What Do Peptides Do—Besides Help with Weight Loss? w/ Dr. Stuart Porter

25:46Somaglutide is now available orally. Okay. The dosing, the oral dosing for that long or more complicated peptide, 125 times what it would be via injection. So the longer peptides are not very bioavailable orally. Can they work? They can work, but they don't work well orally. However, bioregulator peptides, short peptides, which officially defined as 4-amino acid in length or shorter, work very well orally if they're processed and produced properly. They have to be produced properly in the right kind of lab. The ends of these molecules have to be capped, acetylated or amylated capped ends, which not only protect them from degradation and digestion like you just asked about, but they also mimic how they are in nature.

26:39So they're going to have much better effectiveness, much better bioavailability. But simply put, those short amino acid chains work orally, in my opinion, equally well when they're properly produced and tarot coated so they're not being exposed to acid directly in the stomach. Now, the exception to that is the popular BPC-157, the so-called wolverine peptide. It's 15 amino acids in length. So in theory, it would probably more likely be digested, broken down, and not be able to send the signals that it sends. However, BPC-157 is naturally produced in gastric juice in the stomach. So the body doesn't see it as something foreign when ingested supplementally orally.

27:26Interesting. It still works orally. Now, there's an argument, and I can't argue this one. If you were to inject BPC-157, which until very recently was still banned for injection, if you were to inject that into a tennis elbow, it's going to work faster via injection than it will orally. Okay. The oral is going to work. Makes sense. It's going to take longer, right? So many of the peptides, the ones that we currently have with our brand, for example, are bioregulators. They work orally very, very well. Okay. So basically, if it's a short chain, four or less, and they're coded correctly, basically, they're great for oral.

28:03Yep. Otherwise, except the BPC-157. Otherwise, they're best injected. Unless you want to dose it up 125 times what you would be injection, right? Okay. Yes. Okay. But what also gets confusing out there is every peptide has to be dosed differently, doesn't it? Like some you can take daily. Some are only five times a week. Some are six times a week. How do people know what is what? Well, hopefully they're seeing a medical professional that has some training in that and can guide them. Some aren't. They're getting them off of any market they can find. Absolutely correct. Which we'll get back to that because I want to ask you about that as well.

28:42Yeah. The other thing that I'll bring up is there's not good evidence for most of these peptides that you necessarily need to cycle off. Interesting. That's not what a lot of people would say. Keep in mind, and I don't want to offend any particular group of people, but a lot of the information from peptides comes from the bodybuilding world. Okay. Makes sense. I'm grateful for that. It came before we knew any of these worked orally, these shorter bioregulators. It also comes from the mindset, you know, when they're using high-dose anabolic steroids, they cycle on, they cycle off, they cycle on, they cycle off.

29:18So it was kind of in their regimens to cycle on and off. But I'm not yet convinced, and there are some I believe that you should consider cycling off, but I'm not convinced that you have to cycle off these necessarily. I'm not. These are signals, molecules that as we age, we're producing fewer of. When the mitochondria aren't working optimally, which is part of aging, we're not making as many of these signaling molecules as we once were. So we're augmenting what we should be producing. We're not necessarily causing us to produce fewer. We were already producing fewer. So why would we necessarily have to cycle off all of these?

29:56It doesn't make sense to me. And I'm not yet convinced from the current science that we need to consider cycling off, cycling on. I'll give you one example. There's a peptide called KPV. It's a tripeptide, fabulous peptide, meaning it's three amino acids in length. It's the terminal fragment of a hormone that many of us aren't familiar with called alpha melanocyte stimulating hormone, a very important pituitary regulatory hormone that influences inflammation, immune balance, healing, and has antimicrobial properties. It's anti-candida, it's anti-staph, antibacterial. KPV is a terminal fragment of that hormone.

30:30So it's sending the signals that we're not sending when we're underproducing those hormones. that hormone, which is very common in people with chronic inflammation. So with KPV, when we're treating it for those with low melanocyte-stimulating hormone, there's a high likelihood, believe it or not, that they have a particular staph overgrowth in the nose and sinuses when their melanocyte-stimulating hormone is low. This is all part of the Shoemaker protocol for treating SIRS. And we can actually culture them and prove that they have this Marcon staph, multiple antibiotic-resistant coagulation negative staph.

31:03In order to restore melanocyte-stimulating hormone properly, it requires taking KPV twice a day, or almost using it as a natural antibiotic, for four months or longer. You know, most people are suggesting cycling in shorter intervals than that. So that's just one example of why, in my protocols, I'm going to suggest using that longer and not considering cycling off. If you cycle off before we can prove with blood tests that we've restored proper levels of that melanocyte, seemingly hormone, it's going to fail. And you will have wasted time and effort and money in taking that peptide for a shorter length of time.

31:38That's just one example. Interesting. So for the most part, you think if they're taking these orally, they can just take them daily like a supplement? Personally, I don't plan. I'm 67 years old. I don't plan on stopping BPC-157. I probably will cycle off and on the epitalin. I'm still on KPV because my melanocyte stimulating hormone hasn't returned to normal still. I need to check it. It's been a while. So many of these, I plan on staying on long term. Okay. Every day. That's just me. That's just me. That's not for everyone necessarily, but it's not necessarily a bad thing or unsafe. Well, it's so interesting because the other day someone gave me a chart of all these different peptides and literally everyone had a different dosing one.

32:20It was this one five days, two days off at night only. This one, six days, one day off, and morning only. This one, daily. This one, and I was like, wow, how can anybody even keep track of all of this? There are some. For example, the growth hormone secretagogues, such as CJC 1295 with epimoralin, those should be cycled off. And there's good reason for that because you don't want to get used to the same input. This is causing other hormone secretion, right? Okay, let's talk about CJC because that is a popular one right now. So what is CJC and what's it doing? And why is this one a trendy one that people are on?

32:56Yeah. It is a growth hormone secretagogue. There's kind of two facets to optimizing growth hormone production and secretion. One increases production. The other improves secretion. Producing is one thing. Then we need to, in a pulsatile fashion, secrete it in the bloodstream, right? Okay. So in this case, the CJC helps us produce more. Okay. And the ipamorlin helps it secrete in a pulsatile fashion to mimic what we should be doing, right? Okay. And those, yeah, the growth hormone secretagogues, it makes sense. Typically five out of seven days, Monday through Friday, off weekends. And once you've used it for a few months, either cycle off or cycle to something a bit different.

33:36And some of these strategies, we want to keep the body guessing a little bit. Okay. But it's not documented with, I guess my point is, it's not documented with every single peptide that you have to cycle on, cycle off. Okay, but some are. But CJC, let's go back to why it's trendy. Is it because it's helping people build muscle? Is that the number one reason for it? Growth hormone does a lot of things. As we age, we tend to produce less and less growth hormone. We measure that with a blood level called IGF-1, insulin-like growth factor type 1. You know, in our youth, in our early 20s, our teens, levels are high.

34:09As we age, those start to dwindle. And with chronic inflammation, they dwindle even at younger ages. We can measure those levels and we can determine if someone needs or wants to consider optimizing growth hormone secretion, production and secretion, right? So growth hormone does a lot more than just build muscle. It is kind of considered the fountain of youth hormone, right? It's helping repair. It does have some anabolic building effect. It has beneficial effects on recovery, on mitochondrial health, which is a huge deal. So there's really quite a few different facets of benefits from boosting growth hormone production.

34:44Now, once upon a time, because of a single study, I was sometimes prescribing growth hormone itself. I don't like it any longer. It has particular risks and downsides. It can cause swelling. It can push us toward insulin resistance. We don't want that. So I no longer advocate growth hormone production because even into our 90s, we have the machinery to produce our own optimally. It just needs some input, some encouragement to get there. So CJC then is also considered a longevity peptide. Sure it is. So there's multiple longevity peptides out there. Right. Just different types. Right. Different types.

35:22Exactly. Okay. So is CJC one that you use in your inflammation protocols or not necessarily? Sometimes. If their IGF-1 levels are low, that certainly is part of our discussion. Whether or not the patient wants to spend the money and go to the trouble self-injecting five out of seven nights, that's a personal decision. But it's certainly on the table for discussion. If someone wants to build muscle, is that the one you recommend for them? Or would you recommend a different peptide? We also want to make sure that we're optimizing their anabolic steroids, testosterone, particularly want to make sure we're optimizing that.

35:56That's a whole other discussion, right? I'm a fan of optimizing our endogenous production and doing all I can to avoid having to borrow it. Because it's much more complicated, much more likelihood of side effects if we're borrowing it rather than optimizing our own production. So someone that is wanting to have help increasing their muscle mass, you look at their testosterone first, then a peptide. Testosterone, growth hormone, there are other peptides that are very helpful for recovery and repair. BPC-157, TB4-FRAG, which is the oral equivalent of TB500, those work synergistically. They're very good for repair and recovery.

36:37Epitalin, with that restorative sleep component, that's an incredible recovery stack. And yes, if they also need growth hormone support, then there's that component as well. By the way, when we optimize growth hormone, that alone helps with our restorative sleep. Okay, so you just stacked a lot together. And I'm curious, is there a point when you're stacking too many together? Because I actually know someone who took an ER visit recently, and they were told it was he took way too many peptides altogether. Yeah. Unfortunately, I think you can get carried away. You know, there needs to be a good reason for what you're doing.

37:12And I do have some patients who do some things on their own without necessarily our guidance. And yeah, I think it can get a little overcomplicated. I'm not sure what may have happened in this particular individual's case, but in general, it's pretty safe to stack these peptides. There may be some exceptions to that, but it's pretty darn safe. Okay, so let's go back to SIRS. Yes. So we only got through one of the peptides that you use, and I know there's at least five that you talk about in the book. What's the second one? So I'm testing blood levels. There's one test that we commonly get called transforming growth factor beta 1, which represents maybe the degree of inflammation associated with the degree of immune imbalance.

37:55So for that particular entity, depending on how high the level is, I may recommend, in addition to low-dose naltrexone, which you're probably familiar with, which allows us to produce more endorphins, which in and of itself is immunomodulating. That's not a peptide. It's a prescription medication. But I'll also recommend Thymogen Alpha-1 that has some other names to it. It's two different dipeptides together, a thymus gland-related peptide that's very immunomodulating. It raises the underactive side. It calms the overactive side. TB4 Frag, which I just mentioned as part of the repair and restore stack, is also immunomodulating.

38:31It raises the underactive side. So depending on that level, that bloodline, I may be recommending three things for that particular category of inflammation. and immune imbalance. I mentioned this one already, but if their melanocyte-steamulating hormone is low, I'll recommend the KPV peptide for a good length of time. I'm measuring gut inflammatory markers. I'm also oftentimes measuring a test to give me an idea of the degree of gut leakiness. Inflammation is one thing, leakiness is perhaps another. And the BPC-157, especially orally, is phenomenal to facilitate healing the gut. But I don't want to skip the foundational things.

39:09They need prebiotic vegetable fibers. They need probiotics, including spore-based probiotics, postbiotics, which by the way, I love your probiotic complex because it includes postbiotics in it, which is awesome, right? So they need those other foundational support items, not just the peptides. Okay. So let's talk about BPC-157, just because I know I have a lot of friends that take it. Is it best for gut healing? Is that what they're taking it for or are they taking it for other things as well? Probably other things. I mean, yes, it's very good for gut healing. What's it common for? Why are they so many taking this?

39:47Well, it repairs. It encourages repair throughout the body. Gut lining, joints, ligaments, tendons, heart, brain. With that repair encouragement, I guess you'd say, because these are whispers, right? You're also increasing angiogenesis, meaning improved blood vessel production to the areas in need. So yeah, it can be used for a variety of things. There's a very long list of benefits from the BPC-157 peptide. It's not just healing and inflammation. Consider comparing that to something like ibuprofen. Reduces inflammation, but completely blocks healing. This is healing, and because it's healing so well, it's reducing inflammation.

40:27What would you choose? Okay. So if BPC-157 is so healing, why can't we buy it on a store shelf? Why can't everybody just take it? Great question. It's one of the ones that recently the ban is being lifted. Fortunately, at least for the time being, and maybe the Noy Smiths podcast will change this, hopefully not, but oral peptides are, for the most part, being left alone because of the safety profile. The concern with some of these research-only peptides, which is the only way you could get BPC-157, hopefully that'll change very soon, we can't trust all those online research-only peptide stores.

41:05They've been analyzed. Some of them have higher amounts of what are called lipopolysaccharides, LPSs, which can also stand for little pieces of stool. It's not cool. So there's purity problems, safety problems with some of these injectables because of the hands they've been in. Now, are some more reputable than others? Yes, yes. But it's a little risky, Right. And we hope that's changing in the very, very near future. But the oral ones, safety profiles better, in my opinion, because you're not injecting who knows what. Yeah, for the most part, hands off as far as as far as regulations. Well, I know with BPC-157, you don't have to have a doctor's prescription.

41:46Correct. You can buy them online and lots of different places. I had a friend just buy it from China recently. And so how do you know what you can trust or not? You really need to do your research. they should be third-party tested, and not just once and not just in one location, right? They should be tested, third-party tested, ongoing. And if they're not, and you can't verify that, then they're very hard to trust. Most of the peptides, for example, we'll use BPC-157 that you find on Amazon, are not even peptides. These peptides, it's a process. These peptides have to be grown. Yes, you start with amino acids as the building block.

42:20They have to be linked. They have to be grown in the right order, in the right fashion. And then they have to be capped with the right kinds of molecules on the end of them, then they have to be encapsulated in the right kind of capsule. There's just a lot to it, right? It's not a simple process. But because there's a lot of hype, a lot of noise, a lot of the stuff that is out there is not quality, not good quality. So that makes it hard for the consumer to know really which one they should get. If it's working, you'll feel it. And BPC-157, usually within a week or two, sometimes longer, you'll start to hurt less.

42:51I mean, I can't tell you how many men on our oral BPC-157, once they've been taking that for a period of time, their shoulders no longer hurt like they did. You can feel it. The epitalin, you can feel it. You're sleeping deeper. You're sleeping better. Yeah, you can feel it if they're working. Now, some take longer than others. Some of them aren't as noticeable as others, but they do work because we can monitor those blood markers and see that they're doing what they should be doing. So if someone's listening to this show who doesn't have a doctor that they're working with, would you be afraid if they took epitalin and BPC-157 tomorrow, start just taking tomorrow?

43:23I would not. And I would suggest BPC, sorry, I probably suggest Epitalin as test number one because you're going to notice it sooner and faster. And it's a great way to kind of warm up optimizing your health. Many of us aren't getting that restorative sleep that's so critical. So Epitalin, absolutely. BPC-157, no problem. And I mean... You know, a lot of doctors don't say this. Correct. A lot of doctors are like, wow, he is just saying this on air right now. I'm old enough. I don't care like I once did as far as ridicule or whatever consequences might happen from this. So not trying to be nonchalant about that.

44:00But the results I'm seeing in these protocols is so incredible. It's worth the risk to put this out there. So do you think we'll get to the day and age where BPC-157 will just be on a store shelf and that's what people will take for pain? Good question. I hope so. I could see years down the road. We have dangerous drugs over the counter. I know. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, proton pump inhibitors, those are horrible medications, and they're over the counter. So why not? Yeah. Let's take a quick break to hear from our show sponsor. This podcast is sponsored by Active Skin Repair, a skin health brand that helps your skin heal using natural, non-toxic, medical-grade ingredients.

44:42What makes Active Skin Repair different is that it uses the same proprietary formulation trusted in hospitals. The key ingredient is a molecule called hypochlorous acid. When applied to the skin, the molecule works by mimicking the natural immune response to cleanse, soothe irritation, reduce inflammation, and support healing. Active skin repair can be used to treat a wide range of skin issues, including cuts, scrapes, burns, sunburns, rashes, diaper rashes, acne, eczema, rosacea, and other types of skin issues. It is also safe and non-toxic, making it suitable for use on all skin types, all parts of the body and face.

45:20Trusted by over 1 million customers and clinicians, thousands of 5-star reviews and ingredients so safe and clean, they can be used from the youngest member of the family to the oldest. You now have one simple solution for all your family's skin health needs. To learn more and get 20 % off your order, visit ActiveSkinRepair.com and use code JUSTINGREDIENTS. You can also find Active Skin Repair on Amazon and at your local CVS. Now back to the show. Let's actually talk about this. There were a lot of peptides banned, and just recently the government let that ban off on, I can't remember, is it 14 or 17 different peptides?

46:01Somewhere around there. In the mid-teens. I don't remember the exact number. And so why was there a ban, and now why is this ban lifted? I think the why is kudos to RFK Jr. and his team, right? There's so much need for these peptides. I think it's that government body that's helping force that because, you know, a lot of pharmaceutical companies are hoping that they can patent this and make their billions and trillions off this, that, and the other. And so I thank that government body for pushing the issue to have the ban lifted, right? And so the ban lifted means what? It means they're going to make it available so it can be in the hands of licensed compounding pharmacies.

46:39Because where are compounding pharmacies getting it currently? Well, compounding pharmacies are not offering the banned peptides. Where people are buying them is from research-only online peptide stores, which aren't necessarily— So maybe these compounding pharmacies are buying it from those places and giving them out? If you find a licensed compounding pharmacy that's selling a banned item, they're in trouble. They're in trouble. All right. Well. Or they're taking a big risk and hoping they don't get caught. Okay. I'll keep my mouth quiet then. Yeah. Okay. So let's review then for SIRS. For SIRS then, the five peptides that are your first go-tos are what?

47:19Thymogen alpha-1, TB4-FRAG, KPV, and BPC-157. The one that's not necessarily part of the protocol for SIRS is epitalin because that falls under the discussion of sleep optimization. I don't know that I can think of SERS patients that are actively having symptoms that are getting that quality restorative sleep. So that would be another that would very likely be part of that protocol. So all five of those, do you sell all five of those? We do, yes. And are they all oral ones? They are all oral, yeah. Okay. And like you said earlier, oral is just like injectable ones, meaning you've got to find a good source of them.

48:02And you have gone to lengths to make sure it's a good source. Absolutely. There are probably only four or five different brands on the market that are fairly trustworthy. What you find on Amazon is very likely not even a peptide. And that goes with a lot of their supplements. Just FYI, a lot of their supplements are unbelievably not what they say they are. Amen. Yeah. So yeah, you have to trust that they're properly sourced, properly processed, that they're grown in the right kind of lab, that the ends are capped and tear-coated capsules. But more importantly, you want to make sure that they're third-party tested.

48:37Otherwise, you just don't know whether to trust them or not. So I think that's a critical, critical piece when you're shopping because peptides, the quality peptides are not cheap. So are people just coming to your website to buy these? In my practice, we have them in our medical spa on the shelf, and they do have the option of going to our website as well, for sure. Okay, so I'm curious, what is your number one top-selling peptide? BPC-157 is outselling the others. The others combined are equal to the BPC-157 currently. Oh, interesting. I would like to see more of the Epitalin used because it does so many fabulous things.

49:14nothing against BPC-157. It's incredible. But the epitalan is my favorite. Do you feel like there's an age limit of when people should start peptides? Because I'm going to get people saying like, oh, can my 16-year-old take peptides? Can my 18-year-old? What's the age? Great question. I would suggest consulting a medical professional, especially in the pediatric population. That said, I'm very comfortable with the safety profile of these. I can give you one example. I have a couple. They both have chronic inflammation. They're both on our SERS peptide protocol doing well. Their five-year-old was really struggling with sleep.

49:52And without consulting me, fine, I'm not angry, they gave him the epitalin, one at bedtime, same dose they were taking. Keep in mind, these aren't drugs. These are whispers. They're molecular whispers, so they're different. I like that analogy of them. This five-year-old responded dramatically, and I don't remember off the top of my head whether he took that for two weeks or four weeks, but he has continued to sleep well since that reset. Interesting. You wouldn't think that a pineal gland is going bad in a five-year-old. Right. But it reset. He responded beautifully. And again, I would consult medical professionals before considering that.

50:33But understanding myself, its safety profile, being old and a little callous as to the repercussions that could happen, And yeah, in the right situation, I could support that. Okay. I am so curious because I have so many people reaching out about peptides. I'm curious if we can just go through a list of health conditions out there or health phases in life. And you say which peptide would help the most. Okay. Can we do that? Let's go. Okay. Perimenopause. Epitalin. And here's why. In fact, I have one example of that. A patient of mine, I see their whole family, right? and they live in the Evanston area.

51:10Her sister was taking Epitalin and she'd responded beautifully to it as far as enhanced restorative sleep. And this other patient started to experience menopausal symptoms, hot flashes. She was miserable. She wasn't sleeping well. And her sister said, take some of my Epitalin. Not only did she sleep better, her periods normalized. Interesting. One of the things that Epitalin is known to do is increase hypothalamic pituitary, hormonal secretion that controls ovarian function. So that improved things to the point where her periods normalized again. Now, that doesn't mean it's going to continue to do that indefinitely.

51:49She's still facing menopause in the face, but it did kick the bucket down the road for a time, which I thought was pretty interesting, right? Okay. Next question, ADHD. Is there a peptide out there that helps with that? That's a bigger, more complex question to answer. ADHD, in my opinion, is very proportional to mitochondrial function. So there are a lot of things that go into optimizing mitochondrial function. And you don't want to skip the foundationals. Omega-3, another of your foundational products that is critical. If you're omega-3 deficient, and only 94 % of Americans are, ADD is going to continue to be a problem.

52:30You really should measure that. You can measure omega indices and make sure that your levels are where they should be. So first and foremost, foundational things, right? Anti-inflammatory diet, omega-3s, get those phospholipids, another important category of fats for the brain, getting restorative sleep again. And then as far as peptides go, it's not a peptide, but methylene blue, as you're probably very familiar with, and we do have that in our line of products, is incredible for mitochondrial function. The reason people notice improved cognition, focus, speed of processing when they take methylene blue is because it's helping mitochondria.

53:04The brain is extremely mitochondrially active. It weighs 2 % of our body. It produces 20 % of our ATP production. So you boost mitochondrial function through various strategies, and that's going to improve. Now, are there other peptides that are specific for mitochondria? Yes, MOTC, SS31, those are typically injections. Can you do them in a nanospray, orally, nanospray, nasally? Sure, and that's going to have some benefit there as well. CELENC is another one. CMAX is another one that can be used in nasal spray or injection. Those are pretty incredible for the brain. CELENC is incredible for anxiety.

53:42The list goes on. I mean, there's just so much that these can do. But as far as treating ADD, are there peptides that can support that? So instead of running to Adderall, maybe we should be running to omega-3s, methylene blue, and some of these peptides. Absolutely. And we see results. I've been able to get a lot of people off prescription stimulants just with the addition of methylene blue. Interesting. Okay, let's do PCOS. Ah, so PCOS is a downstream effect of the immune imbalance, gut inflammation, and hormone dysregulation. So the brain gets inflamed, we start to see hormone dysregulation, we can measure that.

54:19So I treat everything rather similarly. So again, focusing on the foundational things, they're typically insulin resistant, which tells me their mitochondria are not doing well. So in those situations, I'm going to look at all of it. I'm going to treat all of it. I'm going to treat the unbalanced immune system. I'm going to treat the inflammation. I'm going to change their diet. I'm going to enhance their sleep. And I'm going to give them the specific peptides that they need based on those inflammatory markers and hormone levels that I'm looking at. But But with PCOS, if we can really optimize their mitochondrial function, we're going to see improvements.

54:51What about someone who just wants healthier hair and skin? Ah, yes. That's a trendy one right now for my friends. We're aging. Yeah, yeah. G-H-K-C-U, a copper peptide, very popular for its ability to improve collagen, thickened hair. That can be used. The injection, one of the ones that should be lifted, the band should be lifted on that one. Doesn't mean it's not out there. But it also works topically. So there are topical products, hair serums, things like that. Not only helping with hair, but with collagen. So application topically for other reasons can really be beneficial there. Let's talk about GHK just for a second.

55:30Please. Is that one you have to dose or you can take it every day? I would cycle off of that one, at least in theory, potentially if you're not monitoring copper levels, you probably want to cycle off that periodically. It can work orally, by the way. I was just going to ask, is orally just as good as the injectable or no? If it's in a liposomal formulation. Okay. But that would need to be in a liposomal formulation. Do you sell that one? Not yet. Not yet. Yeah. Coming soon, maybe. There is a Quicksilver Scientific that we sell on the shelf, but we'd like to make our own. Okay. Let's do weight loss.

56:03What's your favorite weight loss? The one that's not yet in the market. Okay. The one you're trying out. The GOP3, the Red Trutide, or some like to pronounce it, Red Trutide. But yes, that's that much better than the GLP-2, the terzipatide. But people are getting that one. We're getting it for research purposes only. Yeah, I can't prescribe it. I can't officially recommend it. Is it out there? Yes. Is it available? You sure? It is. Yes, yes, yes. I must know too many people that do peptides. Yeah. All right, last one, anxiety and depression. So interestingly, this is a long answer, and I apologize.

56:38I'll try and shorten it. But a fabulous book written by Chris Palmer, a psychiatrist out of Harvard, a researcher called Brain Energy, showed in his research that mood disorders are directly proportional to drumroll mitochondrial function. So anything and everything that helps mitochondrial function is going to help mood disorders. That said, specifically, Selenq and C-Max are a couple of peptides that are particularly good for anxiety and depression. But once again, anything and everything that you can stack for mitochondrial enhancement is going to have a significant bearing on anxiety and depression.

57:12Sleep alone is an enormous factor for mood disorders. So even just using the epitalin, for example, to restore those quality stages, those restorative stages of sleep, is going to have a big, big impact on mood disorders. Well, mood disorders also, I mean, again, foundational health of you've got to eat right. We need, you know, these correct nutrients. B vitamins are so important. Omega-3s are so important. So, again, it comes down to the foundational pillars. And then peptides, to me, are a tool in the toolbox to help people feel healthier. But they're not the be-all, be-all. It is another tool.

57:50Because to me, I'm like, if you're going to eat Oreos all day and ice cream at night and Frosted Flakes in the morning or something, the peptides aren't going to be your magic pill. Correct. But they are an amazing tool in this toolbox that is helping people become healthier, living a longer life, a life more of energy and happiness and things like that. Would you say that's true? Absolutely. Okay. Well, thank you so much for answering so many of these questions. I feel better about people taking peptides. I was a little nervous with so many people that I know taking so many different ones. And so I feel like if they're sourcing them correctly, getting them from a correct spot, working with a doctor, knowing how to use them, they can be really beneficial.

58:32One last question. Do you think this is going to be the new wave of medicine? I think it'll continue in this direction. The science is there. Like it or not, I see AI getting involved in this to kind of help with some of the complexity of all of this. I kind of see that's where we're going. But we have to train AI, and that takes an ability to see things perhaps from a bigger picture to really be able to prioritize, because it's complex. There's 7 ,000 of these, and it is complex. But that's what I see in the future. We'll continue to make gains in our experimentation, if you will, in the data that we're collecting, the safety data and more.

59:16We'll continue to make gains. but I do see in some degree AI helping us forge forward to kind of figure out some of the nuances with this like it or not like it or not right I can't wait to see what that all foretells all right well thank you again so much for being here like I said I've learned a lot I know the listeners have tell people because I know we're going to have so many questions I'm a little worried for the dms that are going to come in because just peptides is new to a lot of people So we're all just trying to understand them and sift through the noise. And so where can they find your peptides?

59:50Where can they find you? Haven-Wellness.co is where they can find information on our peptides. And there's some decent information there. They can find me at Integrated Medical Associates. My practice is pretty full. Your practice is very full. That's where I'm at currently. And on social media? At KetoTri.com. And then you do have a book coming out talking about SIRS, the foundational pillars, the peptides, correct? Yes. I'm excited about that. Tell them the name of that. Big Picture Medicine, the subtitle is a little lengthy. Optimizing health and wellness through functional medicine and peptide integration.

1:00:26And it's not quite available yet, but soon coming. Yes. Okay. I always end my podcast by asking five quick questions. Sure. And so I'm going to ask you those. First question, what emerging health topic are you most excited about right now? Probably what we talked about earlier, meaning AI-driven health optimization is what I see the future of where we're going with all of this. And I think we're going to get more and more information on peptide safety and efficacy. Like I said, I'm excited about that. Okay, number two, what's a piece of advice you'd give your younger self? That's a great one. Stop trying to prove yourself.

1:01:03Slow down. Love and share. Oh, I love that. Okay, number three, what's the one health practice you'll never compromise on no matter how busy life gets? This has changed over the years. I think at one point in time it was diet because I was very, very rigid with a healthy version of a ketogenic diet when I was competing in the Ironman. And exercise was a big emphasis then as well. These days, it's sleep. Oh, interesting. It's sleep. I won't compromise in my sleep. I love that. I'm getting better at that. Next question. And what's your favorite Just Ingredients product and why? It's not just one.

1:01:39And I would say the foundational products, Omega-3, Magnesium Complex, Probiotic Complex, the Fiber Drink. So those are probably my top four because they're so foundational. Oh, I love that. Thank you. And last question. What is the best ingredient you've found to life? Gratitude. I love that. On that note, thank you so much for having me. Well, thank you so much for being here. And again, followers, go check out his website. you can read more about all the peptides there because I know you'll have a lot of questions you can dm him maybe on social media and get answer questions there but hopefully you learned a lot and thank you so much join us for next week thank you for being here and being part of this community don't forget to subscribe to the just ingredients podcast we've got so much more to share with you and if you're not already come join us daily on all social media platforms at just.ingredients.

1:02:34Until next time, keep choosing what nourishes you.