Ep.121 (Peptides Part 1)
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CHRISTA ELZA: [00:00:00] So it's been found to really speed up healing in like tendons, liga. I used it personally when I had my double mastectomy. I used that in combination with another peptide. TB 500. That combination is known as the Wolverine Stack and those two together can really speed up healing in soft tissues. I actually just this morning had another patient reach out to me telling me that their physical therapist is in like shock that she's chosen to do a non-surgical route for healing of a ligament tear in her ankle.
And her exam yesterday, she's been on that Wolverine stack, that BBC and T 500 together. And. Like by physical exam, sound feels like that ligament is already healing. And she's only been on it for two weeks. So it's pretty incredible how these peptides can speed up the healing process.
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SHEREE BEAUMONT: Welcome back to another episode of the Wild and Wild Collective. Today we're diving into a really hot topic and you're gonna get some hot takes. I'm super excited about this. This is something that if you've been living under a rock, you probably wouldn't have heard of. But peptides are taking the world by storm.
They have gone viral. You may have heard of Ozempic, but maybe you haven't heard of some of the other crazy ones that have come out that aren't all that crazy. So we're gonna be diving in today. Christie uses this a lot in her clinic with her patients and has had some wild success stories that go beyond weight loss, right?
We wanna break some of the ideas or the misconceptions about what these peptides really are and what they can do for you. And so, Krista, can you share a little bit of. like what peptides actually are and you know, now that they're so much more accessible, let's do dive into how [00:02:00] we can use them on a day-to-day basis with people.
CHRISTA ELZA: Yeah. So peptides actually aren't new. They've been around for a long time and you know, there's a variety of them, which we can touch base on, like which kind of are the most popular and how they work and all of that. But I would say like in the bodybuilding world, they've been around for a really long time.
And you know, insulin is a peptide, so we've been using them for a long time. In medicine. What are peptides? They are natural in our body. We have peptides all day long and what they are chains of amino acids. So. You know, if you remember back in science class, proteins are long chains of amino acids.
More than a hundred chains, more of a hundred amino acids strung together. Something a molecule less than a hundred is called a peptide. So, and then we can get even smaller and very small chains are called. Bio regulators. [00:03:00] So, you know, we make these in our body. What they do is they're really messenger molecules.
They tell your cells what to do. So these amino acids are messages to the body. And so what's cool about them is that they work really well with the body, unlike some pharmaceutical medications that are actually foreign molecules or molecules forcing something to happen. Amino acids are they work with your body and so they can blend in and really tell your body to turn things on or off.
So because they're more natural, they can actually work more synergistically and you can have safer outcomes without the side effects that sometimes we have with medication.
SHEREE BEAUMONT: I love that. And I think it's really good to just get that straight out the bat, that it is a natural and like naturally occurring like thing that the body produces.
And this is just a way to enhance things. So, there's a number of reasons why you could use them and a number of different peptides for different things. And we're gonna cover that [00:04:00] really in depth and break it down in a different episode. But I'm super, I'm super interested, even just from like a personal level.
I've been looking at this, obviously the ozempic, which a lot of people are familiar with or the different variations of that from a perspective of weight loss. There's another one that's been around for a very, very long time, which is the BCP 1 57, which I believe they used to have even in like a tablet form or they still do, like, what are some of the common reasons that you find people come to see you that are using peptides even beyond weight loss?
CHRISTA ELZA: Yeah. So, that is an interesting point. I think a lot of people don't know that medications like Ozempic, Manjaro or the generic forms of those semaglutide, tirzepatide, those are peptides. So we make those in our body. The GLP one hormone is a signaler that's built on peptides. So, you know, we, we make that in our body and.
When you said microdosing, that really just means a smaller [00:05:00] amount or what I like to call the starting dose really. I mean, everybody's microdosing essentially. The first month that you're on any of those and what that's doing, semaglutide and tirzepatide, what those peptides are doing is upregulating that in your body.
So science figured out a way to make that peptide last longer. Because in your body, after you eat, you release that among other hormones and peptides that tell your brain that you're full and. When we, but it's fleeting, like it happens, and then it doesn't last that long so that we eat again.
These peptides that have been formulated last longer, so they've tacked other molecules on it to make it last longer, and those effects on your brain last longer, slow down digestion, et cetera. And they're finding in a lot of research going on that it's beyond just getting people thin, right? The metabolic effects that it has, even at small doses.
Can be really powerful and studies are kind of ongoing. But for brain health, for [00:06:00] cardiovascular health, keeping cholesterol and lipids down, I'm, I've put my parents on it over two years ago. That's how much I trust it, right? Like, , I do with my own family and both my parents have lost around 50 pounds and their blood markers look so much better.
I see that with my patients all the time when they'll come to me initially with really frustrated. Scenarios of like, I cannot lose weight no matter what I do. And for women going through perimenopause, menopause, those hormonal changes with sex hormones really do change how your body processes energy.
And that can be really aggravating because you're working out well, you are eating the same, and yet you're gaining weight. And so even at a small dose or what we'll call microdosing. I'll see a huge shift, like finally what they've been, you know, the lifestyle that they've maintained is finally like showing them results, which is amazing.
But then also I'll look at blood work and see like, wow, your LDL, your a OB is significantly lower [00:07:00] even without a statin. And so, and certainly when with higher risk people, and we combine those things. It's almost miraculous how much it improves health because it's telling the body to use energy more efficiently.
So the metabolism and how the body uses all that speeds up and is more efficient, which is really cool. You mentioned BPC 1 57. That's also one that's been around for a long time. And there are different forms that you can take peptides in. I would say those shorter chains that I mentioned called bio regulators, those can be.
Those are oral. More commonly peptides can be oral, but I find most formulations are better when taken via injection, and most of that is subq. So just like an insulin needle in the fat space. BPC 1 57 is one that, it's a peptide that we make in our stomach, and I find that the oral actually does work really well and better for people using it.
For reasons of digestive health and [00:08:00] healing. So if there's somebody with, you know, we'll say leaky gut if there's somebody that, you know, has had a lot of heartburn, they've got whatever's going on in their GI tract I'll prescribe it orally, but it's actually better to take it in a subq form if you are trying to heal soft tissue.
So it's been found to really speed up healing in like tendons, liga. I used it personally when I had my double mastectomy. I used that in combination with another peptide. TB 500. That combination is known as the Wolverine Stack and those two together can really speed up healing in soft tissues. I actually just this morning had another patient reach out to me telling me that their physical therapist is in like shock that she's chosen to do a non-surgical route for healing of a ligament tear in her ankle.
And her exam yesterday, she's been on that Wolverine stack, that BBC and T 500 together. And. Like by physical exam, sound feels like that [00:09:00] ligament is already healing. And she's only been on it for two weeks. So it's pretty incredible how these peptides can speed up the healing process. BPC 1 57 helps to heal tissues and just speed up that process.
It also can really lower inflammation, so we want some inflammation with healing, but then sometimes inflammation can continue beyond that. And so this peptide can really help kind of regulate that TB 500, which is commonly combined with that actually helps angiogenesis, which is the growth of blood vessels, which we need for healing, right?
So the combination of that is really powerful when it comes to overall healing, which is cool.
SHEREE BEAUMONT: There's a lot to unpack there, and I think that's so amazing. Like right, we've got this tool at our disposal now that means we're less heavily reliant on medication. We're seeing blood markers drop, which is what I'm hearing massively.
You know, and just to really highlight that, you talked about not having gone statins or things like that. [00:10:00] We're looking at this as not just preventative, but we're starting to see that it is undoing things. If I'm hearing you correctly, like metabolic damage. You know, if we take the case of your parents in like a later age bracket, you know, we're not dealing with the insulin being as resistant.
Like I know that the ozempic and the semaglutide and that can help reverse some of that insulin resistance. It can help resensitize the body to insulin. So even in that effect, when we think about most metabolic conditions nowadays. They're all driven from their insulin resistance, and then we start to see issues with the cholesterol, then we start to see the byproduct of that.
So if we can start at the root, and this is really coming back to that idea of starting at the root, similar with the BCP 1, 5 7, and the TB 500. It's all about reducing that inflammation. And I love that you talked about the fact that you can take it orally for different purposes because. I know this has been around for ages and I've looked at taking it myself.
Just very hard to get in New Zealand. 'cause you do, you get, especially when you're training, as often as you are, this isn't like a, a cheat code. [00:11:00] And that's probably my next question for you. This is a way to really accelerate healing, repairing, supporting the body and, and getting itself back to optimal state.
And so on that note of like this idea of cheating, and I mean, I'll be completely transparent, I kind of looked at it through that lens when Ozempic first came out and I was like. People aren't like, they're just looking for a magic pill and then they're taking this injection and it's just like taking a magic pill and it's not really like doing anything supportive, but from what I hear, there's a lot that you can look at, like we've been talking about with the blood markers and that, but.
It's really, really helping our health. So can you talk to this idea around, okay, some people might view it as cheating. We've gotta make sure we put in some key practices so it's not just we're taking this peptide and hoping for a miracle, but there's a lot of precedent to the fact that it, it does so much more than just help us lose weight.
CHRISTA ELZA: It y yeah. I mean, I think this is true for any of the peptides, if. If somebody comes to me, if a patient comes to me and they're really [00:12:00] inflamed, they have an injury, let's say, so let's talk about that before we talk about weight loss peptides. If you know they're coming to me, but they also eat a lot of processed foods, they aren't sleeping well, they have a lot of stress.
If they have not nailed down their lifestyle factors, peptides aren't going to really do what, they're not gonna sh, they're not gonna be the sh , the star that they could be. So they're kind of the cherry on top and they can move the needle a little bit. But you have to be a team player. You have to be a partner in that process.
In terms of lifestyle, I honestly believe that because if, let's just say the BPC 1, 5, 7, orally. If someone else, you know, someone who's like, oh, my gut is a mess, but they're not following what they need to be doing in terms of gut healing, maybe decreasing alcohol decreasing processed foods, you know, stress and movement.
If they're not doing that, they're not gonna see the full effect That can happen when we are more intentional around that. [00:13:00] So the same thing is true with the weight loss medications. I think, you know, in my opinion, GLP ones are like as life changing to society as a whole of humankind as antibiotics.
So they, I mean, it is such a breakthrough to have something like this. You know, I don't think it's cheating. Here's an example that I use. You know, our ancestors, and still in some parts of the world, they wash their clothes in a muddy river because that's all they have, right?
They scrub, they use one of those old school wash boards, and then they line dry it. Why would you do that? I mean, sure, you're cheating by using a washer and dryer, but why would you do, why would you go do something so inefficient when we have such a massive tool to get you where you wanna go? It's just silly to me.
Like, it's just leaving money on the table. It's leaving health on the table by, by holding, [00:14:00] you know, that belief. Now people can misuse anything. Everything requires balance. I think people can a hundred percent and are a hundred percent misusing GLP ones. And they're doing it. You know, I, there's definitely a mom at my school who, is eating, you know, sour Patch gummies, and she's not eating well all day. And I see her every time and she knows I'm giving her the eye and she knows why. And she laughs and she's like, I know, I know. Well, she's lost 50 pounds on GLP ones, but she's not doing it well. Like she's losing now. She's risking that and is losing muscle mass.
Is not being a full on partner with these GLP ones. Right? So, but then, you know, I'll use myself as an example. When I started Tirzepatide two years ago to lose the stingy 12, 15 pounds, I mean, I'm only a five foot frame, so that is a lot on my body. I made sure that I had the right amount of protein. I made sure that I was lifting weights daily or at least three to five times [00:15:00] per week and getting enough sleep, et cetera.
So I committed to the process of saying, okay, I know a lot of people are throwing shade at this. This was two years ago, but I'm gonna do it anyway and I'm gonna see how I can do this and still keep my health right. Still keep muscle mass. Still keep all of that when you do that. Now I look at my labs and I'm like, wow, my fasting insulin is three.
My LDL is under 80. I mean, those things show up and you're like, this is being proactive with your health. Early on. This is, you know, or if you've lived a life where you haven't been proactive with your health. Like my parents, my dad was an airline pilot. He was. Eating trash. He was not sleeping well.
Circadian rhythm, a mess not working out well. And his cardiovascular markers looked bad. And now you know, he looks at his calcium score, which is a scan that you can do to look at your coronary arteries and he's got a really high score. That's because he spent decades not living well. That's not to say that you can't say, okay, day one is today.
And I'm gonna get on and I'm going to use tools to, [00:16:00] and it's gotta be multifactorial. This is one tool in the toolbox, but man, when you show up and you start eating better, and GLP ones really help you do that because you don't crave as much. Right? So then that's the power behind this particular peptide, which is incredible.
And in my book, it's not cheating at all. It's just being smart.
SHEREE BEAUMONT: Yeah. Like why not use something to the advantage and like you say, using it smartly, I think the lack of education, because from what I understand, you can just kind of get them through the gray market I hear talked about. So you do have to be careful, like there's, you know, there is regulations with this.
And if you're getting it through a proper provider and someone like yourself who is actually able to guide you through the journey and. Port your lifestyle changes and your habit changes and your food changes, that's gonna make all the difference. It's not just this magic pill that's gonna fix things overnight.
And like you said, if you don't do it properly, you put yourself at risk of a whole lot of other things like the muscle loss, you know, that. And there are a few like side effects that people have heard about. And I know we talked about this the other day. You know, can you address some of the. [00:17:00] The safety concerns.
'cause you know, I mean, I've even heard things like, oh, it can be linked to different cancers. Or do we really wanna be, you know, we don't know the long-term effects. There isn't long-term research yet. What I'm also hearing is, one, we naturally produce these, and two, they've been around for years. We are just only now getting high accessibility to them.
CHRISTA ELZA: Mm-hmm. Right. So in terms of GLP ones, you know, in mice it showed an increase in thyroid cancer. I don't know that there's been, I mean, how many people. In America or on GLP ones, and I don't know that there's a skyrocketing level of thyroid cancer. So, you know, I think there are warnings and you know, I, I think certainly if you've had a history of thyroid cancer in your family.
You should, I still allow my patients to be on them. We just kind of know that in the background of like, Hey, let's stay on top of thyroid markers. If you notice any changes in your neck, any changes in anything, we will do a scan and make sure, but I have not had any personal experience with any patients developing thyroid [00:18:00] cancer on these medic.
There's common side effects of like reflux or nausea, vomiting, sometimes diarrhea, sometimes constipation. So yes, there are some common side effects there with that, I think that you have to find a dose that's right for your body. I personally can't really go high much above the microdosing just because I do have the side effects with those.
And so everybody's body's a little bit different, but we always start out slow in terms of GLP ones with other peptides. So, you know, with, let's talk about some of the other peptides outside of BPC and GLP ones. There are other peptides that promote other things like muscle growth. Performance in the gym.
And again, these peptides need to be used with appropriate nutrition and exercise. Otherwise what? You're just wasting your money. Cjc. Ipamorelin is a very common combination. Telin is a combination, or I'm sorry, is another peptide. I combine telin a lot with Ipamorelin. But this class of peptides helps to [00:19:00] secrete, it helps your brain to secrete more growth hormones.
So after our twenties. We don't produce a lot of that in our sleep. That's when we really push out the growth hormone. We also push out growth hormone when we're doing like 32nd sprints. There was actually a study that we can naturally push out more, just doing five or six, 32nd all out sprints with an adequate amount of rest in between.
But doing that can help you naturally do what these peptides do. So, you know, have a combination. Do things, do the hard work. But these will also help augment your work. These peptides don't give you growth hormone directly. That's mostly illegal in most countries just because of the effects of growth hormone that it can have on other things like your insulin.
And you can really dampen your growth hormone receptor if you're taking it directly. So I would, if you're gonna do that directly, I would definitely be using. That under provider care that understands that. But most [00:20:00] people don't do that unless it's a child that really needs help growing these peptides help to push your pituitary to push out more growth hormone with those natural pulses while you sleep at night.
So it's helping you naturally produce, again, working with your body to push more out, more of the growth hormone. That being said, cancers grow with growth hormone. So if you have a known cancer, I do like. My, you know, I like to see blood work when we're doing these because I like to make sure that everything looks normal.
You know, that prostate health looks good in men, that, you know, women, if they're gonna do 'em, that they've had breast exams, that they've had colonoscopies, if it's appropriate age to be doing that. Just because we, we just wanna make sure that we're not causing anything to grow. It doesn't cause cancer.
But growth hormone can increase that, right? Again, insulin is a peptide and diabetics, or if you're insulin resistant, insulin also is a growth hormone. Like it, it will promote growth. So this is why people who with diabetes have more of a propensity for [00:21:00] cancers. You know, type two, if you're, or type one, if you're having to overdo the insulin you're promoting that.
In a way too, so there's always risks and benefits with anything in medicine, right? So I wouldn't let that steer you from it, but I think those are just things to know and work with a provider who understands kind of the nuances of using these safely.
SHEREE BEAUMONT: I love that. Thank you for clarifying. 'cause I think that there can be a lot of noise online and it's just better to hear it directly from someone who's done the research, who sees it firsthand, who works with clients or patients on a regular basis to really address this.
And like you say, , you're keeping an eye on things just like we should be, even if you're not on peptides, right? Like, we should always be getting our breasts examined. We should always be getting prostates checked if you're a male. Like all of those things are so important. So. I think if anything, this is probably gonna keep you more on top of things if you're working with a practitioner.
So you mentioned you've been on Eptide for a couple of years now and you've been staying at the Microdose and we kind of touched a little bit on Microdosing and I just kind of wanna wrap this episode up. We're gonna dive into some of the real specifics [00:22:00] in some of the other special specialized peptides in another episode, but.
How long do we either need to stay on them or can we stay on them? You know, like I think about for, like, I'm, I know we've talked about for me, like the BCP 1, 5 7, like doing a short term because I've got a toe injury. Like do you know with the peptides, is it just case by case basis? Is it some, it's that safe to stay on super long term?
Is it better to be microdosing? What happens when you hit a plateau? I know that's a lot of questions, but kind of like all interwoven into one.
CHRISTA ELZA: Yeah, a lot of peptides are meant to be pulsed, whether it's five days on, two days off sometimes it's beyond it a month or two and then take a month break. But with GLP ones in particular, you know, I think at a microdosing level, what I always tell my patients when they've hit their goal weight, cool, let's stay at the dose that got you there for a month or two.
So that set weight metabolically is kind of really. More firmly, like your body likes this [00:23:00] weight. Now, because our body likes to fluctuate, and we all know this, we probably are more aware of this when we've hit a weight that we don't like that we're like, Ugh, my body is just stuck here. Right? Same concept when it's a lower weight, we want to sit there for a little bit to get your body acclimated and like, okay, this is your metabolism feels safe and healthy and consistent here.
Once we've done that for a month or two, maybe longer, depending on the person. What I recommend is slowly tapering back down or staying at that same dose, but maybe taking it every 10 to 14 days rather than every week. Safety wise, I don't think that there's anything wrong with continuing it. I don't think studies have shown that there's anything, you know, just like anything else in our body, our bodies receptors dampen to medications to peptides, and so sometimes we need a higher dose to maintain.
And I know people have this fear of like, oh, it's expensive to stay on forever, or I just don't wanna stay on a medication forever. And I totally get that. I think that you can take [00:24:00] some months off, go back on it. I would always recommend tapering down, not just like, you don't wanna a rebound, right?
So I would always recommend kind of tapering down. But then also I think it's completely safe just to stay on 'em consistently if you want to, right? Some people will take a break for a couple of months and then they've gained five pounds and they're like, okay, I don't wanna, I don't wanna have to go back to the 30 pounds lost, so I want to go back on 'em for a month or so.
So safety wise, I don't see that there's anything wrong with staying on them. Yeah, I think it just varies person to person.
SHEREE BEAUMONT: Amazing. Okay. I love this and I love that we're gonna be diving into some of the other more intense ones in a little bit. But thank you for sharing. I think that our listeners will have got so much out of this.
It's a good little intro to peptides and really breaking through some of the hype, but also getting some real clarity around it. 'cause I think they can be a lot of fear mongering. So definitely, definitely shed some light on that. And if you guys have any questions at all and you wanna follow up further, Chris is amazing at this and you know, just feel free to reach out to us at any time.
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