Wellness Unmasked: Peptides Explained—Benefits, Risks, GLP-1s & the Longevity Hype
4/14/202616 mincomplete
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.
0:02Guaranteed human. Welcome to Wellness and Mass.
0:09I'm Dr. Nicole Sapphire. And today we're going to talk about peptides, mainly because everyone
0:14keeps asking me about them and I don't really know much about them.
0:17So decided to do a little research and spread some knowledge because if you haven't
0:23noticed, peptides are becoming quite popular.
0:26There's a quiet revolution happening in medicine right now and it's not coming from big
0:30pharma. It's coming from these peptide clinics and telehealth startups and wellness and longevity communities.
0:37So people are using peptides for longevity, muscle repair, fat loss, brain health.
0:44So the problem is some people are just taking a whole bunch of random peptides,
0:49three, four, even five at a time with really no data whatsoever that they're beneficial
0:55when used together and if there is or is not any harm.
0:59So let's go just a little bit deeper.
1:01Which peptides are being used?
1:03What do they claim to do?
1:05What data exists? And what should make us pause before trying some of these peptides?
1:11So let's start out with what peptides are.
1:14Peptides are short chains of amino acids that act like little biologic messengers in our
1:19body. They bind receptors and then they trigger specific physiologic responses in our body.
1:26They increase growth hormone, stimulate collagen, reduce inflammation, improve mitochondrial function, and alter appetite signaling.
1:35So think of them as like targeted biologic nudges instead of like taking a medication
1:41to treat a disease. This is taking something to help promote natural occurrences in the
1:47body. That's why they're attractive.
1:49Most peptide use falls into really three categories.
1:54You know, number one, the longevity slash anti -aging peptides.
1:58Number two, the one for you see athletes talking about muscle repair and injury recovery
2:05peptides after, you know, an injury during a game or a practice or whatever it
2:10is. And then the last one being metabolic or the ones that help you lose
2:15weight and maintain your blood sugar.
2:18So let's talk about them.
2:20I bet you didn't realize this, but you already know a little bit about peptides
2:24because some peptides we've been talking about for over a century, like insulin.
2:29Insulin is a peptide. A lot of people think of it as a hormone, but
2:33it is a peptide and it helps regulate your blood sugar.
2:36What's another peptide that you've heard a lot about recently?
2:39GLP -1 medications like the Ozempic and the Wagovi and all of that.
2:44That's also a peptide. At this point, there is very strong, robust data on those
2:50demonstrating benefits, but also risks to taking those medications.
2:54What I want to focus on today are some of the lesser talked about peptides,
2:58the majority of which are not approved by the FDA, and that are kind of
3:03making their way onto social media platforms and with influencers talking a lot about them.
3:09So these are the ones that are dominating these conversations.
3:13The epitalin, this peptide is marketed as a telomerase activator, and that is essentially that
3:22it lengthens telomeres, and telomeres are essentially the protective caps on DNA that are associated
3:30with aging. So if you are protecting those caps, then the theory is that you
3:38are stopping aging or slowing it down.
3:41Now, in animal studies, when they were given this peptide, it did increase the lifespan
3:47in rodents, and it improved their immune function, and it reduced oxidative stress.
3:52Those are all good things.
3:54And a very, very small, but human study out of Russia showed that the use
4:00of this peptide improves sleep and reduce mortality in elderly people, and they suggested it
4:08may have caused some telomere stabilization, you know, those protective caps on the DNA, but
4:13it was not conclusive whatsoever.
4:15And it was very small study, not randomized.
4:19This is not FDA approved.
4:21There's no long -term safety data.
4:23There's really no long -term benefit data either, but it's still being widely used in
4:28longevity clinics based off of a theory.
4:30Now, the next one I want to talk about is MOTS -C, M -O -T
4:35-S -C. Now, this one is interesting.
4:38MOTS -C is a mitochondrial -derived peptide, meaning it targets cellular energy.
4:44Now, the claims with this one is it improves metabolic flexibility, enhances insulin sensitivity, so
4:51your own insulin, your body's producing, it makes your body more sensitive to it.
4:56It also improves exercise performance, and it can slow aging pathways.
5:03And this is demonstrated in mouse data.
5:06And in the mouse data, it showed improved endurance, reduced obesity, improves insulin sensitivity, and
5:14it increased lifespan markers. So that's interesting.
5:17And a small human study showed improved exercise capacity and glucose metabolism.
5:24Again, very, very small sample sizes.
5:27But this is also one of the most commonly used longevity peptides right now.
5:31Another one, Thymocin -alpha -1.
5:34This is used in many parts of the world, actually, for immune modulation, for viral
5:39infection, cancer adjunct therapy. Longevity clinics are using it for immune resilience, inflammation reduction, and
5:47recovery. There are some human data for this peptide that shows improved immune cell function,
5:53reduced infection rates, in high -risk populations, and possible benefit in sepsis and cancer adjunct
5:59therapy. Now, for me, someone who works in cancer care, this has me very excited
6:04because we can't just depend on antibiotics, antivirals alone.
6:08We want to make sure that we're doing something to boost the natural immune system.
6:13And there's some data showing that this peptide might actually do it.
6:18It actually has more clinical credibility than many of the others.
6:21Does it still need more human data?
6:24Yeah, of course it does.
6:25So if you have someone who is sick or is at risk for infections, yeah,
6:30absolutely. Why not consider this?
6:32I would love to see more human data.
6:34And I certainly would like it to get FDA approved because that's how you get
6:38even more safety checks when something is FDA approved.
6:41It's not there yet. But for me, this one definitely holds some promise.
6:44And it's used in over 35 countries, specifically in patients who have hepatitis infection to
6:51help boost the immune system.
6:54So I don't know. I like that one.
6:56Thymacin alpha -A sounds promising to me.
6:59Now, what about muscle repair and injury peptides?
7:01You know, myself, I've had many, many orthopedic surgeries.
7:05And as we age, a lot of people are starting to suffer from degenerative changes.
7:10We tend to get a little bit more injured as we try to play sports
7:14as we get older. So I have a lot of friends who, you know, ask
7:17me about this a good amount.
7:19So these are the most common ones that are used like in athletes, BPC -157.
7:26And this might be the most talked about peptide right now because, again, you're starting
7:31to hear about it from the athletes.
7:33It's derived from a gastric, you know, coming from the stomach, a protein that comes
7:38from the stomach. Now, the claims are it can help promote tendon healing, ligament repair,
7:45muscle recovery, anti -inflammatory effects, and also gut repair.
7:49That's an interesting one. Animal studies have shown that it does accelerate tendon healing, improve
7:56ligament strength, reduce muscle damage, and improved blood vessel growth in areas of injury.
8:02Now, but here's the key.
8:04There's almost no robust human trials on this.
8:07It's really only based on animal studies and case reports and just anecdotes from athletes,
8:15yet it's widely being injected for rotator cuff injuries, ACL recovery.
8:20I've had both of those.
8:22Tennis elbow, Achilles tendon injuries.
8:25So does it work? I don't know.
8:27Maybe. I'd love to see a study that showed just injecting peptide randomized control.
8:32Some people can't really randomize it, but some people will go and have surgery and
8:38some people will just have the peptides.
8:41And then we see, you know, if they have the same amount of rehab afterwards,
8:44we see, you know, based on imaging and just, you know, function, how well it
8:49does. Or maybe the peptides are used in conjunction with surgery.
8:53Do you have better outcomes if you're also injecting peptides after surgery to help with
8:58that repair? I don't know.
9:00These, we don't really have the answers to these.
9:02It sounds, if you have animal studies showing that it can help with injury repair,
9:08then that seems like a great place to start.
9:10But let's not stop there.
9:11Let's now move on to the human trials to show that we're actually having a
9:15benefit here and we're not doing something that in 10, 20 years is going to
9:19have a negative effect on that joint.
9:21We don't really know. And this is a very expensive industry.
9:25If something doesn't really work, we don't want people spending their money on it.
9:30TB500, it's another one. It's often stacked with the one we just talked about, the
9:35BPC -157. People are sending to do it together because it's also supposed to stimulate
9:42tissue repair and reduce inflammation.
9:45Heavily used in athletes, bodybuilders, orthopedic recovery.
9:49Big concern with these ones, though, mind you, very limited studies.
9:55But of the limited study, the cell growth stimulation, it actually is a concern that
10:01there's a theoretical cancer risk.
10:03So we have no knowledge of the long -term effects here.
10:08Obviously, the more cells that are created, the higher the cellular turnover.
10:13However, that's when rogue cells can happen and that's when cancer can form.
10:18So, yeah, we want to stimulate new cell growth when we are healing and in
10:23recovery. But you want to be careful.
10:25You don't want to overstimulate cell growth because that can lead to cancer.
10:29I wish we had a study showing whether or not these peptides that everyone's injecting
10:33actually done it. Now, IGF -1, LR -3, this one's even more aggressive.
10:40The mechanism is it stimulates insulin -like growth factor, which promotes muscle hypertrophy or swelling
10:47or making muscles bigger. And it increases other cell.
10:52activations. People use it for muscle gain, recovery from injury, and to increase their strength.
10:58Big concerns with this one is it can cause hypoglycemia because it can stimulate insulin,
11:04so it can drop your blood sugar.
11:06It can also lead to organ overgrowth.
11:09So there's actually a congenital condition where you have insulin -like growth factor, you have
11:15too much of it. And organomegaly, or too large of organs, is one of the
11:20side effects. And this can cause cancer signaling pathways to also activate.
11:26Now, this one actually crosses the boundary into the whole performance -enhancing drug territory.
11:31So if you're considering taking this and you have to be drug -screened or tested
11:35or anything like that, you want to be careful with this one.
11:38Now, another one that you've heard of, I am certain, GLP -1 medications.
11:43Yes, these are peptides. They've changed everything.
11:46Semi -glutide, trizepatide, retrotrutide, or something like that that's still under investigation.
11:52Now, these have large randomized control trials, clear weight loss benefit data, cardiovascular outcome data
11:59showing improves your cardiac risk profile.
12:02They also have a lot of safety studies.
12:04They don't have a lot of long -term safety studies, but, you know, we're getting
12:07there. Now, this is what evidence -based peptides look like, right?
12:11We have these large studies, and then they went through FDA approval, and now people
12:15are using them. That's not what's happening with these other peptides that we just talked
12:19about. So three things have happened the way that I see it.
12:23The GLP -1 -6 -S has legitimized peptides, as it should.
12:27Longevity medicine, therefore, kind of jumped on this and exploded.
12:30And social media is normalizing self -injection of these random peptides.
12:35And now peptides are being marketed as natural, targeted, anti -aging, performance enhancing, and anything
12:42else that, you know, sounds buzzworthy.
12:44And many people are just using this before really much data exists.
12:49It's all based on a hypothesis, like a maybe.
12:52It may do something. It may cause cancer or have other huge risks, but we
12:58don't know. And also some big issues are there's no standard dosing because they haven't
13:04done the studies. So whether you do a huge dose or a small dose, you
13:08know, what is the correct dose?
13:09And anybody who tells you that they know for certain what it is, they don't
13:12know. We also don't know, you know, the online community compounding variability, what you get
13:19from one pharmacy is probably different than from another.
13:21There's a high risk of contamination.
13:24Could it be disrupting our hormones?
13:26Maybe, probably. There's an unknown cancer risk and an unknown how our immune system is
13:32going to respond. Obviously, a risk is an allergic reaction, but it goes beyond that.
13:39Does some of these peptides incite an autoimmune response?
13:44Could it potentially start new autoimmune diseases or flare existing autoimmune diseases?
13:51I mean, the reality is we just don't know.
13:53As promising as some of these peptides may sound, we have to remember that new
13:59does not automatically mean safe and popular certainly doesn't mean that it's scientifically proven.
14:06Many of these compounds are being marketed well ahead of any robust clinical data, often
14:12bypassing, you know, standards that we rely on to protect our health.
14:18When something is injected, ingested, or used to alter our own body's physiology, it deserves
14:25the same level of scrutiny we would expect from any other medical treatment.
14:30Cutting corners in the name of optimization can come at a real cost.
14:36So, I don't know, at the end of the day, wellness should never outpace evidence.
14:41It's worth asking, are we truly improving our health or are we just chasing the
14:46illusion of a shortcut? Sustainable health still comes back to fundamentals, you know, good nutrition,
14:53exercising our body, keeping it moving, making sure we're getting good quality sleep, and just
14:59individualized medical care that's grounded in science.
15:02So, before jumping on the latest trend, I encourage everyone to just take a step
15:07back, make sure you're asking questions, and make sure the choices you're making today won't
15:13become regrets of tomorrow. And with some of these trendy treatments, we just don't know
15:18yet. So, I say, you know, look into peptides and some of these other things,
15:25you know, take them with some caution.
15:28And by the way, that includes the GLP -1s.
15:31A lot of robust evidence on GLP -1s, which is why they're FDA approved, but
15:36we lack significant long -term data.
15:39So, you know, try to get back to the basics, making sure that you are
15:44eating the best you can, exercising the best you can, talking to your doctor about
15:49your individualized needs. If you want to try peptides, try it, but make sure you're
15:55doing it under the guide of a doctor, a reputable place, and certainly don't forego
16:02standard recommendations in the quest for wellness.
16:06I'm Dr. Nicole Sapphire. Thank you so much for listening to Wellness Enmasse.
16:09Be sure to listen to Wellness Enmasse on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
16:14your podcasts.