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Peptides are one of the hottest topics in health, recovery, performance, and longevity - but they’re not actually new. In this episode of the Real Health Podcast, we break down what peptides are, how they work, and why they’re getting so much attention right now.
We cover:
• What peptides actually are
• Why insulin is a peptide
• BPC-157, TB-500, CJC-1295, Ipamorelin, GLP-1s and more
• Potential benefits for healing, muscle, brain health, and longevity
• Risks, limitations, and what people need to be cautious about
• Why optimization starts with the basics - not shortcuts
• What peptides actually are
• Why insulin is a peptide
• BPC-157, TB-500, CJC-1295, Ipamorelin, GLP-1s and more
• Potential benefits for healing, muscle, brain health, and longevity
• Risks, limitations, and what people need to be cautious about
• Why optimization starts with the basics - not shortcuts
Whether you're curious about performance, regenerative medicine, or longevity, this episode gives you a practical overview of the science and the hype.
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Watch the episode on YouTube here!
- (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0
DISCLAIMER
This content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Barrett Deubert and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to replace medical advice or treatment from a physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding health questions and concerns. Neither Dr. Deubert nor the Real Health Co. takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All audience members, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program.
Creators and Guests
What is The Real Health Podcast?
On a mission to share practical solutions to improve your wellbeing, The Real Health Podcast will equip you with evidence-based recommendations essential to achieving a healthy lifestyle. Join Dr. Barrett Deubert as he shares his passion for educating, inspiring, and empowering individuals to achieve “real health for real people”. Breaking down health topics such as: immunity, stress, real food, natural living, and much more to provide you with actionable steps to improving your family’s health.
I mean, really, when you started looking at it back from the 1920s, they've been used. Millions of people have safely used peptides for, peptide medicine for over one hundred years, insulin being an example of that. And then you have in more of the, like, growth hormone based peptide market and research, that was being done in the 70s and 80s. Well, welcome back to another episode of the Real Health Podcast. Today, we're talking about the future of medicine, regenerative medicine, something that's been around since the 1920s, yet most people think it's new.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:And it's nothing more than peptides. It's exciting. There's a lot of research being poured into it, is awesome. But there's some things you got to be cautious about. Today's going to be top end, high vision, what are peptides, what are they being used for today, and what you have to be cautious about.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:So if this episode is intriguing to you, make sure you share it because that helps us know what you like listening to and therefore what we want to create more content of. Grant looks at all the numbers and it's like, hey, this one did well. Let's continue kind of down that lane and supportive information towards groundbreaking, whether it's nutraceuticals or peptides or interventions. Today, we're diving into one of, I'd say, hottest topics in health optimization, performance, recovery, and longevity, those are peptides. We're going to make it super simple so you know what a peptide is and what are they being used for.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:When you look at the basics of what are peptides, the most important thing to remember is it's really simple. They're just a bunch of amino acids. It's a chain of amino acids, right? So protein breaks down into amino acids. And when those amino acids are like letters of the alphabet and depending upon how they're sequenced together, they create a very specific response.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Proteins, I would say, are like entire books, whereas peptides are like short sentences within that book that carry out specific instructions to the body. And your body naturally produces thousands of peptides every single day. And what we typically see peptides in our body being used for is like growth and repair, building muscle, reducing inflammation, helping with your hormonal system, whether it's producing certain hormones or helping regulate other ones. Peptides are used to fight infection. So when you have an infection, there are peptides that are signaling the immune system to have a very specific response.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:They help regulate immune function. They help regulate brain function. So, are regulators of the body. And I think that's what's so exciting about peptides, and I've been using them for over a decade. When you look at it, they're not new.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:They've been around since the 1920s. And most people have heard of the medication called insulin. Insulin is a peptide. That's all was discovered in the 1920s, probably the most well known peptide, yet most people don't know it is a peptide. And that insulin is a signaling, or that peptide is a signaling molecule, and that's really what peptides are.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:They act on very specific parts of the body to signal pretty much what your body's already doing. For instance, your body uses one that we hear a lot about called a BPC-one 157. It's usually combined with another peptide called TB-five 100, and together you may hear it on socials being called the Wolverine Stack. In essence, your body is producing BPC-one 157 daily. It's called a body protective compound, primarily produced in the stomach, and it's used for repair.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:So it's already being produced and it's already having an effect. So then when increase the amount of that peptide, it will continue to signal or strengthen the signal of that growth and repair. I think it's built on a bell curve. You got to realize that a little bit probably won't do much, and too much is a bad thing. And that's what we're seeing in today's society with Ozempic, for instance.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:I think GLP-1s are fantastic and have a lot of great benefit to them. But when you get them in such high doses, well, we're going to have some complications with it. So peptides, I mean, really, when you started looking at it back from the 1920s, they've been used. Millions of people have safely used peptides for, peptide medicine for over 100. Insulin being an example of that.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:And then you have in more of the growth hormone based peptide market and research, that being done in the 70s and 80s. So the tesamorelin, the ipamorelin type peptides have been around for quite a while. The big GLP-1s, the Ozempic or the Mounjaro, that is creating such a substantial weight loss can be beneficial, but obviously can have some detrimental effects. So all of these are peptides. So if you've ever heard of GLP-one medications, you've heard of peptide therapy, in essence.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:So why is it so exciting today? I don't necessarily know. Maybe because of Ozempic and its ability to help someone lose a ton of weight is probably where a lot of the excitement's coming from. And to be honest, sitting on my side of things as a more conservative, holistic approach to caring for the human body, I'd much rather research go into peptides than medications, because medications inevitably are trying to stop a response from happening. Peptides are enabling something that already exists to work better.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:And I think there's some really good credibility there to restoring systems of function versus trying to stop things from happening. And this is why I think regenerative medicine longevity conversations are really in alignment with peptide therapy. So let's go through some peptides and give my thoughts on what does research say about them. So one of the big ones you're going to hear about for tissue, so tissue would be like ligaments, cartilage, muscles, damaged tendons, and tissue healing and recovery, there's something called a body protection compound, also known as BPC-one hundred fifty seven. And the research suggests it supports things like tendon healing, ligament healing, muscle recovery, gut lining repair, because it's where it's primarily made, and even blood vessel formation, improving vascularity.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:This is why a lot of athletes are using it, because it's ability to accelerate tissue healing from a very specific angle. It doesn't just like Advil, ibuprofen, aspirin, NSAIDs are going to stop inflammation, leaving ligaments and tendons weaker than before potentially, creating maybe some negative effects. Now we're talking about something that actually helps stimulate the full healing of that tissue. I think it's really cool. Now, BPC-one hundred fifty seven is usually taken in addition to another peptide called TB five hundred, but the big one we're seeing today is obviously the BPC one hundred fifty seven.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:I was, I was using this for quite a while, and and now they're actually, because of its delivery system, you can take it orally, which is great, rather than having to to inject. When when it comes to growth hormone or growth hormone optimization, there's a difference in taking growth hormone and versus supporting your body is already making growth hormone. So within the pituitary gland supporting growth hormone production, there's two main peptides that are being used. That's CJC twelve ninety five, and another one's called ipamorelin. Rather than injecting growth hormone directly, you are more or less signaling the pituitary gland to release more of that hormone.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:And let's be honest, the more of the peptide you take in, more growth hormone is secreted. Will that have a negative effect? Absolutely. Can that have a positive effect? Absolutely.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:And that's why you have to work with a medical provider to make sure that you are properly using peptides, okay? Because it is exciting. You can help drive a healthy growth hormone response, but just like we're seeing with Mounjaro or Ozempic, it can have some negative effects like increasing thyroid cancer risks and gastroparesis. So too much of a good thing is a bad thing. The benefits of, like, that growth hormone, peptide like CJC1295 and ipamorelin, and even tesamorelin is another peptide is, I mean, you're getting repair.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:You're helping your body recover. You're getting better lean muscle and fat metabolism, so you're exchanging fat for muscle in essence, and it improves sleep quality. One of the things I love to work with in patients is their brain. We just did an awesome brain health workshop, so make sure you get into our podcast from this past week and look at our brain health workshop that we did. It's been an hour long.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:We'll teach everything about neurodevelopments and neurodegeneration. But for patients that have had TBIs, traumatic brain injuries, concussions, is a peptide called Cmax, and this has been researched to show improvements in memory focus, forming neuroplasticity, anxiety reduction, cognitive performance. And this is super fun for brain optimization clinics. And so there's a lot of research being poured into Cmax as an opportunity for neurodegenerative neurodevelopment conditions. Another peptide called thymosin alpha-one is for immune system regulation, and we're seeing this being used widely for cancer supportive therapies, chronic infections, immune dysregulation, autoimmunity, and even like intense viral illnesses.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:And it becomes very relevant even for conditions like Lyme disease or chronic viral reactivations like Epstein Barr or cytomegalovirus and immune dysfunction, and dysregulation. One of the one of the, peptides that we're seeing for longevity or antiaging, how long you're gonna live, helping with, like, telomere maintenance. In essence, if you wanna know how old you are, you measure the length of your telomere, which is within the DNA. The longer, the better. It's pretty simple.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:In order to diminish the reduction size in your telomeres, right, that is how you slow down the aging process. So cellular aging and and and sleep regulation, there's a there's a peptide called epitalon, and epitalon is a peptide that is one of the more fascinating ones in my opinion because of its ability to affect specifically the length of your telomere. And human data on this is is pretty limited. Right? We're not investing in it like a GLP-one right now, but the science is definitely intriguing.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:So those are a few if you're thinking in the world of peptides, these are the ones that are usually gonna come at you outside of the obvious one, which GLP-one and the peptide that a lot of people are using don't even know it's called insulin. But what most people don't know is that it's important to understand you're already making peptides, and so this isn't like a foreign substance you're injecting in your body. This is actually the body naturally produces peptides every single day. As we age, we definitely diminish our ability to make that peptide as efficiently as we did before, hence aging. So by optimizing those peptide pathways, it definitely can have some robust effects.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:And many therapies simply supplement or enhance signals that already exist. And so you're just using something that really people have been using for a hundred years. And so I don't think there's much to be you know, it's it's not new in essence. Right? Even though you may think it is, it's it's been around for for quite a while.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Some other things you don't know is, like, peptides are really specific. So you don't have this big downstream effect of influencing multiple systems. So unlike many medications that affect multiple systems, peptides often target very specific pathways. And I think that's where really the big pharma is being intrigued. Every time they give you a medication, they're going to talk to you about a black box warnings or a bunch of side effects.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Peptides are very minimal, especially when you dose it properly. It's one message on one receptor with one biological response. And so I think this is why this specifically is why many researchers believe peptides represent the future of regenerative medicine and personalized medicine. But at the same time, all that may sound good. You need to be cautious.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:This is the part that nobody talks about enough, but not all peptides are created equally. So where are you getting your peptide? Who's making it? Are you overdosing it? I think Ozempic's a great example of that.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Overdose, is it contaminated? Is it improperly stored? Is it pharmaceutical grade? These are questions that obviously a skilled practitioner and why you need to make sure you work with a medical doctor in this space is because the source matters tremendously, and you don't want to be getting tainted sources of peptides from China. It's not ideal.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Not ideal for your body. And a lot of peptide enthusiasm comes from cell studies and animal studies and small human trials. But they're not big studies right now. So a lot of the risk is that, hey, we're scared of things that we don't know about, which is understandable. But remember, too, that these peptides have been around for quite a while.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:So I'm stoked about them. I've been using them for years. And I do think there is a space for most people, especially when they get to their 40s and older, to be using peptides effectively to work within systems that may be a little bit compromised and deficient and help optimize. But again, it's not a, don't let it be a Band Aid. Still establish healthy pillars and let peptides optimize.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:And we see that with Ozempic. Like, hey, you just pound in these GLP-1s. You lose a bunch of fat, but you're losing a bunch of muscle. Come off GLP-one, hunger comes back, start pounding food, you gain all the fat back, but you don't gain muscle back, and you're left in a position that's worse off than when you started. It's important to establish disciplines, disciplines of fitness, disciplines of movement, disciplines of nutrition, disciplines of sleep, because you can't give yourself a bunch of CJC's twelve ninety five and ipramerelin if you're sleeping six hours, five hours a night, burning at both ends, losing your growth hormone and testosterone levels, right?
Dr. Barrett Deubert:That's not ideal. It's not ideal to take a bunch of BPC-one hundred fifty seven and repair compound if you're eating an incredibly inflammatory diet and your omega-three-six ratio is off. So to me, I always think of are my foundation set established and disciplines are being checked daily? Well then I think the peptides then are what's already existing and can really help optimize for longevity purposes. Overview of peptides.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Hope it was helpful for you. Hope it had value to you and your health journey. And as always, thanks for listening to another episode of the Real Health Podcast.