[@TheDiaryOfACEO] The Peptide Expert: Big Pharma Are Hiding This Powerful Peptide From You! - Dr. Alex Tatem

Link: https://youtu.be/jt5hHb6kzYM

Duration: 89 min

Short Summary

Dr. Alex Tatum, a urologist specializing in men's health who has performed 11,200 penile implant procedures, joins for a two-part discussion covering peptide therapy and male sexual health. The episode covers FDA regulatory battles over peptide compounding, specific compounds like BPC-157 and retatrutide, the male fertility crisis, erectile dysfunction treatments, and the controversial Enhanced Games allowing performance-enhancing drugs under medical supervision. Dr. Tatum's personal journey — from low testosterone during grueling residency to his own IVF experience driving his mission to help men — provides a compelling backdrop for the discussion.

Key Quotes

1. "The question isn't what can peptides do, it's what can't they do" (00:00:44)
2. "people searching this word has increased by 400% just recently" (00:00:05)
3. "We are experiencing a significant decline in uh sperm quality and motility and concentration." (00:00:48)
4. "I think this is going to be a trillion dollar drug when it comes out" (00:00:52)
5. "The truth is is that they are these large machines that are designed to prioritize profit over everything." (00:00:07)

Detailed Summary

Episode Overview

This two-part episode features Dr. Alex Tatum, a urologist specializing in men's health who has performed approximately 11,200 penile implant procedures, for a comprehensive discussion spanning peptide therapy and male sexual health. The episode weaves together regulatory history, specific peptide applications, erectile dysfunction treatments, and Dr. Tatum's personal motivation rooted in his own fertility struggles requiring IVF.

• Dr. Tatum's practice encompasses low testosterone, advanced hormone management, erectile dysfunction, Peyronie's disease, and male fertility
• The conversation covers peptide history, the FDA's 2023 overnight ban of 19 compounds, and a forthcoming July meeting to restore 7 of them
• Key peptides range from BPC-157 for injury healing to retatrutide as a predicted trillion-dollar triple GLP-1/GIP/glucagon agonist
• The episode addresses the declining male fertility crisis, alleged pharmaceutical industry influence on regulators, and the safety risks of the gray market that emerged after the ban

What Are Peptides?

Peptides are amino acid fragments designed to target specific receptors in a "key-and-lock" fashion, offering more focused effects than broad small-molecule drugs. The first medicinal peptide was insulin isolated in 1921, followed by Lupron in 1985, which was designed to shut down testosterone production for prostate cancer patients.

• Unlike many small-molecule drugs that fail FDA approval due to off-target effects, peptides produce fewer unintended consequences because of their receptor specificity
• The host notes that pharmaceutical companies have signed multi-billion-dollar deals with AI-assisted peptide development companies to fast-track patentable peptide products

FDA Regulatory History and the 2023 Ban

In 2013, a New England compounding pharmacy produced contaminated medications that caused a fungal meningitis outbreak, prompting federal regulations that restricted pharmacies to three categories of compounds. This set the stage for the controversial 2023 decision that reshaped the peptide landscape.

• In 2023, the FDA reclassified 19 popular peptides from Category 1 (permitted) to Category 2 (prohibited), effectively banning compounding of these substances overnight; RFK Jr. has characterized this action as illegal
• The 2013 Myriad Genetics Supreme Court ruling that naturally occurring genes cannot be patented eliminated pharma's financial incentive to develop unprotectable natural compounds — a key reason Dr. Tatum believes big pharma lobbied for the ban
• An FDA press release on April 15 announced a July meeting to consider returning 7 peptides from Category 2 back to Category 1, which the host described as potentially the most threatening development to pharma's business model
• The FDA, allegedly under pressure from Lilly and Novo Nordisk lobbyists, has been cracking down on compounding pharmacies making GLP-1 drugs

The Gray Market Problem

After the 2023 ban, companies began selling peptides labeled "research use only" to circumvent FDA jurisdiction, creating quality control and safety issues Dr. Tatum compared to unregulated alcohol during Prohibition.

• The biggest risk of research-use-only peptides is uncertainty about purity, endotoxin removal, and whether buyers receive what they paid for — described as "gas station sushi" in terms of safety
• The gray market emerged because the 2023 decision eliminated legal compounding pathways for 19 popular compounds overnight
• Dr. Tatum's preferred solution is moving peptides back into the 503A compounding pharmacy world to ensure standardization and quality control under physician prescription
• Bodybuilders have already been using gray-market versions of emerging peptides like retatrutide for approximately two years

BPC-157: Injury Healing Peptide

BPC-157 is a synthetic version of a naturally occurring gut peptide that enhances blood vessel growth in injured areas. In rat studies, completely transsected Achilles tendons healed spontaneously after administration, and scientists have been unable to determine even the LD1 dose (the amount that would harm 1% of the population), indicating extraordinary safety.

• BPC-157 is also effective for ulcerative colitis and has an FDA meeting planned for potential approval pathway
• The inability to determine an LD1 dose in animal studies suggests a safety profile far beyond typical pharmaceuticals
• Athletes like Magnus have openly admitted to using BPC-157, even in the Enhanced Games context where veterinary-only drugs are technically prohibited

GLP-1 Medications: Semaglutide and Tirzepatide

Tirzepatide (Mounjaro, by Eli Lilly) is a dual GLP-1/GIP agonist that slows gastric emptying, blunts glucose spikes, and significantly improves insulin sensitivity. Micro-dosing throughout the week via 503A compounders reduces severe side effects compared to standard dosing.

• Semaglutide and tirzepatide alone are projected to exceed $55 billion in revenue this year
• Dr. Tatum notes that micro-dosing protocols through compounders can significantly reduce the gastrointestinal side effects that cause many patients to discontinue therapy
• US obesity rates are estimated at 40–70% depending on the database, with metabolic disease identified as the number one health offender in first-world nations
• One patient seen in clinic increased his sperm count 10 times over and lost 100 pounds using tirzepatide, exercise, and diet improvement

Retatrutide: The Triple Agonist "Ferrari"

Eli Lilly's upcoming triple agonist targeting GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon receptors has shown 20–25% total body weight loss in clinical trials and produces the best improvements in liver health (including NASH) ever observed. Dr. Tatum called it "the Ferrari of GLP-1 medications" and a predicted trillion-dollar drug.

• Bodybuilders have already been using gray-market versions of retatrutide for approximately two years ahead of FDA approval
• The liver health improvements in NASH patients represent unprecedented efficacy in metabolic medicine
• Pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop patentable peptide formulations through AI-assisted development

Growth Hormone Peptides: CJC-1295, Ipamorelin, and MK677

Two of the most potent growth hormone secretagogues, CJC-1295 and Ipamorelin, are often combined because they work through two synergistic mechanisms — the GHRH pathway and the ghrelin receptor — to stimulate natural GH release.

• Excessive GH use can cause insulin resistance and acromegaly, limiting practical dosing
• MK677 (Ibutamoren) is an orally available small molecule that binds the ghrelin receptor and stimulates significant growth hormone release; it is used clinically to treat cachexia in cancer patients
• Tesamorelin is commercially available by prescription (CVS/Walgreens) and particularly effective at stripping visceral and abdominal fat by boosting growth hormone

Additional Peptides in the Pipeline

Several other peptides were discussed with varying availability status. DIHEXA (CAX) is a 7-amino-acid peptide originally studied in Russia, administered intranasally for traumatic brain injury recovery and stroke outcomes, expected to be legal again pending the July FDA decision.

• GHK-Cu (copper tripeptide) expression declines with age; topically applied, it regenerates collagen and elastin and is currently available over the counter; Dr. Tatum uses it to manage rosacea
• Selank promotes calm before sleep and supports deep delta-wave brain activity
• Epithalon enhances telomerase, an enzyme that repairs telomeres shortened during cell division — a driver of aging; Dr. Tatum is skeptical of "fountain of youth" claims but acknowledges circadian rhythm benefits
• Melanotan 2 produces a deep tan via melanocortin receptor agonism; PT-141 is its derivative, commercially available by prescription for sexual benefits without tanning

Male Fertility Crisis

Total motile sperm count has been declining since 1973, with data projecting near-zero levels by 2045 if current trends continue. The leading causes are microplastics, environmental toxins, insulin resistance, metabolic disease, and obesity.

• Young men with morbid obesity and high insulin resistance have damaged endocrine systems that reduce testosterone and impair brain signals to the testes, lowering sperm count
• A patient treated by Dr. Tatum increased his sperm count 10 times and lost 100 pounds using tirzepatide, exercise, and diet improvement
• Dr. Tatum and his wife were unable to conceive naturally and had to undergo IVF, giving him direct personal connection to patient fertility struggles
• The episode notes that environmental toxins and microplastics represent emerging threats that are not yet fully quantified in epidemiological studies

Erectile Dysfunction and Penile Implants

An erection involves two inflatable tubes in the pelvis with hydraulic function — blood rush creates the erection, and a valve drains blood upon climax. Long-term metabolic and vascular dysfunction can cause blood vessel failure for erections, leading to penis atrophy and permanent loss of size.

• There are 30 million men with erectile dysfunction in the United States — more than Australia's entire population
• Oral medications like Viagra and Cialis fail in 15–40% of men on first attempt, creating demand for surgical solutions
• The implant procedure takes approximately 13 minutes and uses the body's natural erectile chambers with a pump in the scrotum and saline reservoir in the abdomen, leaving no visible signs
• The surgery avoids the nerves at the 12:00 position that control sensation, preserving sexual feeling
• Dr. Tatum has performed approximately 11,200 penile implant procedures and notes he receives more hugs and high fives than any other doctor in his practice

Enhanced Games: Doping-Authenticated Competition

The episode discusses the Enhanced Games, a new sports competition that allows athletes to use FDA-approved performance-enhancing medications under medical supervision, scheduled for Las Vegas May 21–24. The event offers $250,000 for first-place finishes and $1 million for world records.

• The host cites WADA data suggesting up to 40% of Olympic-level athletes have used banned substances, providing the philosophical justification for the Enhanced Games
• A key distinction is that the Enhanced Games restricts substances to FDA-approved medications, meaning veterinary-only drugs like Trenbolone are technically prohibited
• Dr. Tatum notes that athletes like Magnus have openly admitted to using BPC-157, which falls into the acceptable category
• Olympic athletes receive no payments from the IOC for winning gold medals, relying solely on sponsorship deals; many earn below the poverty line in most years

Dr. Tatum's Personal Journey

During residency, Dr. Tatum worked 80–100 hours per week for 5 years with minimal food and sleep, which led to a diagnosis of low testosterone attributable to chronic stress and neglect of basic health. This personal health crisis became a turning point in his understanding of male metabolic health.

• One psychologically formative experience involved performing a high-risk kidney tumor surgery on an uninsured county hospital patient who subsequently had a postoperative bleed requiring full kidney removal
• Seven years post-training, he credits a deliberate focus on health and wellness for a dramatic physical transformation
• He describes educating fellow physicians on peptides and biologics as a personal mission driven by his fertility struggles requiring IVF with his wife
• Family history includes prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction, driving his passion for treating these conditions

Pharmaceutical Industry Revenue and Ecosystem

The peptide industry generates an estimated $58–62 billion in revenue, approaching the scale of top AI language model companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. Semaglutide and tirzepatide alone are projected to exceed $55 billion in revenue this year, representing a paradigm shift in blockbuster drug economics.

• Three myostatin inhibitor monoclonal antibodies are in the pipeline — bimagrabmab, sagagubart, and travogumab — designed to preserve muscle during significant caloric deficit, addressing a key concern with rapid GLP-1-driven weight loss
• The FDA's crackdown on compounding pharmacies, allegedly driven by Lilly and Novo Nordisk lobbying, represents a push to protect proprietary drug revenue streams
• The 2013 Myriad Genetics ruling eliminated patents on naturally occurring genes, removing pharma's incentive to develop unprotectable compounds like many peptides
• This regulatory and patent environment creates the conditions for the gray market that emerged after the 2023 compound ban

Full Transcript

Show transcript

This may be the most controversial thing
we have on this table. This is a peptide
that absolutely torches belly fat at a
disproportionate rate. And what we found
is not only do patients lose an
incredible amount of weight, but they
also get the best improvements we've
ever seen in their liver health. It's
absolutely wild. And I think this is
going to be a trillion dollar drug when
it comes out. And I brought you here
because you're an expert on this subject
matter. And it's worth saying that there
was some significant news about this.
>> Correct. from the FDA saying that in
July they are going to consider
legalizing seven peptides and by
pharma's estimate it might be the most
dangerous thing to their entire business
model.
>> So do you think it is plausible that big
farmer didn't want these in the hands of
regular people because they can't patent
this and it's powerful
>> 110%. Because the question isn't what
can peptides do, it's what can't they do
and we've got several peptides here in
front of us and I want to go through all
of them.
>> Let's do it. So, this is probably the
most well-known peptide for skin
complexion and it improves quality of
hair and nails. And then epialon is
maybe maybe not going to be the fountain
of youth, but I'm very skeptical as far
as that goes. Next, we've got this. And
if you injected that at night, it would
improve your quality of your sleep.
Next, melan too. And this will actually
end up giving you a deep tan in response
to just a little bit of UV sun exposure.
It'll also give you some of the most
impressive erections you've ever had in
your life. So, be warned. And what else
have we got? Oh my gosh. There's
methyline blue where people take it and
they think it's going to make them live
forever. Don't take this. It literally
will stain your nails blue and your hair
blue. These two here stimulates building
muscle. This one can aid with healing
after an injury. And then is this this?
This this. It's crazy. It's wild.
>> So why don't I take it?
>> Well, we need to talk about that because
there are trade-offs.
>> But also outside of the world of
peptides for a second. I've got these
three vials. Do you know what those are?
>> Yeah. This is unfortunately our future
if we're not careful.
>> Explain. So, what we've got here is
representing the fertility trajectory
for young men. And I'm so scared.
This is super interesting to me. My team
given me this report to show me how many
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Please help us. Really appreciate it.
Let's get on with the show.
Dr. Alex Tatum.
There's this word that has exploded in
society in recent times. In fact, when I
look at the data, people searching this
word has increased by 400%
just recently. And that word is
peptides.
I have no idea what peptides are. I'm
someone that wants to be healthy, that
wants to optimize my health, wants to
live long, doesn't doesn't love aging.
>> Yeah.
>> And I'm told that this word peptides is
somewhat linked to it. So, I've brought
you here because you're an expert on
this subject matter. I've watched your
videos on YouTube. To start at the very
beginning, Dr. Alex.
>> Sure. What the hell is a peptide?
Peptides are a structural class of
medications. The best way to think about
peptides is that just like we have small
molecules which are drugs that are very
small taken in a pill and have a wide
ranging effect throughout the body.
Peptides are derived from little pieces
of amino acids which think of them as
the Legos that make up the human body.
The Legos that make up proteins. These
are fragments of proteins that are
designed to specifically target certain
receptors and affect cells in a very
targeted fashion. Or a best way to think
about it is a very specific targeted key
to unlock a very specific lock. So
instead of a small molecule that may
have a wide ranging effect throughout
the body, peptides are much much more
focused.
>> So you've got different types of Lego
cubes here. Would they be different
types of peptides or are they different
types of amino acids that come together
to make a peptide?
>> The best way to think about it is my son
loves Legos, which is why I'm glad that
we have these here. But he can take the
same set of Legos and he can build a
rocket ship and then just a few minutes
later he can build a pirate ship and
then he builds a race car. And he's
using the same Legos, but he's creating
very, very different things that all do
very, very different things. And so
peptides have become incredibly popular
because yes, we have some really
fascinating peptides that can help with
anti-aging, with healing, and with
tissue repair. We're going to talk about
some of those hopefully, but they can do
so much more than that. The first
peptide that was actually isolated and
used in medicine, was insulin back in
1921.
And then all the way in 1985 in the
world of urology which is where I was
trained we had luplide which is a
different peptide that again also had
peptide like insulin but instead of
having wide-ranging metabolic effects it
had an endocrine effect. It was designed
to shut down the production of
testosterone for prostate cancer
patients that needed to have their
testosterone taken away.
>> Interesting. Okay. So insulin is a
peptide.
>> Insulin is a peptide
>> because it's a series of amino acids
>> amino acids that are put together.
>> Okay. So you said that the combination
of amino acids forms a key.
>> So what is the lock?
>> The lock could be a cellular receptor.
It could actually be regulating a
certain pathway within the cell.
>> Okay. So let me repeat this back to you
to make sure I understand it. So
peptides are like a key.
>> Yes.
>> Which you can make by configuring amino
acids in a certain way. And there's
different locks in our body that these
keys can go into. So if I take, you
know, we got some peptides on the table
in front of us here. So, a a good way to
think about it is this. If you've got a
hammer, right, which is what a lot of
small molecules are, like you can do a
lot with that, right? Like you could a
hammer in a nail, but if you try to use
that hammer when you're trying to put in
a screw or you're trying to put
together, you know, a table that you got
from IKEA, it may not always end the way
that you want to. And that's the problem
that we have with a lot of small
molecules. It's not that they don't do
what we want them to. They do a lot of
other things while they're at that job
that can have significant negative side
effects, which is why a lot of these
small molecules actually don't make it
all the way through the FDA approval
process because we find something, it
does what we want to do, but has
significant safety concerns down the
line. All right. Now, what we see with
peptides, for example, I've got in my
hand right now a little vial labeled,
you know, BPC57.
This is probably one of the most popular
peptides that we're talking about right
now because BPC-157 is a synthetic
version of a naturally found peptide in
the gut. But what this actually does is
it enhances blood vessel growth in areas
of injury. And it kind of makes sense
because if you think about it, our gut,
our stomach is really just this bag of
acid that sits inside of our abdomen.
And yet somehow you and I are here
talking to each other and our bodies
aren't eating themselves. Well, how does
that work? Well, it's because we've
developed a lot of really robust systems
to encourage healing of the gastric
lining. And so the idea is like, well,
if this is one of the compounds that can
help do that, it's been proven in
multiple animal models. For example,
they have completely transsected the
Achilles tendon in rats and then
>> transected
>> transected. So they've cut across the
Achilles tendon. So, not just a small
injury that you or I might experience in
the gym where we pull it or strain it,
but actually surgically cut the uh
Achilles tendon and then they administer
it to rats and they are healing
spontaneously with administration of
BPC7.
If you have an Achilles tendon injury
and you're a rat, BPC7 is one of the
best things that you can ever have. Now
that is not a onetoone translation to
what we might see in humans. But as we
talked about earlier with our point on
safety when they were studying BPC57
we try to look for something called the
LD1 or the LD50. How much can I give
this to someone until 50% of the
population that receives that dose
doesn't do well or dies. Okay, that's
called the LD50 dose. We have yet to
figure out what the LD1 dose is for
this, which is the amount that it would
take to hurt even 1% of the population
because it is so incredibly well
tolerated. So, just giving you an
example of this is a compound that can
have profound healing effects at least
in our animal models that we've seen so
far, but so far we haven't seen any
precipitous negative effects in human
patients when taking this. Okay. But we
need more data. I am mind blown and I'm
very very excited. We've got all of the
se several peptides here in front of us.
I want to go through all of that and
understand which ones do which things.
But there's a bigger question here which
is why now why have the subject of
peptides suddenly exploded into
society's consciousness? What's going
on? What's the big picture?
>> So this is really interesting. In 2013
there was actually a court case in the
United States. It was the it was called
Myriad Genetics case. This was the
company that actually patented the BRAA
1 and BA 2 genes. They discovered the
genes that cause breast cancer. All
right, this was mind-blowing. They
identified the specific genes that would
predispose patients to developing both
breast, ovarian, and since we've learned
also prostate cancer. It was a fantastic
discovery, but they patented it and they
said, "We now own this intellectual
property." And then everyone else said,
"No, no, no. That's that's the human
body. You can't patent that." And the
Supreme Court actually sided with that
argument saying that if something is
natural, it's found within us. Okay, I
can't patent you know your muscle cells,
right? Which is a wonderful thing. But
the unintention unintentional byproduct
of that is all of a sudden pharma had no
incentive whatsoever to pursue really
promising compounds that they could not
monetize. So that happens in 2013. At
the same time, I believe it was around
2012 2013, there was a terrible event
that happened in New England where there
was a compounding pharmacy that was not
doing the right thing and they ended up
having a bunch of contaminated specimens
that caused a fungal menitis. Bunch of
patients got really sick. It was a huge
scandal and all of a sudden the FDA
stepped in and said, "Hey, historically,
all right, states have been allowed to
regulate compoundingies themselves, but
we need some federal oversight here
because this is not acceptable."
Completely agree with that. And they
introduced a new set of regulations on
top of compoundingies, basically saying
what you can and cannot make. And what
they eventually said is, well, the only
you can only make three things. You can
make things that are in the USP uh
United States Pharmacopia, okay? Things
that have been, you know, well
described, already published, things
that are already in drugs that are
already on the market, or three, things
that are on a very specific list that
we're going to give you. Okay. And in
that list, they actually included a lot
of these very promising compounds that
were stuck in drug development, you
know, limbo.
>> And you say compoundingies, you said
that a few times. What is a compounding
pharmacy? Just just so I'm clear on the
definition.
>> Back in the 1800s or early 1900s, if you
ever needed a medication, you'd go see
the pharmacist who had a shop down the
road and he would actually make your
medication in front of you and he would
do that custom for every single patient
that came by. All right? And it was only
since the advent of modern factories
that we had the modern pharmaceutical
industry come about. But the truth is is
that again, you know, that's kind of
paint by numbers. You're creating this
one pill and you know, it always seemed
kind of crazy that the adult dose is one
standardized dose for all adults. Like
if you look at what your body
composition is some of my patients, why
is the dose your blood pressure medicine
the exact same? Like that doesn't seem
to be quite right. But it is what it is.
So when patients fall outside of that
and they need custom medication, we
still have those people who make custom
formulations of medications, but instead
of it being just your local pharmacist
who's using a mortar and pestle and you
know is creating something in his back
office, these are now large
sophisticated industrial operations that
can make custom formulations for
patients. I think I think the important
context for people that don't understand
how drug development occurs is that to
get chemicals like the ones we have in
front of us on the table through FDA
approval, you've got to spend millions
and millions and millions of dollars,
>> tens if not hundreds of millions of
dollars.
>> Sometimes hundreds of millions of
dollars.
>> Yeah. An incredible amount of money. And
>> and if you know you can't protect it
once you spend $100 million, you have no
incentive to just do charity work.
>> Absolutely not. Okay. Because you have
shareholders and you have to make
payroll. And so because drug development
is so expensive, there is no incentive
for commercial pharmaceutical companies
to pursue the development of these
compounds. And then on the other side of
that, well, we have compoundingies that,
you know, for them it makes sense. What
if we could just make these compounds
and then sell them directly to patients?
We make a small margin. We sell it. This
makes sense for us. Well, they could do
that starting in about 2014 whenever
that legislation finished. All right.
>> What did it do? Essentially what it did
is it gave a it gave a assignment to
each one of these compounds. It was
either going to be category one which is
you uh can compound this. This is on our
specific list of approved compoundable
drug ingredients. Number two was hey we
see some negative safety signals here.
You cannot make this. Okay. Something
goes on category 2. It's forbidden. And
then we have category three which is we
just need more information. And all of
these original compounds, these peptides
that we're so interested in now were
originally on that first list, category
one. All right? And so they were able to
be compounded. We could prescribe them
patients. I prescribed them to patients.
All right? From 2014 onward. But then in
2023, the FDA at that time switched all
of those peptides, 19 of them that were
popular to category 2. And then they
were banned. Overnight, we got
notifications in our email inboxes from
our compounding pharmacy partners
saying, "Hey, we can't make this
anymore. We're sorry."
>> So, I've got two questions there. Yes.
>> Um, the first is when you were
prescribing these pepsides to your
patient,
>> yes.
>> Were you seeing incredible results?
>> Very much so. Very much. Again, you have
to use the right key for the right lock.
Okay. But I think a really good example.
All right. So, there is a compound that
is not technically a peptide. It is a
small molecule but it was lumped in with
all of these and was the victim to the
same process. Uh something called MK677
also known as ibutamorin. So this is a
small molecule but when a patient takes
it it's orally available it binds to
this receptor called ghrein and it
actually stimulates the release of
significant growth hormone. But what was
really interesting is that it would
actually stimulate hunger a profound
amount. And all of a sudden patients
that were struggling with cexia, okay,
so being very very thin, very
malnourished, maybe they're going
through cancer treatment.
>> Grein's the thing that makes us feel
hungry.
>> Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So they were
able to stimulate the hunger response
and patients were actually able to eat
more to meet caloric goals. And so this
was a medication that was fantastically
effective at that. Again, it had gone
through some clinical trials, but was
never taken all the way to commercial.
And so it was never going to be
available from CVS or Walgreens, but you
could get it from a compounding
pharmacy. And so that was one that made
a big difference for us. We also had
other peptides. So, uh, GHRP2 and GHRP6
were some of the ones we were using at
that time. Uh, those are growth hormone
releasing peptides that stimulate the
release of your body's natural growth
hormone, which can help with tissue
repair, can also help with fat loss, and
with building muscle. We also had
BPC-157
and we had uh derivatives like thymus
and beta 4. These are also compounds
that can help stimulate angioenesis, so
making new blood vessels. All right? And
tissue repair. So if we have a patient
that's injured themselves, maybe we
could help them get back at life faster.
These were all things that were used
very commonplace for many years. And
truthfully, they weren't super popular
at the time. We were just using them.
And then they were banned overnight.
>> And they were working.
>> And they were working. And they were
working. We were not seeing adverse
events, which is the most important
thing.
>> What's an adverse event?
>> An adverse event is a patient has a
terrible side effect. They call you,
they have an allergic reaction to
something, they call, they've got
shortness of breath, and it's a direct
result of the medication that you gave
them. It was working. It was working and
by all accounts seemed to be incredibly
safe.
>> And then they banned it.
>> And then they banned it.
>> Why?
>> That's a great question. So officially
what happened is there was a meeting
where they brought together the experts
at the time and they said there is
insufficient data for us to say that
these are safe because again they had
not gone through the full FDA approval
process and so as a result of lacking
that data we're going to say that
they're too dangerous. Now there wasn't
any evidence of any of that in the
population. These were widely used at
the time. potentially we had commercial
pharmaceutical companies saying well hey
this is people spending money on a
compound on something that isn't coming
to us. So hey like we love medicine but
maybe only when it's our medicine.
>> And so there's concern that that was at
play as well. And so there's not a great
paper trail and there's not a great
explanation why. And that's something
that's been iterated by our current
administration from RFK himself. You
know, he himself has characterized that
move done in 2023 as being illegal.
>> With everything you know about the
medical industry, do you think it is
plausible that big farmer
>> 110%.
>> Didn't want
>> 110%.
>> These in the hands of regular people
because they can't patent this and it's
powerful.
>> So ultimately the way to think about it
is this. Um,
pharma may not have a compound that
directly competes for BPC57.
>> BPC-157.
>> So, this is the medication or the
peptide that can aid with healing after
an injury. Okay? So, it's not
necessarily there's direct competition,
but at the end of the day, your average
patient going throughout their daily
life only has so much money that they
can spend on medicine. and $10, $15,
however much money that goes to this
doesn't go to a prescription drug from a
commercial pharmaceutical company. And
so there is real concern that
potentially that was at play during that
decision. And
>> you said 110%.
>> Yeah. I Well, you know, it's interesting
because, you know, I try to walk a very
fine line between what I can prove uh
versus what I suspect after being in
this space for a long time. And you know
ultimately you know I don't think it's
accurate to characterize pharmaceutical
companies or really any other entity as
being you know evil or or bad. The truth
is maybe a little bit more ominous. The
truth is is that they are these large
machines that are designed to prioritize
profit over everything.
>> Yeah.
>> And that's everything.
>> I think this is one of the really
interesting observations I've had the
higher I've gone in my career is that
often times you we heard about the
Illuminati. Like when I was growing up,
I was like, "Oh, there's this
Illuminati."
>> And you think of it as these like shadow
hooded people that get together and
decide evil things. But the further I've
gone in business, the more I've realized
that the Illuminati or these evil forces
are actually just machines that were
designed to optimize for profit.
>> Correct. Correct.
>> So like corporations are the Illuminati.
>> Yeah. And so I don't actually think that
there's necessarily, you know, a a group
of maniacal individuals, you know, the
Legion of Doom, you know, plotting to
like take away your health. But at the
same time, I think that there are these
large organizations that really couldn't
care less about your health. You know,
they are prioritizing what's important
for them. And regular people just get
caught up in the mix. And what's
challenging is that as a physician, you
know, I took a hypocratic oath. You
know, I care about my patients. And so
those are the people that are in front
of me every single day that are seeking
to improve their lives to recover from
injury. I have, you know, fertility
patients that are just dying to start
their family. And I have patients that
are suffering from hormonal imbalances
that haven't felt right in years. I I
treat erectile dysfunction in men that
have been struggling for years after
prostate cancer treatment. I mean, these
are people that are broken and hurting.
You want to be able to help them. And
so, I feel that is a very strong
personal calling that I have to be that
advocate for that patient both in the
room whenever I'm treating them and
taking care of them, but also when I'm
talking to others and I'm, you know,
speaking out about these issues. like I
want access to these medications because
I care about the patients who benefit
from them.
>> So they banned these peptides that we
have here,
>> correct?
>> And we're sat here 2 years after the
ban, I believe, roughly 2 years after
that ban.
>> Yeah.
>> And suddenly everybody's talking about
peptides again.
>> Yes.
>> Why? What's going on?
>> So I think what we're seeing is the
forbidden fruit effect because this was
banned and all of a sudden, oh well,
why'd they ban it? Well, they wouldn't
have banned it if it weren't working,
right? And we're also seeing the effect
of Tik Tok and short form content being
spread very rapidly, very virally. And
that's been going on for two years now,
combined with new uh emphasis from
administration leadership and HHS and
RFK.
>> What is the most incredible
impact that you've seen peptides create
in a patient?
>> Oh my gosh, I have the best story for
you. So, one of the most frustrating uh
things about my practice is treating
infertility in young men that have
significant metabolic dysfunction. These
are young men that have a low sperm
count, right? So, they can't get
pregnant because they just don't have
the numbers to make it happen. And
you're looking at them and they're
morbidly obese, okay? They have high
insulin resistance. All right? And their
endocrine system has been damaged by
that obesity. So they don't have have
low testosterone levels and their brain
is not making enough of the signals to
stimulate their testicles. Now we have
medications that we can use to help
stimulate that to make more of that
signal stimulate the testicles, right?
But really what is eating at them, what
is causing this is not that chemical
imbalance. That's the the symptom.
That's not the the problem. Okay? And
treating symptoms doesn't really get you
very far. And so I would have patients
that I would take care of and we would
never see a significant improvement in
their numbers because losing weight is
really really hard. you know, regardless
of all of the education and resources I
try to give them. But now we have
peptides in the form of GLP-1 drugs like
simaglutide and tzepatide. And I just
saw a patient le last week who increased
his sperm count 10 times over and is now
in a normal range because he's lost 100
pounds due to using tzepatide,
exercising, and improving his diet. And
he has totally changed his life.
>> And that started with a peptide.
>> It started with a peptide. So I we've
got lots of peptides on the table in
front of you. We will go to into them
individually, but just can you give me a
a highle view of the types of areas in
our health and life that these peptides
can help with? So we've talked there
about infertility,
>> correct?
>> As a downstream consequence of the like
weight loss and fixing metabolic health,
what what other parts of the body do
peptides touch?
>> The best way to think about it is like
this. So peptides are almost like an app
on your phone. So imagine before we had
apps. Like I I'm old enough to remember
trying to log on and do my banking
online before we had apps. And gosh, it
was so painful, right? Like there were
ways to accomplish things, but they were
very inconvenient and in a roundabout
way. And now all of a sudden, we have
these apps on our phone that can do just
about anything except fold your laundry,
right? You know, there's some limits to
it, but I mean really the sky's the
limit from an electronic standpoint. And
really, that's what peptides are. So the
thing is is that we have peptides that
can help you lose weight, like the GLP-1
drugs. We have peptides that can improve
skin quality like uh GHKCU.
We have peptides that can help heal your
gut like BPC 157 particularly effective
in ulcerative colitis which is something
that's being investigated with the FDA's
planned upcoming meeting on it. We also
have peptides that can help with sleep
and with uh recovering the gland in your
brain that's responsible for melatonin
and regulating your sleep wake cycles.
So the question isn't you know what can
peptides do? kind of well what can't
they do and if they can't do that yet
can we develop a peptide that can
accomplish that task and the answer is
probably and simultaneously while there
may be resistance from pharmaceutical
industry in these peptides the ones that
we're most interested right now they
have signed multi-billion dollar deals
with other pharmaceutical companies that
are involved in peptide uh development
aided by AI to try and fasttrack their
own peptide uh products
>> interesting
>> and so we are going to see exponentially
more of these products come down the
pipeline from pharmaceutical companies
in the form of commercial products.
>> And it's worth saying that there was
some significant news today.
>> Correct.
>> What happened today, but also what's
going on. And just for anyone that
doesn't know, it's April the 15th.
>> Yes. So today uh we got a press release
from the FDA saying that in July they
are going to consider seven peptides for
removing from category 2 back to
category 1,
>> legalizing them.
>> Legalizing them. Okay. And uh some of
the heavy hitters from that list include
BPC uh 157,
>> which is the one we talked about to do
with like repair and injury.
>> Absolutely. Okay. And then we have uh
the brother to that, which is TV500.
This vial over here, this improves blood
flow to an injured area. You could think
of this as sending the soldiers as
sending the cells that are required for
rebuilding that tissue matrix that was
damaged by a tear or a cut. All right.
On top of that, uh we're also getting
something called uh KPV. May not have it
here, but that is another uh peptide
that has been linked to angioenesis and
tissue repair. We're also getting MOT C
and you know, some patients will call it
exercise in a vial. It improves your V2
max and your exercise tolerance. And by
up uh regulating the energy pathway,
basically making more ATP, the energy
that we all use to move, it makes more
of that available. All right, we're also
going to get DIP, epylon, and CAX, which
are all peptides that affect cognitive
function. So, improving thinking like uh
CAX is a great option for that. And then
DIP and epylon both have roles in
regulating uh sleep and recovery.
>> Wow.
>> Yeah. Pretty wild.
And I've got to say, how does So, some
of them are becoming legalized, but even
the ones that aren't legal right now, a
lot of people are taking them anyway.
>> Correct. So my my question is how are
people getting them? Listen, I don't
want to promote illegal drugs here. This
is not that kind of [ __ ] but I just
want to know what's going on.
>> No, this is well this is important to
talk about, right? We have to understand
like what's going on in the marketplace.
The moment that these drugs were banned
or these medications were banned in
2023, it was kind of like the United
States experiment at banning alcohol, it
didn't go very well, right? All of a
sudden, you know, they we, you know, the
mob came around and we started, you
know, seeing unregulated uh uh saloons
and unregulated alcohol production and
it was contaminated with all the stuff
that you didn't want. And so we're like,
>> people are traveling.
>> Yeah. Exactly. It's just it's not a good
idea, right? And so what happened is we
banned these and the gray market stepped
in. And so these are companies that will
sell peptides that have on the label for
research use only. All right? And the
idea is that that takes them out of the
FDA's jurisdiction because they're not
selling it for people to inject into
themselves, out of the FDA's hands. I'm
just creating a vial of this magical
juice that you can use for your rat.
Okay, that's the idea. We all know
that's not what's really happening. But
because there isn't any quality control,
it's kind of like getting gas station
sushi. Like, yeah, you can do it, but
you don't really know if it's sushi, and
it may not end very well for you. And so
again, not saying that there aren't some
people who have gotten good results with
research use only peptides, but again,
it's not standardized, which is why I
think moving this back into the 503A
compounding world is the best thing for
everyone,
>> which is the legal framework. Okay, so
how does one take a peptide?
>> That's a great question. So what's
interesting is that, as we mentioned,
you know, peptides are just made up of
building blocks of amino acids. And you
know, if you were to go make yourself a
uh protein shake, you know what is that
gonna look like from a Lego standpoint?
It just looks like this. A handful of
Legos in your hand, right?
>> All sort of ground up.
>> All ground up in individual pieces,
right? And the thing is is that your gut
is designed to break up any sort of
protein that you ingest orally into
these little pieces. And so if you were
to say, I don't know, drink some of, you
know, this TB500, your body wouldn't be
able to tell the difference between that
and a piece of chicken
>> cuz it would it would break it all
apart. break it all apart. Now, there
are some very uh unique exceptions to
that. There's a form of BPC157 that
actually is tolerated in the gut, but by
and large, the overwhelming majority of
these have to be injected either
subcutaneously or into the muscle. And
that's usually a preference.
>> Subcutaneous being my belly
>> under just underneath the skin. You
know, as I tell patients, just pinch an
inch, inject under the skin. We do that
for a lot of other medications as well.
>> Is that what this is?
>> Yeah. So, this is a prescription MARO
pen. So, Mangjaro is the brand name for
Tzepide. All right, trespatide being the
leading GLP-1 product right now from
Lily. So, this produces more weight loss
per milligram than any other product
that we've got out right now.
>> Is this the mechanism in which people
inject peptides?
>> No, a little bit different. So, this is
an auto injector pen. And so, what you
do is you're able to actually ratchet
the dose there on the right side and
then you pinch an inch in your skin and
then push it up against and it'll
autodeploy. And so, there's nothing that
you need to do. You don't have to learn
how to drop medication and inject.
Whenever you're administering peptides
at home, especially for patients that
have obtained them from research use
only markets, they usually come in just
little vials that need to be drawn up
with a needle. Okay? Now, the benefit of
that is that you can do custom dosing.
All right. But the drawback is is that
well, you have to know how to calculate
that and put it together. This may be
the most controversial thing we have on
this table. And by farmer's estimate, it
might be the most dangerous thing to
their entire business model because this
is trozepatide, the exact same thing
that you had in that pen. But this is
made by a highquality 503A compounding
pharmacy. And the reason why this is uh
so controversial right now is because it
offers an incredible amount of
flexibility because what you have in
your hand there is very standardized and
you administer it once a week because
that's what's approved by interest.
>> This is like the thing everyone's been
talking about.
>> Exactly. Yeah, but think of that as
paint by numbers. Okay, you are this
section is this color. This section is
that color. All right. Think of this as
>> the thing you've got in your hand
>> right now. Yeah, exactly. Just a vial of
trapide as being a having infinite
permutations and dosing ability because
you can draw this up with a small
syringe and do micro dosing. So instead
of one large dose once a week because
what many patients will experience is
they'll have a return of their hunger by
the end of the week and they end up
losing ground. You can actually instead
of doing a full dose once a week, you
could do multiple mini doses throughout
the week with this formulation and with
this presentation of the medication. All
right, but the challenge is is that that
is the benefit that allows this to be
compounded by compoundingies because
they are able to provide something that
is similar to what's in your hand. All
right. But it offers more flexibility
that may be the right choice for some
patients. So personaliz personalization
of medicine. Okay. But the challenge is
is that if you spend however much money
on this, you're not giving it to Lily.
And so as a result, we have seen an
unprecedented crackdown in the United
States from the FDA and trying to shut
down compoundingies and prevent them
from making these medications. Even
though that ability to customize the
fact that this is not an exact copy of
what's in your hand right now should
protect it under current legislation,
but there is now enough pressure from
the powers that be and from lobbyists
from both Lily and Nova Nordisk that
which are the two companies that make
the GLP-1 medications that we're seeing
Marty Macher the FDA commissioner has
now tweeted more about cracking down on
compounded GLP-1 medications than he's
tweeted about diabetes. disease or heart
disease in his entire time in office.
>> And just so I understand, I want to play
this back to you to make sure I
understand.
>> Sure.
>> In my hand here, I have
Tepatitide on my left.
>> And this is made by Lily, which is a
corporate company who've patented it, so
they can make lots of money from it.
>> Correct.
>> In my right hand, I have tepide
with nycinomide
>> with nyinomide. Y
>> and this is not patentable. So Lily has
a patent on the trazepatide molecule in
that formulation in your hand. Okay.
>> And if anyone violates a patent that can
be pursued in US court. Yeah. Patent
law. Right. But what's interesting is
that Lily and Novo Nordisk know that
that's different in your right hand. It
doesn't look the same. You can dose it
differently. And they know that if they
were going to fight that in court, it
would cost a lot of money and take a lot
of time. So, you know what's a lot
easier? Calling your friend at the FDA
and getting him to step on the
competition so you don't have to. And
then who's paying for that enforcement?
It's not the lawyers that the pharma
company is paying for. Uh it's the
taxpayer paying for the FDA through
taxes.
>> And you seem to imply that this was
actually better because you could take
it in a more flexible dose. You could
take a little bit, a lot, you can take
it when you want. Whereas this is kind
of once a once a week.
>> Well, I mean, you know what is better,
right? So I like this option for many of
my patients because it's flexible. All
right, so that is something that works
for most patients. All right, but then
then again, this works great for
patients too. Okay, but what you want is
you want an ecosystem where you have
choice so you can make the right choice
for the right patient. For a lot of
patients, they're going to do
exceedingly well on this. And there's so
much data to support that. But I also
have a lot of patients who get really
ill after they do a large dose of
Mangaro or of GLP-1 med. And if we take
that same dose and we just cut it into
multiple doses within a week, we can
avoid those side effects.
>> So you've told me that these peptides we
have on the table in front of us can
improve your skin, weight loss, muscle,
energy, chronic illnesses. You talked
about the cognitive upsides and you talk
about it very passionately.
>> Yeah.
>> So one should ask you presumably you're
taking some peptides.
>> I am. Yeah. So
>> which ones do you take? So I will tell
you that as of right now the only
peptide I'm taking is a small dose of
tzapatide. All right.
>> Which is the one we were just talking
about.
>> Yeah. Okay.
>> Because back uh couple of couple of
months ago I was probably close to about
240 or so and I was into powerlifting.
You know I still am. But you know it's
really great to be able to deadlift 500
lb. But then stairs become really hard
when you're trying to walk up and you're
like I don't know. I kind of like uh
being able to not take a break after two
or three flights of stairs. And so I was
like, "Okay, all right. Longevity is a
priority of mine. I'm going to slim down
a little bit." I like, "Let me just try
this for a little bit." And what I found
is that it is incredibly potent and at a
very low dose, very, very tolerable.
>> Why didn't you take some of the others?
>> Honestly, because right now there is not
a legal framework for me to obtain them.
And the truth is is that I want to be an
example for my patients. And that's why
I'm out here advocating that we get
access to these peptides in a legal,
safe way again. All right? And because
it's it's the best thing for everyone.
>> If they were legal, which ones might you
consider?
>> Oh, man. I will tell you this as some
like I I don't know how old you are,
Stephen, but I'm 33. God bless you. I
will tell you once you get over 35, man,
that is brutal. All right. I sleep on my
neck in a wrong way and I need like a
freaking brace for like two weeks. And
so, as someone who spends a lot of time
in the gym, you know, working out, like
you start to accumulate all these little
aches and pains. And so the idea of, for
example, I have a a very finicky right
shoulder. If I try to do a really heavy
bench and I haven't warmed up, I can
tweak this and it takes me out of the
fight for at least a month, okay? And I
have to do other things. You know, I
would have killed at various points in
time over the past two years to have had
BPC and TB500 to hopefully speed that
sort of healing. All right. Um, also,
for example, I suffer from really bad
rosacea. It flares constantly.
>> What's that? So, just a redness of the
face, okay, that you know, it makes me
look like I'm sunburned. And then I come
in on the office on like a Tuesday and
then my staff's like, "Oh my gosh, you
go out in the yard and do some work this
week." I'm like, "It's just my face."
Um, you know, for example, that's
something that a lot of people have
reported benefits from GH KCU from. So,
again, another compound, another peptide
that could be beneficial for a patient
like myself.
>> What about muscle mass and gaining
muscle? Yeah. So, that is an interesting
misnomer because that has been a common
selling point you'll see on social
media. But as of right now, the only
peptide that you might construe that way
would be this guy right here in my hand,
IGF-1 LR3. Okay. Now, IGF-1 LR3 is
basically the longerlasting version of
IGF-1, which is the downstream effect of
growth hormone. I'm sure you've heard of
bodybuilders taking growth hormone to
increase size and, you know, lose fat.
In higher doses, it can help contribute
to muscle uh mass. All right? But
truthfully, if you're trying to gain
significant muscle mass, this is this is
not the way to do it. And so, the right
now, one of the things that peptides
can't do for you is independently put on
significant amounts of lean mass.
>> You still have to go to the gym.
>> You still have to go to the gym, believe
it or not. And guess what?
>> Well, that's the end of the podcast.
>> Yeah. I I'll tell you. And but something
that blows my mind is that I have so
many patients that think that they can
just take testosterone and just put on
muscle naturally. And it doesn't work
that way. You might get a tiny little
bit, but you still have to have
stimulus. You still have to get in the
gym. You still have to put the work in.
And so I tell patients that I am not a
replacement for a personal trainer. I'm
your doctor. You also need your personal
trainer. And most of you need a
nutritionist, man. And so I'm lucky to
work with some great people in the
community who partner with me on that.
But you know it's a it's a fullcourt
press when you're trying to get people
to you know live the highest quality of
life.
>> What about some of these metabolic
disorders and diseases in terms of like
insulin yeah resistance? People on the
di the audience are very interested to
learn about insulin. I see that a lot in
the comments section and a lot of the
data. Yeah.
>> So how can if someone's struggling with
their insulin levels or their you know
their glucose response how does these
peptides help?
>> Honestly the best peptides for that
right now are the GLP1 drugs. Okay.
Hands down. because what you're doing is
you are slowing gastric emptying and so
you have a slower absorption of that
bolus of food that you've eaten so your
glucose doesn't spike and so as a result
that increases insulin sensitivity
significantly. Now again you have to be
careful about what peptide you're using
for what. A lot of these peptides that
boost growth hormone and boost let's say
IGF-1, those can actually increase serum
glucose and that may not be what you
want if you are someone that is trying
to work on your insulin sensitivity.
>> And do any of these peptides come as
like creams or as pills or anything like
that? If you look online, you can
probably find a version of everything.
But if we're talking about actual
legitimate formulations, the best
example of a topical cream is going to
be GHKCU. And this is interesting
because this is a copper tripeptide that
has been found to decrease in expression
and concentration as we age. But when it
is applied topically, it's highly
effective topically. So putting on a
cream on your face. All right. It's been
found to be extremely beneficial in
regenerating the quality of skin. So,
complexion. All right. Increasing the
amount of collagen and elastin, the
things that we need to keep our faces
taut and youthful. The things that
people will pay lots of money to go get
lasered to get improvements. Not that
it's a replacement for that, but that's
a topical form that believe it or not,
you could go out and buy today because
topical GHKCU is regulated very
differently than the injectable form. Is
it expensive? Usually,
>> you know, growing up, I thought all
these sort of anti-aging creams were
[ __ ]
>> But but you're telling me that this has
actually been associated with improving
signs of aging.
>> I will tell you this, when I was going
through college and medical school, I
was the biggest skeptic. Like, I did not
believe any of the health or wellness
claims that we saw coming out at the
time. And again, you know, that was at a
time where we were getting bombarded
with stuff about the Atkins diet and
this that or the other. But then all of
a sudden you start having patients come
back to you and they're testifying as
the benefits they've seen from these
things. You start to actually look at
the biochemistry behind them and you're
like there's a lot of science backing
this up. This isn't just mumbo jumbo.
And so believe it or not, yeah, there
are creams that can slow the process of
aging at least from a visual standpoint
when it comes to your skin. I have yet
to figure out anything that uh you know
makes me as energetic as I was in my
early 20s, but you know I'm working on
it. Mhm. But on that point of energy and
cognition, if I wanted to become a
better podcaster. Yeah.
>> And you know, I sit here sometimes,
sometimes we do two in a day, which
means I might sit here for eight hours.
Once we do, I think a couple of times
we've done three in a day.
>> That's brutal.
>> Which is 12 hours of recording. Yeah.
>> But what would you recommend if I was
trying to improve my cognitive
performance? So again, as a physician
who likes keeping my license, I wouldn't
say necessarily recommend, but I would
say if we're looking at how these
medications have been used and
potentially one that may be legal again
coming this July depending what the FDA
says, intraasal CAX. And this was one
that was originally studied actually in
Russia many years ago. And what they
found is that this seven amino acid
peptide when it was administered after a
uh TBI, so a traumatic brain injury, all
right, or acute injury, that patients
tended to bounce back faster. Also, they
saw evidence of it improving outcomes
after stroke. And it also seems to
upregulate the same sort of factors that
help with cognition and with, you know,
connecting sentences and bits of data in
your brain. And so it's also one of the,
interestingly enough, one of the ones
that is available, you know, intraasally
because it goes through the mucous
membranes and gets right where you need
it. And so that's going to be a really
really fascinating uh compound to see
back on the market. And then we can
actually get more data regarding
efficacy and across a wide population.
>> So interesting. And you you sniff that
through your nose.
>> Sniff like you would for any nasal
decongestant, right? And if you have
allergies or something like that. Also,
for someone like yourself, you travel a
lot. you know, you're going in between
different time zones, you're balancing
multiple obligations at different odd
times of the day. I I shudder to think
what your circadium rhythm looks like,
my friend. Um, but you know, that is
what we have some of these other
compounds that are uh going to be
available for. So, if we look at uh uh
dip, okay, that has been shown to be
helpful with regulating your circadian
rhythm. All right, that is one of the
ones that's going to be approved
hopefully here soon again in July,
right? And then you know on top of that
um you've got you know uh things like
selen which is another one that can help
calm you as you're going to sleep about
an hour ahead of time and again hope
help those you know deep delta wave
brain waves that are so restorative
whenever you actually are you know
resting.
>> Where will we be able to buy these when
and if they are legalized?
>> So from
uh 503A compounders here in the United
States with a prescription from a
physician.
>> So you still need a prescription. still
need a prescription. Correct. It's
>> going to be quite a crazy world when
everybody seem is going to be injecting
themselves every every day. I mean,
we're already getting to that point now
with the Zen where I've got loads of
people in my my friendship group that
are
>> Yeah. And they're Yeah. And they're
doing great.
>> Yeah. They're doing great.
>> They're doing great. And that's what I
like about, you know, the advent of
these GLP1s is they're removing the
stigma of a needle.
>> And I look at some of my friends who
have been on it. I can't recognize them.
They look awesome.
>> Are you concerned with with any of them?
You know, I've got a couple of friends
in my circle where I'm I'm a little bit
concerned. I don't even know if I should
be concerned, but it's just when you see
someone, you know, change so
dramatically, so quickly.
>> Yeah.
>> I think there's something in us which
something prehistoric in us which goes,
"Oh my god, there's a problem."
>> Yeah. One thing I'm I am concerned about
is the rapid weight loss with GLP-1
medications. Because the problem is is
that when you go into such a radical
caloric deficit, your body goes into
catabolism, which is breaking down
tissue. And you want to break down fat,
right? But your body isn't that
judicious. It's going to break down
muscle. And muscle is the most
metabolically important tissue that any
of us have. And so if you really want to
optimize your insulin sensitivity, well,
you need to maintain your muscle. And
right now, really the only compounds
that we have that are really good at
preserving muscle with resistance
training is testosterone, right? But
that isn't going to be a good option for
our male patients that want to get
pregnant because testosterone turns off
fertility in men. All right? It's also
not a great idea for our female
patients. All right? depending on their
age, testosterone, TRT is a thing in
older, you know, uh, women, menopausal,
won't go into that. But truthfully,
testosterone is not the right answer for
everybody. And so, what we are going to
see come down the pipe very soon is kind
of the older brother of peptides, the
more complex form, biologics, called
monoconal antibodies that are
specifically designed to inhibit the
enzymes that break down muscle. So,
these are specifically called myatin
inhibitors. There are three that are
coming down the uh pipeline. There is
one called bamagrammab which is owned by
lily that is going to bind to the peanut
butter to myastatin jelly which is
called actin. And then you have mab and
travogumab which are two other compounds
owned by a different pharmaceutical
company that are all designed to
maintain muscle even in a significant
caloric deficit.
>> This is getting interesting now.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So you're you're telling me
I'm going to be able to inject myself
with a zmpe to lose the fat and then
inject myself with something else to
keep the muscle.
>> It's wild.
is wild
and and I will tell you, you know, one
of the hardest things that I'm sure
you've heard being on the receiving end
of this is just the complexity of it.
And there are so many levers that are
moving at once and trying to get your
head around it and balance it all. Like
it requires nuance and it requires a
thoughtful discussion with your doctor
who is well educated on them. And that's
one of the challenges is that there
isn't broad great education on these
products right now in the medical space.
And so that's something that I'm very
passionate about is improving education
across my colleagues so that they're not
afraid of these anymore.
>> What do you say to people that are
listening to this now go, "Fucking hell,
why don't you just like eat your greens
and go to the gym?" Yeah.
>> And just be more human and you'll be
fine.
>> I love that. I love eating your greens
and going to the gym. Okay. Um but the
unfortunate reality is that here in the
United States, it depends on what
database you look at, but obesity rates
are estimated to be 40 to 70%. Okay?
whether you depending on what BMI cut
off you're using. Okay, BMI is not
perfect, but it is what it is. And so
the thing is is that well eating greens
and going to the gym are not working for
us as a society. And we could talk about
how we don't have real food anymore. We
have food deserts. We have this nut
calorically dense but nutritionally poor
food. I'll tell you the most disturbing
thing I see as a surgeon is I'll see a
patient come in the door and they're
morbidly obese. They're a large
individual, but I have to do surgery on
them. But the connective tissue, the
stuff that's made up of protein that
makes them them, that literally holds
them together, is paper paper thin
because they're eating an incredible
amount of calories. They're gaining fat,
but they don't have any protein in their
diet. And that's not something that's
rare. I see that on a daily basis. And
so the truth is is that, you know, we're
talking about this from the angle of
biohackers and people that are super
engaged in our health. But the truth is
is that this is going to be able to be
used to help our population at large.
and you know ultimately hopefully avoid
a lot of the terrible disease states
that we're seeing overwhelm the medical
system right now.
>> How big is the peptide industry right
now?
>> If we look at the top four large
language models companies, all right, so
all the heavy hitters and how much
revenue they're generating, it's
estimated between be between 58 billion
up to maybe 62 billion. Yet the income
and the revenue from just simaglutide
and tzepatide alone is going to be over
55 billion this year. And so what we
have is peptides without even
considering all of this happening in the
research space or the research use only
space without even considering the
peptides that uh we'll see come from
compounding pharmacies. We're already
approaching parody with what we're
seeing in AI as far as revenue goes.
That is the demand that we're seeing in
the marketplace. I run multiple
companies that have multiple sales teams
and one of the things as a founder of a
company that's often confusing is you
find it hard to figure out where sales
are. So about 10 years ago I started
using Pipe Drive in my former company
and it's also the reason why I switched
over all of my commercial teams in my
current media company called Steven.com
to use Pipe Drive as well. Not only did
they sponsor this show, but they've been
an incredibly effective way of scaling
our sales engine over the years. Pipe
Drive is an easy to use intelligent CRM
and at its very core it makes your sales
process visible through one dashboard. A
visual pipeline showing every deal, what
stage it's in, what needs to happen
next, and it's all in real time with no
delay. It doesn't magically close the
deal for you, of course, but it does
replace complexity with clarity. If you
want to join over a 100,000 companies
already using Pipe Drive, you can use my
link for a 30-day free trial with no
credit card payment needed. Head to
piperive.com
to get started. That's piperive.comceo.
I'll see you over there.
>> When your patients come and see you, Dr.
Alex, what are they asking you most
frequently as it relates to peptides?
What are like the top three questions
you get asked the most?
>> The first thing I get asked is, "What
peptides do I need?" And then I just
look at them. I'm like, "What's your
problem?" You know, like what's
bothering you?
>> And what do they say? you know, and then
they'll come in and they'll start
talking about energy, sex drive, and
that sort of things. And I'm like,
"Okay, if that's it, well, we need to
check your testosterone levels,
brother." Okay? So, instead of looking
for peptides, right? You know, you don't
walk into a Home Depot or a Lowe's. You
like, "What tools do do I need?" And
you're like, "What are you trying to
do?" Right? And then you start to talk
to someone there like, "Well, I'm trying
to build this." Okay, you need a saw.
You need a screwdriver. You need this.
And some of those tools might be
peptides. All right? But some of them
may be hormones. You know, some of it
may be diet and exercise. And so
peptides are just another type of tool
that we can use.
>> We all want a shortcut though, doctor.
We all want a quick way to to be better
and ideally not to have to do hard work.
That's like what most, you know, the
average person is looking for. And we
hear about these peptides. We hear other
people are taking them. We hear the
fantastic results in skin, hair, muscle.
And we go, "Fucking, what about me?"
>> You know what I tell patients? I'm like,
"Me too, man." You know, but my alarm
still went off at 4:45 this morning so I
could hit the gym before I made it to
clinic. Because there are no real
shortcuts. There are things that can
help, right? GLP-1s are the best example
of that, right? Okay, this is the
closest thing to a shortcut you're going
to get. But the truth is is that this
isn't going to go to the gym for you and
it's not going to lift the weight so you
can maintain that muscle mass so you get
the best possible result and try to hold
on to your muscle while losing the fat.
>> One thing I've learned from doing this
podcast that that has really grown with
me over time. People ask me all the time
like, "What's the one thing you've
learned from the podcast?" One of the
answers that I've never given that I'm
going to give now is that I've learned
that there's no such thing in life as a
free lunch.
>> No, absolutely not.
And what I mean by that is like
everything is a tradeoff. And if you
ever hear on a podcast or in any medium
that something has tremendous upsides,
the first question one should ask is
what's the trade and like just with
everything you can apply this to having
a relationship with a partner. Huge
upsides.
>> Also trade-off.
>> Trade-off. Yeah. Yeah. Kids like
>> I love my children. I haven't slept in
years, right? You know, like this is
just this is this is life, right? There
are trade-offs. And even with great
tools, there are trade-offs. So, what
are the trade-offs of these peptides?
>> The biggest trade-off right now is you
don't know if you're even getting what
you're what you want, right? Because
you're ordering this from some research,
you know, uh, compound only. You don't
know whether or not they've gotten out
all the appropriate endotoxins. You
don't know if you're getting what you
actually paid for. So, that's the
biggest thing. And also, the thing is is
that, well, all right, I these have a
good example of, okay, preventing or
helping heal injury. But the thing is
that well we've got other compounds over
here. You know, let's go ahead and like
let's just pull Tessa Morlin as an
example. So this is actually
interesting. It's a peptide that is
commercially available right now. I
could write the script for you. You
could go pick it up from CVS or
Walgreens. Okay, this is available as a
commercial product and people really
like it because it'll help boost growth
hormone and it happens to be uniquely
good at stripping abdominal fat. Okay,
or visceral fat. But the thing is is
that, you know, the moment you stop
taking it for a brief period of time,
well, if you haven't changed anything
about your lifestyle, you're going to go
right back to where you were.
>> It's good at stripping abdominal fat.
Belly fat.
>> Belly fat. This is what it's known for.
Yeah.
>> It's good at stripping belly fat.
>> Stripping belly fat specifically. So,
bodybuilders actually really like it for
that particular application.
>> I had no idea there was a peptide for
stripping belly fat.
>> There you go, man. You know, and like
for example, here we've got another one.
So, this is melanotan 2, right? So this
is a uh melanoorton receptor agonist. So
melano cortins that's what makes you tan
right? So you could administer this. All
right. And it will actually end up
giving you a deep tan in response to
just a little bit of UV sun exposure.
All right. Now I know right. Um listen
I've embraced my pasty whiteness. So I'm
not you know not necessarily my uh my
bag but it's real. Now again there are
some safety concerns with this because
again could that potentially stimulate a
melanoma or something like that? But
this is something again, it's a peptide
that gives a wildly different result
than Tessa Moralin, right? Because it's
a different tan. It does. Yeah, it does.
It'll also give you um uh some of the
most impressive erections you've ever
had in your life. So, uh be be warned.
Um
>> wait, it's literally turning you into a
black guy.
>> IT DOES.
>> FINALLY. YEAH. RIGHT. And it's wild. So
there's actually and there's even a
derivative a melanotan 2 called PT-141
uh bremalanide that is a commercial
product right now that you can write as
a prescription. Okay. But that doesn't
have the tanning benefit but has the
sexual you know benefits.
>> Oh wow.
>> Yeah.
>> Keep those ones over here.
>> We have to talk about this. Another
really interesting thing that phenomenon
that we've seen right is that now we've
got all of these companies that are
making these research use only
compounds. Right. It used to be that you
would have a compound that's in drug
development and you're seeing all the
advertisements for it. You know, maybe
if you follow these sorts of things like
I do cuz I'm a nerd, right? You get
excited about it, but you don't get
access to it, right? Well, believe it or
not, the next blockbuster drug that Lily
is going to come out with probably in
the next couple of months is this guy
called retatride. All right? And
reatride is fantastic in that it is the
first three receptor agonist GLP-1 drug.
So the GLP-1 drugs, okay, whenever
you're talking about semiglutide and
trazepide, they have slightly different
profiles.
>> This is the ampic category,
>> correct? Right. So GLP-1 is the primary
receptor that they work on. And what
that will do is it slows gastric
emptying and it limits caloric intake.
All right. But then inepathide, not
simaglutide, but tepide is a dual
agonist. So it has effect on GIP, which
is a different receptor. Well,
retatrutide adds in glucagon receptor
activation. And so, believe it or not,
your liver actually acts like a
repository of energy where it stores
glycogen and fat that your body can use
as energy. But that's a problem, right?
If you get too much fat there, if you
have a caloric excess, then you could
end up having what's called nash
cerosis, but non-alcoholic stopatitis.
Basically, inflammation of your liver
due to accumulating too much fat. It's a
problem. But by stimulating the glucagon
receptor while simultaneously hitting
GLP-1 and GIP, what we found is not only
do patients lose an incredible amount of
weight, but they also get the best
improvements we've ever seen in their
liver liver health that we've ever seen.
And people have been buying that from
research use only websites and using it
for about two years now. And
bodybuilders have already made this the
standard in their protocol when it comes
to cutting for a show. And it is wildly
effective. And we're now seeing the
population using a drug at scale that
hasn't even made it through
commercialization yet.
>> Why are you smacking you're using it?
>> No,
I have not. I can honestly say I have
not used Retta, but uh I find it
fascinating though. It's absolutely
wild. You know, talk about power to the
people, right?
>> What about these others then? What else
have we got here that you think is
interesting?
>> So um we've got these two here that I
think are really interesting. So CJC1295
and Morland. So the whole idea is that
you know can we stimulate growth hormone
and there's an interesting story behind
that you know actually growth hormone
itself was very very popular for many
many years as an anti-aging compound but
then we changed some laws here in the 19
in 1990 okay that made it a little dicey
to prescribe growth hormone and also you
know it's kind of a blunt instrument we
wanted something to stimulate more
natural growth hormone release so we
have this entire class of medications
called secrets that help stimulate
natural growth hormone release and these
are two of the most potent ones that are
often combined together
>> and when we say growth hormone Yes.
>> What does growth hormone do?
>> So, growth hormone acts like a signal
that tells your liver to make more of uh
another compound we talked about, IGF-1.
What growth hormone does is growth
hormone actually stimulates building
muscle. Okay? It also strips uh fat.
Okay? And uh it's also been found to
help with tissue healing.
>> Okay?
>> And so there's a significant benefit in
that regard. And so people want to boost
their growth hormone. Improves quality
of skin, improves quality of hair and
nails and that sort of thing. And so uh
these two compounds together are
particularly potent. CJC1295
being a growth hormone releasing uh
hormone derivative and then we have uh
epomoralin which is a ghrein receptor uh
agonist. So again release improving the
release of growth hormone through two
different synergistic mechanisms and so
that one is really really interesting or
these two together and then uh on top of
that so this one sematotropen another
word for growth hormone. Okay. So this
is growth hormone. Okay. Just a
different word for it.
>> So what would happen? Let's just take
this one. Somatropen.
>> Yeah.
>> Somatropen.
If I bought this for research purposes,
>> research purposes only.
>> And I started injecting some of this
into me. What would change?
>> So it depends on how much you do and
when you do it. So the idea is that if
you injected that at night, it would
improve your quality of sleep. Okay. You
would get a boost in your quality of
your hair, your skin, nails. Uh
theoretically it'd be easier for you to
recover from injuries, hopefully put on
a little bit more muscle, a little bit
easier, maybe lose a little bit of fat.
>> So why don't I take it?
>> Well, because if you take a little bit
too much, you can actually get uh
insulin resistance because your glucose
levels will go too high for too long.
All right? You abuse too much for too
long. You will actually get acromegaly.
So that's development of the your bones
continue to grow, but not along only in
certain junctures. And so there's a very
specific look that bodybuilders who
abuse growth hormone in high amounts
will get to them. All right? which is an
irreversible change to the facial bone
structure. You can also theoretically if
you had a cancer maybe it could make it
worse. All right. Um we've never shown
it that it causes new cancers but that
could be a concern. And you know on top
of that it could give you insulin
resistance because you know you're Yeah.
Exactly right. Um and if you take too
much it could potentially make your
hands numb in the morning because you
get eusions into the joint space. And so
bodybuilders will talk about lifting a
dumbbell and having to drop it because
their hand goes numb temporarily if
they're taking too much growth hormone
too soon.
And what else have we got here?
>> Oh my gosh. So, epathylon. So, this is
uh the uh medication that is
theoretically going to be available to
us in uh July. Okay. And so, uh the hope
is that you know this is going to uh
expand cell life. So, epialon the uh
purpose of it is it works to enhance uh
tomeorase. So, at the end of your cells,
imagine it this way. You're trying to
copy the genome, but the little copier
that copies it, it takes up space and of
itself. So, it's kind of like it cuts
off the last couple letters every single
time.
>> This is when you're aging, right?
>> When you're aging, you're creating new
cells, right? Cells divide through this
process called mitosis where they split.
All right? Well, if you got to make an
exact copy, well, you've got to read
through all these lines of code. But
because of the way that we're built, we
always end up cutting off the last
little bit of code. Now,
>> which is how we age,
>> which is how we age. It is one of the
things that contributes to aging. All
right? Now, that is considered to be
quote unquote junk information. It's at
the very end called the telomeir. All
right? But we know that shorter
telomeres are associated with aging,
potentially worse health outcomes. Then
there's an enzyme that can help heal or
repair the telomeir called tomeores.
Epiolon helps encourage that. And so
some people are looking at that as being
one of the fountain of youth uh
compounds. I'm very skeptical as far as
that goes, but it does show some
benefits when it comes to uh, you know,
healing parts of your brain that are,
you know, associated with regulating
your circadian rhythm.
>> So, the average person listening now,
they've heard a lot of stuff about a lot
of things.
How do they know if they should pursue
getting and taking peptides? Like, how
do they know? What are they looking for?
>> So, what I will say is that think of
peptides as falling into three
categories. All right, you've got
category one which are peptides that you
can prescribe right now legal from you
know a commercial pharmacy that includes
the GLP ones PT-141 bremalanide I
mentioned to you earlier oxytocin is
another one we have these different
compounds that are available and then we
have what we call category 2 which we
don't have anything in right now but
that will consist of the seven peptides
that are hopefully going to be approved
in July whenever they get moved from
category 2 cannot compound to category 1
can compound all right and then
everything else is kind of in this
category three where it's only available
for research use only. And so my
recommendation for patients is don't go
out and buy research use only compounds.
All right? You don't know what you're
getting and you don't know if you're
dosing it right. You don't know if it's
contaminated. So really what the public
should be doing is educating themselves
on this and then going and talking to
their doctors about what problems they
have and then potentially when those
options become available, a peptide
might be part of the answer for their
problem.
>> Okay. So speak to your doctor.
>> Yeah. Consult with your doctor and make
it a conver conversation with whoever
your medical professional is about your
symptoms and what might be useful and
what the range the toolbox the options
are correct
>> to attack those symptoms.
>> Yes, absolutely. Talk collaborate with
your doctor. Your doctor should be your
partner in you getting as healthy as
humanly possible.
>> We talked about um tepatide semiglutide.
One of the questions that's front of
mind for everybody, whether they're
taking them or watching others take
them. Sure. Is what happens when you
stop.
>> We've looked at that, you actually
regain the weight. And so, because the
truth is is that you have introduced
something into your life that has moved
the needle in one direction, but if you
don't change anything else, well, you
take that back out, well, you're going
to go back to where you were. And so, if
you're going to maintain that weight
loss, you have to make lifestyle changes
associated with that. And what we found
is that people do regain if they do make
lifestyle changes, they do regain some
of the weight but not necessarily all of
the weight. And there's also data
showing that you could potentially stay
on that medication but at a much lower
dose and then maintain your weight.
Okay. So there are options to minimize
your medication burden long term.
>> And of all the things we've talked about
today, if you had to just pick one thing
that excites you the most that's either
coming down the pipe or here already.
>> Yeah.
>> What is the thing you're most excited
about? I see your eyes wondering. Uh,
hands down it's that one over there,
Redat True Tide, because the changes in
body composition that we have seen both
in clinical trials, okay, and in
anecdotal reports from users who have
obtained on their own are wild. We're
talking losing 20 to 25% of total body
weight within a relatively short period
of time. And I think that this is going
to be basically the Ferrari of GLP1
medications when it comes out. It's not
for everybody, right? It's going to go
faster than everything else, but it's
going to change the game. I think this
is going to be a trillion dollar drug
when it comes out
>> and no one's going to earn the patent,
so everybody will be able to access it.
Is that right?
>> No. No. That is going to belong solely
to Lily. And so you are going to see and
they are going to enforce it you know uh
as aggressively as they've ever enforced
anything but you will see profound
results in patients.
>> People are referring to peptides as
Silicon Valley's miracle drug and I I
wondered why that was why it's been
associated with Silicon Valley. Have you
heard that at all? I have and I'll tell
you I've seen some uh peptide stacks
from you know Silicon Valley you know uh
founders and uh you know uh individuals
that blow my mind. I'm like oh man even
I think that's a lot.
>> Why would pe people in Silicon Valley
why would founders be interested in
peptides?
>> Well I think it's because we all want to
live our you know best version of our
own lives right we want to perform at
the highest level and so you know people
will do whatever they can. They'll drink
caffeine, you know, they'll, you know,
pop a zen in their mouth, you know, and
they'll try to tweak whatever variable
they possibly can to get the best
possible performance. And the thing is
is that anabolic steroids come with, you
know, significant side effects. And
that's not everybody's cup of tea,
right? And the health consequences from
highdose androgens dwarf anything that
you might experience with peptides. And
so peptides offer a lot of flexibility
in pulling many different levers that
are interesting to like your regular
average, you know, person. And honestly,
you know, it requires a little bit of
DIY right now because of the nature of
these peptides. And I think you combine
that with the kind of rogue, you know,
uh founder uh uh spirit that is common
in Silicon Valley and I think it's a
perfect fit.
>> I asked you a second ago, what are the
three questions that people come to you
and ask you as as a doctor? The first
one as it related to peptides was which
peptide should I be taking? Yeah.
>> Are there any other questions we haven't
covered off that are common place in
your practice? The second one is, you
know, can you prescribe me? And then I
have to explain to them the regulatory
environment, you know, surrounding
peptides that, you know, as of right
now, the only peptides that I can
prescribe are the ones you can get from
CVS or Walgreens, which is going to be
your GLP-1 medications, and a handful of
others that usually aren't applying to
the young men that I see in my practice.
I've had so many founders speak to me
and say, "Why didn't this particular ad
that I ran on this platform work for me?
Maybe the copy wasn't good, the creative
wasn't strong, but usually the problem
is they're not having the right
conversation because that ad never
reached the right person. And if you're
in B2B marketing, that is much of the
game. And this is where LinkedIn ads
solves that problem for you. Their
targeting is ridiculously specific. You
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We have finally caved in. So many of you
have asked us if we could bundle the
conversation cards with the 1% diary.
For those of you that don't know, every
single time a guest sits here with me in
the chair, they leave a question in the
diary of a CEO and then I ask that
question to the next guest. We don't
release those questions in any
environment other than on these
incredible conversation cards. These
have become a fantastic tool for people
in relationships, people in teams, in
big corporations, and also family
members to connect with each other. With
that, we also have the 1% diary, which
is this incredible tool to change habits
in your life. So many of you have asked
if it was possible to buy both at the
same time, especially people in big
companies. So, what we've done is we've
bundled them together and you can buy
both at the same time. And if you want
to drive connection and instill habit
change in your company, head to the
diary.com to inquire and our team will
be in touch. Is there a super peptide
for anti-aging in skin and some of those
issues?
>> Oh, for skin, GHKQ. So it's key.
>> Yeah. So this is, you know, uh probably
the most well-known peptide for uh use
for skin complexion and uh I mean really
it may have some small benefits when it
comes to hair. All right. But th those
reports are a little bit more spotty.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah.
>> And then outside of the world of
peptides for a second. Yeah.
>> I've got these three vials in my hand.
>> I'm so scared.
>> All right.
Do you know what those are?
>> Oh, yeah. Uh this is uh unfortunately
our future if we're not careful.
>> Explain.
>> So you know what we've got here is we
have uh three different uh canisters
containing water that has a little bit
of coloring in it. And what you can see
is that all the way back in 1973, this
is pretty opaque. All right? Like you
know this is not uh what you would you
can't see through it. And then 2026 has
a little bit of color to it. And then
we've got over here 2045 which is
totally uh clear. Uh this unfortunately
is actually representing the fertility
trajectory for young men because what
we're seeing is that back in 1973 total
modal sperm count so how many healthy
swimming sperm do we have in each
ejaculation is exponentially higher and
more dense than what we're seeing today.
And so what we're seeing is a
progressive decline in male fertility
over time. And that's been demonstrated
in multiple studies. We've debated this
at multiple meetings. People tried to
argue that it's a measuring difference.
But as we give it more time and as we
give it more scrutiny, this is real. We
are experiencing a significant decline
in uh sperm quality and motility and
concentration.
>> Why? So the leading culprits are going
to be yes microplastics and
environmental toxins. Okay, things that
are put in our environment that we have
been exposed to that we can't help. But
again, the biggest modifiable risk
factor is insulin resistance and
metabolic disease,
>> obesity,
>> obesity. And so a downstream effect that
we may see from peptides like we
discussed before is we may be able to
help reverse this for the first time in
history by trying to prevent the
development of metabolic disease
>> using some of the peptides we talked
about earlier.
>> Exactly. I gave you the example of a
patient that I saw in clinic this past
week that increased his sperm count 10
times over. Imagine if we had given that
to him before he even got that obese
when he just started to get a little bit
overweight and at a lower dose. Well, he
may have never ended up in my office,
right? Because his primary care doctor
would have identified that, treated it,
and he never would have needed the
specialist.
It's crazy. It's wild.
So ultimately you know if you look at
what are the ills that are affecting
health care in you know any first world
nation uh the number one offender is
metabolic disease and metabolic
dysfunction and this is something that
was actually hinted at you know by you
know RFK whenever he was talking about
uh root cause of disease. Well, yes, we
have many many diseases and many many
infections that don't stem necessarily
from insulin resistance. But if we look
at cardiac disease, if we look at issues
with lack of profusion, my my specialty,
erectile dysfunction, right? We look at
cancer, all of this is related back to
obesity and metabolic dysfunction. And
so if we can eliminate that, you know,
as a society, or we can minimize it to
as little as possible, well, I mean,
man, maybe I'd finally work myself out
of a job.
>> Your specialtity is erectile
dysfunction.
>> Yeah. So my specialty is this branch off
of urology that we broadly call men's
health. Okay? And so what that
incorporates for us is going to be low
testosterone, advanced hormone
management. I take that a little bit
further than most people. That's totally
cool. And then also uh erectile
dysfunction, peronis disease, which is
damage to the penis that causes
curvature. And then uh male fertility on
top of that. And I do a little other
thing uh treating leakage after uh
prostate cancer treatment. And that's
basically it. I treat like five things
maybe and you know that's it. So I'm
very very specialized because I was the
kid that you know like to take my
sandwiches apart and eat it one at a
time. I was very precise and I figured
you know you can do a lot of things in
this world and be okay at them or you
can pick like I don't know four or five
and get pretty good at them. So that
seemed to work for me.
>> I was looking at a photo of you 5 years
ago and you were very different.
>> Yeah.
>> You've changed a lot. So,
I will
I will tell you this. Um,
medical training
in the United States has gotten better,
but it is grueling. It's absolutely
grueling.
For 5 years, I worked anywhere from 80
to 100 hours a week in a hospital.
No eating, very little sleep, did not
care for yourself at all. Um, and again,
we can argue whether or not that's
necessary all day long, but the truth is
is that it really beat me down. It
absolutely took me apart physically and
psychologically.
In part, it's designed to do that
because the idea is that as a surgeon,
you have to be able to perform when all
the lights are on, when everything is
against you. You have to be the one to
hold it together in the operating room
and command that ship and save that
patient.
And I remember being totally devastated
towards the end of training and I did a
very challenging surgery on a very needy
patient. Gentleman was about to go into
renal failure. Did not have a lot of
kidney left and he had a very
challenging kidney tumor that was in a
very treacherous location. It was in a
location where he should have lost that
kidney by all measure if we were going
to take out that cancer. And he was at a
county hospital. He had no insurance,
you know, and we swung for the fences
and did a very, very challenging
operation on him. And against our best
efforts with having everybody there, he
ended up having a bleed postoperatively
that night. And I remember getting the
call, I was on call, and that his blood
pressure had dropped and that he did not
look well. And I knew exactly what it
was because, again, this was a very
treacherous surgery. And I went in in
the middle of the night with my
attending, who was a different
attending, than the one I did the
initial surgery with. And I remember
just opening him up
and just
being covered in blood that we were
taking out of the abdominal field that
we were evacuating, eventually
identifying the area of the bleed, and
there was no way that it could have been
avoided. I remember my attendant yelling
at me and we ultimately had to take that
guy's kidney. And
I remember
walking out of there just being totally
shattered, covered in blood, crying in a
hallway by myself, wondering if, you
know, like what what was the point? Like
is there going to be is there a tomorrow
after this? Like I spent all this time
in this training like am I good enough?
Am I going to be able to make this? And
you know, I wasn't well put together,
wasn't healthy. Uh and I ended up
spending a lot of time with that
patient. literally held his hand
throughout the rest of his hospital stay
and he ended up recovering uh and uh
against all odds. But you know
afterwards I took a strong interest in
not only taking care of my patients but
also
practicing what I preach taking care of
myself and prioritizing my own health. I
got evaluated. I was diagnosed with low
testosterone myself. Turns out not
eating or sleeping for 5 years will do a
number on you.
>> All stress
>> through the roof 24/7. I cannot even
imagine what you know there's a part in
the brain called the hippocampus that
they when they do MRIs on soldiers that
come back from war that'll be
degenerated in them. I wonder if we did
that in surgical trainee what that would
look like. But I made a commitment to
take care of my patients, to take care
of myself and make that a priority and
uh to be you know simultaneously the
best doctor and you know the best father
and you know husband that I could be.
Not perfect made a lot of mistakes along
the way but you know what you're seeing
from 5 years ago is where I was. You
know, I've been in training out for
seven years, so it took a while to kind
of recover from that. But what you're
seeing is, you know, what focusing on
health and wellness can potentially look
like.
The emotion in you is palpable when you
talk about this. And I'm wondering where
that comes from. What is it? Cuz you're
looking off into the distance at
something. And I don't know what you're
looking at.
>> Yeah. I mean,
I
when I'm caring for my patients and I
see a young man that is struggling with
his fertility and he wants to be a
father,
I was that guy. Me and my wife couldn't
get pregnant when we first tried. We
ended up having to do in vitro
fertilization at IVF. I remember feeling
like I wasn't a man because I was
sitting in that room holding her hand
and not having an answer as to why
things weren't working. Um, when I see
my patients who come in that are, you
know, struggling because their hormones
are out of whack and no matter how they
try to take care of themselves,
something just isn't clicking.
I've been that guy. And then when I see
my other patients, you know, that are
further on in life and struggling with
things like, you know, prostate cancer
or erectile dysfunction, whatever the
case may be, I see like I see my my my
father, my uncle, my grandfather. I like
these but and they are someone's father,
grandfather and uncle. like these are
our brothers and this is who I have been
called to care for and I care for my
patients deeply and it's because I care
for my patients and like this is a
calling for me that I care about stuff
like this because I want my patients to
have every tool physically possible to
live their best quality of life so that
they can be whole and they can be happy
and so that they can be the best version
of themselves for their loved ones.
Well, thank you for caring because it
matters and uh a lot of this stuff is
quite opaque and confusing to an average
person like me, but it's glad I'm so
glad that we have people out there in
the world like you that are demystifying
all of this for us and explaining it in
simple terms, but also championing it
because, you know, one of the things
other things I've learned from doing
this podcast is solutions to problems
that a lot of people are suffering with
are option right in front of us, but
they need voices and educators like
yourself out there um leading the charge
so that these types of things are
available to everyone, not just the few.
>> Absolutely.
>> Not just the billionaires who can get
whatever they want straight away, any
day.
>> Yeah. I mean, you know, it's uh one
thing I I love is that I've I've been
very blessed in my practice to take care
of people that are much fancier than I
am and sit in boardrooms and that sort
of thing. But, you know what? I love
taking care of my my regular patients
who are, you know, farmers, iron
workers, you know, tradesmen, guys that,
you know, truthfully I have more in
common with than anyone else. You know,
I joke with my patients, I'm just an
over educated plumber at the end of the
day, right? Urologist. And so, um, it's,
uh, health is for everyone, not just for
the fortunate.
>> The last thing I wanted to talk to you
about is linked but random.
>> Yes,
>> it's the enhanced games. Let's do it. I
I am so excited about these. So, um,
>> do you know them?
>> I do very well. So, for those of you or
for for those who may not know, the
enhanced games is a project based off of
the world anti-doping ay's own data.
Potentially up to 40% of athletes that
are competing at the Olympic level have
either are currently using or have used
banned substances at some point in time.
All right. And also, we know that a lot
of the compounds that are used for
enhancement maybe aren't quite so
dangerous if they're being administered
by a trained medical professional with
proper oversight. And as of right now,
that's not happening. Also, at the same
time, we know that Olympic athletes
aren't paid enough, right? These are the
best of the best of the best and they're
not even making the poverty line a lot
of years. And so, the idea is this.
Well, what if we go ahead and we strip
away those rules? Okay, we allow
athletes to use medications that can
enhance performance. We watch them very
closely and we have a team of doctors
and medical prof medical professionals
watching them and then let's see what
they can do at these traditional Olympic
events and see if they smash world
records. Oh, and they're going to give
250 grand to any first place winners and
a million dollars to anyone that hits a
world record.
>> And just for comparison, how much are
Olympic athletes getting paid?
>> They don't get paid to compete at all.
Okay, so they don't get paid to be an
Olympic athlete. they uh end up getting
sponsorship deals and that's potentially
the money that they can make. So
>> yeah,
>> interesting. So it's basically the
doping Olympics where everyone's allowed
to dope.
>> That's the idea. There's some caveats in
there. They're trying to say that only
FDA approved medications can be used.
Okay. So you couldn't use something like
Trenbolone, which is for veterinary use
only um or theoretically any of the
compounds we've talked about today
because they're not FDA approved. But
also at the same time, they've said that
they're not going to test for those
things. and one of their athletes, uh,
Magnus, has openly admitted to taking
BPC 157 and that sort of thing. So, I
think we can kind of figure out that it
may just be a wide openen playing field,
maybe. So,
>> the International Olympic Committee does
not pay athletes a single cent for
winning a gold medal.
>> Yep.
>> Which is crazy.
>> How many billions do you think they make
off of those with all the advertisement?
>> So much money,
>> right? Yeah. And this is taking place in
Las Vegas
>> May 21st through the 24th, I believe.
>> Are you going to go?
>> I'm going to be watching, that's for
sure.
>> Do you want to go?
>> I would love to go. That would be
incredible.
>> Well, if you want to go, I know a few
people that are that are putting the
event on, so do let me know.
>> I'm there, man. I'm already interested.
You got my got my attention.
>> Is there anything else we should have
talked about that we didn't talk about
as it relates to this subject we've
discussed today?
>> I mean, honestly, I think that we've
gone pretty deep on peptides. And so I
think we've, you know, uh, covered uh,
that, but one thing that I did want to
just, uh, I'll leave with you cuz I
think it's pretty humorous and I think
you've talked to some of my colleagues
about this before, but you know, one of
the things that I deal with as a
surgical specialist is the endstage of
vascular disease, the endstage of
diabetes, which is going to be erectile
dysfunction. All right? And, you know,
believe it or not, whenever we're
dealing with that in male patients, they
eventually get to a point where things
like Viagra and Seialis do not work. All
right? And that is a dark place to be as
a guy. And so you're taking these
medications, all you're getting is a
headache and nothing else. And then
maybe you have other options. They're
actually injections you can do in the
penis, which is about as appetizing as
you might imagine. But men want a better
solution. And they'll come to us as
sexual medicine specialists, you know,
seeking that. And that's what I do. So
the bulk of my surgical practice is
actually fixing erectile dysfunction
with a procedure called implant
placement. Okay.
>> Oh, no.
>> Absolutely. So now I think did Reena
show you one of these last time?
>> She brought it and I didn't I didn't ask
her to show me. It makes me like I get
full body shuddters when I hear about
this stuff. Yeah. The thought of putting
that up my penis.
>> Well,
>> you can show me. No, you can show.
>> Well, I would tell you the good news is
is you don't have to. Okay. Like that's
that's what we have a job for. Okay. But
the way I explain to patients is like
this. So take this out of out of the
picture. Okay. Ultimately like the male
erection is just two inflatables tubes
that start in the pelvis and go out the
shaft of the penis. It makes sense,
right? It is a hydraulic motion. What
happens is you get stimulated, get a
rush of blood into those tubes, get a
rigid erection, able to use that for
intimacy, and then when you climax, pop
off valve opens back up and everything
drains out. All right? So, if you can
understand brakes on a car, you can
understand erections. But the problem is
that when you have long-term metabolic
and vascular dysfunction, the brake
lines, the blood vessels that feed those
erections, they fail. And all of a
sudden, you can't get enough blood flow
for it to work. And believe it or not,
you can actually get atrophy of the
penis over time, and you actually lose
size. All right, which no man is eager
to see. All right, but whenever the easy
things like oral medications, Viagra and
Seals don't work anymore, the next best
option if we're looking at patient
satisfaction, durability, concealability
is this little thing that I do, which is
what if we took our own tubes, okay, and
we put them inside your body's natural
ones. It's invisible. Nobody looking at
you could ever tell that you've ever had
anything done. But all of a sudden, when
you want to get an erection, instead of
having to rely on pills that don't work
or putting a needle in there, right, you
could reach down and there's a small
pump that we hide underneath the skin
down in the scrotum. Okay? So, I joke
it's like a third testicle, but again,
nothing external, nothing you can see.
And all of a sudden, whenever you
squeeze this, what it does is it moves
saline that we hide in a little
reservoir that goes in the belly. You
never feel that into the cylinders. And
all of a sudden, men are able to get a
firm, rigid erection that looks natural,
feels natural, and they can use it as
long as they want or until their
partner's sick of them, and then press a
button and it goes back down.
>> Do they still feel the same pleasure?
>> Yeah. So, it does not affect sensation.
And so, the nerves that affect sensation
run along the top of the penis if you're
looking at a clock at the 12:00
position. And we stay totally away from
those. So, this is surgically put inside
the penis.
>> All internal. And believe it or not,
that takes me about 13 minutes to do.
>> How many people have these?
>> Well, uh, I've put in about 11 or,200
personally, but
>> 11 or,200.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. So, it's quite a lot of people.
There'll be people listening now that
have these.
>> Well, you know, this is what's
interesting. If you look at in the
United States right now, okay, there are
30 million men with erectile dysfunction
in the United States right now. That's
more than the population of Australia.
All right.
>> Oh, wow. And if you look at statistics,
the oral medications are going to fail
in 15 to 40% of those men the first time
they fail that. And so you're talking
about millions and millions of men who
aren't responding to oral medications
and need a better option.
>> So where's the button to get rid of the
erection?
>> You see those two little bars right
there?
>> These two.
>> Yep. Go ahead and put your thumb on.
Yep. Do that. And then squeeze from the
end of the device back uh towards the
pump.
>> So squeeze.
>> Yep. Right there. There you go. It's
down.
And then you would have the weight of
your natural tissue push things down.
>> Okay. And then Yeah. Okay.
>> There you go.
>> Okay. Okay. Well, you know, I'm I'm
happy people have the options because I
can imagine what that would be like to
not be able to get an erection. It would
be devastating, frankly.
>> Well, I'll tell you this. I get more
hugs and high fives than anybody else in
my practice. And that includes the guys
that treat kidney stones and cancer. So,
I feel like you're doing some doing some
good work here until Peptides put me out
of business.
>> I don't think that's going to happen
anytime soon. And you have a great
YouTube channel.
>> Thank you. I appreciate that. Which I
think everybody should go check out
because you really are great at at
explaining all this stuff in simple
terms. So, I'm going to link uh Dr.
Alex's YouTube channel down below. We'll
try and collab. So, if you just click on
the Dio icon now, you'll see Alex's
channel. And I highly recommend you go
check out his content because he's
really really leading the charge on this
subject of peptides. When I spoke to my
team and said, I want to have a
conversation about peptides. They gave
me lots of options of lots of different
types of doctors and uh you were by far
and away our preference because of the
very fact that you're very very good at
communicating. You understand people and
as you've demonstrated today, you have a
very big heart.
>> I appreciate that.
>> And you're clearly it's it was wonderful
to see what's actually driving you. Um
and you did that in a way which um is
irrefutably authentic. So please go
check out Alex's channel. Um he's around
you're around 100,000 subscribers on
that channel now.
>> I'm so close. We're at like 98.99 any
minute now.
>> Okay. So hopefully we can help push you
over um that
that milestone.
>> Yeah.
>> We have a closing tradition, Alex, on
this podcast where the ask us leaves a
question for the next, not knowing who
they're leaving it for.
>> Okay.
>> Question left for you is if you could
give
$1 billion to one person you don't know
personally, who is it
and what do they have to spend it on?
Uh,
honestly, I would give it to Elon Musk,
okay?
>> And it's not because I think that he's
hurting for a billion dollars right now,
but if you look at what he is working on
to accomplish for us as a human race,
right? He I truly believe from what I've
seen that he has a similar heart for
humanity that I've seen with a lot of
physicians. But on a macro scale as an
engineer and an entrepreneur, he's
trying to solve some of the greatest
problems that are facing us today. And I
think that what we are going to see
hopefully coming from the uh Terrafab
down in Austin is going to be wild with
recursive uh feedback and engineering on
AI chips that are going to get better
and better and better in a short period
of time and increasing, you know,
independence when it comes to, you know,
chip foundaries for the United States.
like it's wild and I think that that
billion dollars would go further and do
more for more people than anywhere else
I could put it.
>> And he's also working on Neurolink which
is really interesting company which puts
uh sort of brain chip interfaces to
allow people to
hear again, see again, allow paraplegics
to walk again. Um which is
>> really really incredible. Dr. Alex,
thank you so much. It's so illuminating
and I can't wait to have you back again
sometime soon to talk about all the
other things we could have talked about
today. We focused on peptides
predominantly, but I know that over on
your YouTube channel, you talk about a
lot more than that. So, highly recommend
everybody go check out Dr. Alex's
YouTube channel. And uh it's been a
pleasure. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Stephen.
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