Peptides: The Science, Uses & Safety | Dr. Abud Bakri

“Ozempic, Monjaro, and Retatrutide as well as peptides such as Body Protection Compound 157 or BPC-157, which, as you'll learn today, has a very long history of being used in humans for gut health and tissue repair and many interesting studies in animals supporting its potential use in humans, but a minimum of formal studies in humans.”

“but a minimum of formal studies in humans. Meaning, one. We discuss BPC-157, what it does and how, as well as things like growth hormone secretagogues like Tesamorelin, MK-677, and others. And we talk about things like GHK copper, which nowadays many people are using to promote collagen synthesis and repair for aesthetic reasons, like improving skin, hair, and so on.”

“Now we've been looking into animal tissues to find cures, medicines, treatments. So a group in Croatia in the 90s looks out for this peptide called BPC, that they eventually named BPC. It's a 40,000-dalton, giant peptide called BPC.”

“BPC-157 is 15 amino acids from that giant peptide. We don't naturally make BPC-157. That's what you'll commonly hear online. We make BPC the big protein. Did this group go looking for a body protection compound?”

“what's causing the actual biological effects? They identified BPC-157, the 15 amino acid peptide that's causing all these effects. There's actually more peptides in gastric juices that some other scientists may or may not have already identified. This field of peptides is going to be very interesting because almost every organ has a signature of peptides.”

“interesting way. We'll have people come to us and they're like, my Adderall is not working since I've been taking oral BPC. Are they happy with that effect? No, they're not happy. They're very mad because it seems like it's blunting their Adderall. So it's doing something from dopaminergic signaling on both sides, both withdrawal when it comes to the gapinergic side, but also the peak”

“No, no. I think that story was hearsay. I don't think they wanted to reveal what they actually did. I don't think they only did BPC 157. They'd be stupid if they did. They should have all the best and latest, greatest treatments, whether exosomes, stem cells, other peptides. Anything that wasn't banned. And by the way, I should say BPC 157 was not on the banned substances list at that time.”

“Like the gray market existed for the last 15, 20 years. Bodybuilders would, you know, have anecdotes about BPC-157. They'd inject it post, you know, post squats for different injuries. Nobody really cared about it. It was with the GLP-1s and then the banning of the peptides, plus this, you know, anti-medicine kick that's been happening over the last five years.”

“So in the liver, it had a signal of cancer in animal data. So that whole thing was scrapped. There's no signal from the animal literature on BPC-157 for, you know, cancers. Now, all that literature comes from one group. So we have to be very careful. It's that one creation group that tells you that it's the safest thing in the world.”

“Really? Yeah. Humans. Yes. Phase two. Yes. We talked to a group, an orthopedic group somewhere on the East Coast. They wanted to do a BPC trial so that we consulted with them to kind of... Great. Yeah. So it's going to happen. Especially if it moves to this category one list and people can be prescribed it. At least we can get, like, a phase four trial where it's being prescribed and we can see”

“They're making tons of money making Adderall. They don't really care. They don't care about BPC, 157. So they have one of the patents. The other patent expires in like 10 years. I think Sikorek still has it. Dr. Sikorek is the guy behind BPC, 157. He's in Croatia. He's in Croatia, yeah. Would Teva sell the patent?”

“you could do a trial on like, you know, GERD. That's a simple condition. A lot of people have it randomized to, to BPC-157 oral capsules versus pentoprazole. Okay. And you're basing this on the fact that you've seen and heard that people who have GERD get better, feel better when they take it. Okay. And it could be placebo. Yes.”

“the prostaglandins, you know, all these different hormones that are made, potentially BPC-157 is part of this robust armory that the gut has to protect itself from further injuries. What are some things outside the gut or indirect from the gut that are also compelling? So I would love to see some neuropsychiatric BPC studies when it comes to addictions.”

“that was not gray market. It was obtained through a doctor's prescription from a compounding pharmacy. Yep. Labeled BPC-157, but not PDA. Not PDA. Okay. Those are anecdotes. I've also read, just to be fair, we should balance this out. Certainly on X, you know, people can say anything they want. People saying, oh, you know, I didn't feel well.”

“The problem is no one's doing the work to figure that out. You painted this picture where not you, perhaps, but let's just say another physician has the awareness that BPC-157 might be useful to a patient of theirs that's dealing with a they had like an ACL tear.”

“Or even in glaucoma. I should mention that BPC-157, to my knowledge, hasn't been looked at extensively in terms of optic nerve repair, but it absolutely should be. If someone knows those papers, please put them in the comments. So I was intrigued.”

“When I hear about thymosin alpha, TB500, BPC, it occupies this kind of middle ground.”

“Wolverine stack, which someone online just made up. That's the Wolverine stack? It's those two? Yeah. TB500 and Thymosin Alpha? No, TB500 and BPC-157. And BPC-157. Yes. Now people will add on GHK copper and call it the glow stack. The glow stack. Yeah. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Someone has made it up.”

“Yes. I don't think anyone thinks it causes cancer. It's not mutagenic. This is the big debate when people are like, BPC causes cancer. There's no mutagenic effect from BPC. Is BPC like smoking a cigarette? Smoking a cigarette, you get carcinogenic damage to the lung tissue that causes a cancer later on. There's no direct mechanism that would link any of these peptides to a carcinogenic effect.”

“When it comes to the peptides coming back to category one. The first round is going to have these seven peptides. BPC, TB, etc. And the second round is going to look at GHK. I don't imagine that makes it. There's no good human data on that. But topically, there's great human data on like different aesthetic outcomes. Especially when coupled with red light therapy.”

“nomenclature to divide up what we've talked about today you know bpc 157 um you know peptides with and without known receptors the regenerative peptides as you've called them things like thymus and alpha tb500 which are immunogenic peptides i”

“potential can things like bpc 157 help and or hurt those circumstances given their potential role in angiogenesis and the other things you described no literature exists on either animal or human”

“Yeah, there were studies in Russia on TBI's when it comes to Cortexin and Cerebrolysin which would probably never be available in the United States so we'll skip those. There's no good data on BPC and TBIs they theoretically could be useful from an anti-stress perspective”

“The question that's going to happen. Is there's going to be a lot of these orally available peptides and they're going to be all over supplement websites. Like you'll, you'll find them with your magnesium and your creatine and then your Pinealon or your BPC-157. The question is, what is that gonna look like?”

“or otherwise, about peptides from the GLPs to BPC157 and all the others that I mentioned, including some that I didn't mention here in the introduction. So it is a real gift and honor to have this knowledge presented to all of us.”

“so say the animal data. Yep. Okay. A lot of animal data. All right. I know a lot of people are interested in GLPs, and I want to go there, but because I know most people are probably listening to this foremost because they want to hear about the other stuff.”

“with from the research community. They use it as a marketing tool to sell more BPC 157. Because what happened in the field is The GLP-1s come online, you know, late 2021, 2022 with Ozempic and Wegovya. They get the FDA approval for weight loss. There's not enough of a supply from the traditional pharmaceutical versions of the GLP-1s.”

“So if there's a shortage, compounding pharmacies can jump in the game. Yes. And they did. And they jumped in very hard. On the GLPs. Yes. And they made a lot of money off the GLP ones. This was billions of dollars being made. Were they selling them for less than standard pharma was selling? They were less than the Ozempic pens.”

“or testosterone. It's not a big deal. Peptides is different because it came, you know, the big explosion in this came through the GLPs. And I would argue, I'd love your opinion on this, why so many people are now peptide curious is because people, because of the GLPs, are now also very comfortable injecting themselves.”

“providers that will cover you for that. Let's say somebody gets hurt taking one of the prescribed pharma GLPs and they're pissed and they sue. They sue their doctor or they sue the pharma company. Depending on who had the liability. So if the doctor didn't warn you that injecting 10 times a dose might cause pancreatitis and you have pancreatitis, they can claim the doctor is at fault.”

“MK is not a peptide. It's a non-peptide GHRP. What's happened now is people are now stacking their GLP-1 as their insulin sensitivity tool. Their growth hormone or their GHRH. And their androgen modulation therapies as this trinity stack.”

“GLPs. I'm going to acknowledge because people are going to start throwing darts at me about this. Yes, retitrutide is hitting things other than the GLP pathway. It's also GIP and glucagon pathway, but most people put it under the category of GLP. So you are encyclopedic, my friend. I really, really appreciate the clarity and the thoughtfulness of your answers on these.”

“He described that the diabetic drugs would increase GLP by like double, quadruple, but the weight loss effects weren't really there. But the drugs that you rattled off a few minutes ago, Mounjaro, Ozempic, et cetera, and certainly Retatrutide, we're talking about thousand-fold increases in GLPs.”

“increases in GLPs. We don't know what the long-term effects of those are on like neuroplasticity. And it could be great. Yes. Could be positive. We shouldn't always assume those effects are bad. Yeah, like the effects for, let's say, a 60-year-old pre-diabetic diabetic on Alzheimer's disease seems to be potentially positive.”

“Let's just set the GLPs aside because it's kind of a separate category. And they want to explore their use and they want to be as safe as possible. Where shouldn't they look? Yeah. Is how I'll phrase the question.”

“You know, you shouldn't be taking Tesamorelin without checking IGF one levels. Uh, GLP one even should be monitored with the physicians that can counsel you on, on too much weight loss. Like some of these celebrities should have had better clinicians. Uh, monitoring their GLP one journeys. Cause they lost way too much weight. That doesn't look healthy at all.”

“We also talk about peptides that have been studied for the purpose of DNA repair and longevity, like Epithalon and Pinealon, which also have been touted to improve REM sleep and for improving cognitive function.”

“Yes. Are they bioavailable active? Dr. Khavinson's work suggests that it is. Dr. Vladimir Khavinson is this Russian-Soviet scientist that gives us Epitalon and Thymulin and Pinealon and all these Russian peptides. Di and Tri-peptides can be orally available if they're the right shape and size.”

“He's like, huh, I wonder if these effects are from the peptides, not from the gland itself. So then He sequences from the pineal gland Epithalon and from the thymus gland a couple different peptides, Vilon, Thymogen, Crystagen, that you'll be hearing about in the next few years.”

“That on their own do a lot of the effects that the whole extract would do. Now you're talking about Epithalon, but Pinealon and Epithalon. Is not from the pineal gland. Is not from the pineal gland. Even though everyone. No, I think it's called that because there's, as far as I understand, please correct me if I'm wrong.”

“Epitalon, which turns out comes from the pineal.”

“But Epitalon is somehow restoring pinealocytes, it's somehow enhancing function of the pineal and other tissues. Yep. So in Khavinson's work, he's found that it will increase the expression of the different clock genes.”

“So in the Khavinson seminal work was this 15 year longevity study, you got people in nursing homes, two groups one of them got Epitalon in the form of Epithalamin, which is the whole pineal gland extract.”

“them peptides for, you know, very small amount of the year, and yet they accrued benefits the rest of the year. Impressive. One of the things that really got me excited about Epithalon, is it thalon or talon? The Russians say Epitalon, it's the way they say it, but it's spelled with a TH. Okay. So I'll say Epithalon, whoever wants, you know, we're making the rules today.”

“Even though they're in mice, I can say this is a real effect or like a meh effect or like a whoa effect. Using Epitalon to combat some of the neurodegeneration and things like retinitis pigmentosa. Downstream neurodegeneration, NRP, which is a very common, unfortunately, blinding disease.”

“And this is what gene therapy is about. So do you think of Epitalon as kind of a gene therapy of sorts? Or do you think about it more as support for genetic machinery that has lots of downstream targets? Yes, I think it supports this genetic machinery. When it comes to the eyes, it seems to be repairing some of the photoreceptors that might get down.”

“When it comes to the bioregulators, the Epitalon, Pinealon, the Khavinson literature looks at like microgram dosages from 10 to 100 micrograms of the actual raw peptides.”

“like tesamorelin, MK-677, and others. And we talk about things like GHK copper, which nowadays many people are using to promote collagen synthesis and repair for aesthetic reasons, like improving skin, hair, and so on.”

“Something similar happens in America with GPR. GHK copper, which is another tripeptide that's technically like the collagen regulator. So pinealon is the brain regulator. We're going to talk about this. And GHK copper is the collagen regulator. But so far, the side effects we've noticed, we have probably the biggest anecdotal compilation of N equals one.”

“So biology likes to use metals with different amino acid structures, hemoglobin with iron, GHK copper with copper. Thymulin is zinc-dependent. So it's a 9-amino acid peptide with zinc inside. To do its effects, that will develop NK cells and T cells, stimulate the immune response.”

“maybe women should take it too for all those reasons and more. And it kind of reverted back to like the muscle thing. GHK-Cu is a tripeptide with a copper ion in the middle. It's glycine, histidine, and lysine. It's actually found in type 1 collagen fibers.”

“So similar to the BPC, they would cut rats open, inject GHK copper in a different site, and they'd get faster wound repair of the skin tissue from injecting this. So that's, you know, it's become synonymous with BPC-157, TB-500, Wolverine stack, which someone online just made up.”

“you know, denaturing of different peptides. That's beyond this discussion. Point is, GHK copper, it both upregulates the synthesis side of collagen and the breakdown side of collagen. So because when you're remodeling tissue, if you're just rebuilding it, you're going to get like very pathogenic structures.”

“because there's a lot of connective tissue in the lungs between the different alveoli. And there's some hype there of using GHK copper as a regenerative from that side. How many people are trying to regenerate their lungs? Is this for like COPD? COPD and smokers. It's a big, big industry.”

“There are a few other things I'd like to talk about if you're willing to give us time. We should close the hatch on GHK-Cu. I just spoke. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I saw it in your eyes. You're like, he said it wrong. Do I correct him? Yes, correct me. Everyone else does.”

“Because it seems that the blue pigment and the red light seem to be synergistic in that effect. There's also some literature when it comes to GHK-CU for post-UV damage. So people that are, you know, sun friendly can use GHK-CU topically to alleviate some of the photo damage.”

“But for people that, you know, aren't as responsible. You can use GHK-CU as a. Or listen to the derms who are slightly more sun positive. Like especially low UV index sun when the sun is low in the sky.”

“So people are taking GHK-CU cream, putting it on and then doing red light therapy. And there are human data that that perhaps can augment some of the collagen reparative. Yes. Some of the photo aging effects, some of the effects of aging when compared to like different retinols and stuff like that.”

“We also talk about peptides that have been studied for the purpose of DNA repair and longevity, like Epithalon and Pinealon, which also have been touted to improve REM sleep and for improving cognitive function.”

“Are they bioavailable active? Dr. Khavinson's work suggests that it is. Dr. Vladimir Khavinson is this Russian-Soviet scientist that gives us epitalon and Thymalin and Pinealon and all these Russian peptides. Di and Tri-peptides can be orally available if they're the right shape and size. They're not very well available, but they can be available.”

“If I take it at the beginning of the night, it reduces my deep slow-wave sleep and gives me far more REM across the night... if I happen to wake up in the middle of the night to use the restroom once or so... If I do a very small injection of Pinealon at that point, the one and a half hours of REM that I would get in the final hours of my sleep, now I'm getting three hours.”

“That on their own do a lot of the effects that the whole extract would do. Now you're talking about Epithalon, but pinealon and Epithalon. Is not from the pineal gland. Is not from the pineal gland. Even though everyone.”

“Tripeptide with no receptor... Previously called Pinealon, but from here forward, EDR.”

“They didn't have sleep trackers in the 1970s when it came to these. So there was no reports on that. But what seems to be happening, let's see, what is this Pinealon, this EDR? It's a tripeptide that meets the groove of the DNA of different key regions and helps the promoter region be exposed. So then that DNA transduction can happen, translation, transcription.”

“Okay. But if you take it in the morning or pre-HIIT workout, you get quite an interesting effect. So he studied this compound on athletes and he would have them do their training session, go to exhaustion, and then do a test afterwards. And there's two groups, Pinealon and the placebo. The Pinealon group could keep their performance up despite being maximally exhausted from their training.”

“Now I know it's cleanly sourced because I trust the compounding pharmacy it's coming from. But I should ask, are there any known risks of EDR? So far, nothing in the Russian literature. So big caveat, it's Russian literature. It's not gold standard American research that we love here. So there's nothing that's come up as a clear sign.”

“For some people, that could be disheartening if they have like, you know, nightmares or something like that. But very, very vivid dreams as a result of pinealon. Especially like the color and the quality of the dreams is very different than you normally expect. What seems to be happening is like, just like, you know, psychedelics change the redox state of the brain.”

“So is that distinction going to apply to peptides also? Is the big question that no one's answered. And is a, you know, Pinealon is a supplement you can find in Kazakhstan and Russia and Ukraine, wherever, all these different countries, over-the-counter in different pharmacies. Is Pinealon available as a capsule? It's available as a capsule. Does it work as well as a capsule?”

“in CEOs and celebrities and stuff is using a combination of those three things. You know, your TRT plus Tirzepatide or Retatrutide, whatever it may be, and then using a growth hormone modulation if you can afford growth hormone or Tesamorelin and Ipamorelin. And you're seeing people lose a lot of fat, gain a lot of muscle in short amounts of time.”

“The raw materials, like the semaglutide you're getting from a compounding pharmacy or a research peptide website, Retatrutide included, comes from China and then gets either the raw material gets packaged here into the vials. Wait, raw materials or synthesized compound? Because there's a big difference between getting like the raw materials for something and getting the thing.”

“This is the problem with peptides. This is what Eli Lilly is coming into when it comes to making RETA is that patent laws for peptides kind of suck because you can add on one amino acid, you can modify one thing on it and suddenly it's a different compound.”

“And I'm guessing that for women... The... It's the combination of growth hormone secretagogue plus something like... And we'll talk about these now. Retatrutide or one of the other GLPs.”

“What happens to all these young kids that are 18, 19 years old on five milligrams of Retatrutide that have lost 30, 40 pounds are they going to have to be on that for life now to maintain that weight?”

“the newer ones the effects are much less like the people report Tirzepatide and retatrutide even have less of these gastrointestinal effects but um that's a peptide gone wrong story. peptide gone wrong”

“i did still think that it that Retatrutide is going to be a trillion dollar industry not because so many people are necessarily going to use it for weight loss but because many people will use it for weight loss”

“And then using a growth hormone modulation if you can afford growth hormone or Tesamorelin and Ipamorelin. And you're seeing people lose a lot of fat, gain a lot of muscle in short amounts of time. Is that healthy? We'll find out. But that is like the celebrity protocol. Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.”

“is year-round. So what, what if you did a cyclical cycle of, and this is not medical advice, but just theoretical cyclical cycle of Tesamorelin for, uh, a certain amount of time, got your IGF-1 to a certain level under clinician guidance, measured your, your thymus on an MRI before and after, and then you saw that the thymus grew and you had, you know, higher CD4, CD8 count.”

“obviously, you know, hyper-responsive prostate to Sermorelin, maybe it wouldn't have been to Tesamorelin, et cetera, but, but those are the kinds of things that might just be the growth hormone itself. Like growth hormone secretion. That's a good point. As you age, your prostate gets bigger. The bane of every man is going to be BPH.”

“With Tirzepatide or Retatrutide, whatever it may be, and then using a growth hormone modulation. If you can afford growth hormone or Tesamorelin, Ipamorelin. And you're seeing people lose a lot of fat. Gain a lot of muscle in short amounts of time. Is that healthy? We'll find out. But that is like the celebrity protocol.”

“But studied these two dramatically, Thymosin Alpha-1 and Thymosin Beta-4. The French came up with the actual main thymus hormone, which is Thymulin. Not Thymalin. Thymalin is the Russian polypeptide mix. Thymulin is a 9-amino acid peptide. That is the marker. It also has very interesting neurological effects, which I think you'll find interesting.”

“Thymulin is this peptide that's secreted by thymus, dramatically decreases with age, is zinc-dependent. So biology likes to use metals with different amino acid structures, hemoglobin with iron, GHK copper with copper.”

“Thymulin is zinc-dependent. So it's a 9-amino acid peptide with zinc inside. To do its effects, that will develop NK cells and T cells, stimulate the immune response. But also in the animal models, not replicated in humans yet, when they take out the pituitary and then inject, you know, ACTH or ACG, the amount of Thymulin sensitizes the end organ to production of the targeted hormone.”

“the more interesting ones. There's synthetic thymic peptides, Thymosin Alpha-1, Thymosin Beta-4, Thymulin. And there's purified thymic extracts. There's the, the two different research committees that exist when it comes to thymus. Which one will be more advantageous?”

“And then using a growth hormone modulation if you can afford growth hormone or Tesamorelin and Ipamorelin. And you're seeing people lose a lot of fat, gain a lot of muscle in short amounts of time.”

“I mean, like, more data is good. The scientist in me just says, you got the data. Data could be informative. Take a look. There's a category of peptides such as growth hormone secretagogues, Tesamorelin, Ipamorelin, MK677 that we could do the deep dive on all those, but I'll just batch those and maybe parse them a little bit.”

“Growth hormone more so. It can make you insulin insensitive. Yes, especially with more like Tesamorelin, especially when combined with Ipamorelin. Sermorelin is kind of a weaker GHRH. Tesamorelin, especially when combined with Ipamorelin. Tesamorelin is FDA approved. Ipamorelin is not. The GHRH versus GHRP kind of in the weeds there.”

“We definitely are. And the Trump RX has lowered a lot of these prices by the way, for a lot of these drugs. Now that time there was a shortage of semaglutide and then eventually Tirzepatide. So the compound pharmacy game shifted boy, the pressure was on.. into making these drugs, compounded versions. So they're not the FDA approved versions, but when there's a shortage of a medication,”

“which I don't think is a good practice, the clinician gets a price from the pharmacy. So the pharmacy will tell you, hey, a vial of semaglutide costs 150 bucks. This clinician can now sell that vial to the patient. Sell, it's really, they're charging an administrative fee, right? It's not a sale because technically you get cell medications.”

“So we had seen the effects on diabetics and then you get liraglutide, dilutide, and then eventually semaglutide is the blockbuster. But you get all these positive effects coming from these drugs on diabetics. It gets translated into obese people and overweight patients. The question is, what is the long-term effect of this?”

“like the GLP-1s, which have a very strong clinical effect, compared to these obscure peptides like BPC-157, TB-500, TB-4, that don't have a clear target. They have receptors, but they just have many of them, or they don't even have receptors? We don't have a receptor identity. We haven't identified for BPC-157 or TB-4.”

“other stuff, which I certainly don't do myself. And I think that's too extreme, at least for me to each their own. When I hear about thymosin alpha, TB500, BPC, it occupies this kind of middle ground. Right. Yep. And so I think this is why a lot of people are saying, hey, listen, I love my dog. I love my cat.”

“make these different peptides from, but you could inject a lot of them. A lot of synthetic thymus and alpha TB 500 and maybe BPC. So Wolverine stack plus, you know. Yeah. So it'd be very interesting if we can get that because now that everyone's getting like these Panugo scans and different full body MRIs, we can see the thymus size.”

“So a lot of these transformations you see in CEOs and celebrities and stuff is using a combination of those three things. You know, your TRT plus Tirzepatide or Retatrutide, whatever it may be, and then using a growth hormone modulation if you can afford growth hormone or Tesamorelin and Ipamorelin. And you're seeing people lose a lot of fat, gain a lot of muscle in short amounts of time.”

“people report Tirzepatide and Retatrutide even have less of these gastrointestinal effects but um that's a peptide gone wrong story. peptide gone wrong. Um Retatrutide yep. I put out a”

“their prices to make them more available which has happened like now i think you can get a you know $300 monthly dose of Tirzepatide available through these websites. Used to be 1500 yeah. 1500 without insurance some insurance will cover it some some wouldn't you'd have to get a you know savvy clinician that will advocate on your side on your behalf to get these covered but cash pay”

“Is BPC going to be taken seriously as a drug? Yep. Or is it more creatine-ish? Yep. I mean, for example, I could give you a B12 supplement. You could buy that on Amazon or I could prescribe that to you. But if I was to give you an injectable B12 shot, you would need a prescription for that.”

“Because I'm guessing it has a lot of other effects too. But it's kind of funny how things kind of land in one region. Like creatine was like the muscle thing for a long time. Then it got some kind of like maybe it's good for cognition, maybe for people with Alzheimer's, maybe women should take it too for all those reasons and more. And it kind of reverted back to like the muscle thing.”

“Yeah. There's an interesting study, a trim trial from Dr. Greg Fahey. He's doing a study where he's giving a cocktail of growth hormone, metformin, and DHEA. Gave that for 12 months and had the thymic size increase on imaging. The amount of CD4 or CD8 T cells increased and the ratio of which improved.”

“you're having somatopause. That's where your growth hormone production is decreasing. You're having, they call it adrenopause, where your adrenals stop making as much DHEA in the different ratio of cortisol. And then you're having menopause, andropause, and all the other chronic conditions. So that's like your first 50 years of your life. That's what you have to expect.”

“So specifically, not the subcortical regions. That's reassuring. So Vladimir Khavinson identifies, he makes a drug in Russia. It's called epithelamin, which is the pineal gland extract, and had great effect on circadian rhythmicity and because it's rich with melatonin. There you go. It's basically giving people melatonin.”

“So in the Khavinson seminal work was this 15 year longevity study, you got people in nursing homes, two groups one of them got Epitalon in the form of Epithalamin, which is the whole pineal gland extract. And then a thymus, a peptide called Thymalin, not Thymulin, there's two different peptides.”

“Also growth hormone is very expensive. Very expensive. Yeah. Like Pfizer's pens are in the thousands of dollars. So like if you want, if you're rich, you can afford to, you know, have a growth hormone habit, but otherwise a secretagogue costs, you know, less than a hundred bucks. I'm told that growth hormone doesn't shut down one's own production.”

“With Tirzepatide or Retatrutide, whatever it may be, and then using a growth hormone modulation. If you can afford growth hormone or Tesamorelin, Ipamorelin. And you're seeing people lose a lot of fat. Gain a lot of muscle in short amounts of time. Is that healthy? We'll find out. But that is like the celebrity protocol.”

“So animal-derived versus plant-derived medicines is the way to think about it. You think about aspirin, you think about metformin, the statins, those were all discovered in, you know, plant tissues. Statins are more so fungi, but you get the point. Now we've been looking into animal tissues to find cures, medicines, treatments.”

“Yeah. There's an interesting study, a trim trial from Dr. Greg Fahey. He's doing a study where he's giving a cocktail of growth hormone, metformin, and DHEA. Gave that for 12 months and had the thymic size increase on imaging. The amount of CD4 or CD8 T cells increased and the ratio of which improved.”

“So you have your, you know, Semaglutide, which is Ozempic, and Wegovy”

Also filed under Semaglutide

“If it's bunk, let's see what it is. Don't do this at home. Biohackers in me came out and tried it i injected a i think it was a milligram of Ozempic What's a standard dose? You start at 0.25 and escalate to 0.5. You went straight to a milligram? Yeah, because I was like, they're like, it doesn't work. I'm eating so much.”

“He's like, huh, I wonder if these effects are from the peptides, not from the gland itself. So then He sequences from the pineal gland Epithalon and from the thymus gland a couple different peptides, Vilon, Thymogen, Crystagen, that you'll be hearing about in the next few years.”

“Which was a polypeptide fragment with, you know, Thymosin Alpha-1, Thymosin Beta-4, Vilon, Thymogen, Crystagen, like all these different peptides that you'd get together. The Eastern Europeans went down, like, this mix of just mixing up young thymuses. Because you don't want an old thymus from a cow.”

“compared to these obscure peptides like BPC-157, TB-500, TB-4, that don't have a clear target. They have receptors, but they just have many of them, or they don't even have receptors? We don't have a receptor identity. We haven't identified for BPC-157 or TB-4. Just stopping right there. There's a very interesting distinction.”

“So you'll get more blood vessels, andiogenesis being formed, which creates a lot of the controversy around BPC safety. You'll get cell migration, especially when coupled with TB500 and TB4. You'll get more access of the healing factors to the area through androgenic pathways. On top of that, you'll get an anti-stress effect.”

“He's like, huh, I wonder if these effects are from the peptides, not from the gland itself. So then He sequences from the pineal gland, Epithalon and from the thymus gland a couple of different peptides, Vilon, Thymogen, Crystagen, that you'll be hearing about in the next few years. that on their own do a lot of the effects that the whole extract would do.”

“Which was a polypeptide fragment with, you know, Thymosin Alpha-1, Thymosin Beta-4, Vilon, Thymogen, Crystagen, like all these different peptides that you'd get together. The Eastern Europeans went down, like, this mix of just mixing up young thymuses. Because you don't want an old thymus in a cow.”

“that story was run with from the research community. They use it as a marketing tool to sell more BPC 157. Because what happened in the field is The GLP-1s come online, you know, late 2021, 2022 with Ozempic and Wegovy. They get the FDA approval for weight loss. There's not enough of a supply from the traditional pharmaceutical versions of the GLP-1s.”

“So you have your, you know, semaglutide, which is Ozempic and Wegovy. The Wegovy is the FDA approved version for the weight loss.”

Also filed under Semaglutide

“Very hard to increase REM except by heating your sleep environment in the last third of your night. And maybe some alpha-GPC in the late day can bump it up a bit. Or you can REM deprive yourself. Or you can smoke cannabis for 10 years then quit and then you'll get a lot of REM because you got no REM for 10 years. Do not recommend that protocol.”

“I mean, there's cardiogen, which is one of the heart peptides that that was scantly studied in the late 2000s that may be orally bioavailable. The problem is no one's doing the work to figure that out. You painted this picture where not you, perhaps, but let's just say another physician has the awareness that BPC-157 might be useful to a patient.”

“there were studies in Russia on TBI's when it comes to Cortexin and Cerebrolysin which would probably never be available in the United States”

“But Epitalon is from the pineal gland. Pinealon comes from a ground-up brain extract called Cortexin. And brain has pineal in it? Yeah, but it was the cortex specifically.”

“He's like, huh, I wonder if these effects are from the peptides, not from the gland itself. So then He sequences from the pineal gland Epithalon and from the thymus gland a couple different peptides, Vilon, thymogen, Crystagen, that you'll be hearing about in the next few years.”

“other things? Yeah. So when it comes to, let's parse out the effects and the different types of compounds that exist in this category. So there's the ghrelin side, the ghrelin agonist, like MK-677, not FDA approved, orally available pill that makes you bleed out growth hormone. Like you make so much growth hormone in response to that. And in non-pulsatile fashion, growth hormone is”

“MK is not a peptide. It's a non-peptide GHRP. What's happened now is people are now stacking their GLP-1 as their insulin sensitivity tool. Their growth hormone or their GHRH.”

“Maybe my neurology colleagues will disagree, but that seems to happen. But the question is, what is actually leading to the deterioration of melatonin synthesis? Because it decreases quite dramatically. And some people even think that might start puberty. Like if you have a pineal cyst, you can have precocious puberty like eight or nine years old.”

“the peptide sites try to tell you, like, this is better than minoxidil. Not really.”

“other things? Yeah. So when it comes to, let's parse out the effects and the different types of compounds that exist in this category. So there's the ghrelin side, the ghrelin agonist, like MK-677, not FDA approved, orally available pill that makes you bleed out growth hormone. Like you make so much growth hormone in response to that. And in non-pulsatile fashion, growth hormone is”

“The Wegovy is the FDA approved version for the weight loss. For Tirzepatide, you have Zepbound and Mounjaro, Zepbound being the FDA approved version for weight loss that allows them to keep their patents for longer. These medications are good at transforming medicine, especially where I practice, right?”

Also filed under Tirzepatide

“It's blowing up already. So here's the question. And then we'll go right back to what we were saying before. There's been so much interest in NAD, NMN and NR to upregulate NAD. NAD is a pro longevity. NAD for, you know, one of these things that drops over the lifespan.”

“nearest bathroom very frequently. Cause your bladder size is, they'll work it out. They'll work it out. There's, there's some prostate peptides we're looking at. Thanks. There's like young guy, old guy, like taunting, like, you know, you got 10 more years before you're miserable. Thanks. There's prostate peptides that, uh, Khavinson looked at that we're trying to translate some of that literature.”

“So people that are, you know, sun-friendly can use GHK CU topically to alleviate some of the photo damage. Of course, the dermatologists are going to get mad at us and say, you just use sunscreen and don't get the damage in the first place. But for people that aren't as responsible, you can use GHK CU as a post-sunscreen. Listen to the derms who are slightly more sun positive.”

“And then a thymus, a peptide called Thymalin, not Thymulin, there's two different peptides. A lot of people can confuse them. Every peptide website confuses them, but inject them for 15 years, like a 10 or 20 day course per year, just, just beginning of the year, middle of the year, and that's it.”

“Some of them are really good. They do all the testing, sterility. They have very good quality control. So you get a good product. But they usually have to compound it with something else to get by the regulations, like a B12 or a B6 to say like the patient had nausea from the traditional semaglutide. We can compound them with B12 or B6 to get around the nausea.”

“Some of them are really good. They do all the testing, sterility. They have very good quality control. So you get a good product. But they usually have to compound it with something else to get by the regulations, like a B12 or a B6 to say like the patient had nausea from the traditional semaglutide. We can compound them with B12 or B6 to get around the nausea.”

“thymic, you know, focused interventions, whether it be zinc or, you know, thymic peptides or your purified thymic extracts to augment immunity of the population as a whole, especially because Dr. Javinson was doing this in the seventies in Russia, even in Russia, they don't really look kindly to this research.”