah. And which social media platform are you the most active on? So I'm Instagram at Dr. Yourth, I'm on YouTube Dr. Yourth, Facebook Dr. Yourth, trying to do a little more on Substack, LinkedIn. Yeah, but you know if you ask me if you follow me on Instagram at Dr. Yourth and on my YouTube channel, that's a long way to go, you know, in terms of some of that that information. Your YouTube channel is amazing. Thanks. Great content. I told you on the way in I got so much good stuff. nagging at me to do more and which is what we're talking about [laughter] as you know, and you're very good at that but it's like chief, it's hard to get content out. So to be a woman you got like the hair, the makeup, the outfits, it's a whole thing. My my son does a lot of content and he he just shaves his head and sits down. [laughter] I'm like this is not fair. Well, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us. It really was such a great I mean I've got a whole page full of notes. Half of them are for me, but thank you so much. You're a wonderful it. Thank you so much.