Unlock The Transformative Power Of Peptides

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

I’m doing awesome. It’s good to be on.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

Thank you. I’m excited to learn more about this topic. It’s not one that most physicians are going to be utilizing. I’m excited to learn about your expertise. Can we just start with the basics? Can you kindly provide a brief overview of what peptides are and what their role is in the human body?

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

If you think of peptides as just signaling molecules, for the most part, peptides can function like hormones; they can function like enzymes. They also create a structure for the cells. But at the end of the day, peptides are just a way that our cells communicate. In the human body, there are 7,000 known peptides. As long as those peptides are keeping communication down, then that’s your microRNA or messenger RNA. These are all peptide structures, but as long as your peptide population is healthy, then you can express the genes that will keep your body from aging and getting diseases. There are about 700 peptides that we’ve researched in sequence. We’ve got a long way to go. But the very first peptide I’m sure everybody will be familiar with is a peptide called insulin. Insulin came around in the 1920s, and it was the first human to ever have it, it was discovered in dogs. They found that if they cut out dogs, pancreas, they would die if they removed the pancreas, but they found it when they put in some of the insulin. They didn’t know exactly what it was, but they found that if they could replace some of the secretions from the pancreas in those dogs who didn’t have a pancreas, they lived a lot longer. So and then the first human to try it was a 14-year-old boy, Leonard. I can’t remember his last name in Toronto, Canada. He had type-1 diabetes. He was on his deathbed. They gave him the insulin and said, “Well, let’s try it.” They gave him some pancreatic insulin from a dog’s pancreas. and he lived and lived on another, like 40 or 50 years. That was the very first peptide ever discovered.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

That’s a great story. In the sense of using insulin for type-1 diabetes and type-2 diabetes, of course, they need that, there are other peptides as well, and then you have other, more specialties. If we can get a little bit more into what you’re doing, how did you become interested in utilizing peptide therapy, maybe even in the context of cardiovascular health?

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

I grew up on a farm in Idaho, and I always wanted to be anything but a rancher when I grew up. and so the only way I could get out of farm work was if I made the sports teams, the basketball team, and the football team. I’m always looking for ways to get an edge competitively because I’m short and I’m not athletic. If you look at my DNA, I’m like a total benchwarmer genes, like, no way I should have made the team genetically. I had to work for it. And so it was that original drive that led me to peptides later on. I ended up getting diagnosed with an autoimmune disease because I was exposed to a lot of roundups on the farm, and so I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s while I was doing my undergraduate work at the University of Utah, then that led me down the path of looking for alternatives because the doctors didn’t have anything they could do. So that’s where I worked with a naturopath and an acupuncturist and recovered my health. But beyond that, I was looking for solutions. I started East West Health. I finished my schooling in 2004 and set up East West Health. I’m here in Utah, and that’s when I started looking for other therapies to keep my autoimmune disease at bay because it kept flaring up and was challenging. But it wasn’t until I found peptides that I was able to put it in remission and last time I checked my thyroid peroxidase antibodies, they went to an all-time high of 680, and now they’re below ten. and peptides are one of the main therapies that I use to treat my autoimmunity. 

When it comes to cardiovascular conditions, my dad had a heart attack, and so one of the things that I looked into was about a decade ago when I was first getting into peptides and the treatments that they gave my dad. He was on a blood thinner, which is normal, but they also put him on a hypertensive medication and a cholesterol medication. My dad did not have hypertension, and he didn’t even have high cholesterol. But the doctors said The only way we can let you out of the hospital and for the insurance to pay for your open heart bypass surgery is if you’re on these medications. So my dad said he was having pretty severe side effects. So we started using BPC-157 and thymosin beta4 to help the tissue heal in his surgery. so just post-recovery. Then I also started looking into it, and I found that these peptides could also prevent him from getting hypertension. So that’s how we got into it. Since then, we’ve seen thousands of clients, and we probably are new peptides. We get very specific spikes in peptides based on what people’s labs show. So it is not uncommon for people to come in with hypertension or not even know they have it, and then we use peptides to treat that. But what percentage, Dr. Laurie, of people, have hypertension but don’t know about it?

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

That’s a good question. I don’t know if it’s as high as pre-diabetes or obesity. That’s at least a third of our population. It’s probably right up there, close to it. 

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

It’s got to. It’s so cool you’re putting on this summit because that’s like the silent killer, right? 

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

That’s the number-one silent killer. Yes, absolutely.

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

It’s wild. I don’t know. What are the first things you notice in bloodwork that give you the indication that somebody might have hypertension? Even if you haven’t seen them there, put a blood pressure cuff on them.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

If I have anyone who has any type of metabolic disease like you were mentioning—insulin resistance—it was before we even started. That’s a piece there. But of course, so many people have metabolic diseases in our country, overweight or obese. That’s my first indicator. That’s when I asked them to get a blood pressure cuff. What’s interesting, though, is how many patients I see because I’m licensed in all 50 states in the country. I’ve seen patients all over. They’ll come in and think, “My doctor said that my 140 over 90 is good.” It’s like, let’s talk about that, like maybe our medication, but that it’s disturbing that people are okay with limping along in life versus, like you mentioned, looking for ways to optimize your health and performance. It’s one of the first things I see. I worry about my kidney health. You do worry about cardiac health, of course. then also, any type of insulin resistance is certainly a big piece of it. That’s with my master class. We’re going to focus on insulin resistance and hypertension because it’s a niche way of looking at it. I was excited about that. I guess when we get to this, we’re in this realm of what I see as a family medicine physician. What can you give us, like the actual mechanism? Like, what is the physiology when someone is taking the peptides to help with hypertension or cardiac health? Like,  when you mentioned the numbers, what does that mean? Like, what’s going on inside the body?

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

And that’s a good question because the great thing about peptides is that not all peptides are therapeutic. There are certain things, like exosomes, that people are into, but some exosomes carry disease, and they signal different things to the cells to turn off. But probably the biggest mechanism of action that we see, like if you take a peptide like BPC-157, for example, the biggest way that it helps with hypertension is the fact that it’s angiogenic. It helps supply new blood vessels and a new blood supply. It also releases nitric oxide. You get this nice vasodilation, which is interesting because it helps with the gut. It’s been studied for people who have leaky guts or people who have had even traumatic brain injuries, but it also works for tissue injuries. If you’ve had surgery, it helps recover from surgeries very well. It even works on the fibroblast, which is one of the growth factors in the body, so it’s so interesting how it works.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

My question would be just coming from the standpoint of whether is this across all or, like, do we worry about if you’re worrying about angiogenesis? I worry about cancer and things like that. What are the potential side effects, or is that more directed towards particular tissues, or how do you direct them? Like, there are always side effects from oral medications and other things. What does that look like in this type of therapy?

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

Angiogenesis is a term we all have to be concerned with. But in the literature, it doesn’t seem to feed cancerous cells. from anything that I found, if someone has active cancer, we don’t prescribe these peptides out of an abundance of caution. But in any animal study, it doesn’t selectively, preferentially, cancerous cells are; they want to create their ecosystem.

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

But because BPC-157 can also be used, it creates an environment where there’s not that mechanism where it’s going to fight cancer. So not one you have to be crazy careful about. But if you do have a patient who’s got active cancer, I probably wouldn’t use it.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

But for someone, maybe with clot accretion or peripheral vascular disease, I’m assuming you see a similar type of benefit in those types of patients.

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

That would be a perfect indication for thymosin beta4, or BPC 157.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

How do you know what someone needs? What are the blood tests that would indicate this is what they need? There are specific, different types of doses. Like I get insulin, I prescribe insulin. I understand. But what does this look like? What is that exactly like? How do you prescribe it, so to speak?

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

What we do is run comprehensive blood labs, and then our team will sit down and review the labs. Based on which areas of the body are either the most depleted or the areas that are most damaged or inflamed, that’s where the peptides come into play. Then there’s the subjective request from the patient as well. If somebody is looking to recover faster, that’s where BPC 157, known as the Wolverine peptide, comes in because people have such a dramatic ability to recover after workouts. Thymosin beta4 is even better because thymosin beta4 is the gene that’s activated when there’s a wound in your body, and it’s the first peptide that causes the parasites and action from your blood vessels, they turn into the medicine of stem cells, start with the regeneration process, and help your body heal. There’s certainly looking at blood labs, but if somebody has something like kidney issues that are triggering hypertension, then we may use a peptide called ARA 290, which is a peptide that helps heal small nerve fibers. Some studies show that it can decrease blood pressure and then decrease cholesterol, but it works on the urethral point and pathway. It works through the kidneys. It’s also a peptide that I use when I’m riding, especially in the summer because I’m a big mountain biker. So to increase my endurance, I’ll tell my friends, Hey, just in case you feel like you can’t keep up, it’s because I’m using some ARA 290.. You wouldn’t want to use that if somebody has something like hemochromatosis or if they’ve already got high red blood cells. This is where I see so many 80% of peptides are purchased on the black market, where there’s no supervision and people are just buying them from unknown sources. We get all of the bars from a compounding pharmacy, but people don’t realize that they’re putting themselves at risk. It’s not like you just want to load up on some of these peptides chronically. But that is a peptide that we’ve had success with in some of our hypertension patients. 

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

What does a treatment protocol look like? Is this like forever, or is there just a time? Like, how does that get started? What’s it like once you get these injections? What does that look like?

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

Once we read the blood labs, then peptides, they’re it’s they’re most of them are metabolized in five to seven minutes. They have a very short metabolic life. But once you turn on the gene, all they’re doing is turning on the switch to activate genes that you want to be activated, like a peptide that I love called selank that I use in the afternoons. It turns on the genes responsible for GABA, so you get this nice relaxation, which is better for brainstorming or creative work. It’s a good way to start, calming the brain down from a day’s work. But essentially, what we do is work based on people’s blood labs. You put together a protocol for six months, and then we switch up the peptides every month. Sometimes we’ll keep someone on a peptide for over 30 days. But in general, once you turn on those genes, you don’t want to just keep pushing them. What a lot of doctors do is prescribe a singular peptide because they’ll be like, I love CJC 1295, and it activates growth hormone. I’m just going to get my patience on that for good. It’s like, it’s not going to cause cancer. Like, we’ve been taught, like, with growth hormone itself, with human growth hormone, but when you turn it on chronically, then your body starts building up a tolerance just like anything else. But if you use it properly, you do five days on, two days off, and you do that for about 30 days, then take a pause and work on another pathway. Then you maintain the benefits. In my opinion, if it’s done right, it’s much safer than supplements, especially for a lot of the pharmaceuticals that are prescribed. But yes, it’s a one-month on, one-month off. If you stack peptides, so if you’re doing two or three peptides, you’re going to amplify the results over just using a singular peptide. So you can stack peptides to improve your outcomes.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

So what is that? Is this injectable, I’m assuming, or not?

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

The majority of peptides are in injections. There are more peptides that they’re learning how to make orally available, but most of the peptides will get destroyed before they ever make it to where you want them to go. They’re done with an insulin syringe. Usually, it’s a very small dose. You’re injecting 25.25 milliliters. Very small injections, not super painful. Some peptides, like BPC 157, which we’ve been talking about, can be done as an injection. You can use it as a topical. We’ve got a company that we’re working with right now that uses it as an iontophoresis absorption, and then you get longer-lasting because, as I mentioned, it’s metabolized in five to seven minutes if someone’s got a pretty severe injury there. Their research is very promising, and that could be a helpful therapy. then it’s also available orally because it’s body protective complex, which is what the BPC is, and it’s made by a gastric secretion. The original version of BPC 157 is where they would take human gastric secretions and pull the peptide out of them.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

There are more questions here, but for this moment, thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you found this conversation insightful and engaging. If you’re one of the purchasers, stay right here because we’re about to dive a little bit deeper into this amazing conversation. If you’re not, click on the button below or to the side to access the rest of the conversation. If you’re watching this, thank you for being a valuable member of our community. Let’s continue the questions for Regan. We were talking about gastric production, the oral, and the protection there. My question is, where else? You mentioned hypertension, tissue repair, and such, and your dad’s heart attack. It seems like a very vast array of things, like what are the exciting things you see coming on the horizon or something that you do regularly that we haven’t spoken to, maybe like diabetes or something else?

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

I don’t think it’s fascinating because, like I mentioned, we’ve sequenced about 10% of peptides. We’re just in its infancy. But the most popular peptides right now, and I’m sure you prescribe them, which is like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. This GLP-1 agonist is life-changing. I’ve never seen anything change behavior as quickly as this is. I don’t know if you saw this, Laurie. Do you use a lot of the GLP-1 agonist?

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

When I have used GLP-1 agonists, mostly for my diabetics, I tend to do more lifestyle interventions first or use them in conjunction with lifestyle because I don’t want them to be on these long-term medications. Again, we don’t have decades of information on these things. I appreciate it. But they don’t even want to do things like gamble or drink alcohol. There’s some smoking. My concern is that if they stop it or they can’t afford it any longer, does that return if they haven’t embraced the habits, lifestyle habits while they were shut off the brains, like, I guess I don’t know, that’s it. 

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

And that’s why we have a nutritional team and a fitness team, and then we don’t keep people on it for longer than 90 days. Then we take a pause, and then there’s other stuff you can use, like five and what you might see. Those were just great. Once the behavior is established, if you can get someone off sugar, that’s like winning the game, and if you can keep them off sugar, that’s how the game stays won. So these are like shortcuts. I tell people now we can remove willpower from the equation what the GLP-1, and they’re kidney them in their renal protection. I have a client who has had chronic low blood sugar. He wears a CGM, and his blood sugar was hovering around 20 to 30, dangerously low.  We decided, that we’re going to try to use Tirzepatide and see what it does. His blood sugar is now averaging close to what it was in the nineties. and he feels so much better, and he’s lost a bunch of weight. His kidney markers are starting to come up because he’s got chronic kidney disease and treatment-resistant hypertension. One of the things that we’re also using is Baxdrostat. I don’t know if you’ve looked into treatment-resistant hypertension, but now it’s a very fascinating molecule. So some of you ask, What are the peptides that are coming up in the future? GLP-1 has created a lot of buzz for weight loss specifically. diabetes. That’s what it was first indicated for. But what’s coming down the pipeline is exercise mimetics. So now you don’t have to worry because we took care of your appetite for you. You don’t need to eat, and now you can control your diet. We’re going to exercise for you. It’s funny. but.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

What’s going on there?

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

It is so fascinating. Because I’ve been using these peptides for years, what we do is find out what’s going on, where patents are being filed, and when drug companies are struggling to bring something to market, it usually takes them about a decade. Then I try it myself for six months or whatever, and I do it almost every month, and then I make sure that, okay, this is great. Then I talk to other providers who are using it, and then we start using some of these peptides if our compounding pharmacies will make them. That’s our criteria: it’s got to be from a compounding pharmacy. We don’t we don’t do the research use only and not for human consumption. We make sure they’re very well-studied. But there are a couple of peptides. One is called SS-31. SS-31 is now in two phase three clinical trials, one for Alzheimer’s and one for diabetes. So if you think what’s the common denominator in those two diseases?

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

It’s insulin resistance, like Alzheimer’s and  type-3 diabetes.

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

That’s it. SS-31 is a mitochondrial-derived peptide, and so I’m mostly excited about the mitochondrial benefits because, primarily, what we do is like age reversal medicine, and we help. I work with entrepreneurs who are trying to extend their lives and their health.  so by using something like SS-31, which helps repair the damaged mitochondria. If you stack that with methylene blue and NAD or NAD precursors, you can get some phenomenal benefits, not only from an energy perspective, like your patients will just feel better, but when you look at their blood labs, things look much better objectively as well. The other mitochondrial-derived peptide is called MOTS-c, and MOTS-c is more typically expressed in the Japanese population. But MOTS-c it’s a peptide that’s expressed from heat shock protein. When you work hard and you’re sweating, you get heat shock proteins. When you’re in the sauna, you get heat shock protein. Naturally, you can express these peptides, but if you can add a little MOTS-c to it, they’ve done research where they put mice on treadmills. Old mice and young mice, and so they take these three-month-old mice, and those are young mice. then old mice are closer to 24 months. Then they look at how they perform side by side. then they’ll do seven days of MOTS-c. They did seven days of MOTS-c injections to see if the old mice would improve their performance because MOTS-c is expressed in the satellite cells of the muscles. What they found is that the old mice could run just as far as the young mice could after seven days of MOTS-c. If you happen to treat mice in your clinic, Laurie, and you want them to run faster, that’s fine. There you go.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

No. Have there been human trials for that type of thing?

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

There, it happens. There’s one that says that the trial of MOTS-c that was done in humans was done in adolescent kids who were because MOTS-c also helps with insulin resistance and obesity, or diabetes. They found that these adolescent kids who use MOTS-c had a placebo group. Then they had the control group and then the MOTS-c group, and they found that their blood sugar improved. They were able to lose like 20% of their weight very effectively and there are other studies, but most of the studies and these trials have been done on animals and Regan.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

And the one, the best.

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

Yes. Someone’s got to go first.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

Yes. I  appreciate it. A lot is coming down the pipeline just getting started. But even still, it’s exciting to see what’s available currently. Thank you for sharing your expertise. Expertise of this day. That was fascinating, nice, and a dive into a unique specialty.

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

My pleasure is that it’s awesome, and thanks so much for putting this summit on. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it because what you’re doing is helping people think about their health. The more we can improve people’s health, the more we can improve our communities and our society. Life is just better when we’re all healthy.

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA

That is true. That will put me to work, and I’ll be thankful. Thanks again for joining us again.

Regan Archibald, LAc, Dipl OM, CSSAc

My pleasure.