Recently, I interviewed Dr. Jen and we talked about the role of peptides in thyroid health, benefits for autoimmune conditions, the use of specific peptides for managing inflammation and supporting patients with mold exposure and stealth infections, how peptides can be a part of your stress management strategy, the importance of high-quality sourcing for peptides, broader implications for health and longevity, and more. If you would prefer to listen to the interview you can access it by Clicking Here.
Dr. Eric Osansky:
I am super excited to chat with Dr. Jen Pfleghaar, as we are going to be talking about peptides. Of course, relating them to thyroid health. Let me go and dive into Dr. Jen’s bio here.
Dr. Jen Pfleghaar is a double board-certified physician in integrative medicine and emergency medicine. She attended medical school at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. She went on to residency at St. Vincent’s Mercy Medical Center for emergency medicine and spent one year flying with Life Flight as a flight physician. Dr. Jen now works at local emergency rooms in a community and office in Perrysburg, Ohio, practicing integrative medicine and medical aesthetics.
She is a graduate from the University of Arizona Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine’s Fellowship program. Dr. Jen loves speaking and lectures to physicians at conferences, including the American Osteopathic Association. She hosts The Integrative Health Podcast with Dr. Jen.
Her own health history of Hashimoto’s, which is now in remission, sparked her interest in integrative medicine, and she is very passionate about helping patients with chronic disease and teaching them how to let their body heal itself.
She is a published author of the book Eat, Sleep, Move, Breathe: A Beginner’s Guide to a Healthy Lifestyle. She is a board member for Invisible Disabilities Association. Her hobbies include spending time with her husband and four children, being in nature, weight lifting, wake surfing on the Maumee River, and reading the Bible. Thank you so much, Dr. Jen.
Dr. Jen Pfleghaar:
Hi, thank you, Dr. Eric. So nice to be here.
Dr. Eric:
Excited about this. You spent one year flying as a flight physician. Is it as exciting as it sounds?
Dr. Jen:
Yeah, it was really fun. Whenever I see Life Flight fly over the helicopter, I think back to the days where I put on that jumpsuit. You come out of the helicopter and walk toward danger and help people out. It was a lot of fun. You’re there to fix what they can’t fix and to get people to where they need to be, to trauma centers. We would stop in the middle of the highway. Pretty cool flying with really talented pilots. My life was in their hands.
Probably wouldn’t do it anymore now that I have a bunch of kids. But it was a really fun time in my career.
Dr. Eric:
Definitely sounds like it. We’re going to be chatting about peptides. Before we get started, how did you start learning about peptides? Of course, at the end, we’ll talk about your Peptide Summit, which I recommend for people to attend. How long have you been working with peptides? What led you to start recommending them to your patients?
Dr. Jen:
About 2018, I started to look into peptides. What are these? People are using them; they’re working well. Then I got cold feet for about six months because we had heard that the FDA was going to take them away. I don’t want to learn this whole new language. As we dive into the names of these peptides, it’s like a different language, a lot of alphabet soup. I got a little bit of cold feet.
Then I joined this peptide group on Facebook. One of my colleagues, Dr. Rose, runs it. I decided to dig into peptides and get some education on them and start using them. I want to talk to the compounding pharmacists about them.
I was just so happy I did. It just levels up some of the struggles patients have getting to that extra 10% of wellness. Or if it’s a really sick patient, and they’re doing all the things they can, sometimes it just moves the needle a little bit for them. It’s been really great to bring it into practice.
IF you’re listening and look up “peptides,” it’s a gray area right now. The FDA just put 22 more peptides on this class 2 list for pharmacies. Compounding pharmacies aren’t making certain peptides that we were so used to having. Most of these are the injectable forms. We’re in a weird area right now with peptides.
The good news is we are going to talk about oral peptides that we can take. They are looked at more as nutraceuticals and supplements. Those aren’t going to go away. That’s the good news.
Dr. Eric:
That is good news. Unfortunate about some of the injectables. It sounds not all of them. You said 22 specifically, and I know that could change.
Dr. Jen:
Yeah. The definition of peptides. What is a peptide? There have been some big names out there that have recently done podcasts and YouTubes on peptides. Let’s go over the definition.
Peptides are chains of amino acids, usually about 4-50 amino acids. When you get higher than that, then you get proteins. Less than 4 amino acids, technically these are bioregulators.
With peptides, people are like, “Oh, peptides. They are starting to get this weird, biohacking name.” No. We have peptides in our body naturally. Insulin is a peptide. Oxytocin, which is the love hormone, which breastfeeding women need, that’s a peptide. When we are getting dramatic talking about peptides, no, we make them in our bodies. The peptides we are talking about today, most of them are found naturally in our body also.
Dr. Eric:
Let’s dive into some of the benefits of peptides. This audience consists of people with thyroid and autoimmune thyroid conditions. Why would those listening to this be interested in peptides to improve their health?
Dr. Jen:
What these peptides do is go into your body—whether you take them intranasally, injection, orally—and they turn on and off genes in the body. It’s not like they’re going in there and disrupting things or forcing different pathways and having side effects. They’re working with your body, turning on and off genes, which is pretty amazing.
That’s why I love peptides so much. They have pretty good safety profiles. Some of them, you have to be careful with certain things going on. Most of them are very safe.
If we look at the studies, most studies are animal studies. The reason for that is it’s hard to get clinical trials done. They cost a lot of money. Usually, they are funded by drug companies.
These peptides are really hard to patent. Some of them are starting to patent, and they’re turning them into actual drugs. One example is Thymosin alpha 1. Thymosin alpha 1 is a thymic peptide. Our thymus sits about here on the chest, and it is an organ that is really good for our immune system. It really is going to modulate immune health and our immune system. This is something that goes away as we age.
These thymus peptides are really good at modulating our immune system. Thymosin alpha 1 is one of the ones that is amazing for autoimmune diseases. It was also in many studies. You can look them up on PubMed with COVID-19 and Thymosin alpha 1. They were using it a lot in China in the hospitals there. The patients were getting Thymosin alpha 1 injected daily when they tested positive, and they were doing really well. That was a great one when we could still get it in the U.S. to use for autoimmune diseases, like Hashimoto’s, and COVID-19, which was an immune dysregulation, when the cytokine storm would take over, and that’s when people would really get sick.
About two years ago, the FDA said no more. Compounding pharmacies can’t make this anymore. it was really frustrating for a lot of us that were using it. Our patients were doing really well with autoimmune diseases. It was helping them get better faster, to go into remission faster. Now it’s a biologic pharmaceutical. I think it’s about $20,000 a month or something like that.
Dr. Eric:
Wow.
Dr. Jen:
It’s a little frustrating. That was the first step that happened with the FDA, how they’re classifying some of these peptides. Now though, some creators, Dr. Kent Holtorf is one of them. They took the Thymosin alpha 1 and made thymogen, which is an oral peptide. That is going to have some of that thymus response, too.
That’s what I’ve been using in my patients with autoimmunity issues going on. When I think it’s the right time to use it, I will give them thymogen, and that will help. It’s not as good as what we used to have, but it’s still helpful.
When we talk about peptides, we’re just trying to use what we have available right now. The doctors that are out there using peptides, we’re trying to go with the flow, not be discouraged by the ones we can’t use, and just look forward to what we can use and how to work them into our patients’ protocols. Are you using peptides currently in your practice?
Dr. Eric:
As of now, no. I’m not using them. This is the first episode where we’re focusing on peptides. I have had some others where they talk about peptides along with other things. This episode is just focusing on it.
With the previous episodes, they would talk about Thymosin alpha 1 as an option. It’s been a while since I had anybody talk about peptides. I should probably have you or someone else come on once a year because it sounds like it’s evolving. Hopefully, the thymogen will be available for the foreseeable future, but you never know. Or maybe something else will come along that’s better.
Dr. Jen:
Exactly. Along with the thymus peptides, there is also Thymosin beta 4. That was injectable. Those were used together. A lot of people use that for cellular repair. A lot of athletes use that. It’s a thymus peptide, so it’s good for autoimmunity.
That one, same thing. Can’t really get it anymore. There is something called TB4-FRAG, so it’s a fragment of that Thymosin beta 4. It’s oral also. That is another one for autoimmunity, which is really helpful to calm everything down.
There are some oral peptide companies that put those two together, the Thymosin and the TB4-FRAG. Those would be a really good regimen for someone.
I like to be aggressive with new onset Hashimoto’s, when we have just discovered it, to try to put it in remission really quickly, so maybe they don’t have as much damage to their thyroid gland. Also in those hard chronic cases, where there are all those other layers, like Lyme would be a good one. Those two peptides would help maybe because it’s focusing on that immune system and rebuilding that. That is some of the ways you can just use the oral ones.
It’s sad we don’t have the injectables, but we’re just moving forward with technology. The oral peptides actually do really well. Not everyone likes to give themselves shots. I find it’s a little easier for patients, even though patients do get pill fatigue, too.
Dr. Eric:
With the Thymosin and TB4-FRAG, they can be used for any autoimmune condition? Are there any autoimmune conditions they shouldn’t be used for?
Dr. Jen:
You’re not using them long-term. That’s another thing with peptides. You’re going to cycle them. You don’t want to be on the same peptide all the time. You want to work with someone who knows how to cycle them, usually for about three months, see what happens, and then reassess.
Another favorite peptide that is also a good peptide for thyroid, Hashimoto’s, Graves’, all those autoimmune diseases, Crohn’s- There are a lot of studies with BPC 157 and Crohn’s. BPC 157, body protection compound. It’s actually made in our gastric juices. That’s how it was discovered during those polyp experiments. BPC 157 is very good when you take it orally for healing the gut, healing gastric ulcers, Crohn’s, IBS. Anything with inflammation, BPC 157 is great.
It’s also great for tendon healing and ligaments. That’s the injectable version. Now that we can just take it orally, that’s another one where we don’t have the injection available anymore. They say it still helps with their tendons when they take it orally.
I found the injection works a little bit better when it’s closer to the site of injury. I had an injury with my left shoulder. I could not do shoulder presses. Now it’s healed, and I used BPC 157 to help heal and repair it, especially as we’re aging.
I’ve also had patients who have had chronic pain in their joints from playing football in high school. We put them on two months of BPC 157 and cycled it. They were able to get out of bed, and they were feeling a lot better. It’s a great peptide.
Interestingly enough, it is banned by the NFL and all of those professional sports, which is interesting because I don’t know how you would test for it. Maybe there is a drug screen that I don’t know about.
I’ve spoken with orthopedic doctors that were more conventional. “I don’t know what that is.” Of course you don’t because what’s your goal as a surgeon? It’s to go to surgery, not to avoid surgery. That’s why I think a lot of these, if they were used consistently by all of medicine, it would probably make people really well and would cut back on hospital stays, surgeries, all of that.
BPC 157 is available to take orally. 500mg, once a day. Great for gut health, like I said. Sometimes, it’s paired with Larazotide, which is another peptide, but it’s also a pharmaceutical. It helps with gut health and repairing the gut lining, those tight junctions, and also modulates zonulin a little bit. I’ve seen them in combination before.
I’ve had patients who have had chronic diarrhea, Crohn’s, all of these horrible GI things recovering from GI viruses, illnesses, really recover well with the BPC 157. I always keep it with me when I’m traveling because you never know if you are going to get food poisoning or a virus somewhere. That’s a good one to take with you when you’re traveling, too.
Dr. Eric:
How about with H-pylori and/or parasites? Can that be beneficial at all?
Dr. Jen:
It would help with the inflammation. I don’t think it’s really going to take care of the H-pylori or the parasite.
Dr. Eric:
It’s not an antimicrobial.
Dr. Jen:
That would be LL-37. That one is injectable. We can’t get it right now. That was a great antimicrobial, anticandidal. That one was injectable. In really hard cases, I would pull it out as a big gun. A few human studies on that one also.
Back to BPC 157. It’s like a different language. BPC 157, if you write that one down, I feel like it’s talked about a lot. It also could be compounded into eyedrops. You can put it into wound cream.
I have compounded it for a patient with a really bad scar wound. He was at the misfortune of a couple urgent care visits, where they totally messed him up. We got him on some BPC 157 and GHK-Cu (copper) peptide cream, and it healed beautifully.
They can make BPC 157 in all these compounds. The eyedrops were really cool. Some studies with corneal healing on that. I’ve had patients with dry eyes. One patient had dry eyes post-chemotherapy, and the BPC 157 was the best thing that had ever worked for him. The downside is the eyedrops are really expensive to get compounded. Those are a little pricey.
Dr. Eric:
You said that with the BPC 157, there was another injectable peptide you could take along with it that can help with gut healing. Can you also take the BPC 157 with the TB4-FRAG or Thymosin? Is that something you’d want to cycle, where you’d go back and forth between the two every few months?
Dr. Jen:
You can stack them. You’d also want to take a break and cycle. It depends on the patient in front of you. Say someone comes in. I usually start with gut health. I usually look at their GI Effects or stool study or organic acids test, if they have mold or candida. I will tailor it to that. And their symptoms. If they are having a lot of gut inflammatory symptoms, like diarrhea, bloating, pain, we might want to change their diet first. Make sure they’re getting sleep. We might want to add on a peptide.
I talk to them about it. “Here’s all the things we can do.” First, what can they afford? What are they comfortable doing?
If there is an H-pylori or parasite or candida or SIBO, we will take care of that first. Then layer in peptides in there, like BPC 157. After we fix their gut, then I usually do the Thymosin and the TB4-FRAG after that.
Peptides work better when you’re optimized. Say someone is a mess, and they’re not willing to work on anything. If you throw some peptides at them, they might be like, “This isn’t doing anything,” and they spent all this money. I have noticed once you optimize a patient a little bit more, then add on the peptides, it’s like icing on that cake. They work so well.
These are basic things like nutrition, sleep, and stress. I never want patients to waste money obviously because these kinds of things aren’t covered by insurance, but they work well. Optimizing those things and adding on peptides a little bit later as a therapy is sometimes good.
Unless they are in a crisis, and you want to throw the kitchen sink at them. Or while you’re waiting for test results, it wouldn’t hurt to put them on BPC 157 to calm things down.
Another good peptide for inflammation is KPV. This is actually a part of alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone, α-MSH. This one is great because it’s so good for inflammation. This will be the one that’s paired with BPC 157. It will add another layer of calming inflammation down.
I love this product for mold patients. Really helpful. They’re often low in α-MSH anyway because of all the narcans. This will be really helpful with them. I’ve had some patients where giving this intranasally, they really liked it that way. They felt it calmed down the inflammation in their head that they felt. You can also take it orally.
I like to take this every once in a while if I am feeling more inflamed. Sometimes, I take it with PEA just to help with inflammation, too. KPV is a great one. Really like that.
I’ve had some mold patients who will stay on that for a couple months at a time. Then we will take a little break. Then they might go back on it. I really like that one.
With your autoimmune patients, thyroid, Graves’, of course that will help a lot, too. Usually, these patients are the ones who have underlying mold going on. In your area, where are you at again, Eric? What part of the country?
Dr. Eric:
North Carolina.
Dr. Jen:
You probably see a decent amount of mold, right?
Dr. Eric:
It seems like it’s increasing. I am also more aware of it. I can’t say I test everybody for mold. Maybe five, six, seven years ago, I wasn’t doing urinary mycotoxin testing at all. Now, I’m more aware of the situation and will do that if necessary. Have them test their house for mold.
Even though I’m in North Carolina, I also work a lot with people from all over the place. I don’t think there’s any place that’s safe from mold. Some places will be more susceptible, but I’m sure people even in places where you wouldn’t suspect mold might have cases of mold.
Dr. Jen:
I also feel like building material now is so cheap. It’s just cardboard. It’s all mold food. You have one little leak, one slow drip, and then mold. I am so paranoid about mold because of what I see in my office.
Last Christmas, we were out of town, and there was a freeze. One of our pipes burst. The water went down to our basement. It had been about 24 hours since it had happened. We looked at the water use charge, and it was tons and tons of gallons.
I was freaking out to my husband. “It all needs out right now.” Everyone thought I was being a little crazy. “Here, she’s being crazy again.” “No, I’m not.”
Guess what? There was mold all over the drywall in the basement because it was a bathroom going down to a bathroom. There was already mold formed within 24 hours. We got it out, but it was a reminder with all of these houses that there are floods or hurricanes or standing water. That has to come out. Unless it’s plaster, which is cement basically, it’s going to have mold, and you will get those VOCs and mycotoxins.
What that does is messes with your immune system. It hurts your gut health, makes you more susceptible to different autoimmune diseases.
I really enjoy talking about mold because I feel like it’s not talked about enough. A lot of people suffer from it. Peptides are really helpful with mold. They are a really good tool in the toolbox if you are working with mold patients or are a mold patient.
Dr. Eric:
It goes without saying that if you have a mold issue, KPV can help, but you of course have to address the mold problem. You can’t just take the KPV. I guess you can do that, but it’s not going to have optimal benefits unless you get rid of the source of the mold. Assuming you have mycotoxins in your body, do things to detoxify them from your body as well.
Dr. Jen:
Absolutely. When you’re just buying time, figuring out if you’re still living in the mold or it was an old exposure, I have a lot of patients with that. They are waiting to get their house inspected or get an ERMI tester, whatever they’re going to do. Or they can’t get out of it for a while. That’s where things that help with inflammation or calm things down are good. Maybe your brain fog will get better. Binders supporting liver health. All those can be helpful. It’s pretty devastating for sure.
Dr. Eric:
How about stealth infections, something like Lyme or bartonella. Would the KPV be beneficial?
Dr. Jen:
Yeah, I would put that in the mix. These patients are usually really inflamed. You’d use the thymus peptides. You could also add on BPC 157, KVP. Those would be helpful.
Other ones that are hard to get right now, Semax and Selank will help with brain, like brain fog and ADHD sometimes. Biohacking, people use Semax a lot for neurocognitive health. Those are nasal. Once again, those are harder to find now. We have to be a little patient. Sometimes, those are also used with these patients if they have really bad brain fog. They’re nice to use.
Dr. Eric:
Any peptides that can help with stress, adrenals? Obviously, you have to block out time for stress management and improve your stress handling. Any support specifically for adrenals? Anything you would recommend, maybe not directly supporting adrenals?
Dr. Jen:
For stress, you can use different peptides. The Semax, Selank.
It’s not really a peptide, but DHH. It’s from the magnolia bark tree. It’s really good for calming anxiety. It’s almost a Xanax derivative. Similar action. I’ve had patients say that to me. I like DHH-B a lot.
One that’s really cool that’s an oral peptide is 5 amino 1 mq. Because it’s a mitochondrial peptide, it really helps with energy and mood. I would think that would be a good one. It’s working on all the mitochondria. I would think that would help the adrenals, too.
I have patients who really love it. I have them stay on it for a few months. Then I suggest to take a break for a month, and they can go back on it. Maybe I’m being a little bit conservative with that. It’s just a mitochondrial peptide, so it’s boosting energy to all of the cells. It’s helping with that cellular energy and the pathway we get our energy.
That one, you can take up to three times a day. I usually tell patients once or twice. You don’t want to take it too late in the day because it can be more stimulating. It also has a little bit of thermogenesis effects, so weight loss and pilosis. I would say 10% of patients don’t like it or don’t notice it does anything. The rest of my patients really love it.
I’ll use that one when I’m traveling more. If I’m going across time zones, instead of coffee, I’ll use that to support my body. That one is the closest in the peptide world.
For the adrenals, one thing you can do is go on a bioregulator for the adrenals. A bioregulator would be a good choice. Bioregulators, which are those four or less amino acids, they are basically purified amino acids from animals. They’re purified down and put in a capsule. You take the capsule. Same thing as peptides, going in and turning on and turning off genes.
Bioregulators came from Russia, Dr. Khavinson did most of the studies for that. Started out doing studies on the Russian Navy because they were going away to war and coming back very ill, not looking well. They started using bioregulators on them. Great safety profile. Used more and more for longevity.
I really like using Thyreogen, which is the thyroid bioregulator. I usually do pair that with an adrenal bioregulator. As we know, thyroid and adrenals really play off of each other, so it’s really great for patients, maybe if they are just on the verge. Their thyroid needs more help, a little bit more reserve.
I also use it for patients that have Graves’ and Hashimoto’s. Bioregulators are not a stimulant; they are not going in there and revving things up. They are going in there and repairing those genes. That is a great one. I love bioregulators.
The awesome news is toward the end of May/June, we are going to be able to get bioregulators a little bit easier. They have been really hit or miss because of supply chain, because of what’s going on in Russia and Ukraine. It’s really exciting that they are going to be available. It’s been so hit or miss the past year. It’s been a little bit frustrating for me and patients. “I want you on these bioregulators, but we can’t get them right now.” They’re out of stock everywhere.
For adrenals, I would definitely try the bioregulator. Of course, we want to remember the other tools in our toolbox, like making sure you’re getting good sleep, turning off blue light at night, making sure you’re eating well, balancing the blood sugar. Also, we can’t forget adaptogens. Adaptogens are so great for our adrenal glands.
Dr. Eric:
I agree with you there. With bioregulators, they’re also administered orally?
Dr. Jen:
Yes. That’s the great thing. They are administered orally. They get absorbed really well. They’re so little, so they just cross right over. Your body doesn’t even have to digest them. I’m a big fan of bioregulators.
Dr. Eric:
You might have mentioned this earlier, but I’ll ask anyway. With peptides and bioregulators, if you take injectables, it sounds like you need a prescription. If they’re oral, does that mean you don’t need a prescription?
Dr. Jen:
Yes and no. Things are changing. Most peptides, I will do a prescription and get them from a compounding pharmacy. There are oral ones, like the TB4-FRAG and the thymogen that you can get as nutraceuticals, supplements. Some of the companies, you can just buy them. Some, you need to buy through a healthcare provider.
Similar to supplements, you are going to want to make sure that you are going to high-quality sources. You don’t want to just get them from wherever. Now, with the injectables, what has happened is people can’t get them anymore from the compounding pharmacy, so there is a few other countries, like China or Russia. They are ordering these vials. You don’t know what you’re getting. You want to make sure that your company has a certificate of analysis, that they are testing batches. This is the stuff the compounding pharmacy does to make sure you are getting what you’re really getting.
When we talk about peptides, I guess we should talk about the weight loss peptides, Semaglutide, which is Ozempic; Tirzepetide; Mounjaro; Zepbound, all the different names. Wegovy, another one. Every compounder is making these.
You want to make sure that you are getting it from a high-quality place. They are testing the batches. You’re injecting this into your body. We don’t want to inject things that shouldn’t be there. Peptides are good things, but you need to make sure you are getting them from quality sources, similar to supplements.
I can dive a little bit into those GLP-1 agonists. You can’t turn on your phone without getting an advertisement for them, right? My friend texted me and said, “Costco is now offering these GLP-1s.” You can do an online visit and pick it up at Costco. What do you think about these? I’m curious what your thoughts are. People are really one way or the other about these, I find.
Dr. Eric:
Yeah. First of all, I didn’t know that. I do have a Costco membership but did not know that you could get peptides through them. I guess certain ones, like GLP-1. Probably can’t get BPC 157 through Costco.
Dr. Jen:
No, just these.
Dr. Eric:
When it comes to weight loss peptides, keep in mind, I’m not recommending them to my patients as of this recording. I guess it sounds too good to be true. You’re the expert, so I imagine, just like you mentioned with the other peptides, it’s not just a matter of taking the peptides and losing weight. You need to eat a healthy diet, manage your stress, get sufficient sleep. If you just take them alone, maybe they do help to some extent. If you combine them with a healthy diet and lifestyle, I imagine they work even better.
Dr. Jen:
This is the thing. First, we don’t want to do any harm. I want to cycle peptides still. I don’t want to put the gas on this pathway all the time. There are natural GLP-1 things that we can do. Berberine is a slight GLP-1 agonist. Akkermansia is a slight GLP-1 agonist. It’s a gut bacteria. There are different things that activate this pathway.
It’s an injectable. You are activating that GLP-1 agonist pathway. You will be feeling fuller longer. It slows down gastric emptying. It does have an effect on the brain. We know it affects that brain pathway. It’s going to be helping your body create more insulin. It’s also going to stabilize blood sugar more. It really has a good place.
I’ve been using GLP-1s before all the celebrities were. I’ve been using them in select patients. What do we do first? We work on the habits we talked about: sleep, nutrition, etc. We fix their gut health. We balance their hormones. We balance their thyroid. Sometimes, I have them wear continuous glucose monitors. We really try to do things before the peptides.
Sometimes, they are doing all the things, and they just need a little bit of help for a few months. Most of my patients are on the Semaglutide or Tirzepatide just for a few months.
When you are going on this, I tell them you need to eat enough protein, and you need to be lifting weights. One of the side effects is muscle loss. Once you hit 40, you lose 1-2% of your muscle mass a year. Or you can. So you really have to fight that. It’s harder to gain muscle, too, when you get in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. I really tell them we have to make sure you’re maintaining muscle, eating protein, and staying hydrated.
One thing that can happen is patients will go to a med spa and go on these shots. They’re dosed really high right away, so they’re super nauseous, so they can’t even drink water. They’re throwing up. They go into kidney failure or have kidney damage. We don’t want that.
It’s nice to get it compounded because you can titrate up really slowly as opposed to the dosing that the pharmacy has.
Right now, the compounding pharmacies are still not able to compound this medication because it’s on back order in so many places. It’s just exploded. I don’t think people just should be on Semaglutide or Tirzepatide 24/7/365 and then not change their actual habits. When they get off of them, they gain the weight back. Their blood pressure goes up. Their cholesterol and triglycerides go up again.
We know this from the actual studies. There are so many studies that show this again and again. The drug company is saying, “You have to stay on this forever. You have to pay for this forever.” Yes, maybe in a type 2 diabetic that isn’t going to change their lifestyle. But I don’t think that’s good either. I think they should really weave in lifestyle to that.
A lot of the times, when someone is on a GLP-1 and GLP-1 GYP, which is Tirzepatide, we can put them on something like Tesamorelin, Sermorelin, which is a growth hormone releasing hormone. That could help them with that building. Those are a group of peptides. They are not growth hormone; they are growth hormone releasing hormone. They tell your body to release more growth hormone. As we age, our growth hormone goes down.
One thing with these peptides is you do want to make sure there is no active tumors. You want to check IGF-1 levels and make sure they are not too high. These are great peptides that can really help boost muscle mass.
I have a patient that was a mold patient and post-vaccine injury. He lost so much muscle mass. He was so weak. After we treated the mold, “How do you feel about going on a growth hormone releasing hormone? Let’s get some of your muscle mass back up.” He was in his 50s. That’s really important to his health to have muscle and for his hormones. He was good with it. He really did well on it. We had him on it for a few months. It really got some of this strength back, got him motivated. He just kept improving from there.
This is why peptides are so beautiful. We live in such a toxic soup bowl. There are so many things that we have to heal from that no one had to worry about 50 years ago. They pair nicely with integrative, functional treatments, to elevate and get patients better faster. It’s really fun.
Dr. Eric:
They do sound amazing. One other question I have for you is do you take any on a wellness basis? If someone is in a relatively good state of health. I think you said you take some peptides earlier, which isn’t a surprise since you’re a peptide expert.
Dr. Jen:
It’s really fun to biohack. The growth hormone secreting hormones, I did that for a while. I sleep really well on them. I took a break though. Maybe I’ll start that back up this month. I don’t know. I sleep really well when I’m on them.
That’s something you cycle five days on, two days off. I usually do Monday-Friday and then take the weekend off. Those are a lot of fun.
One peptide I didn’t talk about yet is GHK-Cu peptide. I mentioned it for a second with wound healing. I have never taken this one injectable; I’ve heard it’s amazing. That is another one that was on that list, so I’ll just talk about the topical, which you can still get compounded and over the counter.
GHK-Cu is another peptide made in our body. This does decline as we age. I love it for skin. I use it on my skin every day. It helps with fine lines, wrinkles. It really supports that outer skin layer. Your skin is not going to get as dry.
It helps with redness. While I am working on their gut health, too, because we know rosacea is gut health. I put patients with rosacea on the copper peptide cream, and they have thrown away four prescription bottles from their dermatologist of junk. It’s crap what they give their patients. They use the copper peptides and are like, “Wow, this works better than all of those prescriptions.” “Yeah, isn’t that crazy?” Not really, but…
Anyway. That one’s great. It helps with crepey skin. Such a fun peptide. Really good with wound healing.
It was funny. Well, it wasn’t funny, because I got mad at my son. He got sunburned when we were in Mexico for spring break. I had my copper peptide serum for my face, and I was putting it on his sunburn. It actually does help with DNA. DNA damage, UV protection.
There is a study they did on GHK-Cu. It either upregulates or downregulates more than 50% of up or downregulation of about a third of our genes, 32%. This is a peptide that is going in there and affecting almost a third of our genes. It’s really cool. I really love that one.
If you dig into the research with GHK-Cu, really cool things they were doing in rat studies with hemorrhagic stroke, like reversing symptoms. Amazing, crazy cool studies. I wish they would keep on studying. We’ll see.
I don’t know where that peptide is going to end up. I think it could do beautiful things. I don’t know what the FDA wants to do with it. I wish I knew. That’s a great one topically if you’re not using it topically.
Some people will say, “I have peptides in my skin care.” No, you probably have these weak collagen peptides. This is GHK-Cu. If you go to my website or Instagram, there are a bunch of companies I love for that.
Another peptide, I actually just learned about a few months ago, and I take it every day. It’s a plant derived peptide. There is this company called Nuritas. They use AI technology to find plant peptides. It’s a company in Ireland. Such cool stuff they’re doing. They’re rolling out 1-2 new peptides a year. They do clinical human studies on these peptides. This is so cool. I geek out. I get so excited about it.
The one is called PeptiStrong. It increases muscle synthesis. It supports MTOR. It also affects myostatin, so you’re not getting that soreness post-workout. I take it in a blend in an oral capsule. You need 2.4g of it orally to stimulate the muscle synthesis. It helps retain muscle basically.
The studies they did were on patients where they immobilized a knee and did muscle biopsies. The patients taking the PeptiStrong maintained more muscle and muscle mass while they were immobilized than the controls.
Also, it showed it was helping with osteoporosis and increasing bone density. If my patient’s taking a GLP-1, I’m offering and recommending for them to take this and lift weights and eat protein.
Also, my post-menopausal women, I want them to take PeptiStrong.
Talking about cool stuff with this, they’re talking about putting it in soup at nursing homes to help with keeping that muscle. We know muscle is a longevity organ. It helps with insulin sensitivity. You need to be able to lift yourself up off the toilet. It decreases falls. Really cool stuff. I’m really excited about that one. I take it every day.
BPC 157, like I said, on and off. It’s rare for me to get stomach issues, but when we did go on vacation, I don’t know if I got gluten bombed or something that last day. My stomach was a mess. This is so weird for me. I’m not used to this. I took some peptides. Within 24 hours of some peptides and some supplements, I was fine.
I like to keep it all handy. What else do I have in my fridge? I’m trying to think. The BPC 157 injectable, I do have that still because I got it before the FDA said no more. I have that for when I have some tweaks and injuries. I was thinking about putting more in my shoulder to get it a little stronger.
Those are the peptides I take right now. I think it’s fun to try them. I always like to try things before suggesting them to my patients if I can. Some things I don’t need, but there are so many great things out there.
Are there any peptides that you want to try now?
Dr. Eric:
Oh yeah.
Dr. Jen:
First on your list?
Dr. Eric:
You mentioned the PeptiStrong. I have been working out for a long time and lifting weights. I haven’t gone heavy until the last year. I’ve been focusing more on muscle mass. I hired a personal trainer for both myself and my wife. I might want to take PeptiStrong for a few months. You said you take that every day, but is that still something you cycle?
Dr. Jen:
This one, I spoke with the creator of it at the Peptide Summit. He said you didn’t have to cycle this one. I probably still would just take a break from it for maybe a week or two depending. The plant-based peptides coming out, it’s pretty cool. It’s really exciting. It’s a nutraceutical; it’s a supplement. We’re good to weave them into our protocols.
Dr. Eric:
This is awesome. I learned so much. I’m sure the listeners learned a lot. It has motivated me to try peptides and eventually recommend them, too.
Before we wrap things up, I want to talk to you about your summit. But is there anything else? You shared so much information, but anything else you want to say?
Dr. Jen:
With peptides, I would say to make sure you’re working with someone who knows how to use peptides and when to use them. You don’t want to waste your time and money. There is an art to using peptides. That comes with experience of using them on patients. Most of them have a safety profile. There is a lot of oral peptides now, which is also really exciting.
Dr. Eric:
Quality- Like you said, with supplements, it’s important. Peptides, just as important. You want to make sure you’re safe, even though that’s another thing we didn’t really talk about, the contraindications. You mentioned earlier that they are relatively safe, correct?
Dr. Jen:
Yes.
Dr. Eric:
Definitely work with someone like Dr. Jen, who has a good amount of experience with peptides. Definitely more experience than myself. You just blew me away with the knowledge you have.
If you could tell people where they could find out more about you, your website. Tell them about your podcast, and of course, if you could talk a little bit about this upcoming summit.
Dr. Jen:
Awesome, thank you. The best social media where I hang out is Instagram. My handle is @IntegrativeDrMom. I have a YouTube that is the same handle.
My podcast is The Integrative Podcast with Dr. Jen. My website is HealthyByDrJen.com. That is my main one for health coaching. I Have a brick and mortar called PflegMed in northwest Ohio. The website has a lot of blogs.
May 21 starts the Peptide Summit. This is with DrTalks. If you guys are subscribed to Dr. Eric’s newsletter, he will send out some information. It is free to attend. You will be blown away by the experts there in peptides. It is amazing. You will learn more than you’d want to know about peptides and a lot about longevity and biohacking. It’s such a fun summit. You’re going to learn from the experts. Some of the names we have on there are amazing. I had so much fun at each interview and learned so much. I know if you guys enjoyed this podcast, you’ll really enjoy this summit.
Dr. Eric:
I look forward to learning more. I’m going to make sure to register for it and check out the talks. Thank you so much. This was really amazing. I learned a lot, and I’m sure the listeners learned a lot. I appreciate you taking the time to talk about peptides, Dr. Jen.
Dr. Jen:
Yes, of course. Thank you so much for having me.
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