The Reason Peptides Did Nothing for You

Colin Renaud, PA-C explains why peptides do nothing for so many people, and what has to be in place before they do anything at all. Peptides are signaling molecules, not a shortcut. Two people can take the same one and get completely different results, and the difference usually is not the peptide. What they actually do in the body, why the hype outruns the evidence, and the parts that get skipped: sleep, nutrition, stress, blood sugar and muscle. Plus live audience questions. Functional medicine for adults in Maine and New Hampshire.

Show Notes

Colin Renaud, PA-C explains why peptides do nothing for so many people, and what has to be in place before they do anything at all.

Peptides are signaling molecules, not a shortcut. Two people can take the same one and get completely different results, and the difference usually is not the peptide. Colin walks through what they actually do in the body, why the hype outruns the evidence, and the parts of the picture that get skipped: sleep, nutrition, stress, blood sugar and muscle. He also takes live questions from the audience.

In this episode:

• What a peptide is and what signaling means in the body
• Why they are not a standalone solution
• What happens when someone takes them with no other support
• Why the same peptide produces different results in different people
• How sourcing and quality vary, and what to ask

Med Matrix is a functional medicine practice serving Maine and New Hampshire. Learn more at medmatrixusa.com

This episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. It does not create a patient provider relationship. Always talk with your own qualified healthcare provider before starting, stopping or changing any treatment, medication or supplement.

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Bear with me, everybody. Things are, is our Leah is our digital master extraordinaire and she clicks all the buttons to make sure that our live streams go well and she's hosting the podcast today. So she's doing double duty. We love you for that. You're doing awesome. Welcome to the med matrix method podcast. I am so excited to a little nervous, but so excited. My name is Leah marketing director. I'm a little nervous, but again, excited to be talking to Colin on the front. And this time I'm usually on the backend. Um, I always get to hear the incredible things that Colin and that Dr. Rose get to talk about. And I, it's, it's kind of surreal being here in the front being on the other side of this. Today I'm really excited because we're going to talk about something that, you know, it's so hype in like me and medical marketing right now. It's so hype. We're hearing all about it. Do we really know what it is? Most of us don't, but we're going to be talking about peptides and that's exciting because it's really hitting all demographics. Like we are seeing peptides being spoken about in every sense for everything and to break down this understanding of a new medicine and a new type of care, a new type of preventative care, a safe way to use peptides and this new type of care. I'm very excited to be here with Colin who is a master of peptides. Oh gosh. And you, and you hold it well. Um, so before we get started, we're going to go over the structure of the podcast, which will be our discussion on peptides and especially, you know, peptides and their usage over 40, um, over 40 years old. Then as we go through, make sure you comment your questions, because at the end we're going to talk about a little bit of a case study when we're done with our discussion. And then we'll go into a live Q and a where we will be able to sort through all of your questions that you have and come back to them and answer them at the end. All right. Um, I did see there was a large amount of, um, you know, register registrations for this webinar, which we are super excited about. So make sure you're leaving these comments, you're leaving these questions and we will leave enough time at the end to get back to you guys. All right. And lastly, this webinar is for educational purposes only. This is not medical advice. If you would like personalized medical advice, which we specialize in, please visit our website, give us a call, and we would love to take you on as a new patient. But this specific podcast is for educational purposes only. This is not in replacement of medical advice. So after that very, very long winded introduction, Colin. We need music. A little intro. Sure. Yeah. For those, I mean, I've done the podcast a lot, but for those who are new or just tuning in for the first time, I'm Colin Renard. I'm one of the, uh, senior, uh, lead clinicians at MedMatrix. Um, I have a unique background in chiropractic medicine and natural medicine. I practice, uh, at MedMatrix as a PA and I specialize in functional medicine. I'm fellowship trained in functional medicine and hold multiple board certifications. So peptides are something I have been doing for many years. I'm a bit of a peptide junkie myself. Uh, I have gone to a ton of conferences and taking courses on peptides and there's always like new and cool things to learn. So I'm excited to talk about it. And specifically the peptides for dummies, I think is a really great way to introduce this. And especially for people of a certain age demographic where they might not think like peptides are for them or, you know, it's like a young person thing or whatever. So, uh, definitely excited to be with you, Leah. Thank you. This'll be a lot of fun. All right, let's get started. Um, and real quick in the beginning of, while we get, while we begin, do you know that Christian Rinaldo spends one point, I think it's like 1 million. I texted Colin about this earlier, 1 million to $1.5 million in anti-aging medicine, longevity medicine a year for the past many years. I think, I think a lot of people that have a lot of money and those that are in the public eye are doing a lot of anti-aging research and some probably really crazy things that probably we don't even know exists potentially maybe some like experimental things or like putting it money into research, into anti-aging, because, you know, if you have the money, but then also, you know, if you have a certain platform in the world, right, as a public figure and you want to look a certain way and feel a certain way, and you're an athlete, right. You have to perform at a certain level. I think there's probably a ton of this going on. We just don't really know about it. I would imagine. I mean, if I had a ton of money, I'd be doing it too. So I'd be right there doing all of it. It's a really cool thing. I'm sure he does peptides. I'm sure he does peptides. I'm sure he does too. So what is a peptide and then like, why are we all of a sudden talking about them so much? So peptides are short chains of amino acids and basically amino acids are chemicals that found naturally in the body, found naturally in foods. And they act basically, peptides act as a signaling molecule in the body. Peptides help communicate instructions between cells and hormone receptors and they can influence properties like inflammation, metabolism, tissue repair, inflammation, immune system signaling, weight loss. One of the most common peptides in the mainstream are GLP-1 medications, the weight loss drugs, the Ozempics, the Wachovies, the Zet bounds. People know some of those terms and you see all the commercials for them probably all the time on your TV and on the radio and stuff. So those are actually peptides, those medications. So people kind of see peptides in the mainstream and they just don't really know it yet. But, um, and I think they're being so heavily talked about right now because number one, there's a huge influence on peptides, uh, with peptides on social media. They're all over the place. I think there's a certain amount of people within social media and just culturally, like especially, um, the younger demographic, they're looking for alternative ways to improve their health and longevity that goes kind of, I don't want to say against modern medicine cause it's not against, but it's just, I think in a different light. Um, I think certain populations of people in the younger generation, in every generation actually are looking for an alternative way to be optimal, feel healthy, feel like they can, um, take on the world better, right? We see such a huge influence like Cristiano Ronaldo and some of these people in social media and in the media that perform at such a high level, athletes and, um, celebrities and public figures, uh, you know, uh, people that do sport or Olympians. I mean, it's the world cup going on right now. So when you see people in maybe a similar age demographic as you performing at such a high level, you sort of try to imagine, well, how could I do that? Right? How could I perform at such a high level? How can I optimize myself from like a recovery perspective or weight loss perspective or, you know, inflammation perspective? So I think people are turning to peptides as an alternative to say the traditional medical sense of things where optimization of health is not always at the forefront. So I think that's why people are seeking peptides as I want to say an alternative, but just sort of a con in conjunction to what they're already doing. Wow. Yeah. I mean, I'm seeing them everywhere, everywhere. I look everywhere. So we call the episode for dummies over 40 and what changes after 40 that makes peptides in this conversation more relevant? Yeah, I think it's, I think that's a great idea that we are doing this sort of as an age demographic because I think, and 40 is a kind of a good cutoff, 40, 45 ish, because it seems as though statistically that people over 40 notice changes physically, whether it's the way they recover from physical activity or exercise or sport of some kind changing their body composition or more or more common in people over there, you know, the 40 year range energy levels start to decline in this, in this part of life, people's sleep can be disrupted. A lot more people are having joint pain or inflammation or difficulty maintaining their muscle mass. So when we talk about peptides in this age group, I think it's really important because peptides are very helpful for everybody. They, they are extremely beneficial for people when they start to notice physical changes in their body. So when we talk about peptides for dummies over 40, I think it's really, really appropriate because of the age change, the changes in people's body at that age. And some of these pathways that we talked about earlier, where peptides are doing these signaling and affecting hormones and receptors, these, um, these pathways that we talked about earlier, where peptides are doing these signaling and affecting hormones and receptors, these, um, these pathways start to decline and become less efficient as we age. So when we talk about sort of patients over the age of 40, there's a level of optimization that has declined naturally. So peptides are a way to improve that. It's really cool. So it is very cool. Yeah. What makes it so different from like hormones or supplements or other Yeah, that's a good question. So peptides are different from hormones or medications or supplements because they're just not those things. Um, hormone is the hormone. A hormone is a hormone like testosterone or estrogen or progesterone or cortisol or thyroid hormones. Uh, supplements are often vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanical medicines. Medications are often synthetic pharmaceutical drugs that are produced to alter some sort of body, um, um, body activity or change some sort of enzyme or something, reduce cholesterol, right? Reduce blood sugar, something like that. So peptides are, like I said earlier, they are chains of chemicals called amino acids that are present in the body and in food and in nature. And they specifically interact with these signaling pathways that influence how the body basically functions. So hormones, supplements, medications all do that too, just different at a different chemical structure. Um, so the peptide is, is very specific to how a function is, uh, being perceived by, by the body. And some peptides act more like targeted messengers while others may affect things like repair or immune system balance or appetite recovery, uh, repair on soft tissue. So there is a bit of a difference. It's just all biochemistry really of different types of biological molecules. So it's, it can be, it can get a little confusing. There's a lot of things that we use, especially in the functional medicine world and definitely at MedMatrix, we use a lot of different tools. We have a lot of different tools in our, in our arsenal, peptides being one. So educating people about the difference of these things, I think is really important. It's a great question, Leo. Let's talk about just segwaying off of that, functional medicine and peptides within functional medicine because now functional medicine is, is, or now peptides are this huge topic outside of functional medicine, but how it is, you know, it's such a major topic within functional medicine and how have we been utilizing that? So, um, peptides are a big part of the functional medicine practice and sphere because functional medicine as a philosophical approach to healthcare really is trying to number one, find root causes of chronic illness, but then there's a whole piece of functional and integrative healthcare that really focuses on optimization of the body. How well you feel, living your best life, right? Feeling really optimal as you age and longevity and what I call proactive aging. So, um, patients may hear about peptides related to like recovery, you know, how we, how we repair ourselves, tissue injuries. I have a lot of patients that come to me, you know, it's like, oh, I have an old shoulder football thing from college and it was never quite right again. And every time I work out, it's an issue. So is there anything I can do for that? And again, in the modern medical world, you know, how, how do you try to repair an old injury? It's not, there's not a lot. There is some things stem cells and certain anti-aging, um, uh, technologies, but it's tough. It's tough to repair a damaged part of the body. So there's a lot of things that we can do from a peptide perspective to do that. Same thing with like immune support or body composition or trying to enhance muscle mass with growth hormones, signaling, um, supporting the gut, huge topic in functional medicine, do gut health every day. Um, sleep all every day with every patient. Uh, cognition is a big one too. And then there is a whole piece of peptide, the peptide world that focuses on aesthetics and skin and hair health, which every who doesn't want that right too. So, um, the important question is not just what does peptides do, but, um, it's sort of like, which ones are the best for the patient, right? You know, which ones can we give you? Um, cause there's, there are a lot of options for people. So it's, is a lot of things in functional health that incorporate peptides do all the time. It's one of the tenants of how we practice at MedMatrix peptides, like one of our pillars. So. And you talk a lot about, um, peptide science, right? Peptide science and functional medicine. You're using peptide science. Can you talk more about how separate that from peptide marketing? Cause peptide marketing is, is just flooding all of our feeds. Right. And I think it's confusing. Yeah. So there's, it is really important to define what is a peptide. So there's, it is really important to define peptides as a science versus just a marketing ploy, because peptides are becoming a, I don't want to say a hot new thing that we have had peptides for a while, but they're definitely very sexy right now, for lack of a better term, right? They are all over the map. Influencers, um, people are, you know, trying to get on the bandwagon of creating peptide companies. And it is all over the place. And I think it's all over the place because they do work so well. And we're trying to get this to the masses and people are trying to make money off of them, which I understand. So peptides are often promoted online as sort of miracle solutions for a lot of things, fat loss, muscle gain, anti-aging, libido, brain function, tissue repair, and probably everybody on the planet could use a peptide. Everybody on the planet could, you know, relate to one of those things that they might want to improve, right? So many people want to lose weight. So many people want to gain muscle. So many people want to improve their libido or their sex life. So many people want to look better. So many people want to feel optimal in terms of maybe pain or recovery from physical activity. So if you try to market those feelings to a person and say a social media, social media setting, you'll get people who will kind of grab at that, right? Oh my gosh, anti-aging. I need that. Oh, weight loss. I need that. Right. And it's sort of this, this grab. So we have to kind of make sure we're educating people on what is appropriate and safe versus just marketing to sell you something because so many people on the internet, social media want to sell you something. So functional medicine's goal is to really take the hype away from certain online things like social media and really apply the clinical reasoning, the safety, the patient appropriateness, the sourcing is a big one, right? We don't record. We always say on this podcast and in our med matrix world that doing peptides from research labs is a huge no, no. We don't know where they're sourced from. We don't even know what's in them. So when we prescribe peptides at med matrix, we use compounding pharmacies, which are, you know, they have regulations and, you know, so we know what we're getting in terms of the product. So trying to understand the difference from a patient's perspective is really important because you want to make sure you're doing something appropriately. You're dosing appropriately. What you're getting is appropriate versus just feeding into something that you saw on an Instagram ad or something that is just trying to pull you in to kind of those emotional feels that people are looking for. So it's a really important question, really important thing to cover. Yeah, you kind of covered my next question, which is why are peptides on a standalone solution? Why can you not just do a peptide? Yeah, we talked, yeah. I wish it was that easy, right? Just like poof. And we talked about this on the podcast all the time. Yeah, yeah. It's just marketed as, you know, and always marketing is someone very, you know, attractive, a nice physique. You know, it's like, I want to look like that. So if I buy this product, I will. And it's not that easy. Peptides are not a standalone solution because they cannot replace nutrition. They cannot replace strength training. They cannot replace sleep or stress management or blood sugar control. Hormone balance, gut health. I mean, the list goes on and on. So peptides are a tool. Whenever I prescribe the weight loss peptides, the GLP-1s, I always preface to my patients, this is a tool. This is not something we are just going to give you and, okay, bye. See you in six months. It's not how this works. You have to do your part in terms of proper diet. You have to exercise. You have to have proper water intake. We have to talk about your hormones. We have to talk about your stress, about your sleep. So the peptides are a tool. And if the root causes of someone's chronic complex health concern are not addressed, then peptides may not work. Or they may provide some sort of temporary solution or may make things worse. And then people will discredit their efficacy, which is something that we don't want either. We want to spread the positivity of the benefits of these things in the right setting. So I do see that all the time, where people will have taken something like a GLP-1 peptide for weight loss, and they weren't counseled on diet. They weren't counseled on the lifestyle stuff, so it didn't work for them. So understanding the other nuances of peptide use is just as important as the peptide, I think. So specifically for the population over 40, right? Yeah. This personalized approach becomes, I don't want to say more important. It's always important, right? But what would you say for people specifically above 40, how does that impact them to have this personalized approach to make sure it's more careful in a sense? Yeah, it's a great question. As you said, individualized approach to care is important for anybody at any age, but the over-40 population, as we sort of talked about earlier, needs to be careful because people in this age range—and we're generalizing, right? We're not trying to be—we're just being very general, not trying to offend anybody, just trying to get education to the masses. But people over the 40-year mark may have more complex health histories. This is when we start to see shifts in hormones for both men and women. This is when we start to see insulin resistance and blood sugar dysregulation creep in. This is when we start to see cardiovascular risks increase, inflammation increasing, changes in people's thyroid function. As we get older, a general rule of thumb—again, not everybody, but a general rule of thumb is as you get older, you might start accumulating more medications for certain things. Not a bad thing, it just is kind of how it goes sometimes. And then when we reach a certain age, too, our ability to recover changes. Our physical stamina changes. Our physical fitness capabilities and capacity changes, right? How much stamina, how much physical exertion you can deliver changes. So, peptide therapy needs to be personalized and monitored in these populations, and in every population, not just treated like a generic sort of wellness trend. And that's really our tenant from a functional medicine perspective at MedMatrix is personalizing everybody's treatment no matter what your age is. But as people's health becomes more complex with age, it deserves even more personalization, I think. That's just my philosophy on health care, but I think it works really well. So it's a great question. It's something you say all the time. It's one pill for every ill. Yes. I love that saying. I'm going to make some jokes. Yeah, I love that saying. You say it all the time, and it really sticks with my brain, right? Because people come back, I take the testimonials. So it's kind of off the show notes, right? But I take the testimonials of patients who have seen, you know, huge improvements through not only Colin's treatment and plans, but the other providers here at MedMatrix. And Colin's specifically, they say, oh, you know, it's not, you know, one thing for everyone. And I say, you mean the one pill for every ill? That's my catchphrase. Yeah. It is. People understand it. They get it. And we don't say that. I don't say that. We don't convey that message at MedMatrix to be anti-medication, because we're not. Do I prescribe medication every day? 100%. But we understand that in a traditional, more conventional healthcare setting, maybe like primary care, or maybe even specialty medicine settings, if you go to your doctor, and this is not necessarily a medicine thing. This is a human nature thing. If you go to someone looking for something because you have a problem, if you don't leave with some sort of solution, aka a pill in hand or a pill ready for me at a pharmacy, you don't feel like you did something. You don't feel like you got a solution. So the pill to every ill is kind of a basic tenant of healthcare because that is a conventional, more often than not, way of approaching healthcare. It's a doctor with a symptom. Okay, here's a pill for that symptom. Okay. Well, is that good? Is that bad? I don't know. Depends on what the thing is. But from a sociological and human nature perspective, if you are going shopping for something, aka to your doctor because you don't feel good, and you don't come out of the store with a bag in hand, you feel like you haven't been given enough. So if you go to your doctor and I have a symptom, I have something wrong, and they tell you, well, why don't you start eating better and try to do these few things? Well, what do I get? I'm not walking away with something. Where's my thing? I didn't get something. And that's a psychological reflux on us as humans of positive reinforcement. That's one of the biggest reasons why if you go to your doctor with a cold, which is 99% of the time viral, and they give you antibiotics, the reason they're giving you antibiotics is to reassure you that you will feel better to take this pill, even though it's not probably going to do anything. So there's a huge psychological influence on the way healthcare is approached to basically, quote, unquote, satisfy people. Because if they don't walk away with something, they're dissatisfied with their care. And it's been heavily studied in healthcare and medicine, and it's very interesting. It's a very interesting physical and psychological human experience that we deal with in healthcare. So, yeah, not to be off topic, but it's a great point that you brought up. I never even thought about that, but I think I do the same thing. Yeah, we all do. If you go to a big box store looking for something, you're shopping for something, and they don't have it, you're disappointed. So if you go to your doctor looking for help, and they don't send you home with something, you feel cheated. Well, I didn't get something. And that something that they can offer you is medication, more often than not. If you come away with nutrition plan, well, that's not what I wanted. I want something I can take. I want something that's tangible that I can do. So you almost feel like you're cheated if that doesn't happen. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway. Now let's segue back after I wrote literally everything down that you wrote. So from a functional medicine perspective, when somebody is interested in peptides, let's talk about what symptoms or causes might lead somebody to be looking for peptides, and what I guess root causes you evaluate when considering someone for peptides. Yeah, that's a great question. So in the functional medicine world, some of the most common root causes that bring people to want to seek peptides are insulin resistance. It's a big one. We talked about that a couple of times already. Insulin resistance may be more so translating into diabetes, weight, obesity, hormone imbalance is a big one. Peptides don't replace hormone replacement therapy, but peptides can enhance hormone function. We also see a lot of thyroid dysfunction that people are looking to utilize peptides for. Again, peptides do not replace thyroid replacement medications, if necessary. But they can potentially enhance thyroid function. Chronic stress is a big one. So we use a lot of peptides that can affect neurotransmitters in the brain, which are the chemicals that make you feel good and help you sleep and help you feel happy and not depressed. So that's a huge one that we do all the time. Peptides that can act as anti-anxiety, chemicals can help with energy, can help with mitochondrial function, which is how energy is produced in the cell at a microscopic level. Gut dysfunction is a big one. We use a lot of peptides to help restore gut integrity and gut function. And then also people that are looking to change their body composition. That's a huge one. Whether it's weight loss, that's probably the most common. But then when people are sort of on the other side of weight loss, they're like, well, I want to build muscle. I'm an athlete. I want to get into bodybuilding. I want to have more muscle mass as I age, especially people over 40. I see this in men and women all the time where they're working out and they're just not noticing tone. I just had this today, a patient said. Yeah, I'm doing all the right things. I'm working out, but my muscle tone just is not where I think it should be given my efforts. Sure. Yep. And she was in her metapausal years and had low hormone function. So using hormone replacement therapy to optimize hormones and then maybe combining that with peptide therapy to help with muscle definition and muscle mass building would be a great solution. So those are really, really common things we see from our functional patients. Those are really, really common things we see from a functional medicine perspective when it comes to peptides. Yeah. See them all the time, every day. Almost every patient we see could benefit from some sort of peptides somewhere down the road. Me too. Right. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit more about, let's say like for a case, a menopausal woman, right. Comes in and you have the symptoms, the hot flashes, the, you know, like weight gain, the everything that comes with menopause. What would you, I guess, what is a route that you would take in treating this woman? I know this is a little off the show notes, but you know, all these symptoms of root cause might be peptides, might be menopause, right. But how could we use peptides as a tool to help them? So we could actually like look at this almost as how do peptides and hormones sort of overlap. Right. As like a healthy aging approach. And the, the, it's a great example you, you gave because I do it all the time. Hormones and peptides influence communication in the body. So hormone shifts after 40 can affect muscle mass. As I just mentioned, they can affect your metabolism. They can affect your energy levels, your mood. That's a big one. Recovery from physical activity. So hormones, as we said before, peptides, sorry, peptides, not hormones. Peptides are not a replacement for hormones. Hormones are a totally different biochemical, very specific jobs in the body, very much needed. So peptides may be considered alongside hormone evaluation, but they're not used as a shortcut around proper hormone or thyroid or, you know, metabolic work that needs to be done. But in the case of hormone replacement for a female, say in her menopausal years, you can use certain peptides to enhance recovery from physical activity. We use peptides all the time in conjunction with hormone replacement for weight loss. That's a big one. We might use hormones all the time in conjunction with peptides in the conjunction with hormones for inflammation. That's another big one. So certainly there's a lot of different avenues that can be explored. And once it's funny because once a lot of times, once our patients start to get going on something like a, like hormone replacement or a peptide and they start to feel better, I'll get calls or my assistant will get calls like, okay, what do I, what can I do now? Like, give me more. You've got to have more things that I can do because I'm feeling so good. It happens all the time. So then the conversation is, well, you started on hormone replacement therapy. How about we talk about peptides and how that can enhance your treatment plan and enhance the outcomes of your, of your, of your, your plan and your goals. So it's definitely things that go together all the time. They influence each other significantly. It's a great example too, that you gave because we see patients like that all the time every day. Well, so what would be a reason that two patients are taking the same peptide for totally different things or two patients with the same, you know, root cause problem are taking totally different peptides. A great question. So patients, no patient's the same, right? Everybody's different. So two people might use the same peptide and have different outcomes or vice versa might use different peptides for the same outcome. And the reason for that is because there's different root causes. Number one, different levels of hormones. Patients might be in different phases of life, right? One's menopausal, one's not different sleep patterns, different nutrition. A big one is different body composition to a body composition plays a huge role in how peptides work and hormone replacement works. There could also be medication histories, right? Are there things that are not appropriate for a patient because of potential interactions? That's another part of our job is whenever we have to prescribe something, whether it's a botanical medicine, a nutrient, a supplement, any sort of natural herbal thing, peptide hormone, we have to make sure that it's safe for use with any type of medication or other medical treatment the patient is already taking. So functional medicine recognizes that the same therapy can produce very different results depending on the person. And that's really how personalized care works, right? You can't just apply the same thing for every patient and expect everyone to have the same outcome. And unfortunately, and I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but unfortunately that's kind of how the modern conventional healthcare system works. We use the same drugs over and over and over and over and over for all kinds of people of different backgrounds, different body compositions, different hormone states, different stress levels. And we're expecting the same outcome. And there's no way that's going to happen. And that's why people come to us because they've been put on meds for cholesterol or diabetes or sleep issues or whatever. And it's like, okay, the medication is supposed to work for X reason, but it didn't. Well, why isn't it? Or why are you still not feeling well, right? So that's really where the functional medicine piece is different. The approach is different because we are trying to find that personalized solution. So it's a great, great thought. Yeah. So you kind of touched on conventional medicine. How can I guess this conventional approach leave a patient, let's say a patient goes to their primary care and says, I want a peptide. Right. How would that leave kind of confused? You're laughing. I'm laughing because if peptides are discussed in a, say with a primary care doctor or in a conventional medical setting, you would probably be sort of very politely escorted out. Not permanently, not like never come back kind of thing, but you would be shut. You would probably be shut down by your doctor like, oh, I want to do peptides. And they may look at you like, what are you talking about? Or they may say something. The provider may say, oh, there's they're dangerous. Or they may say, oh, there's no research for that. Or they may say, I don't know anything about it. So there could be a lot of reasons why. In the conventional medical setting that the peptides are not brought up or not sort of approved, quote unquote, if that's kind of what the patient's looking for is that approval. Conventional medical approach often focuses on, like I said, things that are generally accepted across a mass population. FDA approved medications, treatment that's based on a pathology. Right. If you have a thyroid problem, you're put on medication. If you have diabetes, you're put on a medication. It's tailored to a disease process. Conventional health care. And also symptoms. I can't sleep. Here's a sleeping pill. You know, I have a thyroid problem. Here's a thyroid pill. You know, something like that. So many patients are asking about peptides, and they're told very little because the conversation just doesn't fit in the conventional medical space, and especially the insurance-based standard algorithmic health care. No one, including myself, you, Leah, or anyone at MedMatrix is condemning the modern health care system. We need it. It serves its purpose. We can all appreciate that it does have some level of fragment to it. It is not perfect system. It works for some, not all. There's a lot of things that I would love to improve about the health care system. But just the way it's designed does not really coalesce with individualized therapies such as peptides. And it's just a systematic problem. Will it ever change? I don't know. But a lot of health care is driven by insurance companies too, so insurance doesn't pay for peptides. You know, if that ever happened, then probably all your doctors would be putting you on peptides. But until that happens, I don't think it's going to be very well received in the conventional medical space. Yeah. So let's kind of switch 180. And if you came into your functional medicine doctor, and I know we kind of touched on this a few times, you came into your functional medicine doctor and said, tell me about peptides. I want to get on a peptide. How would they approach that differently? So a functional medicine doctor might approach peptide therapy differently because functional medicine starts with understanding the patient and their full sort of history, what their story is, their symptoms, their goals, their sleep habits, their nutrition habits, what they take every day, what meds are they on, how much stress do they have, what's their gut like. My colleague, Dr. Rose, always probably every episode of this podcast talks about people's bowel movements, right? We talk about that all the time. How are people pooping? Is it normal? Is it not? How are your hormones? How's your stress? What kind of body are you working with? Are you overweight? Are you too skinny? Do you have no muscle mass? There's so many things. So peptides have to be considered within that full context, not like a one size fits all. And because functional medicine clinicians do look at all of these parameters of a patient, we can start to put together a picture of different things that need to be addressed and peptides can often be a part of that. And again, from the functional medicine, or not even necessarily functional medicine, but in sort of the wellness sphere or regenerative medicine or anti-aging sphere, whatever you want to call it, there's this push from patients to want to have longevity. I want to live longer. I want to feel better as I live longer. I want to run in a marathon when I'm 70 kind of people. I love those people. They're awesome. You know, sort of that, you know, fighting against time kind of thing and doing the best that they can. So that is definitely a tenant of functional medicine is that proactive aging piece of things. So there's a lot that goes into the approach from our perspective. Yeah. So talking about longevity, how would peptides fit into this like larger anti-aging or healthy aging plan after 40 years old? That's a good question. So peptides fit into the larger, healthy anti-aging plan after 40 because peptides will, as we talked about earlier, support goals like recovery. You know, like I've used the example earlier, a patient having an old football injury that just never got better and it affects their ability to lift in the gym or something like that. People were in a car accident and it's like, I was never the same or I have this tennis elbow thing or I have this chronic back pain thing. So that's a huge one after 40 is that recovery. Also body composition, which we've talked about quite a few times already. People are looking to lose weight. People are looking to build muscle, looking to just sort of change the way they look overall. And that's different for everybody. You know, I have, especially for women say all the time, well, I don't want to be stick thin. I still want my curves, but I want to, you know, just have curves in the right places. And I want to have some tone. Okay, well, that's going to be different than say, you know, a woman at a different age or maybe a man with different body composition goals. So you have to take all that into consideration. There's, you know, inflammation balance or resiliency of the body. But all of peptides need to be paired with, you know, proper nutrition. How much protein are you eating? How much fat are you eating? Carbohydrates? What kind of resistance training are you doing? How's your sleep? How's your blood sugar? How are, how's your stress? So all of those things are extremely important when we talk about peptides and the larger picture for people over 40, really, really important. Like we said earlier, the health complexity picture just gets more and more as we age. And that's not a bad thing. It's just the longer you're on the earth, the more susceptible you are to stuff happening to you. So as we age, we have to take better stock of all this stuff together. It's really important. So, sorry, I lost my track in that. No, it's okay. Yeah. No, it's okay. I think what we're trying to get at is sort of, you know, how are peptides fitting into the larger picture? And I think it's a good segue to talk about sort of like how we plan this stuff out, what a matrix plan looks like. And, you know, when someone wants to look for peptides, how does that kind of fit? Does that seem like a good segue? I think that's great. And I would love to, I guess, start with what we evaluate when somebody comes in for peptides. Right. So what are we evaluating to see? Is this right for you? Yeah. So at MedMatrix, we evaluate patients from a very comprehensive perspective. We do a comprehensive intake. There are some forms you have to fill out. You got to tell us about yourself, you know, which people find annoying, but too bad. You got to tell us about yourself. You got to know who you are. Tell us all about you, everything you've ever done, who you are. We want to know. We want to know about your symptoms. We want to know about your health history. What kind of surgeries have you had? Have you had trauma? What kind of relationships have you had? If you're comfortable sharing, you know, medications that you're on, supplements you take, homeopathy that you take, botanicals that you take. What's your lifestyle, right? What do you do for work? What do you do during the day? Are you retired? How do you spend your time? Do you sit on your butt all day? Do you run marathons? All that is so important. I ask every new patient in the first visit, what do you eat? Tell me what you eat. It's not, well, I eat well. No, no, no. What do you eat? Tell me what you had for breakfast. Tell me what you had for lunch. Tell me what you snack on. What do you drink? Do you drink coffee? Do you drink soda? How much water do you drink? How much sleep do you get? Is it restful sleep? Are you waking up all night? Are you peeing five times a night? What's your stress like? Are you stressed from your job? Are you stressed from your spouse? Are you stressed from your kids? Are you stressed because life is tough, you know? Tell me about your body, right? Do you want to change it? Are you happy with it? Do you have weight loss goals? Do you have muscle building goals? Do you have athletic goals? Are you trying to compete in a triathlon? Are you trying to just walk around your neighborhood better? And then we do some really significant lab testing that goes beyond what most people are getting, maybe even from their primary care doctor. And I think right now our baseline panel for all new patients is over 100 biomarkers, Leah, I think. Over 80. Over 80, yeah, okay. So we evaluate people's metabolic health, their hormones, their thyroid function, inflammation, nutrition status, kidney and liver function, cardiovascular disease, risk factors, autoimmune susceptibility patterns. So we use all of these parameters, all this objective data from a lab perspective and all the subjective data that you tell us in terms of your health history, who you are, what you do, and we put that together in a very specific personalized plan, which could include hormone replacement therapy. It could include peptide therapy. It will always include nutrition, for me anyway. We're always talking about nutrition. How can we better nutrition? Stress management, water intake, exercise, specific supplements that we might need to use for deficiencies. And then also trying to target things like if there's gut issues, do we need to do more testing? Do we need to be more specific about testing for something like a Lyme disease or a gut health problem or a hormonal imbalance that's related to stress hormones? So there's a lot of avenues we can go down after that first visit, but we're doing a lot of work on that first visit to personalize their plan, which could include peptides right from the get-go. Patients are often prescribed a peptide on day one, and that is on not everybody, right? We're not giving peptides to everybody just because, if it's appropriate and that's part of the treatment plan, you could walk away with a peptide on your first visit. And that's something we pride ourselves on because a lot of offices you need to have multiple visits before you even get started on something. So we love doing baseline blood work with patients when they walk in the door before they even see a clinician for the first time so that we can get the ball rolling right away. We don't want to waste any time. Well, that answers every single question. Sorry, was that a lot? That answered all my questions. Was that too much? No, that was perfect. You already did it. So do you have a case study or just a real-life instance of how you've worked with peptides and patients and seen success? Yeah, I mean, I'm going to say that every day. So, yeah, I mean, I do use a decent amount, you know, the weight loss peptides, the GLP-1s, in combination with other things, right? Optimal nutrition and lifestyle, we have to combine the peptides with those things to optimize them. So people get a lot of success with the GLP-1s when they're monitored appropriately and we're doing the other work with diet and exercise and all the right things that need to go along with that. I do have, there's a patient I've been treating for maybe six months now or so. He's 30, no, I don't know, maybe 39, maybe 41, something like that. And he came to me with a very common concern of a lot of men in that age group where it's, yeah, I'm starting to put on a little weight. And this is why we talked about this podcast over 40, right? Because like, okay, this is when we start to see these changes. And I think he was 41 or something like that. But it is something to the effect of, I'm starting to, you know, pack on a little weight. I'm not being as cognizant about my health. I really think I should start paying attention to my health. I'm at that age. I'm trying to work out, but like, I don't know, it's not really working. I'm not really losing any weight. Trying to eat healthy. I don't know if it's really helping. So upon evaluation, his testosterone was quite low. So we talked about hormone replacement options. And after about three months of a follow-up, he was doing a lot better on hormone replacement. He was in the gym. He was working out. His body composition was starting to change. His muscle was building. His energy was great. Sleeping great. And we talked a lot about it during the first visit, but we sort of like, okay, let's get your hormones going, and then we'll talk more. But he had a lot of injuries, old, like football injuries, he was in a car accident at a young age, and sort of struggled with that. So he's like, well, the hormones are helping a lot with my injuries and my inflammatory stuff, like musculoskeletal inflammatory issues, but what else can I do? And it's like, oh, peptides. Perfect. Let's talk. Let's dive into this. So we started him on some peptides that really focus on anti-inflammation, musculoskeletal regeneration, soft tissue regeneration, and there are some studies that show that certain peptides have a unique synergism with hormones such as testosterone. So they often like make each other work better. So I just saw him at his like six-month follow-up, and he's killing it, like killing it in the gym. You know, I've lost like 15 pounds since we started, and we do body compositions too. I forgot to mention that. We do a full body composition assessment for new patients. So how much muscle do you have? How much body fat do you have? And his muscle mass went up like I think six pounds or something like that. He had lost like five pounds of body fat or 5% body fat. He was really like on this new journey, like, oh, my God, I am just going to be like a triathlete now. I was like, yes, dude. Love that. Do it. So it really took hormone optimization, but then using the peptides and synergism to start repairing some of these injuries and helping him feel better from a musculoskeletal perspective that just took him over the edge of this, what I call like elitism. Like he was living this, he wanted to be an elite person, feeling really good, performing at a high level physically in the gym and cognitively and just performance in life. And I think that's what we gave him, and it was really cool. So I'll be anxious to see him in another few months, see how he's doing. But those are the kind of cases that we're using peptides, right? We're not just putting like sprinkling it on and just like, okay, hope it works. It's very tailored to people's needs and their goals. It's really important for the work we do to be personalized, to get those kinds of outcomes. So, yeah. That's probably incredible watching him like do that. 100%. Like that journey. Yeah, it is. It's fun. It's fun to see patients' brains click, like when the light bulb comes on and they're like, oh, gosh, I did not realize how good I could feel or like how, pardon my French, like badass I could feel. It's like, yes, I love that for you, right? I love that for you. I want more people to feel that. And it's really fun. It's really fun when people feel that. So pardon my French a little bit there. That's awesome. This is a podcast, right? Yeah, we can be, yeah. That's okay. No one's going to censor us, right? All right. We have a few questions. I'm not really quite sure if we can just go into questions really quick. It's not really a question, but I think it's interesting. I have long COVID pots, Ehlers-Danlos, CRPS, migraines, CFS, ME, fibrocushing. How would, I guess my question based off of this is, can a peptide help? Obviously, it's medical advice, but. Yeah, I'm not going to give specific advice on treating these conditions because these conditions are very complex, and these are things we treat at MedMatrix. I have a pretty extensive background in treating complex chronic illness, such as these things on top of the other things that I treat. So peptides are really, really important in patients with these complex illnesses because we're seeing a lot more evidence and research on the efficacy of certain peptides in these conditions, whether it's to reduce inflammation or to promote immune system function, optimize immune function, a lot of promise in peptides. So for this particular person, I would seek out a very, very experienced clinician that has a lot of knowledge on peptides and chronic health issues to explore your options. Yeah, there's a lot of great options out there for you, for sure. All right. And this one's kind of around the same topic, but will I be able to take peptides with a cancer diagnosis? I am cancer free now. Again, we can't give medical advice, but I think this is a good broad question. Cancer is tricky. So if you have active cancer, no. If you are cancer free, it depends on the cancer. It depends on how long you've been cancer free. It depends on the peptide you're trying to potentially use. There's a lot of depends, and I don't like to sound wishy-washy for that, but I don't want to be specific either. So there are options. It's just there are a lot of different variables that need to be considered in someone that has had cancer. That's why it's very, very tailored and personalized. And I want to be very clear, too, that myself nor any of the clinicians at MedMatrix, we are not oncologists. We do not have training in oncology. I'm not an oncologist, and none of my colleagues at MedMatrix are oncologists. So oftentimes, depending on the patient, depending on the nature of the cancer, we may involve an oncology team to better understand their view about the patient's care, the patient's follow-up, their prognosis. Our goal is not to have cancer return. You know, our goal is to support the patient so they can be cancer free and live optimally. But sometimes there are certain things that we cannot do for a patient that has had cancer, and that has to be very carefully considered. So, yeah. I think that was a great answer. Yeah. All right. Well, Colin, is there – There's another question, Leah. There was one more, a couple above that. I've heard a lot about repairing mitochondria before starting some of the peptide protocols. What does that look like? So I just want to answer this really quick. So there's Julie L., if you're still listening. You are on YouTube. So I've heard a lot about repairing mitochondria before starting some of the peptide protocols. What does that look like? So there are actually peptides that help enhance mitochondrial function. So if you're looking for peptides that enhance or improve mitochondrial effectiveness, that is a really great option. You don't necessarily have to repair mitochondria before starting peptide protocols. Mitochondrial repair can take time. So oftentimes it might be something you're doing in synergism, using peptides or other types of therapies to help repair mitochondria, enhance mitochondrial function. But it's certainly not something you need to like, okay, I've completed my mitochondrial repair. Now I can move on to peptides. I would recommend doing things in synergism. A lot of great options there from a peptide perspective. So, yeah. Sorry, Julie. I didn't want to. Julie, forgive me. I'm glad you saw it all. It's okay, yeah. I totally missed it. So I guess to wrap up here, because we're almost out of time, we're going to get cut off on Instagram. For somebody listening who's curious about peptide therapy, what is the most important takeaway here today? Yes. So the most important takeaway from today, our Peptides Over 40 podcast is peptides are not magic, right? They are not something that you just poof and you're good. And it's not something that you just copy and paste onto yourself from an influencer on social media. You are not them. They are not you. Everything is different. They are very useful tools for patients in very specific circumstances, but only when they're personalized. They have to be clinically appropriate. They have to be safely sourced, right? I say this all the time. I said this at the top of the podcast. We do not recommend patients utilize peptides that are from research labs. They are sold all over the internet, all over social media, but you don't know what it is. You don't know if it's regulated. You have no idea what's in there. It comes in a little powder. You don't know what that is, who's vetted it. So it is very unsafe. And peptides, as I've mentioned a couple of times, are to be used with a comprehensive plan. They're not just a standalone tool. The goal is not a trend. It's really to understand the body, the root causes of issues, support repair, optimize health. And that's always something that we're doing from a safe, strategic and individualized fashion. So I think that's the best takeaway I can give to everybody listening on our Peptides for Dummies podcast. So I hope that works. I thought that was beautifully put. Good. Great. Well, Colin, thank you so much for your time today. It's been an absolute pleasure being here and being able to be and conduct this, you know, podcast, this webinar. You did great. You did great, Leah. You are a natural. You are a natural. Yeah. It's weird because on the podcast, we change hosting duties. So sometimes I host, sometimes Dr. Rose hosts. So now you're a host. We're trying to mix it up and get people interested. So you did amazing. So claps for Leah. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here. If you're here, if you're interested in becoming a new patient, visit our website. And you can schedule a discovery call with one of our patient success coordinators. Again, thank you so much for your time, Colin. And thank you, everyone, for being here. And we will see you next time. Have a great night.