Peptides for Recovery, Sleep and Anti-aging with Jim LaValle RPh, CCN

This week on The Less Stressed Life, I’m thrilled to welcome Jim LaValle, RPh, CCN, an internationally recognized clinical pharmacist, board-certified nutritionist, and bestselling author with over 40 years of experience in precision health and integrative care.

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of peptides—what they are, how they work, and their incredible potential for healing, performance, and longevity. Jim shares his expertise on metabolic health, stress management, and practical tools for optimizing health, including how he used peptides to help his son recover from a significant sports injury.

We also tackle the safety and sourcing of peptides, the controversy around their regulation, and how they can fit into a sustainable wellness strategy.

Training website mentioned: https://www.a4m.com/
Find Jim's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/James-B.-LaValle/author/B001JSECJM?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• What peptides are and how they promote healing and homeostasis in the body
• BPC-157: A peptide for tissue repair, inflammation reduction, and gut health
• Peptides and stress: How they support circadian rhythm, sleep, and recovery
• The importance of safe peptide sourcing and understanding FDA guidelines
• Why stress accelerates aging and how to combat its effects
• Peptides for hair growth, mitochondrial health, and weight loss
• The value of “pulsing” and seasonal use of peptides for long-term benefits

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ABOUT GUEST:
Jim LaValle, RPh, CCN, is a renowned clinical pharmacist, board-certified nutritionist, and author with over 40 years of experience in precision health and integrative care. Founder of Metabolic Code Enterprises, he has guided countless patients and advised elite sports teams and military programs on performance and recovery. Author of 26+ books, including Cracking the Metabolic Code, he now serves as Chief Science Officer at Life Time. 

WHERE TO FIND:
Website: https://www.jimlavalle.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealjimlavalle/
Website: https://www.metaboliccode.com/
Website: https://www.metabolicelite.co/

WHERE TO FIND CHRISTA:
Website: https://www.christabiegler.com/
Instagram: @anti.inflammatory.nutritionist
Podcast Instagram: @lessstressedlife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lessstressedlife
Leave a review, submit a questions for the podcast or take one of my quizzes here: ****https://www.christabiegler.com/links

NUTRITION PHILOSOPHY:

• Over restriction is dead
• Whole food is soul food and fed is best
• Sustainable, synergistic nutrition is in (the opposite of whack-a-mole supplementation & supplement graveyards)
• You don’t have to figure it out alone
• Do your best and leave the rest

SPONSOR:  
Thanks to Jigsaw Health for sponsoring this episode! Try their MagSoothe or MagSRT for better sleep and less stress. Use code LESSSTRESSED10 at JigsawHealth.com for 10% off—unlimited use!

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TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: I think stress really ends up premature in people's endocrine system. They don't make testosterone as efficiently. Women lose their ability to make estradiol. But the big one is they lose that growth hormone early, and then all of a sudden they're accumulating visceral fat, they don't feel as cognitively sharp, they're not getting that good circadian pattern of sleep and repair at night, which you're supposed to do

[00:00:23] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm your host, Christa Biegler, and I'm going to guess we have at least one thing in common that we're both in pursuit of a less stressed life. On this show, I'll be interviewing experts and sharing clinical pearls from my years of practice to support high performing health savvy women in pursuit of abundance and a less stressed life.

[00:00:53] Christa Biegler, RD: One of my beliefs is that we always have options for getting the results we want. So let's see what's out there together.

[00:01:11] Christa Biegler, RD: All right, today on The Less Stressed Life, I have James LaValle. He's an internationally recognized clinical pharmacist, author, and board certified nutritionist with more than 40 years clinical experience. He's served thousands of patients using a metabolic model for health and is best known for his expertise in precision and performance health as well as integrative care.

[00:01:27] Christa Biegler, RD: He's got a lot of, projects. He's the founder of Metabolic Code. I heard him speak at DutchFest years ago. I feel that he has a lot of experience in sports and athletic medicine, and also currently serves as chief science officer at Lifetime. Which I just found out was formerly lifetime fitness because I wasn't sure either, is this the right place?

[00:01:47] Christa Biegler, RD: So today, James is here to talk to us about, he could talk to us about absolutely anything. But we're going to talk a little bit about peptides. Maybe we'll talk a little bit about metabolic health and blood work. Gosh, that sounds like a fun topic too. Welcome to the show, James. 

[00:02:00] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Great to be here, excited. 

[00:02:02] Christa Biegler, RD: All right, cool. We love good nerdy topics here. We love being super nerdy. I am going to just jump straight into peptides. We actually are familiar with peptides already, right? We're familiar with collagen peptides. We're familiar with insulin and growth hormone peptides, but they've captured a little bit more attention and kind of the bio hacking and health world in the past year.

[00:02:21] Christa Biegler, RD: All right. Years, I don't know how many years, right? And so I think you're going to have a little bit of a handbook on peptides. So you've been working with peptides for a while. So give us a little bit of an overview on peptides. Give us a little bit of a big picture before we dive in. 

[00:02:36] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Sure. 

[00:02:37] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Yeah. I guess the first thing is identify what is a peptide, right?

[00:02:40] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So a peptide is a string of amino acids that's smaller than a protein. And typically peptides are categorized by, say the Food and Drug Administration is less than 42 amino acids in length. So what peptides are signaling substances that your body makes in order to I would say maintain homeostasis, but as we age, we get sick, we're under stress, maybe we're on a lot of medications that alter our gut, whatever reason, our body can get compromised on its ability to make those peptides that help us to heal and maintain homeostasis, or just because of age and we start to lose our ability to release growth hormone, can help us to restore.

[00:03:29] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: normal metabolic function. And so peptides are things that our bodies make and we make thousands of them. And it's a natural process. The real big popular one right now, of course, of the GLP one peptides, which, of course, relate to weight loss. And that certainly has captured people's imaginations, but peptides were grabbing people's thought processes.

[00:03:50] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Before the, what I call the GLP one rush, 

[00:03:54] Christa Biegler, RD: Let's also give a little bit of lip service to why there's some controversy, but what I'm looking at, I know there's a lot of. You could go a long way with that, but what I really want to know is there's something with injectable versus consumable versus something there's some legal issues now it's one of those areas it's gotten, that's gotten some issues with how are people sourcing this so will you talk about that briefly just to understand that because it's not like one of these things that we can say like peptides are awesome.

[00:04:22] Christa Biegler, RD: Everyone could take peptides actually make your own peptides so what are the current rules. 

[00:04:29] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So you know, the FDA has rules for, A, is it an approved drug? So you hear of something like Cella, which is a growth hormone secreted ago, which is an approved drug peptide. Just like you mentioned, insulin is a peptide.

[00:04:46] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Peptides aren't new. Since 1923, we've been looking at peptides like insulin. The issue becomes. Is it safe? How do they get made? If you're taking something orally or topically, are they effective? So there's layers to that. I'd say the first layer is, there's a lot of peptides that people buy online that are Not for human or animal use.

[00:05:15] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So there, which I always think, why would you want to buy that? But people still buying them. And you have to realize that because it's not for human or animal use. When they're made, they don't have to stand standard operating procedures or the SOPs of making something that you're going to inject in your body for human use.

[00:05:37] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So a different filter might be made. There may not be as much validation. There could be all kinds of Things that don't happen when it's not for human use or it's called quote research grade. So the first step is that if people are getting peptides, they're, being prescribed by a provider that has a license to write a script.

[00:05:58] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And then that script goes to a compounding pharmacy where they make peptides. About the beginning of the year last year, the FDA came out with a category two list like, not safe to compound, do not use. That's actually five of those peptides that are on that list have actually been reinstated. I know I'm going to talk and present Said the FDA October 29th, and I think again in December 4th on safety around peptides, because that's the big concern is are they safe?

[00:06:31] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And then, if you're going to get them, are you getting them through a pharmacy that is making them for human use versus going online and buying them in a not for human use standard? So that's the big overarching, piece to it. Yeah, there's plant peptides you're going to read about.

[00:06:53] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Cosmeceuticals have, plant peptides or polypeptides. There's over the counter peptides. There's a couple that I know that are interesting that are for the hair and for collagen. You can, a powdered peptide you drink. So it's a big area when you say the term peptide it's like saying, oh, it's a car.

[00:07:12] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Where is it manufactured? What kind of car is it? And all that kind of good stuff. 

[00:07:16] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. How did you get into this area? How did you end up writing a handbook on peptides? Now, you're not the only author. There's three or four other authors on that as well. Maybe they were like, Hey, you should, whose idea was this and why? 

[00:07:28] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Sure. I'm the chair of the International Peptide Society. So I have a little bit of for it. And I train at, clinicians on how to utilize peptides through the work at the International Peptide Society, which is a part of the American Academy of Anti Aging Medicine. So in the American Academy of Anti Aging Medicine, what do you think their biggest initiative is?

[00:07:50] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: It's to look for new innovations that help people to live longer, healthier lives. And when you look at the peptide research internationally, certainly different countries have either, more peptides being utilized, or maybe they're even restricted more. My interest came about it. Honestly, it came about on a personal level.

[00:08:12] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Yeah, my son had a Liz Frank injury. It was a injury that's pretty significant. He was a, two sport, all state athlete. Getting ready to go to college to play football, and then he gets a lisfranc injury in the second, round of his playoffs in the California State Championships.

[00:08:30] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And usually that takes about 18 months to recover from a lisfranc injury where it's the ligaments of the feet basically get severed and now you can't really control your foot. And it's painful as all get out. And I utilized peptides for him in order to help him heal. So I used at the time BPC 157.

[00:08:52] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: I used another one called TB 4 and Thymosin Beta 4. And then a third was basically a growth hormone secreting analog, no longer available, called GHRP 6. The bottom line is, In five months, he was able to heal and spin and win the California State Discus Championship. And the foot that he was planting on to throw that discus, close to 200 feet was the injured foot.

[00:09:24] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And that's unheard of. You talk to anybody around a lot of pro sports. I have two populations of people. I have a lot of athletes that I, I've talked with and only use things that athletes are allowed to use depending on what sport they're in and all that kind of stuff. So never break those rules, those sacred rules.

[00:09:41] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And then I have a lot of sick people. I have people that are under a lot of stress and people that have been broken down because of that stress and what I found throughout the work with my clinicians in our clinics and also teaching providers over the years is that peptides are another valuable tool in that toolkit that allows them to accelerate the rate of healing or the target that they have for using that peptide.

[00:10:10] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And personally, that's what really motivated me. I was educating on them. We were utilizing them some in practice prior to that. But when I got and saw that personal real life change, that's what got me super involved in it, a good eight. Years ago now or more now and it's also got me to write the handbook I got the second edition of the handbook coming out this December with adding new peptides to it and small molecules That help people to reach for their best possible health because in the end That's all I'm trying to do is help people to How can we get you healthier?

[00:10:50] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: How can you feel better? 

[00:10:51] Christa Biegler, RD: I always say that results are best educators and your story with your son is a very good example of that. So you mentioned a few different peptides, you mentioned BPC 157. This one is one of the more popular ones along with the GLP 1s, which are, usually used for, we'll call it metabolic health.

[00:11:09] Christa Biegler, RD: So let's talk about BPC 157 since this one is near and dear to your heart. Tell us a little bit about this peptide. What it's particularly amazing for just give us a little bit of one on one on that one. 

[00:11:23] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Yeah, sure. Body Protection Compound 157. Now, once again, it was on the Category 2 list.

[00:11:28] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: It hasn't been taken off the Category 2 list. Not done as a compounded prescription right now, but can be taken actually as a dietary supplement because it's derived from a natural source. So BPC 157 helps connective tissue to heal and in general helps with, just inflammation. How can I, promote my body restoring integrity to tissues that have been damaged?

[00:11:55] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And it actually is made in your gut. And it's made in your gut to protect the mucosal tissue in your gut. So the mucosal tissue is what protects you from, all that gastric acid you make. And of course when people get, they get ulcers, they get irritations, they get GERD they can get what's used a lot is an injury.

[00:12:18] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So a lot of athletes have used it to help them repair from injury. BPC 157's great at helping to re stimulate. collagen synthesis, ligament healing, bone healing, soft tissue. And there's some other things that it's in the literature for oh, it helps to stimulate growth hormone.

[00:12:40] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Eh, not so much. Helps in antidepressant. Eh, I haven't seen that really too much, but it's been reported in the literature. People are going to read up on it, but its main function is just, helping tissues to heal and repair. Yeah, even using a topically back when, you could have a compound and it made topically.

[00:12:58] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: people would put it on incisions to be able to help the incision to heal quicker. 

[00:13:03] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, that's cool. Just another cool tool in the toolbox. Body protection compound. What's it derived from? 

[00:13:11] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: It's derived, it's the actual where they did the research, it's from gastric tissue. It's a gastric secretion in your stomach.

[00:13:19] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Now, when they make it, they just synthesize it, right? So it's a string of, It's a string of amino acids, and they synthesize it into body protection compound. 

[00:13:29] Christa Biegler, RD: Got it. Okay. So it gets made. Yeah. So you mentioned another one, TB4. Tell us about this one. Is this one still allowed? Because you said HRP6 is no longer available.

[00:13:41] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Yeah. So yeah, right now, like TB4 not really available. But it's a thymic compound and thymic peptides have been around a long time. So it turns out when you get under stress or you start aging, like me, getting ready for that Medicare card this year the, what thymus gland shrinks and you make less mature T killer cells.

[00:14:06] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And that means I'm not going to fight things off as well. And so it has a lot of immune regulating properties. Yeah, the thing about your immune system, everybody thinks I don't get a cold or flu. That doesn't mean your immune system is in great shape. It just means that you don't get a lot of colds or flus.

[00:14:20] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: You still could be. Developing autoimmunity, or you could, be mounting what's called metaflammation, metabolic inflammation. And so TB4 or the thymic peptides help your body to restore integrity. And I'd say vigilance to your immune system. Can you fight things off better is probably one of the big things that, that thymic peptides are great for. 

[00:14:44] Christa Biegler, RD: No one talks about the thymus gland. So thank you. I'm glad I got to ask about that. 

[00:14:50] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Super important. It's crazy. It's one of the first things I learned. Like I started doing this work 40 years ago. And of course, because it initially came out of more of Natural medicine practitioners and gland extracts.

[00:15:03] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: One of the first things I learned about were thymus gland extracts that people took. And to this day, I still recommend just nutritional thymus gland extracts because they work. People feel better on them. 

[00:15:17] Christa Biegler, RD: That's funny. I also, had roots in the very similar things as what you're talking about, which is why I feel like my ears perk up when anyone mentions thymus gland, because I also was given thymus gland extract and learned about that.

[00:15:29] Christa Biegler, RD: And then, we have the opposite. I think my mom had her thymus gland removed because of her autoimmune condition. So anyway, just, no one talks about it until they're like, we should try to remove that, see if it helps. I do not. 

[00:15:40] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: When in doubt, remove something. 

[00:15:42] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Yeah. That is, that has been our approach.

[00:15:45] Christa Biegler, RD: Hasn't it? Okay. Are there any other favorite peptides? So one of the tricky things here, and people ask me, they're like, have you heard of this peptide for hair growth or something? I was like, I honestly don't know, because this is one of those areas where it's is it prescription? Is it available?

[00:16:01] Christa Biegler, RD: Et cetera. So are there other peptides? I think BPC 157 is most popular. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. GLP 1, which is a whole, honestly, I feel a little different topic. Maybe we will get into metabolic health in a moment here. Are there any other favorite peptides that are still available for use that you love? 

[00:16:18] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Oh, yeah, there's several. I think one of the big ones is Sermorellant, the growth hormone secretagogues. And the reason for that is, it isn't because of the obvious hey, if I do growth hormone, I'm going to lean out and, I'm going to get more muscle. Which A, is pretty important because sarcopenia is a big problem in the 55 plus population.

[00:16:40] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: People lose muscle. Muscle's the currency of aging. And when we get under stress, like one of the biggest things that happen when you flatten your cortisol curve, or you get under times of, stress, and you're making a lot of cortisol, is you stop what's known as growth hormone releasing hormone signaling.

[00:17:02] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So you lose growth hormone signaling. Now, why is that important? Obviously from the tissue and the anabolic side, it's important, but it's also important in helping your master slave clock known as your suprachiasmatic nucleus in your brain to regulate your circadian patterns for the next day. So when you give Sermorellin, and I always, have taught that, give it at night.

[00:17:28] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And, if you're going to do it once a day, do it at night because people report, especially people over the age of 50, man, am I sleeping better? And that's because you're restoring the natural rhythm of growth hormone release, which helps to signal that next day of patterns. of how you release hormones.

[00:17:49] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And so for me, what I'm, what I find is if people are under more and more stress at earlier and earlier ages, so they're shutting down that growth hormone release. And the cool thing about sermorelin is that not taking growth hormone. You're just telling your pituitary gland to release the growth hormone.

[00:18:05] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Yeah. Cause as we get older, you make plenty, you just don't release it. And the other one, I think why I think it's also interesting is that we've been teaching it. I'm teaching a course on weight loss this coming weekend at the American Academy of Aging Medicine. We'll probably have a couple hundred docs there when you use something like Sermorellin with a GLP 1.

[00:18:28] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So people are using the terzapatide or semi glutide for weight loss. 30 to 40 percent of that weight loss, if they're not doing proper nutrition, getting enough protein, not exercising, 30 to 40 percent of their weight is going to be lean mass. That's a lot of lean mass loss. And so Cermorelin can be a great adjunct to people that are doing terzapatide or semi glutide to help retain some of that lean mass.

[00:18:55] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And once again, I'm going to lean back on. As long as they go ahead and keep making sure they're improving their nutrition status, right? Getting up protein 1. 2 to 1. 6 grams per kilogram is the recommended amount for that. And trying to do some weight bearing exercise, and that's how you can optimize things.

[00:19:12] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So I really like Sir Morellen, you mentioned hair growth, the copper peptides for hair growth. G. H. K. C. U. Is a peptide that helps with first of all, it's what's called. It's a gene regulating peptide, so it keeps your jeans stable. And so that's good for your hair because when your hair follicles start to age or you've got autoimmunity in them, right?

[00:19:43] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And you're losing hair. It can help to stabilize that interaction. And in addition to that, it can help to stimulate Hair growth again. So GHKCU, you'll see at least in compounding pharmacies when they have a hair formula, it's one of the important ingredients that they use for that. 

[00:20:04] Christa Biegler, RD: That's very funny. 

[00:20:04] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So 

[00:20:04] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: that's a great, that's a great one. And then of course, SS31, which is, now becoming very popular. Because it's a mitochondrial peptide. So you know, everybody was into MOT SC so MOT C which is a mitochondrial peptide. And why is that important? It turns out that when we get sick and we get old, or if we're under chronic inflammatory processes, we start to lose mitochondrial vigilance.

[00:20:29] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: We just don't make as much energy as we're supposed to, and we got to repair those mitochondria so they can start getting back online and making energy the way we're supposed to in every cell of our body. So SS 31 is known as a mitochondrial peptide that helps with stimulation and rejuvenation of the mitochondria in yourselves.

[00:20:48] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And that means you're going to have more energy. That's great. So that's just 31 really interesting related to that. And there's My gosh, there's other peptides that are exciting I think AOD has just come back, AOD was actually generally recognized as safe, so AOD is a growth hormone fragment, so it's a small portion of growth hormone.

[00:21:17] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And what it does is it helps to stimulate fat loss. So you burn fat with that portion of AOD used a lot in weight loss, used a lot for energy, which is great. So that's another peptide. It's, valuable and on its way, way back. And the other one that was really popular and big, if you think of those things that really moved the marketplace and got people's awareness up, BPC, was a real big one.

[00:21:43] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: CB4 was a very big one. And then ipramorelin and CJC 1295, which were both basically growth hormone secretagogues. And why were people reaching to it? Help them retain their lean mass to get lean mass back. And I personally think, because I've, My clinics that I've had or participated in seen thousands and thousands of people over the years.

[00:22:09] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: I think stress really ends up premature in people's endocrine system. They don't make testosterone as efficiently. Women lose their ability to make estradiol. But the big one is they lose that growth hormone early, and then all of a sudden they're accumulating visceral fat, they're accumulating body fat, they don't feel as cognitively sharp, they're not getting that good circadian pattern of sleep and repair at night, which you're supposed to do.

[00:22:34] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So those are the biggies. Obviously I got a lot of other favorites, but those are some of the big ones. 

[00:22:40] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Let me ask you a few questions about that before I dive into the little sentence you said there that I think is interesting. worth highlighting and underlining and repeating. But let me go backwards a little bit.

[00:22:50] Christa Biegler, RD: Cimerellin helping with sleep. I want to ask about this a bit more. I don't know the percentage of people that struggle with sleep, but it's like a lot of the population. A lot. And so I was talking to a different doctor last week about sleeping medications because, really sleep is like a, it's a non negotiable and it becomes a non negotiable when you test the limits and then things fall apart. 

[00:23:15] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Yep. 

[00:23:15] Christa Biegler, RD: Which happens a lot, right? And and there's lots of examples, but. We were talking about the challenges of sleeping medication, how it'll work for a while and then it will not work. And so I'm curious if we have some similar, like if you're gonna use Ciella and you're gonna have positive benefits for sleep, do you wanna also reel back off of that?

[00:23:37] Christa Biegler, RD: I think the concern is do we become dependent on peptides? And I think we have to zoom into each one probably. 

[00:23:43] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Yeah. I think first of all, when you look at sleep, for example, 'cause I educate a lot on sleep because I think it's core it's the number one thing that is going wrong.

[00:23:52] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And the number is 60 percent of Americans will have trouble with sleep this year. And the big problem with sleeping medications, especially if they're using what's called the benzodiazepines. So the ambiens, the Xanaxes, which a lot of people will take for sleep is that it actually depletes melatonin. So you don't get into a deep sleep.

[00:24:16] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And then you have to go back and say why, so insomnia, what is it, why, and how's it characterized? It's a disorder of hyper arousal. So your brain takes on too much stress during the day and it can't come down at night, right? You can't turn it to off switch. What is that a byproduct of?

[00:24:34] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Cortisol production. So I would say with somerralin, for example, if you're going to think of somerralin, I would say it's going to help you to restore your normal circadian pattern, as long as you're managing your stress during the day. Then maybe you don't need that Cermaralin anymore. You don't need to use it anymore because you've managed the reason why you're having trouble with insomnia.

[00:25:01] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: A lot of times when I talk about insomnia, so think, a couple of peptides were real popular that were put on category two and I believe Selank is coming back now it's off category two. So those were peptides that helped to improve GABA reduce. like glutamate excitation in your brain that you would could use during the day.

[00:25:20] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So as long as people are managing what got them in that position, they may not need to use, a growth hormone secreted like a bedtime anymore. As long as they're under a lot of stress and they're pumping up that cortisol and that cortisol is triggering hyper arousal and that loss of the growth hormone signal.

[00:25:41] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: It may be that It's needed, right? So it really is more dependent on. If it's an illness, for example thymus and alpha one, another thymic peptide approved for hepatitis. Unless the person's hepatitis is going away, they're probably going to be using thymus and alpha one, right?

[00:26:01] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So there could be instances where you chronically would use a peptide. I would think for what a lot of people are using peptides today, if we're looking at longevity or kind of what I call anti aging, although, as much as I've done stuff. I just can't look like I'm 10 years old anymore. So I don't know about anti aging, but I would say youthful aging, right?

[00:26:22] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: But usually creating, if they've got someone smart that's guiding them as a seasonality to it, going to use this for a certain period of time. And then I'm going to go to a different, grouping to focus on for a period of time. One of the big ones that was researched was epitallin, epitallin was the, the.

[00:26:40] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Kind of the longevity or the, it came from the pineal gland really helps to reset the circadian rhythm. And epitallum was given in that one Russian study. And they saw that people with cardiovascular disease progressed at a much lower rate than people that didn't over several years. And so I think that, there may be instances where peptides or something you're on because of a certain situation, but for the most part.

[00:27:08] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: It's smart to use them, in either a seasonal way or at least pulsing them into your daily routine. 

[00:27:18] Christa Biegler, RD: I am a fan of seasonal or pulsing use with things for a few reasons. How do you know how you feel if you don't come off of something? Unfortunately, we won't go into this unrealized stress is the real challenge, right?

[00:27:33] Christa Biegler, RD: It's people may not realize that's the reason that they're having stress problems. I would 

[00:27:38] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: There's 

[00:27:38] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: nothing that I need to do that does it? 

[00:27:40] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, I would guess that's always this age old question for me. But I love the idea of pulsing using seasonally. And I also think humans, this is a generalization that I observe in my client base.

[00:27:51] Christa Biegler, RD: And I just think we're all humans and I don't like that. Blaming us for being humans. I just think people get sick of taking things. I think we like it if we have results. And I think we're very attached to, I love results too. And that's why I think this. Even as a clinician, understanding using peptides and for you, especially, it's like a dick, it's so exciting, right?

[00:28:11] Christa Biegler, RD: To see that kind of result for your son and then for your clients or for anyone getting these things, right? Myself, it's just this is exciting. Isn't it exciting to use these amounts of things that are already being produced on our body that unfortunately due to stress, most of them are on decline, right?

[00:28:27] Christa Biegler, RD: Is that the summary essentially? The other thing I keep hearing you mention is circadian rhythm, which I love every time you say it, my ears perk up and it's dang, how many of these peptides are bidirectional with circadian rhythm and sunlight? It's is that our real problem also? Of course, all of our light exposure, I wonder if you're just adding a crapload more evidence to that, right? 

[00:28:51] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: We're opening up so many cool areas. Because I I'm a huge fan. First of all, I think there's the appropriate use of peptides. And then there's people that are injecting like three times a day, they're doing 10 different types.

[00:29:02] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And I actually think get a life and get some addiction treatment. Because, there are another tool in the toolkit and use them. I said, I'm a big fan of pulse and a big fan of seasonality. In terms of that whole piece around light, think that they do play a role in what we should be making and because we're now hyper exposed to light.

[00:29:27] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: tell you a personal story that it's exactly on that. I moved to the darkest spot in a five state area when I was 29 years old. And there was literally an observatory there for planetary observation because it was so void of extra light. And when I drove to my home, out in the middle of the country, had, Wildflowers growing and looked out at the the stars at night and saw shooting stars, but it took six months for me to be used to the lack of stimulus, to be used to when it was dark, it was time to shut down.

[00:30:04] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And I always tell folks that come 7 p. m. and turn every light on in the house. You don't need to turn every light on in the house. Sure, you don't want to fall, you don't want to stumble, you don't want to hit your ankle into the coffee table, but moderate that light. Because we are adjusted to that.

[00:30:24] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Our eyes are adjusted to daylight. Good wake up hormone reset. The master slave clock is dictating how all of your hormones are going to function for the day. And they're all doing it in an orchestrated way. And I think that to your point, I think that peptides help us in this modern world to restore some of that.

[00:30:46] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: circadian rhythm of what we should be making in our curiosity of the day and how we should be repairing. But because of the conveniences of our modern world and living in a modern world our primitive body and primitive chemistry just gets confused and now it can't release the things it's supposed to release. 

[00:31:08] Christa Biegler, RD: No, I totally agree. Okay. Of the peptides that you mentioned, so we went into BPC 157, sermorelin, which I'm over here just wondering how to spell sermorelin, actually, as I type notes. Maybe you could unpack that, maybe you could tell me. Do you have any idea how to spell it? 

[00:31:29] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: S E R M O R E L I N. 

[00:31:36] Christa Biegler, RD: Thanks. All right. So we talked about that one. You mentioned the copper peptides for hair, GHK, CU, mostly available in compounding pharmacies. You mentioned the mitochondrial peptide. , you also mentioned CJC 1295, of these that you've just talked about, how many are actually available over the counter currently?

[00:31:57] Christa Biegler, RD: And that's probably the real exciting part of writing a handbook, is trying to figure 

[00:32:02] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Sure. Oh, yeah, absolutely. 

[00:32:03] Christa Biegler, RD: So a while back my college aged daughter shared with me that she was tossing and turning and waking up several times per night after a period of stress. We started her on magnesium and her sleep immediately improved. I personally think magnesium should be your first thing to try if you're having trouble sleeping or staying asleep, especially tossing and turning, and it's a no brainer if you have any restless leg issues.

[00:32:29] Christa Biegler, RD: The thing about magnesium is that there's a lot of types of magnesium that will give you symptomatic relief, but I like to steer my clients and loved ones to a more absorbable form of magnesium, because most big box magnesium is magcitrate, and that will push bowels, but it can be damaging to your teeth if it's used daily and it's not the most Rather, Jigsaw Health makes one of my favorite great tasting magnesium powders called MagSue that has magnesium glycinate, my favorite calming and absorbable type of magnesium. It's available in both a great tasting powder and to go packets, and they also make a product that's great for slow release, especially if you have restless legs, called MagSRT.

[00:33:10] Christa Biegler, RD: So, If you are not falling asleep easily or if you have disrupted sleep, you can try at least 200 milligrams of great magnesium like MagSoothe or MagSRT, especially if you have restless legs. It works better to take this at least 20 minutes before you go to bed to allow it to kick in and you can get a on All of Jigsaw's amazing products, including MagSooth at Jigsaw Health with the code LESSSTRESS10.

[00:33:35] Christa Biegler, RD: Now you can use LESSSTRESS10 as many times as you want with every order at Jigsaw Health, which is honestly pretty unheard of with coupon codes. So enjoy the magnesium from Jigsaw with my code LESSSTRESS10.

[00:33:50] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So. K. P. V. Is currently available as a dietary supplement orally KPV that is a three amino acid peptide that's made in the gut that helps to manage the release of an inflammatory compound called tumor necrosis factor alpha or TNF alpha.

[00:34:09] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So really good for people with, irritable bowel, colitis, that kind of stuff. And generalized inflammation for that matter, but so BPC is another one that you can use. Over the counter as a dietary supplement, the TB4 FRAG, or the fragment of thymus. You can get that over the counter.

[00:34:30] Christa Biegler, RD: I thought that one was off. No, the whole thing is off. 

[00:34:33] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: As a fragment, as a dietary supplement. It's not as a compounded drug. It's out. 

[00:34:39] Christa Biegler, RD: Oh, this is where it gets a little tricky. 

[00:34:42] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Yeah. It, does. I think that there's been A lag in guidance and I'm all look, I want to be clear. I'm all for FDA guidance.

[00:34:53] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: I would like to get clear guidance, and is someone that's teaching it's in the industry. I've designed products for companies. I always like to get clear guidance. And I think quite frankly, that guidance is just now it was one of those things were holy crap. A lot of people are using these things.

[00:35:10] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: We better get to getting some guidance together on this, right? I think that's basically what happened is it was a tsunami effect of people that, because of media now, the ability to spread information, it exploded. And, before it was this little niche thing that like, Ah, not that much was going on.

[00:35:27] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: There's a lot going on. And, I'm excited about the future of peptides. I'm excited about hopefully being able to get more peptides available more readily, over the counter, right? And obviously there's a lot that's coming out. Everybody's moving towards this and the dietary supplement side.

[00:35:45] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Everybody's moving towards, like you said, there's collagen peptides. There's milk peptides to help with sleep, right? That's over the counter. There's there's newer plant peptides, coming out. I've tried some of them. They're good. And I'd say that, yeah, some look like they have some promise and others, not so much, but it's got the word peptide on it.

[00:36:07] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So people are buying it. 

[00:36:08] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, for sure. 

[00:36:09] Christa Biegler, RD: Are there other ones from that list that are available over the counter or are most of them available over the counter as dietary supplements? 

[00:36:15] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Most are not really available over the counter. Most of them are prescriptive. 

[00:36:19] Christa Biegler, RD: Cool. And that's what we need to know, right? As we talk about this, and if their prescription, and if someone is interested, if they hear this and they're like, I want to know more about this, can they access it? How are they going to access it? Who's going to be able to lead them to that? And that's going to be the question. That's the grassroots work. I know you're like, I wish there was more FDA guidance. And I'm like, I think you're going to be the one consulting the FDA to give them guidance, actually. Yeah. Okay. Most likely. But, you're out here educating people on peptides you, in the Society for Peptides.

[00:36:48] Christa Biegler, RD: What if a prescribing practitioner is listening to this and they're like, dang, I need to know more about this. I think maybe I should be experimenting with this. Where do you suggest they learn more so they can do this? And then of course we have our formularies in our pharmacies as well, which is just a different hurdle.

[00:37:04] Christa Biegler, RD: But. That's a different story. 

[00:37:06] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Yeah, absolutely. There's different organizations that are educating folks on peptides. Obviously for me, International Peptide Society, we do education, we provide certifications for practitioners. I think I bring in, I'm the orchestra leader for that, right?

[00:37:20] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So I do some of the education, but I bring in all physician clinicians. That utilize them so that they teach not just, hey, this is a really cool peptide, but hey, this is what you got to watch out for, so it's where are there potential side effects? What is the dosing? What's been in the clinical literature as part of the International Peptide Society?

[00:37:43] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: I spearheaded, we've written 100 monographs. On a hundred different peptides in the marketplace with all of the clinical literature and full tech studies that a clinician, so an MD, can go there, look up a peptide and go, oh, I wanna read the literature on it. Was it in three? Was it in three monkeys, in a couple gnats?

[00:38:02] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Or. Was it case studies? Were there clinical trials? Was it phase two trials, phase three trials? Is it an approved drug? So how far did it go along in the process? So you as a provider can have comfort as to what you're willing to prescribe or not, because in the end, , you know that's what they need to know.

[00:38:22] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: , Hey, how do I do it? What should I look out for? What's the right doses? And then where can I get them? And there's compounding pharmacies that specialize in producing peptides under the guidance of, compounding pharmacy law. And they have to get connected with that so they know, Hey, who can I write a script for and make that happen?

[00:38:43] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Now, there are some cool innovations going on in peptides. There's a Taiwanese. is actually taking peptides and chaining them together, making a protein, but when you take them, they break apart into the peptides, which is pretty cool. So it's like a, basically a peptide enhanced protein powder that has different functions.

[00:39:07] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So that's pretty neat. That's on that innovation. Pipeline, I'd say, that's where I think it needs to go for people wanting to use them over the counter. You're never going to be having people injecting stuff over the counter, right? By default, it's a dangerous drug and you need a doc's supervision for that. 

[00:39:23] Christa Biegler, RD: For sure. On the note of what should I look out for? Are there any big contraindications? I know this is a broad topic, but are there any big contraindications that pop up for you automatically since we're talking about this topic? We both see it. We've mostly highlighted. This is cool. This is cool.

[00:39:36] Christa Biegler, RD: This is cool. Is there anything? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:39:38] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Yeah. First of all, if you've got a history of cancer, you probably don't want to use any of the growth hormone secreted guide. So whether it's a bromelain, some are Ellen test some Morellon, which is no longer really available, but people would buy it not for human use.

[00:39:50] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And once I'm being very clear about why would you buy something that says it's not for human or animal use? But you're gonna go ahead and buy it anyway and inject it. So I'm being pretty straightforward. I hope and let people know, make sure it's for human use. Get it through a provider.

[00:40:08] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So the big one there would be some are Ellen on history of cancer. One of course is with the GLP 1s. If you've got a history of pancreatitis if you've got a history of thyroid endocrine tumors, you got to make sure that, you're not doing that because a lot of people are getting GLP 1s.

[00:40:25] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: I don't know how, but they're getting them and they're just getting on them and they're overdosing, they're getting nauseous, they're, Creating, constipation, diarrhea, all kinds of issues that can occur with the GLP 1s when they're not appropriately administered. So that's a big one.

[00:40:43] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Other than that, for the most part, peptides are pretty safe. I literally am reviewing the adverse event reporting right now for several of the peptides that we'll be talking about with FDA. And, hundreds of thousands of scripts going out with literally in the teens of adverse event and the adverse event most of the time is injection site reaction, which can happen with water.

[00:41:08] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So injection site reactions, aren't really, it's a side effect. It's not really an adverse event. 

[00:41:14] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. 

[00:41:15] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So really relatively safe in general, but then you have those big categories like, The growth hormone secreted guys, if you had a cancer history, of course, the GLP ones semaglutide, trizepatide, retutatride, I guess will come out, here shortly on a much bigger scale.

[00:41:32] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: And you have to watch for the, those kinds of side effects that are related to that, which is mainly. You gotta worry about pancreatitis, you gotta, you gotta worry about constipation, diarrhea, excessive nausea, those kind of things. 

[00:41:46] Christa Biegler, RD: We didn't talk about GLP 1 and we don't need to go off on it, but do you have any, some people think it's the best thing since sliced bread, some people are very critical of it being handed out, right?

[00:41:56] Christa Biegler, RD: A bit. What are you, what is your, it's hard to have two cents on this big, kind of big topic, but you're going to be asked this a lot in the next month. So what is your two cents on GLP 1? 

[00:42:05] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: I've been asked a bunch about GLP 1. I think they're a great product. drug category. I think they're misused and therefore it creates the controversy.

[00:42:19] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: When insulin got invented, everybody would agree insulin's pretty life saving, right? And insulin is life saving from an acute process, right? If you're a type 1 diabetic, fragile diabetic, and you're not making any insulin and you're running blood sugars that are crazy high, it's pretty life limiting, quickly.

[00:42:36] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: I would say GLP 1s are life saving from chronic Illness, meaning that GLP ones help with cardiac remodeling. GLP ones help with thickening of the intimal medial thickness of your arteries. GLP ones lower bad lipoproteins like LPA and lipoprotein b GLP ones help with regulation of blood sugar. But those are the things that create.

[00:43:04] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: a slow death, right? Like eventually you have a heart attack. Eventually you have heart failure, eventually you get dementia. So I think GLP ones are valuable. I think people overdose them and they lose weight too fast. And I'm of the opinion of and what we're doing at lifetime. That's what I'm doing with the Miura centers there because we're putting longevity centers into lifetimes with providers.

[00:43:29] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Is we titrate the dose up low and slow. So you get to a weight, dose that you're losing a couple of pounds a week. So it's not hard on your gallbladder. It's not hard on your body. You're not giving such a big signal to the receptors, the incretin hormone receptors that when you go off of it, those receptors are going to not know what to do basically, right?

[00:43:53] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Because they've been overstimulated for such a period of time. then that way it allows you to titrate people back off after you've implemented education on mindfulness, manage your stress, get a better sleep, eat better, exercise more. And then maybe you can get by without any GLP 1. I'm not talking about a type 2 diabetic that may need to be on it because of their disease state, but for weight loss maybe you're not dependent on it to cut that food noise down anymore because it's one of the biggest things people report is, hey, the food noise went away.

[00:44:25] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: I no longer want to go, come home and hug my bag of Lays potato chips. I'm not going to eat them until I lick my finger to get the last bit of salt out of the bottom of the bag anymore, right? Because my brain's not allowing me to stop. So I think that proper use I think they're a great tool.

[00:44:44] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: I think that just relying on them to, be our weight loss savior. I think that's going to create some backlash. I really do. And it's already showing up, right? People go off on them. They gain a bunch of weight back. I'm really concerned that once again, it's about the improper use and the fact that we dosing or smaller dosing in order to get successful weight gain, but we don't know.

[00:45:09] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So this is a flip of the coin is. We don't know when you do smaller dosing, do you get for sure those same benefits like potential reduction in Alzheimer's risk, right? Because that's a big one with the GLP ones is it helps to really reduce. That risk it looks like at least preliminarily, alcoholism decreasing alcohol cravings.

[00:45:33] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: There's been a lot of other side benefits that have started to come out stroke risk. Big article just came out today on stroke risk and reducing stroke risk with the use of GLP ones. So I'm the opinion. There are. I think they're awesome drugs, but it's different. It's a different peptide that helps regulate the pancreas and everybody likes to talk about, Oh, does he just begin with the thyroid and the adrenal glands and cortisol.

[00:45:59] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: I'm of the opinion that true metabolic dysfunction and where people really start to go down the wrong path is when they're not dealing with glucose right anymore and they're making too much glucagon and now you're just storing fat. Your blood sugar's going up, you're damaging tissues. And that's that slow death that I worry about for people where their quality of life's going, you're going to be on dialysis the last three or four years of your life, right? That kind of stuff. 

[00:46:25] Christa Biegler, RD: I do think that is a very worthwhile conversation. And I was going to wrap this with a bow. There is one more thing I want to give a little bit of time to, or a minute to, which is you mentioned stress, Premature is this, we're losing growth hormone.

[00:46:40] Christa Biegler, RD: So when people heard you mention this and they were thinking, oh my gosh, that's me, because when you said that line, people are like I think that's me. What do you want to say to that woman, that person who really thinks you're talking to them there, they're like, how can I validate that?

[00:46:54] Christa Biegler, RD: How could I prove that is the situation that's actually happening? 

[00:46:58] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: The hardest thing about growth hormone is measuring it, right? IGF 1, it's a friable marker in the blood. Not always the easiest to get accurate. You got to do it in the morning. So if you're going to measure it between 7 and 9 a.

[00:47:11] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: m. and, fasted before you do it. And, you can try to use that marker as a way to improve it. I've seen mixed results with different clinicians over the years talking with them about that. I think that if you're noticing that your body composition has shifted you can't think of any other reason why you didn't start eating Twinkies, right?

[00:47:31] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: You didn't change a lot, but you've been under a tremendous amount of stress and you're having trouble sleeping. You're noticing your body composition is shifting, you're gaining fat you're losing muscle mass, you're feeling less, kind of vitality. Then just clinically, it's a good thing to say, Okay, maybe I'll give that a shot and see if I can see a change in the way that my body composition in the way I feel is happening.

[00:47:59] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: You could also look towards other, Markers, surrogate markers, right? Where is your cortisol? Do, is your cortisol pattern improved with using it? Have you improved your glucose regulation? 'cause many times that will happen as well. So there's a lot of air body composition. You can measure it through.

[00:48:15] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Obviously dexascan, you could get on an embody, you could track that in. A lot of people have seen improvements with getting on growth hormone, on secret ags and just measuring their lean mass on an embody. 

[00:48:28] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, for sure. This was great. Why don't you tell people where people can find you online or if they want to pick up the peptide handbook.

[00:48:35] Christa Biegler, RD: I'll be picking up the peptide handbook myself. Or if they're like, hey, I like this guy. I hear he's training on the weekends. How do they get into your trainings? 

[00:48:44] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So easy enough they can go to the real Jim LaValle for social media. That's probably the biggest one Instagram. There you go Jim LaValle.

[00:48:51] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: com Certainly for training because I do co chair the American Academy of anti aging medicine where we train Thousands of doctors a year on longevity therapies if they just go to a forum and look up A4M online, A4M. com. There'll be a list of a lot of my education where I'm at. Of course, I do educate in other venues as well.

[00:49:12] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: Metabolic Elite. I just did a big weekend on called Elite Minds, where we had a group of leading performance coaches and myself do education oriented strength and performance enhancement. That was, a fantastic weekend. And I, did talks on metabolic inflammation, understanding metabolism, as well as gut immune brain, that interface of, how do you work with gut immune brain, identify when there's issues and what do you do to resolve them.

[00:49:43] Jim LaValle RPh , CCN: So that's a good one too. So metabolicelite. co you'll find me there too. 

[00:49:48] Christa Biegler, RD: Perfect. Thank you to your son and his friends for connecting us to talk about peptides today. Thanks for coming up.