These Are The Top Peptides You Need to Know About

I think of this peptide, BPC157, like one thing that unlocks many, many functions. So if you think of most peptides as a single key to unlock a particular function, BPC157 is like a keychain with a bunch of keys unlocking a wide variety of biological functions. And that's why it can be so helpful for your musculoskeletal repair, for gut healing, for brain repair, for immune function. Welcome to the Dr. Joy Kong podcast. This is where I have a chance to with you some of the latest developments in the space of holistic health, longevity and wellness. I have always honored intellectual curiosity and scientific rigor combined with real world practicality. My goal is that what you learn here will help you live longer and live better. Hope you enjoy the journey with me. Welcome Back to the Dr. Joy Kong podcast, and today we're going to talk all about peptides. So why peptides? It seems to be all the rage right now. It's because it actually works. It's for a lot of people, for a lot of problems, and it's fairly accessible. It's not that expensive. So what are peptides? Peptides are these short chains of amino acids. So we all know proteins are built of long chains, amino acids. So these are really short and they perform huge variety of functions in the body. So you may not know that There are over 300,000 peptides all swimming around in this body of ours, and they are all coexisting, but each with their own mission. So far, we've only identified about 7,000 of them and routinely used probably just a few dozens. And there are about a hundred that have been approved by the FDA for a particular medical condition. So you will see mostly holistic practitioners that will be using this. Of course, your primary care doctor probably will give you GLP1s to help you manage diabetes, lose weight. But the vast majority of peptides are really given out by holistic practitioners like me, just to, you know, illustrate why it's so exciting for me. In my practice, of course, I focus a lot on stem cell therapy because I consider that the big gun of transformation, because all of a sudden you're tapping into the intelligence that make us, which are encoded in the DNA that are in these stem cells. So when I give people stem cells, it gives them a huge blast of signals for regeneration. But someone may have a particular problem, specific issues like the brain problem or some kind of autoimmune issue, or they may want to repair their tendons. Then I can use peptides to really Target that particular organ. So that gives me much more power as a healer. Right. I can actually tailor exactly what the problem is. So a blast of signals through the stem cells, but more targeted signal to further trigger the body to go in into a particular direction of repair. So what's nice is that peptides now can address musculoskeletal problems, brain issues, mood, sleep, energy, autoimmune problems, and, or skin and hair. Right. Uh, or if somebody wants to lose weight or they want to build muscles. So now we have peptide or even sexual function. Now we have peptides for all these things. So that makes it very exciting. So it's exciting to practice as a doctor these days because we have all these tools. And what's cool is that these are nature based molecules. So a lot of these are synthesized in the lab, but that's based on the sequence from nature. Right. So it's identical to what's occurring in your body. So there's very, very little side effects. So extraordinarily safe because they're already in your body. And people always ask me, oh, can I take all these peptides all at once? Well, they're already in your body all at once. So there's 300,000 different kinds of peptides that are already flowing through your body. And we've only identified about 7,000 of them. So we are literally a walking universe of peptides, each with its mission to go into a particular organ to target particular receptors to unlock a biological function. There are about a hundred that are FDA approved for particular medical conditions and routinely used by holistic practitioners like me. About maybe 20 to 50 somewhere there is core group of peptides, most commonly 20 to 30 of them. So what can they do? Right, so these peptides can help with hormone production, modulate immune function, help you with your sleep cycle, they can reduce inflammation, they can help you with DNA function, cell division, they can cause destruction of cancer cells, and they can help with sexual arousal, weight loss, et cetera. So they have been attested for their safety and often at 100 to a thousand folds of what we typically use. And that's still extraordinarily safe. So that's the beauty of modeling your therapy based on nature. So I like to talk about some peptides now, starting with the most famous peptide, BPC157. So I kind of lump the BPC157 and TB500 into the musculoskeletal repair, even though they're way beyond, beyond musculoskeletal repair. So let's talk about BPC 157. So it's a the most widely used peptide by far in the world. It's highly anti inflammatory and it does help with muscle, tendon and bone repair and it's great also for gut healing. So gut mucosa repair prevents gastric ulcers, it helps your bowel to heal, and it promotes cellular repair and also protects your liver from toxic insults like alcohol, antibiotics, et cetera, and can repair your teeth, cornea and brain. So I think of this peptide, BPC157 like a 1 thing that unlocks many, many functions. So if you think of most peptides as a single key to unlock a particular function, these BPC1.7 is like a keychain with a bunch of keys unlocking a wide variety of biological functions. And, and that's why it can be so helpful for your musculoskeletal repair, for gut healing, for brain repair, for immune function is like, you can't go wrong. So we actually routinely add it to our stem cell therapy. So we always add BPC157 and TB500, which both of them are similar that they target so many organs. They're both keychains of peptides. So what else can it do? It can help also help with your mood, so it can actually induce serotonin release in the brain. It has antidepressant effect. It can modulate the serotonin and dopamine systems, relieving behavioral disturbances. So they are very neuroprotective. So the BPC157 can protect neurons, promote nerve regeneration after transection, so after spinal cord injury or traumatic brain injury and or nerve pending nerve death or demi. It can also induce nitric oxide release. It has a strong angiogenic properties, so it helps to form new blood vessels. And it also protects the blood vessel walls and counteracts high blood pressure. It can also help with thrombosis, so reducing the chance of forming clots. It can upregulate the growth hormone receptor expression. So some of you probably have used things that promote growth hormone production like epermorilin, CJC 1295 and tessamoreline, et cetera. But the BPC 157 can actually increase the number of the receptors, growth hormone receptors, so that will further help the repair of throughout your body. Right? Growth hormone helps with everything. It's considered a youth hormone. So it can help with ligament tendon repairs and promote healing all throughout your body. It also supports muscle building in response to resistance training and it reduces excessive pain perception. And it Outperforms acyclovir for herpes infection at 1/1,000th the dose of acyclovir. So it's very potent when it comes to antiviral properties. It can also help with stress urinary incontinence. So when women get older they when they cough and laugh and they leak urine, this can also be helpful. So what were some of the target conditions that's been studied? So Lyme disease, hiv, chronic viral or intracellular infections, inflammatory conditions with elevation of CRP, the inflammation marker and the C4A and the the ESR. It also helps with coronary artery disorder, diabetes, GI ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. Helps with ek, leaky gut with H. Pylori infection gerd so the gastric reflex and tendon ligament repair periodis, acute pancreatitis, liver lesions, chemical sensitivity, allergies, post surgical healing, traumatic brain injury, mold and toxin exposures, neurodegenerative diseases, depression, anxiety, urinary incontinence, hyper or hypocoagulation, hypertension or hypotension, hypothyroidism or thyroid resistance. It can boost mitochondria function, relieving pain symptoms and can help with eye inflammation and dry eyes. So as you can see that's a long list. Then I want to move on to the next group. We have thymus, which is a powerful immune organization and the pineal gland. So both are crucial in the process of our aging. So I want to talk with you a little bit about the thymus gland. So the thymus gland actually shrinks and degenerates when we age. It also degrades with obesity, too much calorie intake, genetics, inflammation, stress, pregnancy, toxins, hypothyroidism or low growth hormone levels, a chronic infection or zinc deficiency. The protein secreted by thymus reach peak at age 10 and from there on is all downhill and stays at a steady low level from our mid-30s. And the progressive thymic dysfunction and senescence in our immune system occurs with aging and this can result in increased sustainability, a susceptibility to infection, inadequate immune response to vaccines, increased tendency for autoimmune diseases, increased cancer risk and increased cardiovascular disease. So there's overwhelming majority of patients with autoimmune diseases that actually had have abnormal thymus size or when they do microscope analysis, abnormal findings in histology. So so what are the what can thymic peptides do? So thymic peptides can actually improve tissue Repair and healing, improve host defense when it comes to infections. And it can reverse immune suppression of in chronic infections such as Lyme. And it can increase antioxidant IT and glutathione production. It can boost natural killer cell production. And it can help shift your immune system from TH2 to TH1 response. So that is basically shifting your system from a inflammatory to more anti inflammatory orientation. So that's important in infection, cancer, Herzheimer's reactions or autoimmune disorders. And it also can help bind neurotoxins and endotoxins. Endotoxins are produced by bacteria. It can help cardiac regeneration and is protective after heart attack and also in congestive heart failure. The thymopeptides also promote neurological regeneration and is protective after stroke, traumatic brain injury in Lyme disease, Alzheimer's, in other neuropathies or Parkinson's. And it can stimulate stem cell activity and proliferation, increase longevity and it has almost non existent side effects even at a hundred times the excess of the dosage. So excellent safety profile with huge therapeutic window. That means even, even at a thousand fold it's been demonstrated that is still quite safe. So there are two that are commonly used that I want to talk about. One is called TB500, also called TB4 or Thymosin beta 4. So this is a peptide, a thymus peptide found in all tissues and cell types and is found in blood and bodily fluids. So in tears, saliva, cerebral spinal fluid, wound fluid and both platelets and white blood cells release TB4 into wound fluid. So very interesting. And this TB, TB4 or TB500 has shown regenerative activity after traumatic brain injury and or spinal cord injury. Stroke, Ms. is ischemic limb disease or cardiac damage. It can support immunity, improve T cell function, are it's antimicrobial. It promotes angiogenesis so that can accelerate wound healing and collagen deposition. It can calm muscle spasms, improve muscle tone and stretches the connective tissue and maintain flexibility. It also reduces inflammation in joint tissues. It can prevent formation of adhesions and fibrous bands in muscles, so reduce the fibrosis in muscles, tendons and ligaments. It can promote hair growth and may help dry eyes, corneal injuries, lung fibrosis, fatty liver disease and hepatic fibrosis. It's also cardio protective so help with conditions of ischemia, especially a lot of coronary heart artery diseases. Right. It reduces systemic inflammation due to infections or infection. Die offs. The Herzheimer's reaction is an infection die off. So that can cause a lot of inflammation. So TB500 can reduce that. And some of the target conditions include Lyme disease, hiv, malaria, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, autoimmune diseases, infections, heart attack, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, peripheral neuropathy. And it's really powerful therapy for the flu or codes or Ebola, Zika viruses along with T alpha 1. So now we come to T alpha 1, also called thymosin alpha 1. This peptide from the thymus gland improves tissue repair and healing and improves host defense against infections. It inhibits viral replication or cancer growth. It can improve microcirculation, improving stress tolerance, increases antioxidant and glutath glutathione production and reverses immune suppression. In chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia or Lyme disease. It can also, it calms inflammation and it fights cancer. It can prevent and treat autoimmunity. Its level is significantly lower when a patient has severe infection or cancer. It has been found to effectively reduce the incidence of flu from 19% to 5.5% compared to placebo. So really, I mean, it reduced the chance of catching flu to a third. Right. So it's hugely beneficial. And when injected into mice, when the mice is 3.5 months old, it increases their lifespan by 28% and it decreases the rate of cancer by 2.8 folds. It also increases the relapse free time for cancer. So allow you to live cancer free for longer if you did have cancer. And it's Approved in over 30 countries as a vaccine adjunct, so as something you add on to when you get vaccines and as a treatment for hepatitis B, C and A's. So FDA approved it under the orphan drug program. And some of the targeted conditions include Lyme disease, hiv, chronic viral or intracellular infections, immune deficiency, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, allergies, chemical sensitivity, cancer, aging, and the prevention in travel situations. You know, prevention of, you know, catching problematic bugs. So now we come to pineal gland, which has not been talked a lot about. But for anybody who's interested in meditation, you probably have heard about the pineal gland bin thought of as the seed of the soul. So that's where a lot of the activities are generated when a person meditates. So the pineal gland, it's hugely important in our connection in, in the spiritual realm. So it's a unique organ that sits kind of in the middle of your brain. It regulates circadian rhythm and the pituitary function. It synthesizes melatonin which is the signaling molecule for natural environmental changes and it influences. So the pineal gland influences a secretion of neurotransmitters, endorphins and hormones. Of course we know melatonin is associated with a lot of important functions, including bone metabolism, weight loss, cardiovascular health, and acts as a profound antioxidant and is immune modulating, is anti cancer. So an intact and functional pineal gland is really important for optimal health. Unfortunately, pineal gland has the highest calcification rate among all organs of the body. And pineal calcification jeopardizes melatonin synthesis and is associated with a variety of of neuronal damages. So neuronal diseases, the majority of people have pineal gland calcification by age 30. So what are the pineal peptides that we commonly use? So at our clinic there are two that we use commonly. Both are really exciting. So one I love is called Epitalon. We do recommend this for everybody because how can you not? So first of all, it's a four amino acid long and it's considered a potent bioregulator. When we call something bioregulated, that means this peptide actually goes into the cells and interact with the DNA and produce long term changes in the cells. So it can change your gene expression. So that fundamentally changes how the cells work. So it's synthesized by the pineal gland, of course, and it helps increase the secretion of serotonin and melatonin in the pineal gland. But one exciting thing that I want to tell people is, is this ability to rejuvenate your cardiovascular system, which of course controls the rest of our body as well the health. If your cardiovascular system is not healthy, then your organs are really going to suffer. All your organs, right, are not going to get adequate nutrition or removal of waste products. So one study was really fun because they tested 79 patients from the age of 60 to 69. And all these people have coronary artery disease. And what they did was that they gave them a few rounds of this apitalon. So they were only giving them twice a year. Remember, this is a bioregulator, so it goes in your cells nucleus and change your DNA expression. So you don't really need to take it as, as, as often because it changes the cells on a fundamental level. And so the results are long, long lasting. So what they did was that they gave these 79 patients with coronary artery disease six rounds of appetitelon. Each round is only 15 days, so twice a year, which means for three years they gave them six rounds of apatylon and the control group just, you know, took placebo. So when they followed them for 10 years, at the end of the 10 years, the people who got the Apatylon versus the one that got the placebo, their cardiovascular system is nine years younger than, than the placebo group. And also the death rate from cardiovascular incidence went from 83% to 46%. And that, of course, it's monumental. Right? So we're able to fundamentally change the cardiovascular system and actually reduce mortality almost half of what it was. So, and what else does this apatylon do? It actually induces telomerase activity. So you probably, most of you know that we have telomeres at the ends of our chromosomes, and, and as we replicate, every time we replicate, the telomeres shrinks. But telomerase is the one that can extend telomere length. But still the trend is the telomeres get shorter and shorter, which means the DNA replication will start to accumulate mistakes, and that will cause deterioration of our cells. So telomerase will help lengthen the telomeres, and epitalone actually induces telomerase activity, so that helps restore telomere length. So then our cells won't make as many mistakes and so it won't degenerate as much. Right. And it can slow down the aging of the reproductive system and restore the fertility in old female rats. It can also increase T4 to T3 conversion. T3 is the active form of thyroid hormone. So you want more T3. So you actually are getting the benefits of the thyroid hormone. And it increases or improves glucose tolerance and decrease insulin and triglyceride levels. So it, it helps with your carbohydrate metabolism, and it activates gene expression and protein synthesis for specific target tissues. It can increase lifespan of mice from 14% of the mice reaching 2 years of age to 56%. So all of a sudden you have four times more of these mice reaching 2 years of age. What I consider Epitilon is almost like the best insurance you can get because it rejuvenates your cardiovascular system and it also protects you against all age related diseases, including cancer. So I can't think of money better spent on this peptide than anything else. So of course, there are a lot of things you can do to improve your health and protect you. But this is a powerful signal that changes how your cells respond and function at a very, very foundational level. A second peptide from the pineal gland is called Pineolon, and this is a peptide that can, that's only three amino acids long and also considered a bioregulator. So studies from Russia have shown that pineolon can slow the rate of aging of the brain, measured by biological age indicators. And it acts directly on pineal gland. It can protect against effects of hypoxia, so low oxygen. It can increase levels of another peptide called irisin. And irisin is important in neuron proliferation and differentiation. So higher level of irisin has been linked to improved memory and cognition. And it modulates the beneficial impact of exercise on the central nervous system. The pinealon helps protect muscle cells during exercise. It promotes fat burning and promotes telomere lengthening as well. It helps fight off effects of aging and, and oxidative stress. It can also boost production of serotonin and help fight depression. It also can help reset pineal gland to circadian rhythm, improve sleep, mood and blood pressure. And it helps with poor memory, attention difficulties, brain injury, stroke, high stress, chronic fatigue, depression, insomnia, irritability, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, neuralgia. So pain in the nerves, neuritis, inflammation of the nerves, encephalopathy and demyelating diseases and helps to maintain the function of the brain in elderly patients. So that's pretty impressive. So that's. This one definitely has been a new addition in our clinic. So it's excited about it. Now we're talking about the brain. So why don't we go on to brain peptides because there are quite a few of them and pretty exciting really. Brain is a tough one. I was trained as a psychiatrist, so I've been vitally interested in the brain. And there was a reason I did not become a neurologist. I definitely thought about becoming a neurologist because at one point I thought I wanted to be a neuroscientist. You know, instead of being a doctor, I thought I was going to be a, you know, a professor and studying the brain. But what I found out during medical school is that the neurologists weren't very happy because they can be quite effective and been such, you know, amazing detectives at identifying what part of the brain caused the problem is, is a disease. But then that was the end of the story. They couldn't tell people how to recover. There were just very, very few tools. It's a depressing profession to be a neurologist at this point, unless they start utilizing some of these cutting edge modalities that, that we have been encountering with the, the new age of regenerative medicine. But if they're just sticking with the big Pharma tools that we've been taught they're not very effective unfortunately. Yeah, so I saw that a lot. But now we have some of these peptides that hopefully some of them can start using. One is called Dihexa. Dihexa is a peptide that can improve cognitive function, it can support recovery from brain traumas and it can boost synaptic formation. So help more synapses to form. Right. These little tentacles from the neurons to, to communicate with each other, it can make nerve signals stronger and strengthen neuronal structures, it can improve brain blood flow and it, it's a very potent signaling molecule because it's 10 million times more potent than brain derived neurotropic factor. So we've, we all heard about this particular growth factor BDNF, but this is 10 million times more potent. So it could help in the repair of the brain and nerves and it can increase mental stamina, promote creative thinking skills, enhance conversational skills, improve problem solving and helping managing depression and improve focus, learning and memory. So at our clinic we definitely use it quite a bit also very often in, in kids, we treat kids who have autism or autism spectrum disorders. But for brain conditions this is a, a powerful tool and it usually comes in a capsule. So another one that I consider it, the big gun of brain peptides is called cerebalysin. This is like the holy grail of brain peptides. It's pretty interesting because it's approved and used as a prescription medication in a lot of countries in Europe, Asia and Latin, Latin America. It's approved for various neurological conditions, is most commonly used in stroke, recovery, traumatic brain injury, vascular dementia, Alzheimer's disease, etc, you know, a lot of various cognitive disorders. One of the challenges is the proper liquid form is very difficult to obtain. The hydrolyzed powder is much easier but they don't work as well. So but at our clinic we do have the liquid form. So cerebralysin, it's not a single peptide, it's a huge number of a combination of peptides obtained from the brain of pigs, actually pig brain extract. So it has a concoction of brain peptides. The active fragments in cerebralysin are of very low molecular weight and they can penetrate the blood brain barrier and reach neurons directly. And it's been proven to have these neuroprotective and neuronal regenerative properties which can help with both central and peripheral nerve recovery. So help stimulate these neurons to, to regenerate. So it has been shown to improve efficiency within the brains aerobic processes. So metabolic, aerobic processes and improve intracellular peptide synthesis. It helps to shield neurons from oxidative damages and lactic acidosis and have been studied in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, MS, ALS, TBI and stroke. It promotes the growth of new brain cells, which helps improve brain cell communication, enhancing learning capacity. So the, I guess classical way of using this peptide is IV infusions, but that's not the most convenient, right? So we do that in the clinic. But you can also do intramuscular injections or even subcutaneous injections. So we have all those at our clinic. And the next peptide is called Celan. So this has been traditionally prescribed for anxiety and depression and it's been shown to be effective in many other conditions related to immune modulation or for ptsd, ADHD and metabolic syndromes. It has the neurotropic actions similar to nerve growth factors. It promotes central and peripheral nervous system stimulation and rejuvenation. It has significant enziolytic activity, so busting anxiety and acts as a stable neural psychotropic. So like a stable psychiatric medication in a sense. Antidepressant, anti stress, it relieves aggression and fear reactions in different animal species and it can positively influence the formation of memory and learning processes. The clinical studies have shown that effect of sealing is similar to that of tranquilizers at low dosages, but it doesn't have the unwanted side effects of the tranquilizers such as benzodiazepine. Doesn't have the potential for amnesia withdrawal symptoms or dependence. And experiments have also demonstrated that celanx have been effective in preventing the accumulation of body fat. And it shields neurons from neurotoxins, inflammation and injury. And it helps with neurological regeneration like in tbi, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, stroke and toxin induced brain damages or nerve damages. So that's C link. So we have that both in injectable form or as a nasal spray, which is very effective as well and very convenient. And then next one is cmax. So CMAX is great for cognition and attention. It's. It's a peptide that's derived from a fragment of a. A hormone called acth. It can affect learning processes and exploratory behavior and it helps with regeneration and development, helps with pain perception and inflammatory processes. It's developed in Russia in the 1980s and primarily is recognized for its powerful cognitive enhancing and neuroprotective benefits. So in Russia and Ukraine, C Max is approved for medical use in treating conditions such as stroke. So ischemic stroke, cognitive disorders and optic nerve atrophy. It can stimulate neurogenesis, so formation of more neurons can accelerate nerve regeneration and improve neuromuscular performance. And it's currently used successfully in treating patients with pathologies related to brain circulation, such as the amnesia or other problems of the central nervous system. It can be used as a preventative measure to protect against chronic disease. And acutely, it can help improve memory and learning processes. It has protective ability against metal induced cell toxicity. It can also improve selective attention and modulate brain development. So helpful for adhd. So has a great potential in that and has a, a lot of antithrombotic and fibrinolytic effect. So breaking up fibrins, breaking up clots, and that may play a significant role under conditions of ischemic damages. So of course, when somebody has a clot thrown into the brain or the heart blocking artery, causing tissue death, this can have the effect of busting up the clot. So can be helpful therapeutically. And it's also gastric protective, so it protects the gastric lining. It can also increase physical performance and adaptation capabilities when high intensity exercise is in place. So that can, you know, help your performance. So what were some of the target conditions? Anxiety, depression, memory improvement, ischemic events, Heart, brain. So that means stroke. Right. And nerve regeneration, adhd, opioid withdrawal and chronic diseases like als, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's. Other prescribed possibilities are for ss Thrombolytic, right. Breaking up clots. Use that for gastric protection to help with physical exertion and improvement of pain and also in metal toxicity. So that was C Max. Again, we have injectable as well as nasal spray forms in our clinic. And the next one is called PE 2228. And this one is really, really awesome because it's, it's incredibly helpful in depression. So as a reformed psychiatrist, prior psychiatrist, I've written a lot of antidepressants and a lot of things to help with depression. But sometimes a person just doesn't improve. So that's why, you know, you keep going to psychiatrist. You could do round one, hopefully works 30% of people, it works for about 30% of them, they come back and then we may have to switch to another medication and sometimes too doesn't work and we may have to switch again or maybe there's partial improvement, then we add another medication and we just keep, you know, sometimes it takes months and months of going back and forth and for some people even for over a year, they're not improving. So what do you do? So this P22 28 is a fast acting Peptide in relieving depression. So generally only needs four days for its antidepressant effect to take place. So for the SSRIs that we use commonly, we always say about two weeks. You know, it takes about two weeks lead time before you notice the difference, two to three weeks. So this one is four days. And it can improve mood, mood and motivation, improve brain's stress resilience and increase neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. So more neurons can form, can repair and more synapses can form. So it can gain new ways of learning of behavior patterns. And it can protect neurons from excessive glutamate. So glutamate can be cytotoxic. A lot of things can cause excessive glutamate release, including stress. So this can help protect the neurons against glutamate and it helps improve memory and learning and may be effective for stroke recovery. So that's this P2228 for severe and, and treatment resistant depression. And then we have one peptide that's really helpful because so many people have sleep issues, they have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep. So this is called dsip. It's delta sleep inducing peptide. You probably know that delta sleep is the deepest and most restorative type of sleep that you can get. And this DSIP help with this neuroendocrine regulation to help the body naturally secrete hormones to promote delta sleep. So it's also an antioxidant. It may help support the central nervous system and endocrine system by reducing the level of the damaging free radicals. So help you prevent cell damage, restores disturbed sleep patterns and improves sleep quality. It can improve LH and growth hormone release. It reduces persistent and chronic pain. It can modulate cortisol production and fight stress. It also can improve mood and reduce depression. And it can improve brain function and lower the risk of heart disease and lowers blood pressure. It can prevent cancer and reduce the side effects of chemotherapy. And it can provide support for alcohol and drug withdrawal. So that's the dsip, the one that promotes delta sleep. Then we are, we just finished the brain peptides. Now we're coming to something again. This is a few peptides that help with growth hormone release. And growth hormone affects a lot of things. But what do we use it for? These growth hormone peptides, what are people the most excited about? So people are excited about weight loss, muscle gain, busting fat. So that's really what they became popular for. But they are good for other things too. So let me go over them. So ipamorelin So a lot of people ask me about Samorin, that's an older peptide and because now we have better ones so more effective, less side effects. So then that we use better ones. So in our clinic we, we use mainly 3 of these growth hormone releasing peptides. Ipamorelin is very popular growth hormone releasing peptide. So is they're also called secretagog. So it because it stimulates your pituitary to secrete growth hormones. So is considered highly efficient this ipoirelin and also very very safe. It stimulates growth hormones without having an effect on the blood levels of prolactin and cortisol. Like some other of the growth hormone releasing peptides it can mimic ghrelin and promotes the production and release of growth hormone. There's no desensitization issues and it can improve sleep and it has anti aging benefits such as reduction in body fat, improved muscle strength and mass strengthened bones, repaired joints and ligaments and also can improve skin quality in increasing energy and vitality. So you can see there's multitude of benefits. And then the next one is CJC 1295 and that's a again a growth hormone releasing hormone and it's much more powerful when you combine that with ipamorelin. So actually when you combine the two the, the efficacy is five times as much as each one alone. So that's why we never give any one of these by themselves. It's always in combination. So the CJC 1295 also increases growth hormone secretion and IGF1 levels without prolactin elevation. It increases muscle growth and fat loss, decreases recovery time and improves cognition. It can increase cellular repair and regeneration and promote slow waves deep sleep which is responsible for the highest level of muscle growth, memory retention and rejuvenation. So I do like the ipamorelin CJC for to help people with sleep as well. So of course energy repair of everything, your muscles and your skin and your brain. So it's. These are really great hormones. So I tend to take them, I usually take them for a few months and then I may take a month off and then I continue because as we age unfortunately the levels dwindle. So why don't we just give a little bit more of we had when we're younger. Again the combination of Ipramorilin CJC is five times more potent than each one alone and it can improve sleep quality down day three or to four so pretty quickly improves sleep quality and it can improve body composition, protects your heart, your neurons, your immune system, help with your muscles, also your Metabolism and then another growth hormone releasing peptides. It has become very popular. It's called Tessamorelin and it actually initially it was investigated for treating HIV patients to reduce the HIV drug induced central obesity. So people who have, you know, gained all this weight around their gut and then when they use it for 26 weeks, every day, daily use for 26 weeks, that led to a significant decrease in the visceral fat and then also improve their lipid status. So that's how they were discovered. They of course also increase IGF1 without changing glucose parameters and they can increase protein synthesis and muscle growth and increase the breakdown of fat. Is shown to reduce body fat by 7.4% and improves fasting insulin level, reduces your triglyceride, which is the type of lipid that we generally don't want to have too much. And it can reduce the carotid atherosclerosis. So the calcification in your carotid artery. Because of that, it reduces the risk of cardiovascular events and improves heart health. It can also reduce inflammatory markers like crp. It reduces fatty liver disease and improves cognition and memory and improves exercise capacity and energy, improves bone density and immune function. So tesamorelin, another one of my favorites. Next one, we're going to talk about two peptides that's related to mitochondria. So a lot of people are getting to know that mitochondria is the powerhouse of our cells. These are early bacteria that happen to know how to utilize oxygen to provide energy. So our cells grab them and now we are working together, unfortunately, as we are exposed to environmental toxins or the aging process and the, the different, just from being alive, the oxidative damages, it can cause harm to mitochondria. And that's how our cells become sluggish. Our immune system is not as vibrant and then we have lower energy, et cetera. So how can we enhance our mitochondrial function? So the most famous one is called MOT C. So MOT C is a mitochondria encoded peptide. So mitochondria actually have DNA sequences to, to encode, you know, produce this peptide. And this regulates metabolic homeostasis, so keep things steady. This peptide get into the nucleus to regulate the adaptive gene expression in the cell in response to stress, to cellular stress. So that improves the mitochondria health. It improves muscle building, fat loss and reverses the senescence of cells. So the more senescent cells are, the less functional. Not only less functional, they can also secrete molecules and signals that cause damage. So they're, they're no good. But MA C can help reduce that kind of aging in the cells and it can activate AMPK pathway to improve energy production and insulin sensitivity. They can regulate carbohydrate metabolism, improve physical performance and there's a trend towards increased lifespan. And they also act primarily on muscles versus metformin acting primarily on liver when it comes to improved glucose metabolism. So they have different mechanisms of helping with. With glucose metabolism or how carbohydrates are processed and it prevents the obesity. That's a result when somebody get a hyster hysterectomy when ovaries were taken out. When ovaries are taken out some, you know, it can induce obesity and insulin resistance. So this MOT C can can actually prevent it. And it can also increase brown fat activation. So that will reduce fat accumulation. And brown fat is the good kind of fat. And it can help also reduce inflammatory invasion in the white adipose tissue. So prevent the inflammation in the. In our white fat. And it also reduces vascular calcification by activating the AMPK pathway. So that's good for our heart as well. So that's mossy. So good for carbo carbohydrate metabolism for. For our heart and also for energy production and muscle growth. So and fat loss. So that's another one that's. You can call it mitochondria peptide or you can call it weight loss peptide. So we use them. Use this for both of the both purposes. And another mitochondria peptide is called SS31. So this is actually an anti antioxidant peptide that improves mitochondrial function. It protects and restores mitochondrial structure, mitochondrial motility and promotes ATP synthesis and reduce electron leakage. It reduces inflammation by inhibiting the release of pro inflammatory cytokines and dampening the activation of inflammatory pathways within cells. It can inhibit oxidative stress, increase exercise tolerance. It can restore skeletal muscle function and improve outcomes in cardiac, neurological, respiratory, retinal, kidney and aging related diseases. It's also heart protective. It can improve cardiac function, reduce the ischemia and reperfusion injury. That's when the arteries are blocked and, and when it's reperfusal the when the the blood flow is restored that can cause damage because of the a physiological process. So this can help reduce that and enhance recovery after heart attack. It's neuroprotective. This SS31 shows promise in protecting neurons from oxidative damages and improve mitochondria function in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's substance. So that's SS31. Now we come to the type of usage of peptides that so many people are excited about, which is weight loss. Definitely. I see a epidemic of, of the obesity. I mean, yeah, you see that everywhere in, in, in the US and in Europe as well, and now, you know, a lot of other countries. So this has become very popular. Started with Ozempic, right, that was popularized by the Kardashians. At one point they were running out of supply of Ozempic, which is the generic name is semaglutide because it works really, really well. It's probably this group of peptides called GLP1s are, are the most effective weight loss medication we've seen by far, you know. So what's semaglutide? It's a GLP1 receptor agonist. So GLP1 stands for glucagon, like peptide. And this peptide semaglutide has been approved by the FDA in 2014 as a, as ozempic for lowering blood sugar and hemoglobin A1C in type 2 diabetes. It's a once a week subcutaneous injection and it promotes weight loss in patients with or without diabetes and improves glycemic control by stimulating insulin secretion and gluc glucagon secretion without leading to hypoglycemia. It successfully regulates appetite by restoring the signaling system that tells the body, I'm full, I don't want to eat anymore. And it can be used for the treatment of diabetes, obesity, non alcoholic fatty liver disease, and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. So it does have some side effects. Nausea, of course, loss of appetite, maybe indigestion. So some people don't like it, can't tolerate it. They, they want some appetite. So if you have no appetite, then you lost a huge part of the pleasure of life, right? So, so the number of these GLP1s kept evolving. So the next one is called Tirzepatite that, that's very popular. It mimics two natural gut hormones, GLP1 and GIP so together they regulate appetite metabolism and blood sugar in a synergistic manner. So that's brand name Manjara. So it enhances insulin secretion and lowers blood sugar levels and improves insulin sensitivity. So your cells actually respond to insulin better. So you don't keep secreting insulin. And it suppresses appetite, slows down gastric emptying, prolongs the feeling of fullness and reduces overall food intake and improve lipid profile. Also reduces inflammation. So They've been investigated for their role in the non alcoholic fatty liver disease which has shown good potential and is approved for the treatment of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults when their sleep apnea is primarily due to obesity. So this of course aims at weight loss and potentially reducing inflammation. So the tirzepatite can also offer benefits in managing diastolic heart failure. Reduces deaths and preventing hospitalizations and enhances energy expenditure. So help you to, to utilize your energy. And it is demonstrated to result in greater weight loss when compared to semaglutide and less side effects. So that's why it's become more popular. And a third one also is getting popular. It's, it's called Ride or True Tide. So who knows who got all these names. It's nicknamed Triple G. So this is the, where the misnomer, I think triple. Agnes. Well it's, it's triple, not GLP. Some people think it's GLP 3. This is just, they have triple action. So what were the actions? It acts on three key hormones, so GLP1, GIP and glucagon. And that helps regulate appetite, improve metabolic function and enhances fat burning. And it's been studied for weight loss and the management of metabolic conditions like type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease. And it seems to be more effective for weight loss than tirzepatide. In some phase two trials, participants lost an average of up to 24% of their body weight over 48 weeks at the highest dose. And phase three data showed potential weight loss of nearly 29% over 68 weeks. And it can also help regulate blood sugar and insulin level. Of course, that's, that's what they do. It preserves lean muscle mass during weight loss because that's one of the concerns people have, is that you're losing not just your fat but also your muscles. But the retatrutide actually helps you preserve your lean body mass, which is a major advantage over other weight loss methods. It can also improve your lipid profile, improve your blood pressure and partially reduce the risk of heart disease. And more than 85% of participants with fatty liver disease saw liver fat levels return to normal in, in one study. So that's phenomenal, right? 85% seeing the fat level going to normal. And a phase three trial showed that participants with obesity and knee osteoarthritis experienced significant pain relief in addition to weight loss. So they got benefits for their knee osteoarthritis as well. Another two weight loss peptides that are Pretty interesting one is called 5Amino 1 MQ. This one actually regulates your NAD pathway. So we'll hear a lot about NAD, how that helps with energy level of your cells and helps with longevity, addiction, et cetera. So this 5amino 1 MQ, it inhibits this substance called NNMT which is upregulated. So it's increased in white adipose tissue as we age. And this particular, the N N MT level correlates with body fat. So with your waist circumference. So this particular peptide, 5amino 1 MQ actually inhibits this particular molecule. An animal study showed that there's significant decrease in adipose tissue and body weight in a short amount of time. It also enhances mitochondria function and repairs mitochondria damage. So I could lump this, you know, with the, the, the MOT C moth C can also come down, you know, to the, the group of weight loss peptides. So this 5amino 1MQ increases your basal metabolic rate, right? Improves your metabolic rate and targets fat, especially abdominal fat. And improved neuromuscular function and increased ability to for your muscle to contract through the same mechanism as inhibiting the nnmt. And on top of delayed muscle soreness after intense high volume workout, that the 5Amino 1 MQ can help, it can also help lower cellular senescence so prevent the aging of your cells. So it's also considered body recomposition peptide that helps with maximal fat fat loss and maximal muscle preservation. Kind of similar to the growth hormone releasing peptides. They are also body recomposition peptides. And the last one in the group of weight loss peptide is called melanotan 1. So this is a peptide that in induces skin pigmentation. So melanin, right? Melanitan, it can enhance melanin production and melanin actually prevents cellular damage in skin by absorbing, reflecting and refracting light. When you use it in tanning, it can help enhance your tanning and then it can be used to prophylactically treat certain skin disorders. And it also can help prevent skin cancer. It reduces sun damage to the skin that's exposed to UV light and transform the cells to produce dark protective melanin. And it can be safely combined with UVB light or sunlight and appears to act synergistically in the tanning process. It boosts neurogenesis. So it's not just, you know, causing your skin to darken, but it can help your brain cells to repair and protects against cognitive declines in Alzheimer's disease in animal models and reduces neural inflammation and improves Functional recovery after stroke. It also improves heart recovery and survival after heart attack and of course stimulates fat burning. So this is a very interesting peptide. Melanitan. Make you darker, help your brain function better, and also make you skinnier. Protects your heart too. So the next one I want to talk about is a antimicrobial peptide. It's called LL37. So this particular peptide is, is known for its ability to, to protect you against microbes. It's stored in neutrophil granules as an inactive precursor and, and is released as mature peptides when the neutrophils get stimulated. So the LL37 expressed in various cells and tissues such as circulating neutrophils, so that's white blood cells and, and other bone marrow cells, epithelial cells off the skin in the GI tract as well as in, in your lungs. It, the production of LL37 in macrophages is stimulated by vitamin D, which of course is released by sunlight to the skin and has broad spectrum of antimicrobial activities. But anyhow, so just one point about the sunlight and vitamin D and LL37, right? This is all connected. Sunlight is good for you. Forget it. Help you with vitamin D. And that can stimulate this peptide, LL37. And this peptide has broad spectrum of activities against bacteria, viruses, fungi, and then can play an important role in regulating the balance of pro and anti inflammatory molecules. And it can promote wound healing, inhibit biofilm formation. So that's the, the, the layer of the secretions from, from bacteria. And several Studies showed that LL37 was effective in treating certain cancer types. It can inhibit gastric cancer, cell proliferation. Um, so it's a very interesting molecule. You know, has its own place, is commonly used. You know, people utilize it in Lyme disease, et cetera, chronic debilitating infections. Okay. Another, two peptides that's related to sexual function or you know, things related to the sexual hormones. So one is PT141, which I'm pretty sure has gotten famous because it induces rapid onsite onset of sexual arousal. And it acts at the level of the brain. So centrally it tells you to have a sexual response. It increases libido, induces erection in men and also vaginal blood flow in women. It increases erection in 80% of men who do not respond to medications like Viagra or Cialis Cialis, and is a derivative of the melanotin 2. And it can induce sexual arousal by binding to melanocortin receptors in hypothalamus. So it's because it's derived from this melanotin 2, there has been occasionally people reporting it promoting darkening of skin as well. So that's something to remember. Melanitin 2 was originally tested as a sunless tanning agent, but also seemed to cause sexual arousal and spontaneous erection in nine out of ten original male volunteers. So that's how they got the idea right, the Melan 10:2. And then they were trying to find out how can we tweak the molecule so it doesn't cause darkening of the skin. So that's how PT141 came about. So it's actually FDA approved for women. And it increases the chance of women having a sexually gratifying experience. So it increases the chance by 50%. So that you can also take as an injectable or a nasal spray. Of course, some people find the nasal spray to be a little more spontaneous than pulling out your needle and, and do an injection about half an hour before sexual activity. So everyone differs. Some people may respond within half an hour, some people two hours. So, you know, experiment, see what, how it works for you. And another peptide that's related to sex hormones is called KISS Peptin. So this is actually a neuropeptide secreted by hypothalamus. It stimulates gonadotropin releasing hormone to increase LH and fsh, which then triggers the release of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. So it helps stimulate sexual arousal, it can boost fertility and also psychosexual mental health issues related to conception. And it's been researched as a potential alternative to HCG infertility treatment. So hcgz, HCG has been used for a long time, but this has been considered as an alternative. Increases both Basil and HCG stimulated progesterone secretion in the uterus, and it increases liver antioxidants, boost insulin secretion, and temporarily increases oxytocin. So make you feel good, give you more sex hormones, and stimulates sexual arousal and can boost fertility. So that's KISS Peptin. And the very last one I'm going to talk about is a aesthetic peptide. Generally considered an aesthetic peptide, but it has a lot of other incredible benefits. But this one is the famous GHK Copper. So GHK Copper is a copper peptide first identified in the human plasma. Its level decreases with age, like every other good thing in life, and it results in increased inflammation. Oh, except for wisdom, resulting in increased inflammation, cancerous activities and tissue destruction. So the more damage inflammation you have, the less GHK Copper you're going to have. And it's Generated after tissue injury, it's a powerful protector against injury and inflammation. And it reduces oxidative damages that can occur after an injury. It promotes wound healing by removing damaged and scarred tissue and generate new healthy tissue. It stimulates collagen synthesis in skin fibroblasts and promotes blood vessel growth. When it's used as a topical, it can increase collagen production by 70% and decrease fine lines and wrinkles by 27%. So it can tighten loose skin and reverse thinning of old skin, aged skin, and improve skin firmness, elasticity and clarity. It helps protect, repair protective skin barriers and reduces photo damage, hyperpigmentation, skin spots and lesions. It can also reduce hair loss, increase hair growth and thickness, enlarge hair follicle size. And then in addition to these aesthetic benefits, it can also help with lung health, liver health, promote bone repair. It can fight different cancer types, accelerate nerve regeneration, fights anxiety and combat cognitive dysfunction. So this is an amazing peptide. So we also have it in both injectable form or in a serum. Sometimes we combine that with exosomes. It's great for microneedling. You know that microneedling, it's going to trigger more reparative processes. So when you cause a controlled micro injury and then you add that with signals that can trigger the cells to repair more effectively, in addition to triggering your body's own repair mechanism, then you're amplifying the benefits. So that's the GHK copper. And of course I put this peptide into my skin cream that I formulated called Chara Omni. So the, the cream not only has GHK copper, has other peptides that are really good for skin regeneration, and has all the beneficial elements from umbilical core derived stem cells and a bunch of herbal extracts and antioxidants and prebiotics. So, so that is a cream that's incredible for skin repair. If anybody's really interested in a just really a potent, potent cream that, that's really, really clean, because I do, I make sure there's no synthetic ingredients in there, not even the preservatives. So there's nothing synthetic, nothing that can potentially cause issues with your, your own hormones and your own cellular health. So a very, very clean but very potent, very cream. So a lot of people actually use this cream to do micro needling so that then you're driving this nutrient, all the nutrients even deeper. Because of micro needling, you're slightly penetrating the skin barrier. So, so that's GHK Copper and how I've used it. And very helpful Peptide that's also good for hair growth. So when I produced our hair formula, definitely this copper peptide will be included as well. So that's it for my session on the peptides that we utilize at our clinic. And, and the most, some of the most popular and commonly used peptides by holistic practitioners. So people asked a lot, you know, where am I going to get this? It's not as easy. So there's a huge controversy about peptides and, and what's allowed, what's not allowed. But the good thing is that a lot of them have been approved by the FDA and there's a lot of safety and efficacy studies behind these peptides, especially these very commonly used ones. And most insurance companies will not cover this. So just like a lot of really wonderful therapies are not covered, your supplements are not covered. And a lot of the really, really wonderful therapies, safe and, and effective, proven by research are not approved, not covered. So this same category, this is how changes are made. This is how we change medicine is by utilizing and paving the way and showing the data and showing what has been happening using these modalities and whether you know, new uses also discovered by, by experiments like this. This is considered a type of experiment, you know, peptides, you're using this because it's not FDA approved, then it's considered an experiment. So I'm experiencing, experimenting on myself every day and so are a lot of biohackers and a lot of, yeah, a lot of people who are seeking relief of their symptoms. So I hope you found this helpful and I hope you find it fascinating. This peptide branch of medicine is, is really exciting because we can't really use a, you know, fine tuned laser beam in a sense to, to target where we're, what biological function we want to affect in the human body. So that's it for today and thank you so much. Feel free to contact our clinic if you're interested. Charal Health in Los Angeles. We can do virtual consultations throughout the country and we can individualize what you need because there's so much nuances to what a person may need depending on their own body. So we'll help you navigate and you can find us at achara-health.com and or the phone number is 818-356-8232. And I hope you really enjoyed this and are inspired and you're going to get some help. If you're dealing with any issues, get some help from these remarkable peptides and share it with your friends and family. Okay, bye now. Thank you for listening to this episode. Hope you enjoy the content and if so, please rate and follow this podcast. To reach me, you can contact Uplift Longevity center, that is Uplift with a Y. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel, Joy Kong MD see you next time.