Boost Your Gut Health With Peptides & Naturopathy

Kyal Van Der Leest

Thanks for having me. Thanks for getting through that long preamble.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

It’s important. Yes.

Kyal Van Der Leest

Yes. It’s all part of my journey. Obviously. I’ve worked in a clinic in a hyperbaric oxygen facility, which had pretty pivotal and formative roles. I mean, if anyone’s worked in a supplement store, you need to know, inside out and back on the front, all the products, or even if you have your dispensary, you’re not going to stock a product without having some idea of what you’re giving to your client. That was a formative one, but also that hyperbaric oxygen facility was so humbling. My goodness. 

When people come in with a chronic health condition that you’ve only learned about from university or in a textbook and you see the real world and the ramifications of that, like Lyme disease is a huge one. Many people with Lyme disease and cancer visited that center. Yes, just chatting with everyone about what they took, or what their approach was. Yes. Again, education is beyond anything an institute could have given me.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

I agree with that. Especially since we’re not learning a lot about things like mold or Lyme as much when we’re, you said, at university or in medical school. It’s the thing you have to learn with your feet on the ground, boots on the ground, and working. That gives you such a good clinical experience.

Kyal Van Der Leest

Especially Lyme disease in Australia. I don’t know if it’s changed, but when I was working there, it wasn’t even acknowledged as a disease. There was a lot of medicinal gaslighting of symptoms that people have had to deal with, and that sucks. But in the same way, it’s opening up people’s minds to seeing a natural path, an osteopath, or a functional practitioner. It sucks that that’s the way it is in the world at the moment. But at the same time, I strongly feel that this new wave of practitioners and health care that’s coming through will help bring back the West from this chronic health disaster that we’re facing at the moment. 

Peptides, are one of those tools, I think if you’re tuning into this summit, about them and how amazing they are, and hopefully, I can provide some information about them as well as possibly the easiest and most, if not the most efficacious, but the easiest to administer and the easiest to take being oral peptides, which is my big passion.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes, it’s exciting. Well, how did you learn about peptides? We all have our own stories. How did you find out about them, and what got you excited about them?

Kyal Van Der Leest

Yes, well, there’s two layers to it. The first layer was ages ago, back in 2008. As an Australian, that was a professional football club that used them, and their players became very strong and started to succeed, and everyone started to question, What are they taking, what was going on, why they all looked like super soldiers, and whether they were winning. Even the captain of the team was the best player in the whole league that year. Although we’re taking TB-500 and AOT peptides injectable. 

At the time, they weren’t banned. It was completely legal what they were doing, but they put a bad reputation on peptides because everyone associated them with testosterone or cheating. That was my first introduction to it, years before my second when I had to unlearn this programming of peptides as cheating testosterone; they’re illegal. That was at that same clinic that I just talked about across the road. There was a compounding chemist, and a lot of these patients who came in were either advised to get on some peptides or they were already on peptides as well. Being the technician and one of the clinicians helping these people in the facility, I didn’t know much about them apart from that dogmatic opinion I had and was just open to hearing about them. The clinic director gave me resources and helped me learn about them, and I was amazed by them. 

That led me down the rabbit hole of learning through podcasts and online forums. However, back in 2017, when I first got introduced to them, there was a lot less information available then, but I still managed to get a pretty decent understanding of it. I got to the point where I wanted to try them out myself. and being an Australian, our border force seized everything that came through, and that led to a lot of frustration. But it also presented the opportunity to be the only, at the time, Australian vendor of peptides because I’d managed to find some manufacturers who could bring them in. Yes, that’s how things LVLUP began. Frustration with not having access to myself. Screw it-I’ll do it myself-mentality.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes, that’s awesome because it is frustrating when something can work and how it works and then you don’t have access to it, and that’s a problem. You mentioned in the bio that you had a mold illness and that it’s devastating. Not only, half the problem with mold and mold illness, is a lot of people don’t know why they’re sick. What happened with your health story? With that, you said you and your family were affected.

Kyal Van Der Leest

Exactly. Unfortunately, mold is the gift that keeps giving. Where I live in the world, the humidity is high. The building materials are cheap, and it’s seemingly unavoidable. Unfortunately, I’ve just come out of another house. That’s my second one now, that’s been almost condemned, with too much black mold to be remediated properly. But black mold is an amazing teacher. I’ll give it that. When you are put in a position where your brain’s not working and your hormones are thrown out, your gut is irreparably damaged. That’s one thing about the products. It doesn’t matter how many peptides you throw at your gut issues; if you’re living in the mold, it’s a Stanley knife, and gluten and glyphosate punch holes in your lining. Your gut lining mold is just running a knife through it. I could not, no matter how many peptides I had in my business or at my disposal, fix it until I moved out of the mold. 

Histamine intolerance issues, liver enzyme elevation, and kidney function issues. It’s such a prominent and prevalent issue that’s finally getting some recognition and some limelight, I believe. Jordan Peterson just had, and I believe the guys who implemented the Shoemaker Protocol on his podcast were fantastic at getting awareness around SERS and Mast Cell activation syndrome. But chronic fatigue—it’s ridiculous how many systems mold effects in the body. But most of the reigns that LVLUP has now are almost a reactionary response to the mold. My testosterone dropped to the point where my libido was nearly non-existent. As a 30-year-old male, that’s a pretty bad place to be. I developed a product for that. My liver enzyme markers were all elevated, so I made TUDCA, and I made a liver complex product to remediate that, as well as histamine intolerance issues. Bringing in 6 or 7 different products from overseas just became tedious, as well as consuming 6 or 7. I developed Hista-Resist, and of course, the GI Repair already existed at the time, but that’s very helpful. 

It’s been pretty impactful in restoring my gut health, and it’s horrible eating something that you would think would be perfectly fine, like slow-cooked meat. Then you end up with histamine intolerance, and then you end up bloating. It’s so frustrating because no matter how perfect your diet is, no matter how much you block blue light and filter your water, all of these very important foundational things just get thrown out the window and cause mold and issues. Mold just affected every one of my body systems pretty much as I’ve spoken about. Getting out of the mold was the primary objective. Once we were able to achieve that and find a new house, then the healing began. It’s a bit of a process. If you’ve ever run a micro-toxin or inorganic acid test to see where your levels are, I highly recommend that. The micro-toxin test can tell you exactly what the metabolites of the mold are in your body. Therefore, when you use binders, you can be a bit more targeted. 

When you begin to detox, it’s all about minimizing, the amount of time in which you’re sick and using peptides as well, such as KPV, which is in standalone and GI repair. That’s been hugely impactful for the post-mold illness, which I’m still getting over. It’s been a month since getting out, but, yes, that’s hugely impactful. A lot of people who have had mold issues have reported that it’s helped them. It works via the melanocortin system in the brain. This melanocortin system is huge and hugely beneficial for both brain fog and the anti-inflammatory effects. and it’s probably my favorite peptide for mold. There’s VIP as a nasal spray, which can be beneficial too. But I’ve also heard reports that it might be a little bit too intense. Then the other one, Thymosin Alpha-1, would be ones to look at as well. If you have any immunocompromised condition, which mold again suppresses, another thing it does is suppress immune system function. Yes. Thymosin, or the Thymic peptides, are beneficial as well.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes, I love KPV for the inflammatory processes. It does help mold patients a lot. If they’re bad offices, They’re having that seers effect. That’s the thing with mold. I mean, I’ve had patients who grew up in a moldy home and just had a chronic headache every day. We found the mold, we treated it, and they did better. Then some people are just devastated. They go into a big inflammatory response, which, as you said, affects all of their body. 

It’s a sad thing because you either have to remediate and spend thousands of dollars and then more money on treatment or, as you said, you have to move twice. It’s because all the building materials are just plaster; they’re not plaster anymore; they’re just drywall. That’s mold food. Maybe we’re going into too much detail, but maybe someone out there is listening and they’re, I need to get out or I need to get this checked. then I need to get on some peptides to support my body to get back into homeostasis after this mold.

Kyal Van Der Leest

Yes. I don’t want to get too wrapped up in mold. I think we could spend the whole duration of this talk speaking about it. It’s such a passion of mine because the healed become the healers and the more damage you get from something, the more you learn about it. As I said, it’s the silver lining to this, to this health challenge that I’ve gone through, learning so much about it and then developing the products to help myself primarily. But is anyone else going through it? But yes, my heart goes out to anyone who’s experienced it, especially if you’re a renter, and then you have to get into some dispute with the landlord about it and try to seek them out to fix it. It can add an extra layer of stress too, which is the beginning, and mental health and all that stuff is the root cause of all issues beyond even gut health, which I think a lot of people would consider the root cause. But mental stress and all that can certainly override a lot of the interventional protocols that you might want to follow. 

Yes, mold. Check out Evan Brand. He’s one of the best educators in the whole world about mold. If you want to look into that more, we will move on from it a little bit. I think, potentially, the next thing we could discuss is electromagnetic frequencies because they tie in with mold, I believe. Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt proved that mold gets exacerbated by the presence of electromagnetic fields. I believe that’s why it’s become such a prevalent and, at the forefront of, a problem for a lot of people nowadays. But, yes, that’s part of my journey as well. I was living in a house that was 50 meters away from a massive cell tower consignment with 156 consignments on it and had a variation of 3 to 4 G plus. In Australia, we have only just got 5G, so it will be interesting to see where that leads to mold and chronic health conditions. 

But yes, at the time, brain fog, horrible inflammation all over my body, an inability to sleep, and reliance on melatonin supplements because they were disrupting my body’s intrinsic ability to make melatonin. I also believe that the melatonin that you make ends up being anti-inflammatory for all the reactive oxygen species and inflammatory damage that is occurring to your brain. I’m glad I was taking the melatonin and some of the other things that support brain health, such as PEA Palmitoylethanolamide. I’d take magnesium three and eight before that gets into the brain to help with that inflammatory process in the brain. But yes, EMFs are another huge thing that I think there’s even been its own about EMFs; it’s another thing that people can go off on their tangent and learn about if they’re interested in it.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes, it’s scary. Especially, the new thing is that when people put their cell phones in their bras or their pants and right over their ovaries, that’s what girls do. They put them on their pants. I’m like, stop doing that because 5G is right there. Just a quick tip that I always say: use airplane mode on your phone at night or put it way across the room if you need to have it on for your parents or something else that needs to call you. Then I put my Wi-Fi on my Christmas tree timer. It goes off at midnight. But I will say my husband and I were into this movie. We stayed up too late. Then the last 20 minutes, it just went off, and I was, I’m so sorry. It’s on a timer and the wi-fi is done, we’re done. It was funny, but yes. What peptide relations have you made with your company that will support EMF exposure? If someone’s, I work at a school and because they got a $10,000 donation, they put a Wi-Fi tower on the building because that happens. What would you suggest to people?

Kyal Van Der Leest

Well, there’s not a pep talk that I’ve specifically made for EMF and Wi-Fi exposure. It’s just so that the magnesium three-night is one of the products I make because it’s that form that crosses the blood-brain barrier. The main mechanism of damage from electromagnetic exposure is the voltage-gated calcium channels. When you’re around in high-EMF environments, there’s a massive influx of calcium into the cell, which subsequently releases nitric oxide in a disproportionately high amount, which causes reactive nitrogen species. It’s called peroxide nitrate. That’s the primary damaging mechanism of EMF exposure. You can mitigate this by taking massive doses of magnesium. I believe that’s besides soil depletion. One of the big contributors to why there’s such a chronic magnesium deficiency in the population. If you’re around EMF all the time, well, the magnesium burn rate is going to go up as it’s countering all these calcium influxes in fluxes that are occurring when you’re around these fields. 

But the peptides that got me through it when I was living there were the Semax and Selank nasal sprays, getting them into the brain. They’re not only nootropic effects. You can salvage your mental function with those while you’re in a non-ideal situation. But they also work via the ACTH system as well, which can help protect you. They’re neuroprotective. If I had my time again, I’d probably look into peptide YP21. Dihexa and cerebral, and just accelerate the healing from the damage that occurred. While I link it back to mold too, mold causes a lot of cerebellum damage. I believe it’s the part of the brain that’s been linked with mold exposure. You breathe it in for your nose, and it pretty much goes directly into your brain, unfortunately. That’s why for a lot of people, one of the top and one of the earliest symptoms of mold exposure is neuroinflammation, brain fog, cognitive decline, lack of verbal fluency, i.e., you can’t find your words properly, and just frustration that you know what you need to say, but you struggle to find the words just as I demonstrated then. It’s yes, mean again, frustrating. 

But, yes, these neuropeptides, hold a lot of promise. Not only for these but acute slash chronic if you’re living in them inflammatory issues such as mold and EMF, but also the conditions that have become very prevalent. I don’t know the statistics on them; maybe you can help me out if you know them, but Alzheimer’s, ALS, and cognitive decline issues are becoming so prevalent. I think from memory, one in three or one in two will develop Alzheimer’s, or, what’s the other one forgotten? Dementia. That’s the one. Those are the big issues affecting the aging population. I believe in the future we will hopefully provide anyone who will fund the studies. We will be looking at things like P021. Dihexa-4 for these conditions and salvaging the DNA restores brain function, helps with remyelination, helps boost brain drive, and neurotrophic factors to bring these dying cells back from the brink. 

There’s also nutrition that works amazingly well, the PEA being one of them that I mentioned before. But there’s also a precursor to creatine, which can cross the blood-brain barrier. That’s a pretty new ingredient that not many people have made, but it’s called guanadino acetic acid. This is small enough to cross into the brain, so to help replenish brain creatine levels, you do need to provide methylation cofactors that will convert through to creatine. But yes, regular creatine supplementation doesn’t enter the brain. But by saving the rest of the body from having to make it, that will boost the brain creatine levels by an incidental effect. There are also a few other forms of nutritional precursors, and again, this is a peptide summary. I should probably loop it back, but there’s NAC, N-acetylcysteine, which, again similar to creatine, don’t normally cross the blood-brain barrier. 

But there’s a new form called NAC-ET, NAC Ethyl Ester. That form is small enough that it can cross the blood-brain barrier and provide the direct precursor for glutathione in the brain. There are a lot of promising studies for it, for reducing neuroinflammation and for boosting glutathione levels. I believe it’s either four, or eight. I can’t remember off the top of my head, four times better oral bioavailability than regular NAC. There are a lot of things we can do for neurodegenerative conditions. It’s not a topic I was planning on talking about, but I’m very passionate about it. It’s affected my family. I know people currently who are dealing with these neurodegenerative conditions and things like phospholipids as well, to assist in the remyelination.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That sounds like a new product that you need to bring on board because you’re good at pairing peptides with nutraceuticals. I think that’s your next project, maybe.

Kyal Van Der Leest

It’s in the works. It’s one that’s been challenging because we could have made it already, but we want to run it through some clinical trial processing first. We don’t want to when you’re altering neurochemistry and you’re directly altering the brain. Compared to fixing the gut, the implications are pretty large. With these things, as with a lot of peptides, they are experimental. Because they’re naturally produced; unfortunately, the studies and the funding are not as rich as you would find if it were modifiable and became patentable, and then the pharmaceutical companies would jump all over it. 

As has happened with, I believe, a peptide call that we wanted to chat about. Larazotide acetate. This one is a patented form, but other forms aren’t patented, which I will be releasing in the future. I can currently cancel it because I’m an Australian. It’s not patented here. The rest of the world, you’re welcome. But I believe that’s going to change very soon. We’ve looked at using a few different forms. 

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

About that one a little bit. It’s pretty amazing. I have a patient that I have on it, and it’s the only thing that fixes chronic diarrhea. I mean, we have done everything. It’s FDA-approved for celiac, which I believe is what is approved in the US. Explain a little bit about what it does because the list is this long.

Kyal Van Der Leest

What it does. Okay. Well, I guess the subsequent effects of reducing the permeability of the gut are what Larazotide works on fixing. It is a Zonia-1 antagonist, and Zonia-1 is this little protein that gets released when the body’s been exposed to gliadin, glyphosate, something that it doesn’t like, or gram-negative bacterial endotoxins. Zonia-1 is released. This creates an opening in the membrane. In the GI tract, in your GI tract, you have all of your, in your enterocytes, it’s in your epithelium. This is only one cell thick. It’s not a very strong barrier. It’s not usually having to cope with as much damage from the environment as it has from light, but this is only one cell thick. 

Between the cells are these little Velcro structures called tight junctions. When they get exposed to gliadin, this happens especially for people with celiac disease. Those tight junctions break down and cause what’s called paracellular hyperpermeability. There are two types of hyperpermeability or leaky gut; one’s called transcellular, which is the cell itself breaking or being damaged, is not healthy. You may not have enough short-chain fatty acids being produced in your gut, or maybe your mucosal membrane has broken down so much that your gut bacteria are starting to feed on those in that epithelial layer. That’s causing chronic inflammation and the breakdown of those that can cause transcellular permeability. This is where your BPC comes in. Things KB as well. They help with this transcellular repair from within to bring it back. Whereas Larazotide is like if you had a wound if you looked at a leaky gut as a wound. Larazotide is the staple that pulls the wound together. The BPC in the KPV can potentially heal and make that wound heal itself better. 

There are a few botanicals as well because this is how I formulate. Larazotide works by repairing tight junctions and bringing them together at staples. It stitches it back together while that’s holding it; it only occurs for a few hours before the peptide degrades. But while that’s occurring, we can bring these into this nutraceutical and Tributyrin and bioavailable butyrate. You can bring in zinc-l-carnitine, which is fantastic for restoring the gut lining. You can also potentiate the effect of Larazotide with quercetin, or even better, the enzyme medically modified Isoquercetin form, which we use both of because that form comes from within; that form crosses the membrane and works on the basal membrane of your gut lining, whereas the regular quercetin has terrible bioavailability. But that’s fine because it’s working on the ethical membrane, out of the membrane inside the lumen, and it’s reducing the inflammation there. It’s helping the cell reach that level. 

I’ve just run you through the logic behind why I created GI Repair and how I synergize the peptides with these nutraceuticals, these orthomolecular ingredients, like quercitin, and the Tributyrin, and there are also probiotics that I created and other companies sell as well, such as Akkermansia and Clostridium Butyricum. Both of these work in synergy to build up and strengthen the mucosal membrane around the epithelium. There are two ways you can go about healing the gut: one is to increase mucus. That’s the moat around your castle. The castle walls are your epithelium, and the immune system is just inside the castle walls. If you are experiencing damage or cupping damage to your walls, i.e., your intestinal epithelium, then your guards, your soldiers inside the castle, that’s your immune system. They’re going to have to react to these baddies coming in, destroying the walls, and coming in to create havoc. That’s lipopolysaccharide, dietary proteins, or that become antigens. That’s a big issue. 

Maybe one of the main predisposing issues for autoimmune disease is that protein fragments from food are coming through, chronically broken intestinal membranes, intestinal epithelium, chronic leaky gut, and the immune system gets overwhelmed. That’s when immune dysfunction occurs. That’s where the immune system tries to find the culprit. These little antigens, the present, it’s, They’re the thing that’s causing our leaky gut. We’re just going to have an immune response to food. That’s where you get food intolerances or an IGG response to certain foods. But then there’s the concept of molecular mimicry, where these antigens from food look like proteins within your own body. That’s, I believe, one of the primary drivers and causes of autoimmune disease. That’s why having a healthy gut lining and repairing it has so many downstream effects, especially for autoimmune diseases. I don’t think there’s an autoimmune condition in the world where healing the gut is not going to result in substantial improvements in health.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes. Let’s back up. Many great points. I love how you described all of that. The Larazetide and the staples. That’s so good. Because it’s true. Yes. Sometimes, when we look at gut health, we have to remove some of the bad things first, and then we need to work on gut repair. Sometimes we can; everyone’s different. This is the ultimate GI repair. It. It is genius how you put all these things together, just with the zinc. The Larazetide, the BPC 157. It’s great because the gut is so complicated and there are so many things going on there. Yes, we have to fix the gut first. You have to for autoimmune diseases and stuff. Yes, certain peptides are great for inflammation, great for thymus health, and all of that. But the gut is where you need to start. Then I feel that once the gut health is good and you have that under control, the other peptides are going to work better. I mean, I even say this with the injectables, GLP-1, and all of those. You need to work on your gut health first, and then you can focus on all these fun peptides to build muscle and all of that. I think that gut health is, yes, such a good focus. How long would you recommend the GI repair? Probably at least two months.  While they’re figuring out what’s going on, Because you alluded to before, if you have mold if you’re living in mold, you could take the supplement and you’ll feel better. But it’s you’re chasing your tail a little bit.

Kyal Van Der Leest

Yes. The way I will, I’ll keep it in analogies: I love analogies, especially the castle walls one. Every battle is different. Everyone’s body needs support in some way. Maybe for some people, strengthening the walls with Larazotide is all you need, because there are not too many bad guys in your gut that are coming in and destroying the walls. Maybe the mucous membranes are fine. It depends on the individual. But the reason GI repair has had such almost unanimous success is because it targets every single one of those levels. It has a moderating effect like the Tributyrin. The Tributyrin in itself has a positive effect on the mycology of your gut. It helps strengthen the mucosal membrane, and then Zinc Carnosine reinforces the walls, which itself affects the gut bacteria. 

The Larazotide strengthens the walls. BPC, sorry. Larazotide is like the mortar between the bricks. If you have no mortar between your bricks, they’re not going to hold. That’s what Larazotide does. BPC, KPV, or GHK. All of these strengthen the walls. Then if you have done that and if the moat and the walls are strong, your overactive immune system and your guards inside your body can calm down. The threat is so much less of an issue now that you can just give them some counseling. They have PTSD. They’ve been fighting all these lipopolysaccharides, antigens, and food particles coming in. If you have truly fixed the gut, that will modulate your immune system and get it to calm down. There might be some issue with that PTSD where you might need to shift your TH1 to TH2 in balance. You might need to play around with that with certain botanicals later on. But I truly believe the root cause of it is stress, gut health, and then all the other diseases below it. There’s a hierarchy of health. I work with patients and clients, and I think all the practitioners that I work with as well have a great network of practitioners that I refer to as well, who all type not all of them, but most of them take this approach of let’s heal the gut first because that’s a no-brainer for getting people better, or at least improving.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes, I agree, and most of the time you have symptoms—gut symptoms, bloating sometimes—but sometimes they manifest as other things. I mean, some people don’t know how it feels to have good gut health. They’re just used to feeling sluggish or constipated. It’s interesting. But yes, definitely, if anyone’s listened there, if you haven’t worked on your gut health, you should probably do some testing or look into healing your gut because, yes, glyphosate just pokes holes in the gut. 

I mean, living in the Midwest, in the USA, there’s so much life; it’s everywhere in the water and the snow. It’s so frustrating. You almost have to be on the offense, and you just have to do all these things to keep your gut healthy so you’re not having to play defense later and fix it all. It’s something you have to think about. These peptides can help do that. Do you have any suggestions for maintenance for gut health? If someone’s okay, I worked on my gut health last year, and I’ve taken the Ultimate GI Repair for a couple of months now. What do I do? How do I prevent it from going backward?

Kyal Van Der Leest

Yes. a maintenance dose, and that never even answered your question properly. How long should you take these for? I  just said it depends, which is usually one of the best answers people who know will give you. It depends on your situation, but most people will notice a benefit within one month of taking it. If you’ve got IBD-Kranzle colitis, you’ll notice that within a week, it’s almost a certainty. But for the general population, if you’re eating good-quality food, you’re seeking organic foods where possible. Dirty dozen, clean 15. Look at those, up for the organic for the dirty dozen. Reduce your glyphosate exposure. actively work on removing. It’s probably a good idea as well, because, as you said, it’s so ubiquitous. It’s in the drinking water. That’s why filtering your water is a great idea too. But yes, as a maintenance dose, maybe once every 6 to 8 months, if you’re taking all the boxes for all the other lifestyle and nutrition things, that would be a good way to go about it. 

It’s also if you’ve traveled and you’ve got travel or something like that, it’s probably the most powerful intervention, just for acute things as well. You want to look through your binders, your charcoal, and all those other things for the toxins, but just cutting off the ceiling quickly can help people get over those issues. and peptides are good for cycling. If you have an IBD condition where you might need to take it chronically. The way peptides work, I’m sure a lot of people in the summit know is that they either bind to a cell surface receptor or they cross the membrane instead of binding genetically. Either way, they’re binding to something. 

If you’re chronically or long-term, having a peptide, an ingredient, or something that binds to a surface receptor, I have testosterone. For example, if someone takes exogenous testosterone, you can have receptor density downregulation with long-term use. That’s why I always suggest that if you’re going to take the product for two months, at the end of those two months, take two weeks off,  a one-month to one-week type of rest ratio. That’s a precautionary just on that theoretical principle of receptor site downregulation. It’s not proven yet. I don’t think there’s any study that shows that you do end up with downregulation of receptor sites. That’s more of a precaution. 

I also think that because these peptides come in and come out so quickly, I think the majority of them have a half-life of between three and five and six hours. especially for the ones I sell, I think the base is four. It comes in, binds to those receptors, signals, all of these amazing benefits, all these cell signaling cascades to increase epithelial growth factor, to increase VEGF, to promote angiogenesis in blood cells, blood vessel formation, and NGF. There are so many downstream effects from just binding to the cell surface receptor that last beyond that window in which the peptide is actually in your bloodstream. If it’s only in there for four hours, binding roughly, maybe for the other 20 hours of the day, it’s not binding. Therefore, you might not end up with desensitization, but take precautions. It’s good to have a week off every month.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes, I agree. I love to rotate peptides. Let’s switch subjects a little bit. GHK-Cu peptide. You have an oral form. Can you talk a little bit about oral peptides and GHK-Cu orally? What it could do.

Kyal Van Der Leest

Yes. GHK-Cu is an injectable copper, and it hurt to take and I had a massive histamine reaction to it as well. I’ve tended to get those. That’s probably because I was living in mold and my histamine backup was already pretty full. When I did the injectable peptides, it didn’t go so well. That’s why I love oral peptides and make them. Now GHK is added to the range. I love this peptide so much. I bet that someone else in this summit is talking almost exclusively about it. I don’t know yet, but I am certain based on. Yes, for topical, injectable. It’s amazing. The way it up-regulates, and down-regulates the correct umbrella term is modulates epigenetic switches in your body, is remarkable. It affects the skin. It affects your fibroblasts, your hair, your liver, your nervous system, your intestines, and your lungs. It affects stem cell expression and gene expression almost always positively. There are something like 24 genes associated with stem cell expression that help with neuronal and nervous system repair, pain, and anti-aging. It’s probably one of my favorite compounds. 

Until I  looked into the literature and looked into mechanistically, the issues with taking it orally, I was consigned, ceded to the fact that I’ll just have to get it through the skin. With topicals, or I’ll have to maybe bite the bullet and inject it again and risk that pain and the histamine reaction. But by overcoming the stomach acid with a delayed-release acid-resistant capsule and then buffering the peptide with things like sodium, and sodium bicarbonate, you can get good bioavailability of this peptide because if it makes it through that stomach acid, it’s only a tripeptide. Three peptides long. It will easily diffuse across your small intestine into circulation, provided it’s not degraded by the proteolytic enzymes, like pepsin, for example, in your stomach. It’s so rich in that. That’s why the timing of oral peptides is important. Timing them away from protein is probably the best advice I can give, because protein is the trigger for stomach acid secretion, and the more stomach acid you have, the more pepsin is going to be converted from pepsinogen, and therefore the higher the likelihood that the peptide will be broken down and its effects nullified. The other thing that nullifies GHK orally is stomach acid hydrochloric acid. That’s why just using a delayed-release, acid-resistant capsule works. Then once it’s through, past the stomach, the other enzymes will break down that capsule. Not pepsin because it’s not a capsule; it’s a cellulose-based capsule. Then it will get released intelligently in the small intestine. Then it will go systemic. I can tell you from having used it for about two months that it very much makes a difference to your skin health. From the inside out as an oral capsule. But if you’re then combining it with topical skincare products, then the outside in while the inside out is just the best of both worlds. 

As a topical, I don’t think you get the anti-aging effects beyond the surface level. You don’t get the lung effects. I think it’s good for COPD as well. I don’t have the study on me, but it’s something I’ve read in the past, and it’s great for the gut lining because, as I said, it helps with stem cell regulation. This is also applicable to the intestinal stem cells. GHK will eventually make its way into GI Repair in the future. but for now, I have it as a standalone with all those buffers. It’s hard to add it to the GI Repair because those buffers that stop it from being released in the stomach would also nullify the stomach healing effects of GI Repair. The Zinc Carnosine and the BPC help people with Helicobacter pylori or ulcers in their stomachs. But if we were to buffer those, then it nullifies that effect. We’re figuring out a way to put it in GI Repair without undoing the positive effects on the stomach of the other ingredients. But it’s honestly, at the moment, my favorite peptide.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s so cool. Timing. How long after eating protein? Two hours.

Kyal Van Der Leest

It depends on how much protein there is. Again, that depends on the answer. But if you’ve had a big steak, give it two hours. That’s usually how long it takes. A normal functioning stomach works its way through a well-chosen piece of meat. Otherwise, just try and have it before. Then, usually, if there’s no stomach contents, it’ll just pass through. It is similar to water. It’s only a small capsule.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes, that’s important with any oral peptides you would suggest.

Kyal Van Der Leest

Exactly. Yes. Anything apart from the BPC, that is resistant to stomach acid as the alginate form that is made of stomach acid. It’s resistant to it, and it will still affect too many. Too much of the pepsin in the proteolytic enzymes can affect BPC, but it’s a pretty hardy protein compared to the other smaller ones that are more fragile, like TB4  or Ac-SDKP. That one’s also only for amino acids. The GHK-3, are small ones. It’s very critical that the smaller they are, in my opinion, the more fragile they are. You have to take care when orally administering.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes, that helps. That makes a lot of sense. Talking about your supplement company, quality is so important to you. Tell us a little bit about how delicate you are when you’re creating these formulations.

Kyal Van Der Leest

Obviously. Yes, it’s very important to me because if you are not giving your customers, your clients, and yourself something that is exactly what it promises and says it is, then you are delaying your healing journey. As someone who’s been chronically ill, I do not want to be in that state longer than I have to be. Unfortunately, with the rise of a black market that is cheap, not to mention Chinese, there are a lot of poorly manufactured products that are coming from there. There are a lot of good ones that are coming from there too. That’s why I’m saying not to knock on them. But if you are not taking what you think you’re taking, and that applies not just to peptides but to all supplements in general, there’s just a wild West at the moment. 

Trusting a company that does purity reports and answers your questions about its quality, certificates of analysis, and heavy metal testing is important, especially for anyone who’s doing injectable peptides. I believe that’s a pretty risky thing to do if you’re sourcing it from somewhere that doesn’t test for those and doesn’t test for endotoxins or lipopolysaccharides. If you’re injecting those things without knowing, then the repercussions completely nullify any of the positive effects of the peptides if they’re even in it. Then can leave you in a worse position health-wise. if before you even take the things, especially if you’re doing it part of a month- or two-month-long protocol way, or injecting every day or every second day, a small amount of these things can accumulate, especially the metals. 

I don’t need to tell people why heavy metal is not good. That’s a supplement that you’re using to try and fix yourself. That’s the last place you want to find those things. That’s why I’m so pedantic about sourcing. That’s why my products are expensive because if you do it, you get it. You get testing included in every single batch. It doesn’t work out all that cheap to do it, and to synthesize things custom, the Larazotide is a custom synthesis. It’s not just a generic aisle. We’re making 100 kilos of it. It’s made on demand for our company for these products. The same is true with the KPV: not too many people are doing them. The accessibility is not that high. But also on another level. the excipients that people use in products, the non-active rice flour, or even some of the fillers that people use in products, I don’t understand the use of fillers. It’s doing a disservice to your customers or yourself if you’re taking a product with lactose in it; that’s a filler. I’ve seen it used in some products. 

For someone who’s lactose intolerant, again, you’re creating more problems in your solution by using that. Rice flour. What’s the point? It’s going to cost you another couple of dollars per unit as a manufacturer to use something like PEA. I use it in almost every one of my products because it’s second to probably the best anti-inflammatories. It’s. Even beyond turmeric, it’s not going to lower iron for some people. It’s this uniformly beneficial ingredient that I just use as the basis for all the products, as the functional filler that synergizes with the effects of the peptides and has its add-on benefit. But yes, there is a there is a long tangent about quality. It’s so important.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

It is. You don’t want to bargain shop for supplements. I try to buy televisions, but I don’t get them on Amazon. This isn’t something that you end up buying at a bargain shop, but this is your goal. It’s going into your body. Yes, PEA. I love that. I was telling Kyal before we got to this interview that I’m taking the KPV, and it also has PEA and some other ingredients. But I have an aroma machine, and it just flares up. Sometimes I’ll hit it on things, or sometimes I will just ache if I go out to eat or indulge in some inflammatory things at a restaurant. Gluten-free and lots of protein, but you just don’t know what you’re getting. But I’ve been taking it for the past three weeks and I’ve noticed a difference, so I’m sold on PEA. 

I’ve read the research on it and tried it myself, so it was great. then KPV knew it would be a great anti-inflammatory. It’s exciting to try. It is good to work with someone. a natural-path functional integrative medicine doctor who knows what you need. You’re doing it correctly, and you’re not wasting your money. You have someone who is guiding you through protocols, and I’m sure, Kyal, you’re a wealth of information too. With this, what new products are you working on? I’m curious because I just love your formulations.

Kyal Van Der Leest

Well, I think I might have accidentally dropped a few hints that the neurons regenerate. It’s talking about all those brain peptides that are in the works. Probably a few months because of all the trials and the processes that we’ll go through to make sure that’s perfect, because when you start targeting the brain, then those metals and those LP toxins that I was talking about are so important. 

We are working on skincare as well. Everyone’s jumping on the peptide bandwagon, but we’re going to do it right. Any and every ingredient that will go into this product will be of environmental working group level one; safety. Because I’m sick of skincare being something that makes your skin less healthy. Or maybe you’re getting a perfume or a fragrance or something that’s disrupting your endocrine system. Or maybe certain fats might be rancid, or it’s a very difficult thing. I’ve been working on it for over a year, trying to get it as well. There is a skincare range coming out soon. 

I think, I tested that about a year ago, and it’s still coming, so yes, bear with me. I’m bringing out the ace. the TB4 fragment peptide, Ac-SDKP that will be out soon. Synergize with those same ingredients—the PEA and the absorption-enhancing gradients—and Larazotide by itself will be coming out again. When you’re looking at that mode of damage. A good practitioner. This is why I love our affiliates, our practitioners, and all the people we work with. I get so many emails every day from people asking, What’s the best product for me? Which one should I take? I just do it because I don’t have much time. I just said, Just take GI Repair. It’s a shotgun. Whatever one is, whichever part of your gut is the issue, it’s got something in it that’ll work. But if you want to be more specific, we have Tributyrin and by itself, Zinc Carnosine by itself, Larazotide, KPV vs. BPC, everything by itself. 

But I think to do that, you need to work with a practitioner who can be a bit more targeted. They can take a full, comprehensive analysis of your lifestyle and your nutrition and then figure out what is the lowest-hanging fruit and the best product to support you. I know you have your supplement range too, so you’re very aware of how important practitioners are to work with. If any practitioners are tuning in, props to you guys for learning about peptides if you didn’t know anything about them. I hope that they see the utility in using these things because they are surgical and they’re not surgical; they’re not cutting you, but they’re very precise in their mechanisms. Once you understand that, you can potentiate and make your particles work so much faster than with whatever it is that you’re currently using, be it naturopathic, nutritional, or pharmaceutical as well. They just have so much utility in every space. No matter what your practice, no matter what your dogma, they have a place in all of it.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes. I’m shaking my head. Yes. Because they do it, and that’s how your company LVLUP does it. It’s a game-changer. It’s extra. That’s how I explain to my patients: We’re just going to add in some peptides because it’s a go time. We’re going to step this up a notch. Are you ready? The only downside is the cost. But if you explain what they do to your patients or you, That makes sense. That castle is in the moat. Thank you so much. I love all of your explanations and your stories, and I appreciate you sharing your heart with us and your passion. How can everyone find you? Learn more about your company or your products.

Kyal Van Der Leest

Yes, well, I’m a new dad, so I’m pretty hard to nail down personally. But you can find my company and my support team. If you have any questions, lvluphealth.com, send them through an email or a DM on Instagram, and we will do our best to answer them. Potentially, if you want to work with someone, we have an amazing network of practitioners who are all, well, peptide birth too. I can connect you with if you’re a practitioner who wants to work with more patients who are interested in peptides. We have too many to divide up between our practitioners now. Please help us out and connect. But yes, lvluphealth.com is the website. I believe I’ve got a discount for all the listeners of the summit that I don’t think we’ve mentioned what it is, but I will have it edited in or put at a later date. DRTALKS15 or JEN15. One of those. Yes, I look forward to hearing how people go. If they do decide to invest, and try these products. Let me know on social media how it’s changed your life. We have lots of amazing reviews on the products as well. If you need some more convincing, there are plenty of genuine verified reviews on the site, so check it out. Stay tuned for the new products coming out as well. If you are interested in any of those things that I mentioned, I think anti-aging skincare is of interest to most people, but more specifically, chronic disease issues, like CNS, Alzheimer’s, and dementia. Please stay in the loop and make contact. When we bring that out, We’d love to hear feedback on that one.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Awesome. Thank you so much for all that you do, Kyal.

Kyal Van Der Leest

I’ll thank you for making this summit happen. I believe peptides are the future of medicine, and bringing awareness to them for the general public, practitioners, and coaches is just going to help the world in such a big way. Thank you.