What if the reason you're not healing isn't that you need another diagnosis?
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It's that your cells aren't receiving the right signals. Because the body doesn't run on diagnosis, it runs on
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communication. And peptides are one of the most powerful, most misunderstood
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tools we have for cellular signaling, immune balance, tissue repair, gut
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lining support, metabolic control, brain signaling, sleep cycles, and even sexual
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wellness. Today, I'm going to do what most people won't. Define peptides in
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plain English for you. break them into categories by what they're best at and
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tell you which ones are FDA approved on the list and which ones are commonly
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used off label or investigational with the evidence that actually says these
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work. This is going to be a powerful episode and if you've ever felt like you're hearing hype without clarity,
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this one's for you. So, as usual, grab your cup of coffee or tea and settle in
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as we talk about peptides that can fit into your healing journey. We're going
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All right, here we go, guys. I am excited to dive into peptides with you.
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So understanding peptides is foundational, right? And I've been
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studying peptides now for about nine years. Um, and I find that they are
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incredible. Um, so I want to break down for you what peptides actually are, what
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they do, and some of the top peptides that are available today, and how they
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can be utilized. Because I think it's really important. And I think it's it's there's a lot of confusion out there about what these things actually are and
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are they safe? Are they not? When do we use them? What's the science behind them? So, we're going to dive in and
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we're going to talk about all things peptides. So, let's get ready here. Here we go. So, peptides are short chains of
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amino acids and they typically range anywhere from 2 to 50 amino acids and
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they're linked by peptide bonds. So think of them as the superglue that holds the amino acids together. They sit
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between the amino acids and they are full proteins in terms of their size and
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their complex structure. And what makes peptides particularly interesting in
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medicine is their role as signaling molecules. They're essentially the
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body's text messages carrying specific instructions to cells and tissues. And
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unlike our proteins which often serve as structural roles or act as enzymes,
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peptides typically function as hormones, neurotransmitters and growth factors and
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they bind to specific receptors on the cell's surfaces or within the cells and
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they trigger this effect. It's like a cascade effect of a biochemical reaction
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that ultimately changes the cellular behavior. So basically, it's changing
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the way the body's cell structure acts. And this is why peptides can be so
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incredibly powerful and therapeutic when you introduce the right peptide signal.
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Now, you could theoretically redirect cellular processes toward healing,
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towards metabolism, immune balance, tissue repair. Any of those things can
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be manipulated to do a certain thing once we add the peptide. The challenge
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in peptide medicine though lies in distinguishing between those peptides that have been rigorously studied,
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proven safe and effective and approved by regulatory bodies like the FDA versus
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those that exist in what we call the gray zone of a promising clinical data.
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But they really lack human validation so far. And this distinction is critical because the presence of a plausible
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mechanism does not guarantee safety or efficacy in living humans. So, this is
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really important and we're going to dive in and look at some of the research on all of these different peptides that are
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available and I'm excited to say there's some amazing peptides being studied right now that unfortunately are not
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available. But I can't wait to see them hit the market for us because it is going to be a gamecher as far as health
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and longevity. So there is a quality control issue and there is a hidden
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variable in peptide medicine with this and it's one of the most underappreciated aspects of peptide
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therapy particularly for non-FDA approved peptides. It's quality control.
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When we discuss pharmaceutical medicines, we take for granted that the pill contains what the label says. Not
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always true depending on where it comes from. You guys, if you've heard my episodes before talk about how many of our medications are made in China and
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have been contaminated with other things, you will realize that that is not always true. So, just because it has
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the FDA stamp of approval on the medication, it still does not necessarily mean it's safe and we still
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need to do our homework on it. So, sorry for digressing on you guys, but you know, when we get a medication, we we
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think that what the amount says is what is there, doesn't have contaminants, it's manufactured with good
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manufacturing practices. You'll see that listed as GMP on the bottle, and it's been stored properly, it's been
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maintained stable, and with research peptides and compounded formulations,
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none of this can be assumed. So, I will share a story with you. There was a gentleman that was purchasing these
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peptides online from a research facility and um did not know that they were
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coming from China and he was ordering a particular growth hormone peptide and
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after a little while he had he had done fine for the few first few bottles. After a little while he started having
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some complications. He started getting really irritable and angry and ragy and
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he didn't quite know what was going on. And so he decided to go get some testing done. He had some blood testing done and
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his testosterone level was over 5,000. So for those of you who know what testosterone level should be for a guy,
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they really shouldn't be any higher than about 1,00200 would be absolute max that we'd want to see. Now he was taking
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testosterone but not to that degree. And prior to adding this peptide, his
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testosterone was very stable. What they ended up finding out was the peptide that he was getting, whoever was
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manufacturing it added testosterone to the peptide. They felt like if if it had growth hormone, that was great, but if
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it had growth hormone and tes testosterone, all the better. And he didn't know that. And this is the
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problem that we can have with peptides if you don't source them properly. if you're not working with somebody that
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knows how to source them and can prove that they are what they say they are. Um, I'm sure there's a whole bunch of
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studies out there too of people getting these peptides and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for them over their
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lifetime and finding out they were nothing more than just sterile water. So, you really do need to be careful
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with your quality control. Now, this kind of leads us right into the next topic that we're going to talk about and that's the manufacturing question,
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right? The FDA approved peptides are manufactured in facilities subject to
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the FDA inspection rules following our GMP regulations and these facilities
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must validate their manufacturing process, demonstrate consistency batch to batch, test for purity and potency.
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They need to test for bacterial endotoxins and sterility and they need to maintain detailed records. So, when a
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pharmaceutical company submits a drug application, the FDA inspects the manufacturing facility as part of the
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approval process. If you're getting peptides from a different country, none of that is happening. And there are some
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ways for us to determine if that is what you're getting. Typically, the rule of thumb is if your peptides are coming
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with a different colored top, every one of them has a different colored top. Those are typically being sourced out of
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China. I wouldn't say that's 100% but that's kind of the rule of thumb that people follow. So compoundingies these
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are thearmacies that make our bio identical hormones. They can make medications in any dose or strength or
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route. There are thousands of them in every not that not in every state but
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there are thousands of them around the country right now. So these compoundingies are registered as 503A
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facilities....
