
How Peptides Could Be The Breakthrough Your Thyroid Needs

Founder, Healthy by Dr. Jen
How Peptides Could Be The Breakthrough Your Thyroid Needs
Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM
Full Transcript
Introduction and Speaker Background 0:00
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to, reversing Hashimoto's and thyroid disease summit. I'm your summit host, doctor Anshul Gupta. And today I have with me a doctor Jen Flagger. I'm really excited about this interview today because we are going to talk about an exciting topic about peptides and thyroid disorders. Not much talked about. And we use it in our practice. And we are going to go into details about how peptides can be useful for thyroid patients. So please hold on to and listen to the whole interview to get the complete information.
But before we get started, let me introduce. You know, the speaker today. So Doctor Jen Flagger is a double board certified physician, emergency medicine and integrative medicine. She graduated from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, trained at Saint Vincent's Mercy Hospital for M residency, and her Integrative Medicine fellowship was completed with University of Arizona and Rule Center for Integrative Medicine. She is a co author of the book eat, sleep, move, Breathe A Beginner's Guide to a Healthy Lifestyle.
Doctor Jen is a board member for Invisible Disabilities Association, American and vice president of the Northwest Ohio Osteopathic Association. Her own battle with Hashimoto's thyroid disease led her to make it her mission to help others suffering from not only thyroid disease, but other chronic illnesses such as Lyme mold and other autoimmune diseases. She really enjoys teaching on a social media Instagram and YouTube, where she is integrative doctor mom. She's practicing in Ohio and also virtually seeing patients.
She guides patients back to health. She likes to also spend time with her children, sports games, boating with her family, reading the Bible and lifting weights. Doctor Jen, welcome over here. I thank you so much, Doctor Gupta. I'm very excited to be here. Absolutely. And as you shared that you yourself battled two Hashimoto's disease. So if you don't mind, I would like you to share your story of Hashimoto's season, how you were able to overcome it. Yes, absolutely. It was pretty wild. So go back to high school and I my mom just thought something was off.
So she asked the doctor for thyroid labs. She said she read about it in a woman's like health magazine. You know, the ones that are in the grocery store when you check out. And my thyroid was off my TSH was elevated. So they did an ultrasound. They found some nodules. You know, I had to go through the whole biopsy thing and they put me on thyroid medication, and and I went to medical school, felt my thyroid when we were doing anatomy class, and my nodule was bigger. So they try to do a fine needle biopsy again, it was inconclusive.
And they're like, well, we need to rule out thyroid cancer. So it was really interesting what happened at this point. So I, I took my final one of my final exams before Christmas break. It was the only time in medical school that I would have time to have. The surgery is, you know, medical school is a little bit strenuous. So I remember I took my my final I had to go in early because I had to fast and everything. And then I went to surgery right after I took it, I woke up and, you know, praise God there is no cancer.
But I remember the doctor looking at me and being like, well, you have Hashimoto's thyroiditis. It's like the tissue. When I took out the thyroid, it was disease tissue. So they took out half plus my is now. So I only have a little bit left on the left. And he's like it was diseased. I took it out. It was Hashimoto's when they did the frozen biopsy while I was in surgery. And I'm like, What's Hashimoto's thyroiditis? You know, I'm a first year medical student. We hadn't gotten to that yet. And he's like, oh, it's an autoimmune disease.
There's nothing you can do about it.
Jen Flaggeru2019s Hashimotou2019s Journey 4:10
Your thyroid will just destroy itself and you have to be on thyroid meds the rest of your life. And I'm like, okay, as a medical student, right? Like we believe conventional medicine. We believe what the doctor tells us. So fast forward to, you know, not that I was miserable, but I had low energy. I had weight gain. You could look at pictures of me in medical school, in my residency. And I looked inflamed. Right. I could have been doing better. So I had my first. My first son, Declan, and I got just.
I just woke up to to health. Right? I wanted a natural birth. I wanted to breastfeed, I cloth diapers, an interest lay. It took me going gluten free to finally heal my thyroid disease. Now this is someone coming from conventional medicine, conventional training, working in the emergency room. And I told my husband I have to go back and do an integrative medicine fellowship. I'm like, I feel like I was lied to in medical school. We weren't told the whole thing. And me being a doe, we look at the body as a whole.
But when you get down to the core, classes are still here's the disease, here's the pharmaceutical, because that's what our tests are based on. I mean, you remember all the the testing. It's just here's the diagnosis, here's the drug. Right. It's really not root cause B so I went back and didn't integrative medicine fellowship I healed small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in my gut. I mean I spent years decades right. Like eating food and being bloated after. And this is not normal you guys. It's not normal to be bloated, to have excessive gas, to have abdominal pain, to have PMS.
I had really bad PMS that they treated with birth control, which made it worse. I didn't need to be on birth control. And all of this ties back to Hashimoto's and my thyroid. Right? Period problems, stomach issues. You know, low stomach acid can cause Sibo and H. Pylori and all these things. And no one is telling us that this is how it is. Right? And my antibodies have been zero for over a decade. You know, I healed my Hashimoto's. I feel great, like I said, the pictures of how inflamed I looked and what we have to realize we're really doing patients a disservice.
The endocrinologists, the doctors, the family practice doctors that are telling them that Hashimoto's can't be healed because that is inflammation that is just hanging around in your body. That's a dysregulation of your H1 and H2 immune balance. This is our immune system, is what if it's, you know, in disarray. It can cause cancer, can cause other diseases. So I think it's just really sad that, you know, what we're doing right now in conventional medicine. So that's why I'm here to talk about, you know, peptides and other things to help with thyroid and so this is why Doctor Gupta I know he is so passionate about the thyroid also.
Absolutely. But I just want to take a moment over here and have people pay attention to what Doctor Jen said, that after years of suffering through Hashimoto's disease, her antibody levels are zero. Okay, no conventional doctor, the best endocrine doctor will ever tell you that your antibodies will ever come back to zero. So here, Doctor Jen is telling her live example that she was able to do it. So you can also do it. So it's just about knowing what is happening inside the body and also reversing it. Right.
So thank you for sharing this great inspirational story. Because what you went through each and every Hashimoto's goes to that. A lot of these kind of undetected symptoms which people feel are not way to thyroid, but in reality they are. So please tell us a little bit more about these peptides. You know what they are actually. Yeah. Yeah. So peptides are chains of amino acids. So amino acids is what makes up proteins okay. Proteins in our bodies. And we need amino acids to make things like different molecules and neurotransmitters.
So amino acids are very important and peptides are just chains of amino acids shorter ones usually about 4 to 40 amino acids. Okay. There's also bio regulators which are smaller okay. So peptides are amazing. We take them into the body usually injection sometimes orally. We'll talk a little bit more about the difference later. And they turn on and off cell signaling in the body. These are great because they work with our body. This is why I really like peptides. Very little side effect profile. The only downsides are peptides honestly are some need to be injected, most need to be injected and they're pricey.
And this is one thing that when we're using peptides, we should try to optimize the other parts of our health first. And I'm sure during this summit, Doctor Gupta will be having a lot of interviews about like sleep and breathwork, prayer, meditation, movement and exercise and and then also, you know, just our nutrition, which is the basis of health. So all of those things I have found that if they're more optimal peptides are going to they're going to work better. Right. You just can't throw a peptide at the wall and, and hope it sticks and hope that it is going to fix everything.
One little, one little peptide. Right. But we see this with like medications and supplements. Right. You have to work on the pillars of health. So that that is one thing because they are more expensive. So sometimes I'll tell patients, I, I have a plan for you where can I use peptides. But we're going to fix your sleep first, which is total trash. And we're going to fix your diet. Right. So that is kind of like a helpful way to look at peptides. Now there are some peptides that sometimes I pull out right away.
If someone is very inflamed or their gut is a disaster, I use a bunch of different modalities at once. So there's different ways you can use them. But but also realize like these things take time to my antibodies didn't go to zero overnight. So these things are tools for a healthy lifestyle and they can really move the needle. I've had patients with Graves and Hashimoto's that using peptides just took them there faster, right. Because when we have these antibodies going through our body, attacking our thyroid, that time is thyroid.
Sometimes I look back and I'm like, well, what if when I was in high school, I would have had a doctor like me or Doctor Gupta that like actually understood autoimmune disease and, and, you know, reversed it back then I wouldn't have to be on medication. I would have a functioning thyroid gland. Right? That tissue wouldn't have been disease. And that's sometimes we have to realize that sometimes when you have Hashimoto's for so long, yes, you might need thyroid medication. I know some people are like, I'm just going to get off all my meds.
That's my goal. Well, it doesn't always work like that, unfortunately. So I hate to be a realist about that, but it is wild. I look back at, you know, 30 years of thyroid, medications, ultrasounds, lab work. I've spent over $20,000. So some. Yeah. I mean, if you add up the co-pays, it's wild. So some people are like, oh, it's expensive to get help or work with an actual like board certified doctor. It is worth your money. Trust me, because I am studying money now. Right? When, you know, maybe I wouldn't have had to.
So let's talk about. Well, it's. Yeah, it's just an important point. So pay now, pay later. I just want to kind of, summarize what we said a few points over here. So first of all, very important, as Doctor Jen said that, you know, we are integrative and functional doctor. So just one thing is not going to fix your problem right? Working on a foundation of the lifestyle and then utilizing supplements and peptides all together is one to what is going to fix you.
What Peptides Are and Why They Matter 12:40
So please, very important thing to remember. And second of all is that, you know, medicine is not your enemy, right? You know, doctor Jen and me both are board certified physicians. We are not against medicine. So sometimes, yes, you might need it. But what beyond the medicine? Medicine can not heal your Hashimoto's. So that's what we are talking about reversing Hashimoto's by using these integrative medicine tools. Which peptides are a great tool for Doctor Jen? Now I would like you to tell people how these peptides can be useful for these Hashimoto's patients.
Yeah. Let's talk about some of the popular ones. You might have heard about. BPC 157 so body protection compound, the 15 chain amino acid. It's a peptide that is actually in our body. We make it in our gastric cells. So that's pretty cool. Interesting because BPC 157 is is banned by the NFL and in other organizations. And like but we make it ourself. Right. So BPC 157 it can be injectable. Okay I know we talked about some are injectable. So injectable is really great for tissue healing. They've done studies you know on animals that have like regrown Achilles tendons.
Right. So I love this peptide. I when I have patients come into the office I'll inject around the injury site. But they can also inject it just subcutaneously. So that's under that the tough the tissue the skin tissue. So just a little insulin syringe in the stomach usually okay I usually cycle this on 20 days maybe take ten days off. You want to cycle it you. There are contraindications like a tumor growth okay. You wouldn't want to use BPC 157. So that's the injectable great for tissue regeneration.
It reduces inflammation by promoting angiogenesis which is the formation of blood vessels. And this can really help with like chronic inflammation in a really easy, accessible way to get BPC. 157 is oral capsules. So we can take it orally. There's different ways depending on the manufacturer that they, put this in or institutionalize it into the supplement that make it better absorb. Because when we have big proteins and big peptides, or when we have big peptides, the stomach acid breaks it down.
So some of these oral ones, they have found a way to get it more stable. So it's able to get absorbed and not broken down. So I hope that makes sense. So we don't want to break down peptides like food. We want them to cross into the intestine intact. So then they can go and turn on and off cell signaling. So oral BPC 157 it's great for gut health and inflammation. This can really be a game changer for Hashimoto's patients because what is a big root cause of Hashimoto's gut gut gut right gut health.
So sometimes I will pair BPC 157 with some other peptides to really get the gut under control in the gut inflammation. And I've seen amazing things with this. This is a peptide that I travel with in case I get like food poisoning or if my gut just feels off. Maybe I got gluten bombed right? We've all felt that when we ate out, we're like, are you sure this is gluten free? And they say, yes. And then you're like, oh, I don't think that was so BTC 157 great for for Hashimoto's and readily available orally.
I'm sure you probably have had your patients use this one, right? That's great. Yes, you know, like we have been that was again one of the first peptide that we started using in our practice. The good thing about this peptide is literally there is no downside, no side effect. Very well tolerated. I have not seen any patient having any, you know, issues with you using this peptide. So definitely one of the peptides that we go to and especially it is oral because a lot of people do shy away from injectable peptides.
So I think being orally available now, it is so easy. Yeah. And I will pair a lot of the times BPC 157 with something called La Raza tide. So La Raza tide is a peptide. It's actually in clinical trials for celiac disease. So it helps modulate xylene and helps with tight junctions in the gut. Downsides. Expensive. Like I said, that's it. I've had patients though with just chronic diarrhea. And La Raza finally got it under control like they had to wear, you know, diapers when they were out for leaking or for an accident and using La Raza, I think I got her.
She was up to three times a day for like the healing, but usually twice a day. That one is. So that's one that you can pair with it. If, you know, sometimes the gut, it's just it's tough. Some people have these really tough gut health things. You know, you take away the dysbiosis, the bad bacteria and they're just still inflamed where sometimes that could be emotional trauma. But I've found that are the tougher cases. But but once you pile on some of these peptides with it, sometimes that is just the little bit that they need.
Now they're already, you know, eating healthy. It's just they're still so inflamed. So you know depending on this is where your clinicians just start comes in and their expertise on if they need to use the peptides or not. And this is why it's so important to work with a doctor. Because you can't just like you can just self treat, but are you going to be wasting money or are you going to get the most, you know, bang for your buck when you're dealing with these expensive peptides? So that's why it's a great just to get a clinician with just all with experience on board.
Another one is Cfpb. I really like Cfpb. And this helps reduce inflammatory cytokines.
BPC-157, Larazotide, and Gut Healing 18:30
And this helps suppress immune activity. So this one you could think of like an anti-inflammatory peptide. And this is orally available too which is great. Now Cfpb I love using it with mold patients. So we do see Graves and Hashimoto's triggered by mold and mold colonization in the gut or just chronic exposure to mold. And Cfpb is one of my favorite for that because these patients are super inflamed, right. They have a chronic inflammatory response syndrome going on. They just like can't get a handle on it.
They have histamine response. So Cfpb is really good because of how it modulates the immune system. And you know when it comes to the thyroid in those with active Hashimoto's you are inflamed. You are inflammatory. And not that I those listening with Hashimoto's diagnosis right now. Not that you should be alarmed. And I don't want you to be stressed, but like your house is on fire, right? There's smoke and we're ignoring it. Not we, but conventional medicine. I mean, you're in the right place to to learn and and to heal.
But just something we need to think about. You know, we need to calm down this inflammation. So that is another one I really like. Yeah. So these are two peptides, you know, which again, I think we use it a lot too. And I think again Cfpb combination of DPC working on underlying inflammation is so important. Again, as Doctor Jen said, it is very important because these peptides you know like you know, if you go on internet, you know like a lot of different websites are selling them, but you need to get from a good source right.
Especially you need a compounding pharmacy or a place which you know are making them on their own and have the quality in check. Right. Doctor Jen, where are you using it from where you have a compounding pharmacy or you have somebody else who's making it for you? Yeah. So compounding pharmacies are great for the injectable. That is the only place I prescribe for patients. And then the oral. There are a few companies, health charity Integrative Therapeutics that that I, I trust their source oh level up health.
So I use those in patients. So they I actually know the owners of the company. You know I have their phone numbers. We communicate. So you really want to make sure that you you trust the source. You just don't want to get them off Amazon or something. That that would be a bad idea. And then the injectable I get from compounding pharmacies, which, last year, a lot of the injectable one we're going to talk about, they got flagged by the FDA and compounding pharmacies can't make them anymore. So they're hard to get.
And you can get them on the internet, but they're for research only, okay. And I can't as a physician, I can't recommend that. So we go to compounding pharmacies. But the nice thing is the compounding pharmacists. We're finding alternatives. They're getting creative. And also I think that this will have to be overturned. All of these regulations that FDA put out because peptides we we make it our body already. And I didn't mention this earlier, but insulin is a peptide. Oxytocin is a peptide. Growth hormone is a peptide.
So these are natural things that we make in our body. A lot of them there are synthetic peptides also. But same thing. They're turning on and off cell signaling. They're not going in there like a bull in a China shop which I think a lot of pharmaceutical medicines do. Right. They go in there and they just they do their mechanism of action. They don't care. They're not taking any prisoners. They don't care what damage they cause. Right. Look at Motrin and Nsaid. It goes in there. It inhibits, you know, a Cox pathway.
Fox do. But they cause damage to the GI tract. You know actually a lot of a lot of thyroid issues could be caused with chronic. And said use. And another example is Tylenol. Right. It decreases fevers. It helps with pain. But it rams in their it deploys. It's the body of glutathione. It's hard on the liver. So we when we look at peptides it's it's not like that. It's not it's not wild. It's not going to you're not going to overdose. You know it's not like medication. So they're a threat unfortunately because they work so well.
I think that's true. Yeah. So I just want to kind of the the thought that came into my mind was that, you know, it's like, you know, these NSAIDs or any medicines are like a big bomb you're dropping, which has like collateral damage. While these peptides are very precision and targeted approach of like just taking care of the threat and not, you know, like having any of the damage. Would you say like yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's and it's frustrating because, you know, peptides aren't covered by insurance, you know, but no one's making money off healthy people.
So we we know that now one of the ones that, oh during the pandemic, thymus and Alpha one, it is peptide that modulates immune function. It works with T cell different differentiation and really helps with immune regulation. So we talked about so Hashimoto's is more of a t h1 dominance disease. And then you have your H2. And when they're imbalanced your immune system. That is when we we see problems and thymus and alpha one really good at balancing them. What's frustrating is that this is one that like two years ago, we weren't able to use anymore.
And I, I was using this on, newly diagnosed Hashimoto's patients. And I would just see resolution of disease in their antibodies. Amazing. I this one patient I had, she was like very she's very Type-A, kind of reminds herself of me. But she's like, I she's like, I want this gone. I want to be better. Like, I, you know, I'm like, okay, let's go. She went completely grain free. She did thymus and Alpha one. We did BPC 157. You know, we did all the things while we were just waiting for her gut health report.
So it really turned her around beautifully. And it also during the pandemic, they did a lot of research in China on thymus and Alpha one. They would give it to patients in the hospital and key with they would do great because it would you wouldn't have that overexcited immune system reaction, which is what would get people in trouble. So that one was gone. And it's sad, but that one was injectable and you would inject it usually once a day, depending on your protocol. Sometimes it would just be a couple times a week.
I know some people get it still, they have some places or they use the research only kind and they'll take it maybe before a big flight or something to help their immune system. So that's another one that I love for Hashimoto's.
Anti-Inflammatory and Immune-Modulating Peptides 25:40
Now there is time again now, which is a fragment. So when I said peptides were longer. So time, time again is just a fragment. So it's shorter and it's an oral. It's an oral, thymus, an alpha one like it's a substitute that really that we're using this time again. And so that's an oral. And that can be helpful with patients. You know, they have autoimmune disease. So it's it's not as good. It's not the best, but it's still good. It's still hopeful. And it usually we pair that with something called tb4 frag.
And that is a peptide that's derived from thymus and beta four. And it's a fragment of that. And once again it's it's smaller and thymus and beta four tb4 frag helps with inflammation tissue repair. And that's also good for these autoimmune diseases. So those are also really helpful and great because they can be oral taken. Right. Usually about 2 to 3 months. We can try these orally and kind of, you know, regulate that immune response, kind of get that inflammation down. So those are some two. And you know the peptide world is still evolving.
And we're coming out with different ways to to use peptides especially because of the regulation. So it it's exciting because it almost causes us because of all the, the setbacks over the last year to think outside the box. And it's good. You know, there's still a lot of hope. So that's exciting. Absolutely. I think you know like the peptide world is evolving. You know newer ways of deliveries are coming in. So that is great. And then hopefully no new research will be there to support, you know, what we are doing with these peptides.
And again, I always remind people is that, you know, like it is there is not much downside. You know, they don't have side effects. So they're not going to damage your body. Obviously you need to work with a qualified professional to know about it because as you said, you know, like a lot of people are using stacking of peptides, you know, combining different peptides, but they don't know which have synergistic action and which might actually not. So very important to know, like, you know, working with the right professionals because each and every one has different genetic makeup and different disease process.
So just one peptide or a combination peptide might not be the best choice for you. Right? Right. Absolutely. And I should touch on one other products. You know will bio regulators. It's not just a product. It's a whole family. So bio regulators can also play a role with with thyroid health. And what bio regulators are are really small couple amino acids okay. Derived from from animal sources and purified. So bio regulators, the late doctor Carson did a lot of work on them. And I will put patients on bio regulator protocols also with the thyroid there's a few stacks that I can talk about but by regulators.
So there's a bio regulator for like each organ. And I do by a regulator program where I rotate everyone through all of them in a year. And you don't have to do that though. You can do specific ones. So for the thyroid or something's going on with the thyroid, I'll usually stack a thyroid by a regulator, an adrenal one and a pineal one, and then also thymus. So thymus is going to help with immune regulation. The pineal is going to help with sleep. We know that that's like a problem with a lot of thyroid patients.
It's also going to help, just with aging to and then the adrenal because thyroid and adrenals go hand in hand. And we often see that, that needs work when we're looking at the thyroid patient and then the thyroid, by a regulator. What's cool about bio regulators is they're going to go in there and kind of repair help out the tissue that they're targeting. Okay. It's not going to do something that doesn't need help. Right. So if the thyroid if if you have graves and you're hyper, it's not going to make you more hyper.
It's going to bring you it's just going to repair that tissue. If you're Hashimoto's and hypothyroid because of that, it's going to bring you bring you up. And I love this with, you know, I, I'm sure you see these patients that are kind of like that swinging Hashimoto's, right where sometimes, they feel hyper and you test them and they are, and then they go and they're like, oh, I'm swinging. And that's usually the newer stage. Hashimoto's patients that this is where bio regulators are kind of cool because you're like, okay, we're just going to go in there and and get the thyroid functioning better.
So I also really like bio regulators because they're orally available. Usually just take them with food like I'm doing stack right now. I forget what I threw in. I think I'm on thyroid, adrenal, liver and pineal maybe, but, just take them down. And my husband taking them to his sticking with it for a year. So that's also a really nice option. You know, if you're like, oh, I don't know about peptides. You could just start with bio regulators and see how you feel. It's there's so many things out there that can assist you with your journey with thyroid disease.
It's it's awesome. And it's not just a pill, right? None of us want that. We want to actually heal the body. We don't want to cover up anything that that is causing us disease. Absolutely. I just like it. Like, you know how these bio regulators and peptides are working at the subtle level of these different cellular processes, because that's what we need the work to be done. You know, healing our mitochondria, healing the inflammation piece, healing the leaky gut, rebalancing all the chemical mediators so that, you know, our body can function better.
And I think these peptides and bio regulators are just going in. They're doing their job right where they should be. So that's really good. I mean, the whole big scheme of things, you know, like if you
Bioregulators and Thyroid Support 31:50
if people say, well, we do these peptides and bio regulators fit in the whole scheme of like, you know, the other lifestyle changes. How will you say that people should approach or how do you approach you know, like a person comes into you with Hashimoto's? Well, I everyone's different. I mean, I'd hate to say I do the same thing for everyone and and I really don't. So I see where they're at in their disease. How motivated they are to if they maybe aren't really motivated. Sometimes I'll just tell them, be like, let's get this down first.
Or maybe not motivated, but maybe it's a lack of education too. I have some patients come in and they've already gone gluten free. They're they're on the ball. They're like, I'm thinking about taking grains out to, some come in and they have no idea, you know, they don't even know what gluten is. I have to explain it to them. So it depends on the level and where they're at in their disease. And I feel like I honestly, I pull the trigger on peptides faster with my Braves patients because we are kind of like, not to say, you know, graves is just it's not like it's more urgent, right?
Because when you're really hyper, you know, method is all is is what brings you down the medication, you know, and bungle weed and all these different herbs. Lemon balm can help too. But we can't have someone hanging out with a free t three of, you know, 6 or 9 for four months. Right? So I will bring in the peptides of bio regulators a little bit more aggressively along with other treatments. Then, another thing I want to bring up is because I think I saw a study like 1 in 6 people are on it or have tried a GLP one, which is ozempic.
So my glue tide will go V or turns up a tide. So we semaglutide the GLP one, and then we have turns up a tide, which is like Monaro and ends up bound. And that's a GLP one GIP. Now these are contraindicated in anyone with medullary thyroid cancer in a family history. Even though you know the animal studies and I've talked with the drug reps at some of the conventional, seminars and conferences that I speak at, and they're like, no, there's no human risk. And those animals, they have more of those cells and, you know, all this stuff.
So, so we we don't know with peptides in general, you you're going to cycle them. You're not going to take one thing forever for the rest of your life. So these people that are on GLP ones, they're going to meds. Pause and they're being told that you'll be on this forever or you'll gain your weight back. That's not true. That's a lie. That's only if you're not doing the lifestyle stuff. The pillars of health. You're not, you know, eating protein. And part of working with a functional and integrative doctor is we're teaching you, you know, as doctors we are teachers.
So we're teaching you how to do a good lifestyle. And then you can get off of these things and some supplements or whatever peptides we've had you on. So I've been cycling GLP ones in at my practice for the last three years. You know, they've just got popular the last year, but I don't keep patients on them forever. I'm like, we're going to do 3 to 4 months. We'll take a break. Maybe we'll do a growth hormone secreted God, we'll do five amino. Want to make a mitochondrial peptide. You know we cycle all things.
And you know I know a lot of people are they like the GLP one because it decreases their inflammation. Right. And some, you know, lower dose. They're doing micro doses of GLP ones for inflammation. And and that might be okay too. But I would say if you feel like you need to micro dose of the GLP one year round, what is that root cause of inflammation that's not getting treated. You know, what are the risk and benefits of a GLP one versus low dose naltrexone or something else? So with the GLP ones, you know, I kind of sit in the middle where I don't think they're terrible.
I don't think they're the best thing. I think we need to use them properly. And some of you out there with the statistics, I'm sure are taking one have been on one. I've thought about it. So once again, you need to work with someone that understands the ins and outs of peptides because I don't think, unfortunately, your family practice doctor or the med spa or weight loss clinic down the street, they don't have the training like Doctor Gupta and I do. They don't understand what peptides actually are and how to use them, because they're just getting trained on it by, you know, the drug rep or something.
And so that's another one that it can be helpful with being in a state of inflammation with Hashimoto's, because if we get the weight off, we're not going to have this insulin resistance cycle, which when you have Hashimoto's or had any thyroid disease, it's it's harder for us to lose weight. It really is. But if you have that GLP one plus, you get in the habit of weight training. Like for women, you get in the habit of eating protein and healthy fats and you balance your hormones. You know, insulin, estrogen, progesterone, thyroid, all of our hormones.
We just can't look at one. I think that they're a great tool when you, when you actually use them correctly. How what's your feeling on GLP ones? Absolutely. No, I agree with that. You know, I think everything out here is a tool. And we just need to know where is the right approach of using it. You know, obviously like when people find something they just feel it is a miracle and they just want to overdo it. And that's what a lot of people are doing it. They just want to be forever on it. And we also do cycling of a peptides, you know, said, no, you know, we just need to use it.
GLP-1s, Cycling Peptides, and Practical Use 37:40
The job is done. Let's move on to the other one. Because if you just keep, you know, using it, you know, like that's not the way it should be done. Right. Absolutely. Your body your body needs a break. And it's nice because you can see just how far you've come, you know, with the diet and the lifestyle. But I definitely think they're a great tool. You know, one other caveat to the GLP ones is that we know when you come off of them, you're resting. Metabolic rate is going to to not be as high. You're not going to be burning as many calories in.
There are some third generation ones coming out that they actually they keep your metabolic rate high even when you get off of them. But this is where muscle comes in. So I, I'm obsessed with weight lifting. And I encourage all my patients to, especially in their 30s, 40s and on, you know, when you when you have that muscle, you can, you know, you can have a day where you're like, I'm going to eat some gluten free cake with my family at my kid's birthday party. And you're not going to feel guilty or noticed because your muscle is there getting getting the job done.
So and this is also where cycling in peptides like growth hormone secreted God's Tessa Moreland for Moreland. When you cycle those in oh I first of all you sleep amazing. Oh I don't know if you find growth hormone secreted guys. So you take them five five nights and then a week and weekend break. You can take them 1 to 3 times a day, depending on what, what your goals are, your muscle goals and everything. But I sleep so well when I'm cycling those in on those nights because you're releasing that growth hormone, which naturally you release both growth hormone at night.
This is why, for those of you having kids out there, don't have your kids on blue light or on their phone between 10 p.m. and midnight, tell them their growth hormone. They're suppressing the release of growth hormone. I just try to tell my daughters, yeah, I was trying to tell my daughter's, friends. Her male friends. That. And there's like, look at me like I'm weird. And I'm like, don't you care about your muscle? You know, try to you try to just put in little nuggets of, of health tips for, for those teens.
Where to Find Dr. Jen and Closing Remarks 39:55
It's a it's a tough age. Absolutely. Now I think we can keep going with these peptide sciences because they're like at least 100 peptides. You know that you know, we can talk about. But I think we are running short on time and we have given tons of information for people. I hope you are taking notes because Doctor Jen has thrown so many pearls out here. So thank you, Doctor Jen, for coming over here and sharing this great information and knowledge. I'm sure people would like to know where they can find you or where they can kind of find more information about you.
So please share about that. Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much. You can find me on social medias, at Integrative Doctor Mom. So it's integrative Dr.. Mom, mom and also healthy by Doctor Jen is my website with blogs and protocols and how you can work with me. So I love teaching and try to give a lot of free information out there. I will also have a free gift for you guys. A free download for the summit. Absolutely. And we will have all this information in the description. So please go and follow her, find her and also download the free gift because you don't want to miss the chance.
And thank you again Doctor Jen over here and touching on this great topic about peptides. I'm sure a lot of people will be excited about that. Is getting the information about there is something out there they can do more to get their Hashimoto's under control and also how they can use it. So thank you so much. Again. Absolutely. Thank you.

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