Peptides 101

Welcome to the Peptides and Longevity Podcast, redefining aging and transforming health. Each week, Dr. Kent Holtorf will dive into groundbreaking science, innovative therapies, and the future of health and longevity alongside visionary physicians and experts. We'll explore how peptides, cutting-edge medicine, and lifestyle strategies can redefine the way we age. Get ready to transform your health, optimize your vitality, and unlock the secrets to a longer, healthier life. Let's get started.

Hi, this is Dr. Kent Holtorf. I wanna do just a very brief introduction to peptides and basically the background, the different classes of peptides and their mechanisms so that when the speakers are, you know, we're all talking about different peptides, like, you know, what the heck do each of these do? Because sometimes they can, you know, just reel off a bunch of different names, like, what the heck is that? So I want to go through and put them in classifications for you and understand some of the basic underlying fundamentals of peptides. So it's called Peptides 101. And just a little disclosure here. So let's go through. What we want to kind of achieve here is understand what the heck is a peptide, and then understand the multiple types of peptides and, and what their targets are to support normal functioning and the core aspects of dysfunctional systems that are involved with aging, poor lifestyle, toxin exposure, and, and to address symptoms of the multi-system disease. And understand how peptides differ from hormones, their mechanism of action, and understand the, again, the basic classes. We have immune modulating, rejuvenating, and these are pretty arbitrary, but, you know, sleep, uh, brain, you know, basically nootropics, antimicrobial, mitochondrial or energy. They have the growth hormone releasing hormones, uh, melanotropic, which are great at really anti-inflammatory, uh, then anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, and other ones. So they all cross over and they work so well together, but we'll try to make some sense of it and put them in different classes for you, um, and understand really the underlying issues of how the heck we get sick and why we age and how peptides can aid in retarding that basically progression to multiple illnesses, that multisystem illness, becoming frail, autoimmunity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, just basically loss of muscle mass, increased body fat, insulin resistance, decline in memory. Basically, your immune system starts declining. And so we'll see some of the things that when you look like— Damn, why aren't we addressing those when you look at what really changes as we age? And we see that so many conditions are associated with this immune dysfunction that we find with chronic aging, including stress, allergies, toxin exposure, lifestyle, certainly mold, obesity, insomnia. Sleep apnea, uh, where you get this Th1 T-reg. So think of everything as a, uh, basically a teeter-totter. So you got Th1 on one side, Th2 on the other side. Th1 gets stuff inside the cell, Th2 gets stuff outside the cell, and usually they're in balance. But as we get older, the Th1 gets too low. So now you can't fight intracellular infections or cancer. But now you have all this inflammation, right? But also they found that the Th1 goes along with what's called T-reg, which is kind of the balancing immune system. And it keeps your immune system from going too far. So when that gets messed up or isn't high enough, it kind of— it puts the brakes on everything. So then you get autoimmunity. And then there's on the other side with Th2. So you got Th1, Treg, Th2, Th17. Th17 really is that autoimmune, the inflammatory-driven side of the immune system. And as we age, with any illness and disease, it starts going like this. So all you have, all this Th17, Th2, not enough Th1, not enough Treg. So we're going to talk about how that snap that back to become younger and, and really have a younger immune system, which then perpetuates everything healing, you know, lack of this degenerative diseases that we see with aging. And really, we'll talk about, you know, gut, how the gut is so important in the gut-brain axis. So I just want to, you know, bring up these topics so when, when they're talked about that you have heard of them before. So what the heck is a peptide? Um, it's basically a protein, but it's arbitrary if it's less than 50 amino acids. So it's amino acids connected. Uh, if they're longer than 50— some people say 40 or 50— they're a protein. If they're less, they're considered a peptide. So they're small proteins. Um, now how do they differ from hormones? People say, well, Is peptide a hormone? Um, there are a lot of peptides that, uh, they're called hormones and vitamins that are actually hormones. But peptides will generally work on the cell surface. They work quicker. They work what's called pleiotropically. They have cell signaling, and they signal multiple messengers and have multiple effects. It's much like a vitamin. So you say, what does a vitamin do? It has multiple effects. And actually, it's actually much safer. It sounds like, wow, we don't know what it does, it has so many things. But, you know, drugs tend to be very targeted, and that's when you get into problems, is that it blocks one thing, but you don't think of all the other things that it basically affects when you're just trying to block one thing. But the peptides will generally have multiple effects, and they also work epigenetically and turn on and turn off genes. So when you look at your genome, people think our genes are what's gonna happen. But really, when you do a genetic test, your genes are about 20% of what's gonna happen to you. 80% is what affects those genes epigenetically. So, you know, whether it's lifestyle, toxins, pesticides, plastics, exercise, medications, whether they be hormones, peptides, you know, all those things acting on those genes can turn them on or turn them off. For instance, a peptide may turn off 100 genes and turn on 200 genes. So when you have, let's say, you're, oh my gosh, I have an APOE4, I'm gonna get Alzheimer's. But if you turn that gene off, then you're fine. You only have 20% is set in stone, 80% is not. So, and then hormones, in contrast, actually go into the cell, go into the nucleus, work on nuclear receptors, very slow on, slow off. So, uh, and they tend to have broader effects and, uh, and actually be you know, more side effects, um, and not as safe. And some of the peptides you can give 1,000 times the normal dose and there's no toxic effects. Not for all of them, but there are some of them it's like you can't do that with water. But, uh, they are in general, uh, very safe, um, and, uh, uh, that they work basically in a different mechanism. They're very synergistic with other peptides, hormones. I don't know, even off the top of my head, any peptide you can't give with, with X treatment. So peptides, we found out, you know, we thought, you know, hormones are the master regulators, but we found that peptides really are, regulate almost every process in the body. And they're very tissue and cellular specific. And they're more precise than hormones. Hormones are kind of like hitting it with a bat. And this is like, you know, with a scalpel. They did have tissue-specific effects, while hormones have more broad effects. Again, mentioned extremely safe, and more and more peptides are going to clinical trials. The drugs coming out are peptide hormones or peptide, whether they be antibiotics or, you know, basically a big thing now is mitochondrial peptides and things for diabetes, about 30% now, I think it is, are coming out. It'll probably be about 50% of new drugs coming out are peptides. So what are the general categories? This is somewhat arbitrary. You can break them down in so many different ways, but let's talk about immune modulating. We talked about that Th1, T-reg, Th2, TH17 balance. So thymosin beta-4 or TB4 frag, um, they basically are kind of even though they'll increase TH1 and lower TH2, um, and do both of those. The difference is now, uh, thymosin beta-4 is a very long— for a peptide, it's 43 amino acids. So it has multiple what they call domains that do different things. And one of the domains actually stimulates mast cells. Now, if you give TB4 to someone who has actually mast cell activation syndrome, too much mast cell activation, it will probably help even though it has a domain that stimulates mast cells. Because overall, the upstream effect modulating the immune system will actually suppress the mast cell activation. But the TB4 frag is what the— what it is, it's taken out the part that has all the immune modulators stimulating all those good parts and the rejuvenating effects, but leaves out the part that stimulates mast cells. It's also much smaller, so it crosses the blood-brain barrier, gets into actually biofilms, it gets into, you know, very small nooks and crannies in the body and has a much better effect in a lot more places. BPC-157 is just, it's a core treatment. Body protection compound. It is basically produced in the gut, and it's one, one of the few peptides that are stable in the gut. Even though it's a longer peptide, it actually absorbs very well and is shown to be equal potent whether you give it orally or subcutaneously or IM or however you, you want, you inject it, IV. It's for the same dose, it has the same effect if you take it orally or systemically. So let's say you have a knee that hurts, uh, the same dose orally in the study show that it will work the same as if you give it IV. Now I think, you know, if you inject in the joint, it's going to be more compressed in that joint, then you'll get a higher level of reduction inflammation and all that in there. But in general, it'll be the same as, let's say, subcutaneous or oral, the same dose with the same systemic effect. And they've shown that for, you know, studies on models of Alzheimer's, and whether it be diabetes and metabolism, tendons, joints, all those things. Thymosin alpha-1 is actually an approved peptide. It's approved as an orphan drug here in the US, but so you really can't get it. But it's approved in over probably 30 countries for everything from cancer to basically infections like hepatitis B, things like that. So it really increases that Th1 and really so kills those intracellular infections. Thymulin and thymogen are other thymosins that are produced in the thymus gland, which we're gonna talk about. And they all have generally similar effects but a little difference. You know, some have more modulating effects, like for instance, thymosin alpha 1 is really on Th1, raises that. Thymosin beta 4 basically is more even, will raise Th1, lower Th2, and that Th17. Now thymulin is kind of like thymosin beta 4, but it is more anti-inflammatory, I think, and it's probably one of the best for Herxheimer reaction. Although the other ones work as well. When you add like TB4, TB4-Frag with BPC, you have BPC lowering that Th2, um, and then the, the TB4. And now the thing that TB4 and TB4-Frag has over thymosin alpha 1 is more rejuvenating effects, more growth factors, where thymosin alpha 1 is more, you know, kind of that boosting that immunity for infection. Um, I put, uh, uh, petalin and pineleon. Uh, they're pineal hormones, and they actually will, uh, stimulate the thymus to make thymic hormones. And what's interesting, you can take out the pituitary and give the pineal hormones and it will stimulate the thyroid. So it will somehow stimulate the TSH receptor when there's no pituitary making TSH. Um, and it's really, uh, a balancing hormone, uh, one probably the best anti-aging hormone. Uh, studies show when you take it, uh, they've done studies, uh, basically people over 65 years old, uh, significant cardiovascular disease, bought them for for 14 years, uh, dramatic reduction in mortality, morbidity. They live longer. Their actual cardiovascular function gets better while the people on standard therapy get worse. And they, um, basically have dramatically less cancer, heart attacks, and they live longer. Sleep peptides, uh, some of these are just a miracle for people who can't sleep like myself, is a combination of the epitalon or pineal, which again, the pineal hormones, and the— and those are shown to actually— just those will raise your melatonin levels for an older person up to youthful levels just by itself. But they have much more effects than that. Now, when you add that to Delta Sleep Inducing Peptide, which what it sounds like, a sleep-inducing peptide. Um, you had that, and then like a growth hormone secretagogue that increases growth hormone, or AOD, which is anti-obesity drug, but it's a fragment of growth hormone. Um, it really resets that sleep, um, the whole system, where you can actually get deep sleep, that deep wave sleep. So, um, the, um the, the delta sleep, uh, inducing peptide. It's not like a sleep med where you fall asleep. It changes over time, takes a couple weeks, but it kind of resets that where you can actually get sleep. We find that combination of those three, of the basic pineal hormone peptides, uh, Vitalion, Pineleon, delta sleep inducing peptide, and either Growth Hormone Secretagogue or AOD or growth hormone, and you get great sleep, or see if it improves sleep with deep wave sleep after a couple weeks. So there's a lot of, you know, talk about, you know, all the growth hormone secretagogues, growth hormone releasing hormones, growth hormone releasing peptides. It shows they work better together. It's very complicated. I won't go into that, but just so You know that. Um, and the problem is people start associating that with like bodybuilders and things like that, but you can't overdose because if you take too much, it doesn't basically raise your growth hormone more than it should. Excuse me. And then AOD is a fraction of growth hormone. It does not increase, um, IGF-1, which is how, uh, most of the effects of growth hormone, but it has its own rejuvenating effects. And also does boost metabolism. So hence anti-obesity drug. Brain peptides, Semax and Selank. Those are shown to improve memory, attention, ADD, OCD. They increase brain connections. And all these have almost no side effects. I've I've never heard of any. Even healthy people, they improve, you know, test scores and things like that. Sreevalyasin has been around for 40 years. It's basically based on porcine brain peptides, a combination, and it's been given IV for a long time, but Now the FDA says you can't do it because it's now called— it's a biologic, so you can't give it IV, but, uh, or as an injection. But it does absorb orally, and the studies show that. And it's shown to help with traumatic brain injury, recover that, improve memory, autism, and increase brain connections, protect the brain from toxins, and so many great things with Cerebolicin. And there's a long history of safety and efficacy. Um, Dihexa is an angiotensin II-7 analog, uh, basically that is shown to improve Alzheimer's and memory. Uh, Cordygin, another brain neurotropic, increases brain metabolism. And all these are very synergistic. With, for instance, TB4, TB4-Frag, and BPC are shown to protect the brain from traumatic brain injury, increase memory. I know when we give people BPC and TB4, they go, "God, I can think clearer." Well, that's what they say a lot of times. The growth hormone secretagogues, yeah, we can spend a lot of time on this, but essentially now there's growth hormone-releasing peptides and growth hormone-releasing hormones, and they're shown to work better when they are used together. And then the anti-obesity drug, which is a fragment of growth hormone. And again, most of these peptides are naturally produced, but some are synthetic and some are drugs. For instance, like thymosin alpha 1 is approved as a drug. Antimicrobial peptides. LL-37 is a big one, very broad range of antimicrobial properties that your body secretes. Actually, stem cells secrete them. It also stimulates stem cells. So again, it's a good vicious cycle. Thymosin alpha 1 is approved for infections because it raises that Th1. Thymosin beta 4 and TB4 frag also. BPC-157, All the studies have shown that it's very— I haven't seen any studies on bacteria, but every study on viruses shows, like for instance, it outperformed acyclovir at 1/100th the dose. So it killed the herpes virus better than acyclovir at 1/100th the dose. But there's not that many studies on other things. So we find that it really helps with a lot of infections. But there's no studies to really back that up, but extremely safe. Um, and rejuvenating, again, will bring in a lot of these peptides. BPC-157 increases healing. Um, when I give lectures on it and show all the studies, it's kind of embarrassing. It's kind of like snake oil. How could it help everything? For everything from Alzheimer's, joint pain, autoimmune disease, um skin problems, any inflammation, uh, just so many things. And the TB4, the TB4 frag, again, immune modulation. The Epitalion and Pineleon, again, will stimulate the thymus but also has even higher upstream effects, for instance, working on the pain centers and the sleep center. Delta Sleep does, like what it says, is a sleep center, but it's very anti-inflammatory. So one of the things that it likely does is lower the inflammation in the hypothalamus, and that really helps you get deep sleep. So all these people with Lyme and chronic infections, they have inflammation hypothalamus and they can't sleep. They're just wired. So it is great at lowering inflammation. There, as is the melanocortins, which we'll talk about, especially KPV, which can actually get in there. The growth hormone-releasing hormones, growth hormone-releasing peptides will actually do the same. Mitochondrial peptides— there's so many studies now in trials with boosting mitochondrial function because it is a core cause of aging. Your cells don't have enough energy. Their immune system doesn't have enough energy to fight infections, to fight cancer. And actually, it's called autophagy, where these— they're called senescent cells. They just kind of sit there and they're dysfunctional. They start— the mitochondria get dysfunctional, and they start secreting all this reactive oxygen species, a lot of oxidative substances. And, uh, so become very, you know, attacking the body with the— all these oxidative compounds. And— but boosting the mitochondria actually reverses that. So, um, for instance, there are also any chronic illness, especially lots of studies on Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, um, even, you know, uh, in, in terms of, you know, muscle strength, that you want mitochondrial function. You need energy for all these things to work. So there's MOTC, which actually you should do as injection twice a week or so. 5-Amino-1MQ, which we've had really interesting success with, with, you know, kind of psychiatric issues such as OCD, ADD, depression. For instance, uh, we had one patient who basically pulling out— young girl— all her eyebrows. And after 3 days on 5-Minute 1MQ, she stopped. And, uh, humanin, which is— has some amazing things going on with it, and lots of clinical trials, uh, were for diabetes. And all these mitochondria things also boost metabolism. Your metabolism drops as you get older. So you get, you know, type 2 diabetes, obesity, um, you know, basically there's not enough energy for all these systems to work. Um, SS31, um, is, uh, tons of trials. It improves mitochondria function. It's basically an antioxidant inside the mitochondria. Uh, for right now, it's very expensive to get the dose that works, but a lot of great studies coming out on that. BPC and TB4, uh, and TB4-Frag being smaller gets into the mitochondria. Those are also mitochondrial boosters, and you'll see a boost in mitochondria. Um, the melanotropic peptides, um, the basis is alpha melanocyte stimulating hormone. So you think of that as, you know, increasing melanocytes, right? So basically getting, uh, tan, uh, response to the sun. But they're also very anti-inflammatory. And you'll find a lot of people, you know, they just love laying out or getting the tanning beds because it just makes them feel good. And that's what we find is that it's very anti-inflammatory, boosts, you know, serotonin and dopamine, um, and things you can't really give, uh, alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone. It just breaks down very quickly. Um, and there's Melanotan 1 and then 2. Which is, uh, which is available. You get tan, you lose weight, increase libido, increase erectile function. Uh, so it's kind of called the Barbie doll or the Ken, Ken doll peptide. But the problem is, if you're young, that's great, you get tan, but if you're older, it will bring out dark spots and that. So now KPV is a tiny tripeptide fraction of α-melanocyte stimulating hormone that has more anti-inflammatory effects actually than the whole peptide, but it actually does not stimulate, um, the melanocytes, so you don't get the darkening of the skin, which is good. Plus it's small, so it can absorb orally, can cross the blood-brain barrier, and we're having great results with that for mast cells, for autoimmune disease. Uh, PT-141 is approved for libido in women. It just got approved. It's an interesting peptide. I don't know if I've ever seen it not work. It's a little strange though. There's a side effect of nausea, which does tend to go away. But for erectile function, you know, nothing beats it. And then, you know, some libido improvement, uh, and again, it's approved for increasing libido in women. Um, side effects of nausea, uh, you can get a local reaction, uh, and it's interesting, when I was very sick and I would inject the peptides, I get this red mark which looks like I was allergic to them, but as I got better, it went away. So really, it was that abnormal Th2, Th17 that would basically react. But once I balance my immune system, I could do the hormones. You'll actually see that with the growth hormone releasing peptides, uh, and you'll see it looks like that you're allergic to them. But we see that really in the people, Lyme patients, the, uh, the Sears patients that have really abnormal— abnormally balanced immune system. Those are also the people that do not do well with vaccines and get harmed with vaccines. So we are starting a, you know, a vaccine risk mitigation program where we test and then modulate that immune system so you're less likely to get any problems from vaccines. I'm not an anti-vaxxer. Vaccines have done more for humanity than so many things, and they're a huge part of health and why we're here. But they— we need to talk about them just like every other drug. Hey, what's a good, what's a bad, what's the best way to take them? How do you lower your risk from, um, vaccine injury? People want to pretend, oh, they're totally safe, they're 100% safe, which is ridiculous. I've seen people's lives They've got a flu shot and they were totally healthy and they're bedbound and they're never the same. But that's not a small, very small percentage, but it happens. Doesn't mean each person has to decide whether or not to take each particular vaccine. So you're preventing very serious illnesses, but some studies show you have 30% increase in immune disease, obesity. So you're, you're trading off those side effects for something that's really bad. So where is that point where you say yes or no? Um, and I think it's different for different people. So again, I'm not saying, you know, vaccines are— they're a good thing for a lot of people, a lot of them are good, but we may be giving way too many. For instance, why are we giving hepatitis B vaccines to a newborn? Are they going to start doing drugs and being a prostitute, you know, when they're born? Um, I mean, it's crazy, and it's shown to cause developmental delay and that. So, you know, it's everything in moderation. And, uh, and what's the safest way to do the vaccines is the question. Um, and start about immune dysregulation. So, so many things associated with immune dysregulation, chronic infections, and And that's what we see so much of. Again, Lyme, parasites, and you look at chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, Sears, mast cell activation syndrome, their just immune systems are just way off. So we can look at someone's immune system and really know exactly how sick they are and the extent of their symptoms to a very high degree of accuracy. Stress, oh, I give lectures on stress. Stress is thought to lower the immunity. It does not. It modulates it. It increases inflammation, that Th2, but lowers that Th1. Aging, uh, is a big problem. We just keep going like this. Dysbiosis, it's a vicious cycle. Any gut issues, cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, post-traumatic stress, they basically have leaky brain, leaky got PMS even, insulin resistance and diabetes. They all have immune dysfunction. They all have low thyroid even though they have normal levels. Obesity, excuse me, they have immune dysfunction. They all have low thyroid. And most have autoimmune thyroid that's not detected on standard tests. Depression, just dieting. Dieting will wreck your immune system and actually lower your thyroid if you seriously diet. And then when you start eating normally, your metabolism does not go back to normal. Um, you know, so people say they wreck their metabolism, they have, unless you do something about it. Neurodegenerative disease is definitely migraines, inflammation, cancer, traumatic brain injury immediately just messes up the immune system. All diseases of aging, infertility. If people can't get pregnant, fix their immune system, give them some T3. Oftentimes some heparin. They have immune activation of coagulation, um, and they get pregnant naturally. Um, and again, the, uh, abnormal immune system causes low thyroid, uh, that's not detected on standard blood tests. So I spent about 4 hours doing these, uh, teeter-totter graphs here, so we can gaze at those for a second. Um, so yeah, what's, what's going on? So the thymus— so thymus is here in your breastbone. And basically, about at age 15, you get a sharp decline in the thymus. It just starts involuting, just starts shriveling up. So you get that— basically, it controls your Th1, Th2. So you start getting this. So you start aging much quicker. And then so here is the graph. I think you can see my cursor, where right around age 15, 14, 15, you just get this big drop in the thymus. And you just get this. And so autoimmune disease, cancer, degenerative diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, um, just start happening when you get older. People— yeah, so when you get there, you're 40, like, oh my gosh, I'm getting all this, this stuff. Especially at 50, you've got a couple years of bad immune system. That's when all the bad stuff starts happening. Now, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, approximately 80% of aged individuals are afflicted with at least one chronic disease as a result of decline in thymic-related immune function. So again, CDC, 80%, um, the just the thymus abnormality, uh, people suffer from at least one disease from that. And what actually speeds it up? Obesity, calorie intake, toxins. Um, so, uh, the thymic and the pineal gland, uh, and age. So again, many things have negative effects, uh, and then the subsequent immunity, age, genetics, inflammation, lifestyle is huge, toxins, pesticides, plastics, pregnancy, more times you're pregnant, hypothyroidism. Low growth hormone, zinc deficiency. You hear a lot about zinc with the whole COVID thing. Um, and then immune dysfunction, uh, can worsen and also be associated with thyroid dysfunction that's not picked up on standard blood tests. You're much more susceptible to infections. Uh, toxins are a big issue— mold toxins, you know, mycotoxins, plastics, pesticides. Uh, we're just bombarded with all this stuff. EMFs. Oh, don't get me started on all that. So you get autoimmune disease. Um, so this is basically that high TH2, your body starts attacking itself. Increased cancer risk, depression, bipolar, obesity with all that inflammation. So inflammation, hypothalamus, you basically— your brain doesn't, um, basically you're— when you gain weight, you increase leptin. Leptin should go back to the brain, tell the brain, hey, we got stored energy. We don't, we don't need to eat any, you know, we need to slow down our eating, we need to increase metabolism, all that. But the brain doesn't see it, so the brain thinks the body's starving. So it lowers your thyroid, increases your appetite, lowers your metabolism, and tells the body to store fat. So inflammation in the brain does that. Um, and, uh, PCOS, gut dysbiosis, Um, again, all the chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, uh, musculoskeletal degeneration. People become frail, they become weak and frail, and they break a hip, and that's how they end up being up with pneumonia or whatever in the nursing home. Neurodegenerative diseases. And, um, and they have terrible, uh, immune system, terrible mitochondrial function, uh, and they're all infected. Just infections, these low-lying infections that no one tests for, is speeding up aging so much. It is so common. Uh, stress. Again, we talked about stress. So, uh, you look at stress does not lower immunity, it modulates it. And you get, uh, actually the cortisol— corticotropin-releasing hormone— which stimulates ACTH to make cortisol, hugely stimulates mast cells. So stress increases inflammation, increases mast cells. So you wanna— and all these, you know, there's all these amazingly smart geeks that just are in the mast cell activation syndrome, which no one else will touch, but they're still just focused on direct suppression of mast cells, but you really want to look upstream, and that's where you get the best effects. So especially the people with Sears, mast cell activation syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, Lyme, and restoring that— looking at that Th1, uh, T-reg, Th2, Th17 balance— much more beneficial than trying to suppress the mast cells with antihistamines and those things. They work, they help, but you can do much more. Um, and there was a misnomer. You'll— if you read, you'll see there's Th1 autoimmunity, and for instance, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Hashimoto's, uh, it's felt to be type 1, where Graves is type 2. But, you know, and I was taught that. I'm like, well, why do they respond to the same treatments, you know, like even this low-dose naltrexone, modulates the immune system. Type 1 or type 2, wouldn't it be different? Um, what they found is that it was not Th1, it was actually— looks like Th1, but it was actually a subset called Th17, which actually is more on the Th2 side. So that whole Th1, um, autoimmunity is completely wrong. It's a Th17 TH1 actually suppresses TH17. So thymosins, again, uh, as that involutes and you stop secreting thymosins, that's when your immune system goes awry and you start feeling the effects of aging, um, and you lose all that healing restoring properties that's required to maintain normal antimicrobial activity. Mitochondrial function. Uh, thymus works in so many different ways to a secondary messenger for healing. It's anti-inflammatory. Again, without thymus, you're just up here with so much inflammation. Nitric oxide, which dilates the vessels. Antioxidants boost stem cells. Uh, the thymus is needed to maintain healthy gastrointestinal mucosa. Also, you know, people have brain on fire now. Most people are stressed, they can't sleep, they got ADD, they have depression. It's brain inflammation. So it's that immune system, that Th2, that's activating the microglia in the brain. So modulate that, that brain inflammation goes away. It also binds and blocks the effects of toxins. Such as mycotoxins. So people with mold toxicity, and EMFs actually, uh, make it worse and actually speed the growth of mold, by the way. Um, and the electromagnetic fields are actually very activating to the brain and the microglia. So it's like you don't get deep sleep, um, when you're around EMFs. I recommend you turn off your Wi-Fi at night. Boost natural killer cell function, which is that Th1 Also, those thymosins, especially the small ones like thymosin beta-4-frag, gets into the biofilms and buffs them up. So gut-brain axis, you gotta think of it as a— is basically a two-way street. Uh, we're finding so many things. The gut controls so many, um, aspects of our health, and we've evolved with these organisms for millions of years, and we can't live without them. And we find when that gets messed up, it messes up the health of the body. But also, when you have an unhealthy body, it messes up the gut. So, you know, they've done, you know, the studies where thin people have a certain set of bacteria in their gut, and obese people have a different set. If you replace them, then the skinny people get fat, the fat people get skinny, but they tend to go back to where they were because of the dual aspect where the unhealthy body actually also controls what bugs are going to grow in the, in the gut. So it's much more complex than, hey, just take these probiotics. And then when you get into the viral microvirome, there's you know, we have more bacterial DNA than we do human DNA, and we have way more viral DNA than we have bacterial DNA. So the viruses that actually— they're called bacteriophages. They're very specific to the bacteria. They don't harm us, but they go after the bacteria. But they'll actually are a major part of controlling the level of the different bacteria in the gut. And it's a whole new, you know, we think like this whole new revolution of the microbiome. Just wait till we start learning about the virome. It's one of those things with you, the more you know, the more you know you don't know. But if you have leaky gut, so leaky gut is such a problem with all processed foods, all the inflammation, you know, the Many of the peptides, BPC, the thymosins, uh, will fix the tight junctions and one of the best things to heal the gut. Remember, it's a two-way street. Um, and just shows here really a big part with the vagus nerve. Um, it affects, you know, they say gut-brain access, but it's really gut-everything access because it works at really all levels, but the brain will affect everything else. But it's just inflammation. Inflammation in the gut, you have inflammation everywhere else. And so basically, unhealthy gut, you're gonna, you're gonna be unhealthy. So just in summary, a wide range of diseases really have this commonality of this low Th1 T-reg, high Th2, Th17. And a key is, is bringing that back to a youthful, healthy balance. Um, and remember, the gut-brain axis is a core, uh, contributor to overall health, and the peptides can control many aspects of this. And, uh, improper functioning or deficiencies such as thymus is gone, I'm not replaced fibric hormones, and can really be a major contributor to all these diseases of aging. So that's it. I hope that gives you a little background. Sorry for my raspy voice, but when you listen to these talks, so you kind of have a sense of, you know, where, where everyone's coming from with, with the peptides. So again, I hope you're enjoying and hope you're finding it useful. And, uh, thanks for joining us. All right, goodbye.

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