The Power of Peptides: GLP-1/GIP, SLU-PP-332, and 5-Amino-1MQ Molecule Explained

Episode 65

Podcast Drop Date: 

9/3/2025

In this episode of Functional Medicine Foundations, host Amber Warren, PA-C, is joined by Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD, and Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C, continue the conversation on peptides.

They take a closer look at key peptides, including GLP-1/GIPs, SLU-PP-332, and 5-Amino-1MQ. Explaining how they work at the cellular level and why their benefits go beyond weight loss. From supporting healthy aging and immune balance, to addressing cognition, reducing inflammation, and promoting cardiovascular, GI, and renal health, this episode highlights the wide-ranging potential of peptide therapy.

Transcript:

Amber Warren, PA-C: Welcome to the Functional Medicine Foundations podcast, where we explore root cause medicine, engage in conversation with functional and integrative medicine experts, and build community with like minded health seekers. I'm your host, Amber Warren. Let's dig deeper.

All right. Welcome back everybody. We're so excited here with Heather Lucas and Doctor Mark Holthouse. Um, peptides! It's all the rage, right? We've talked a lot about peptides on this podcast before and our social media channels, but we're so excited because I feel like it's like weekly. Now we get we hear about a new up and coming peptide or new data on a peptide that we've been using for a long time. So I feel like this could just be a continual, you know, part one, part two, part three, part four. And just kind of updates on peptides and what we're doing here at FMI to help people optimize their health and feel their best. So, um, I'd love to start with what I think is a really great tool we have in our toolbox, but also a very controversial peptide. And that's these GLP-1,GIPS, you know, the weight loss peptide. And I know both of you are going to have a lot, a lot to say. But Dr. Holthouse, do you want to start on, on kind of the data that we're seeing and that is emerging on, on these, these infamous type of peptides?

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: You know, what you said is so true. It came out initially as a diabetic drug, years ago. Some of these things and the earlier iterations of these weren't near as good as the newer ones are at weight loss. And that's when it really took off, right? When we found wow, you can have a 20% of your body lose that much weight. We've had nothing like that up to now. We've had things 5%, maybe 10% of your body weight, uh, with with diet medications. And those things were fraught with many side effects. They were contraindicated for people with blood pressure and heart disease and all kinds of problems. And so now we have kind of this repurposed diabetic category that has found its way into metabolic medicine.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: So yeah, speaking my I'm having this love affair with GLP-1,GIPs which is the family name for some very common things you've heard about, um, from your neighbors and even from your local pharmacists. And due to some of the changes and, um, things that have come about, we call them now by their chemical names, their medical names, as opposed to trade names, just to stay out of hot water. But, um, what's so exciting, I think for us as a, as a clinic is to find out that these things are not only wonderful for things like weight loss and controlling insulin and sugar, but now we're seeing benefits with things like potentially removing fatty liver.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: If you understand where in the cell how they're working it all makes sense. Um, it's supporting a balance at the cell level of oxidative stress and supporting our oxidative systems, that the mitochondria is this little motor inside the cell. And just like your motor in your car, a lot of combustion, there's a lot of things. It's a messy process. And 90 plus percent of the reactive oxygen species that come and reactive nitrogen species that come from our bodies are made in this mitochondrial motor. And so there's a lot of potential damage to DNA and to fats and to other macromolecules that can happen, uh, with this stuff around. So knowing that we've got these products that help support that balance, besides just telling people to take, you know, glutathione and vitamin C and vitamin E and antioxidants is is pretty special. And then you see the applications because of its inner workings at the cell level being protective, preventing cells from aging, becoming what we call senescent. Checking out. They're not dividing but they're not dying either. They're just kind of hanging around uh, like somebody that is needs to just go home. They've overstayed their welcome and they're secreting inflammatory cytokines and chemokines and all of these things that make us feel bad and age prematurely. So you have these kinds of substances now that that are not just performing these miraculous things with things like fatty liver, glucose, and weight loss. We're seeing it drop intraocular, eye pressure. We're seeing it with neuroprotective effects in the brain, in the neurons, cardiovascular protective effects in the heart cells, cardiomyocytes. In the kidney cells, we're seeing their renal protective effects. Um, in addition to some of the stuff that's going on with anti-aging.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Um, when you look at what parts of the cell are being activated, this autophagy, the idea of recycling old, worn out cell parts and misfolded proteins that are the result of metabolism and stress, um, you realize that it's got longevity and anti-aging qualities as part of that same pathway. It's promoting fat burning, not just weight loss. It's actually promoting a, um, a lack of obesity. So when we talk about weight loss, we're more concerned about body composition. As opposed to the scale being lighter. We want to see percent lean going up and percent body fat going down. And so these things are are aimed squarely at cell efficiency. That's the term that we're all using that we're trained to use. It makes your cells work better. They're more efficient. They they, um, hang around in a healthy, contributing form for a much longer period of time. And they tend not to become these zombie senescent cells that we've now identified with premature aging. So pretty cool as a class.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Are you concerned about the dose. Are you concerned about people buying this online from China, from Canada, from Mexico, from you know anywhere online. Like what's, what are some of your concerns around that?

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Yeah. You know one of the biggest drawbacks to this class of medication is cost. And um, the problem with getting these things from non-reputable, non-vetted sources, like the online things, especially from Asia and other places like that. And I just cringed, today I was meeting with a woman and her son in law was getting them from China and, um, you know, just online.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. Yikes.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: And the problem is, we now know because these are cell messaging molecules. They give marching orders to your cell, to the genes, to the enzymes, to everything that actually allows our bodies at a cellular level to function correctly. You need 99% purity. You know, 95, 96% is unacceptable. Those impurities are giving cell messages, we have no idea what is being.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. It's not like it's a lack of efficacy. It's actually potentially a toxicity and a an unwanted side effect.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: So not working.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Number one. Or worse than that, causing unwanted side effects. Exactly. And so. So wherever you get them, you've got to make sure that it's a vetted source with a medical professional that knows peptide medicine.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. And knows how to dose it and the other things that go along with it, and how to educate you appropriately so that you, like you said, appropriately fine tune your body composition.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: I think one of the things that we have kind of discovered just over the last couple of years using these particular products is that they have side effects, nausea and some GI side effects that can largely be avoided with what we call microdosing, where we're starting with nontraditional milligram strengths as the initial dose and the other strategies to avoid things like nausea is taking that total daily dose, dividing it up into two injections over the week instead of all at one time. So the total weekly dose is unchanged, but they're spreading it out. So their tolerance is better.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Right. Tolerance is better. And then also doing the smaller doses, um, provides more of a gradual weight loss, which is a safer, healthier way to lose weight in the face of trying to preserve as much lean muscle mass while losing the fat, we lose weight rapidly. Chances of us burning up our muscle, which is so important to hold on to, especially as we age, the risks increase.

Amber Warren, PA-C: And by the way, rapid weight loss that what you just mentioned being muscle mass loss that happens with or without this category of peptides, right? Someone goes on a binge diet or a water fast or loses 50 pounds that that that statistic remains the same, whether it's being utilized with these GLP-1,GIPs or any type of weight loss peptide versus just true weight loss. So I think that's that's an important statistic that most people don't fully recognize.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Slow and steady wins the race.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Totally.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: In weight loss.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Totally. Yeah yeah. No I love it. My clients you know and that's why I love microdosing. Because one of the first things they say is I even had a client last week who said, I feel more energized and I feel like I've lost that initial layer of inflammation. And that was just always such a cool thing to hear. That's what we're trying to do, right? We're always trying to decrease inflammation.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Yeah. Anecdotally, just speaking from patient experience or client experience. Yeah. I'm hearing an improvement in brain fog.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yep.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: I'm hearing that they sleep better. They have more energy and they're motivated to go exercise. So those are huge wins.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah absolutely.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Of using the peptide.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. Yeah. That's huge.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: When it first came out you heard a lot of trainers and a lot of backlash about, oh, this medication actually causes a loss of lean muscle mass.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: In fact, losing weight with a diet strategy, the studies are showing that there's more muscle loss doing it that way than using these medications. So it's not the medication, it's the rapid weight loss.

Amber Warren, PA-C: It's again the dose.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: It's in the dose. And it's virtually impossible to not lose any muscle mass whatsoever when you're losing weight. That's just normal with any way you go about it. I think with using the higher proteins, the adequate amount of resistance training, and microdosing, it's really kind of the trifecta of low side effects, efficacy and maintaining as much lean muscle mass. And we use these BIA machines instead of scales. So we actually have a metric to compare baseline. And every month or two as they go, you can see they're, you know, a lot of times they plateau on their weight loss, but they're still losing fat and gaining lean. And so the weight becomes so irrelevant at some point.

Amber Warren, PA-C: And as soon as you educate them on that, that's so empowering for the client who's so frustrated by the scale. Wait wait wait wait wait, hold on.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Are your clothes fitting better?

Amber Warren, PA-C: :et's pull back. Let's look at your BIA. Yeah. Are your clothes fitting better? How are you feeling? Let's pull out your medical symptom questionnaire four months ago. And I want to remind you what those numbers were compared to today. So, yeah, you do have to kind of pull that that emotional client back when they do plateau and kind of reeducate.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Yeah. And Dr. Holthouse, you hit on what I referred to as my non-negotiables. If somebody is a candidate for this peptide and they're ready to pull the trigger and get on it. Non-negotiables. You must be doing resistance training 3 to 4 days a week minimum. You really need to be stimulating your muscles so that you're not targeting your muscles for fuel as you as you're in a calorie restriction. And the other non-negotiable is your protein intake. You've got to be eating a gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. Is kind of the the metric that I use.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Now, I know you doctor particularly are very well you two are Heather because you're just a peptide freak yourself. But you guys are very excited about this new non-fda approved, peptide in the similar class. That's a triple agonist, right? That's up and coming. And we're seeing some pretty exciting data stemming from that. Can you introduce that a little bit?

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Yeah, so we have, we have these three receptors that we're trying to hit. And, you know, the originals came out hitting the GLP-1 receptor. The next iteration added the GIP, glucose insulin peptide or something like GIP, the idea meaning that they don't respond unless you have glucose coming down from eating a meal into the GI system. And that's what triggers the release of insulin from the beta cell of the pancreas. Now, this third one has a glucagon receptor, which is another controller of all of these things. It's another receptor that's being hit. So instead of 10% body weight loss or 20% body weight loss, now we're looking at upwards of 30% body weight loss. So you know you have to understand historically up to this point the best medications we had for weight loss might hit 10%. On a good day.

Amber Warren, PA-C: So this is significant.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: So this is triple.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: What what we've ever seen and with so much less in the way of side effects.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Um, the number of people that are contraindicated, it's far lower than using something with phentermine or topamax topiramate, uh, kinds of medications. So pretty exciting stuff.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. No. It's awesome. Very cool. Well, we didn't just film tonight because we wanted to talk about GLP-1s/GIPs. And I promise we have other things we want to discuss, too. I know you're really excited about a new peptide that that we have access to. SLU-PP-332 that's a long name, but could you introduce and give us some tidbits on that one?

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Yeah, this is an exciting one for a couple of different reasons. So many people are on the GLP/GIP bandwagon and thinking about using that peptide for weight loss. But what if you're someone who just has a few pounds that you're looking to lose? 10 to 15? 20? We'll call them vanity pounds. You're just trying to improve your body composition a little bit. Or maybe you're someone who doesn't like the idea of injecting yourself with a needle a couple times a week. Um, there is a new compound. It's actually not a peptide, but it's talked about a lot in in the peptide world because it can be stacked with peptides or it can be used independently. And this is an oral small molecule compound that's gaining a lot of attention for its potential role in performance support and metabolic health. So this is called SLU-PP-332. So if you're interested in burning fat more efficiently, supporting your mitochondria or taking your workouts to the next level, this could be one that you might consider.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Is it oral?

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: It is oral. Yep. It's a it's a chemical building block rather than amino acid. And it's often used alongside other peptide therapies because it works through different pathways, making it a great add on for boosting metabolism, energy or weight loss. The way that it works is it helps to upregulate pathways involved in mitochondria, mitochondrial biogenesis, uh, fatty acid oxidation and thermogenesis, the body's natural process of producing heat and burning calories. So think of it as flipping a switch, a metabolic switch that enhances your ability to use fat as fuel, improves your endurance, and supports overall mitochondrial health.

Amber Warren, PA-C: So is it an exercise mimetic? It could be considered that right. Based on what it does?

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Yeah, I'm not sure exactly. So it just helps kind of rev up your body's metabolism.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Is it really expensive?

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: It's not really expensive.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay. I was thinking, oh, I can't wait to hear the price tag on this guy.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: It's really not. It's okay. It's really, um.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: I would call it kind of like an entry level. A nice alternative to the GLP/GPIs for losing weight, enhancing metabolic function. Um, your mitochondrial biogenesis and fat oxidation to burn more fat.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Which means making more mitochondria.

Amber Warren, PA-C: For sure,

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Which is a good thing. You know, the more the better.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Right.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay, cool.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Um, most people who use the SLU-PP-332 describe it as a as subtle but noticeable boost in clean energy. So not like, um, not a stimulant like caffeine.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Okay. But at higher doses, it can cause mild nervous system like jitteriness or restlessness, similar to how you might feel after a strong cup of coffee.

Amber Warren, PA-C: And it's dosed every day. It's a daily dose?

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Yeah. So because because you can have that jitteriness we start low and go slow as it's kind of our mantra here in functional medicine with all things and timing matters too, so it's ideal to take it before a fasted cardio session.

Amber Warren, PA-C: That makes sense.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Like your morning walk or workout. Because your insulin levels are lower at that time and that enhances the fat burning effect. Some people prefer to split their doses, taking half of it in the morning and half again in the early afternoon for that sustained energy benefit, similar to caffeine. It's best to cycle it. It used for 2 to 3 weeks at a time and then take a 1 to 2 week break. This helps avoid receptor desensitization. So so that your body keeps working the way that it's supposed to. And then also it makes the the compound or the the SLU-PP more effective because you're not building up a resistance to it.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay, cool.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Um, so stacking it, one of the exciting things about this particular molecule is that you can stack it with things like l-carnitine or berberine, or even use it in addition to one of the GLP receptor agonists to enhance fat oxidation and mitochondrial efficiency. And then, of course, that said, you'll get the best results when you use it alongside a whole foods diet, resistance training and consistent movement. So it's not a magic pill. It's not just going to burn fat for you. You've got to do a little bit of the work too. It's not a quick fix or substitute for the healthy habits. It's generally well tolerated. However, it's not suitable for everyone. So if you've had a history of like a heart attack or you have high blood pressure, arrhythmias or any other cardiovascular disease.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Probably history of stroke. TIA, probably contraindicated.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Yeah, yeah. You'll definitely want to, um, be cleared by your health care provider before using.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Don't go buy this from China.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Please don't buy it from China.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: But work with work with someone who knows, who knows what they're doing. So big, big picture benefits. To summarize, SLU-PP-332 offers a promising new way to support fat loss, improve endurance, boost energy and cognitive clarity, and support your mitochondrial disorders or metabolic sluggishness.

Amber Warren, PA-C: So cool. So that might be a really good segue into MOTS-c talking about MOTS-c as a, you know, improving mitochondrial biogenesis, that it almost makes me think that it's like a more mild and again, like you were kind of saying maybe someone that doesn't want to inject.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Yeah. Someone who wants an oral route doesn't want to inject, or somebody who just has a few pounds that they're, they're trying to to lose, not necessarily wanting to go on one of the GLP/GPs or, um, you know, for whatever reason, it's just it's just a different option to help with body composition and mitochondrial support.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay, great. Have you been using MOTS-c a lot, doctor?

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Very little, once in a while. You know, when I have somebody that's battling obesity and, um, you know, pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome is kind of the group. The two I like to use is the one we're going to talk about a little later. The 5-Amino-1MQ, which is actually not a peptide either, but it's supportive. And there's definitely synergy with like a MOTS-c that's going to really, you know, anchor your your weight loss and your fat loss. You know, we we look at a lot of these things and there's some unifying themes that will probably try to summarize at the end with regards to cellular aging. Um, promoting fat burning lipo basically, uh, lysis means you're burning beta oxidation. Fatty acid beta oxidation is burning fat for energy. Um, the glycolysis and the Krebs cycle and the electron transport chain. These are all mitochondrial terms that are dealing with burning glucose and burning fatty acids. And these things kind of all have that theme. Literally everything we're going to be talking about tonight. A lot of them deal with obesity. Deal with insulin signaling. Deal with antioxidant support at all cell levels. So it's not a surprise when you hear that the neurons do better. Your memory is better. Your muscle cells work better. Because they're they're activating a lot of the same pathways. This AMP kinase, which we're dancing all around that, that pathway. And I was going to ask you if they know what paths that that one's using. It almost sounds like it's an AMP kinase pathway.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Um I don't know if they know or not yet.

Amber Warren, PA-C: I've had luck with using MOTS-c, which again, I didn't do a very good introduction of it, but it does what this oral molecule that Heather was talking about improving mitochondrial health. Um, to be honest, some of my mold clients just the brain fog and the chronic fatigue these clients are dealing with. Right. Because a lot of these clients, you have to get them to a state where they're motivated to even be able to start the healthy eating plan and the detox support that they need to detox the mold. And so I've had really good luck using MOTS-c to kind of kick start them and like, wake up their mitochondria because they've been so damaged from mold and probably chronic viruses and trauma and nervous system. And so it's I have found that peptide, although it is a little bit more on the expensive side. But that's kind of why I was thinking like, gosh, the one you're talking about almost sounds like a just a more mild way to help some of these, these one of the reasons.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: I want to share why so much of these peptides and these supporting compounds that go after supporting the mitochondria, why is that such an important goal?

Amber Warren, PA-C: Good point.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: These tissue types that are highly metabolically demanding of energy, they need a lot of ATP. Your neurons, your ability to have focused, sustained attention. Your muscle cells. Your heart muscle. These are highly metabolically active cells. You could even argue the cells that line the GI tract, they're turning over every 72 hours. These are highly, highly metabolically active cells.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Or brain cells to.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Cardiovascular.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: People that have mitochondrial failure or dysfunctions we call them mitochondria. How do they manifest? They manifest as general weakness and brain fog.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Fatigue.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Fatigue. And these are all the highly ATP mitochondrial because that's where you make ATP dependent tissue types. So it kind of makes sense.

Amber Warren, PA-C: It totally makes sense. And how we're looking to help these people. Yeah. Um, wonderful. Let's, uh well, I think you already mentioned it, and we're already kind of on that topic. So let's go ahead and talk about the 5-Amino-1MQ.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Oh, sure.

Amber Warren, PA-C: I think we should.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: So 5-Amino-1MQ is something I'm just again. Um, I'm a two timer because I'm falling in love with this one now a little bit too. Again, it's not a peptide, but this is something that, uh, can come alongside foundational therapeutic lifestyle with good cardio, HIT. With good resistance training, good clean food, managing stress and getting good sleep. If you are, a lot of people ask me, hey, should I do I need NAD which really you have to talk about NAD if you talk about 5-Amino-1MQ. What this stuff does is it directly inhibits one of the enzymes that basically breaks down NAD from being actively cycled in the cell. NAD, oh my goodness you guys, we'll have to do a triple discussion to get through what all it does.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: You know, from 10,000ft. It's basically in the context here. It's uh, used in in glycolysis, the process of taking glucose and entering it into mitochondria, getting energy from it, making ATP and in the Krebs cycle, and then eventually transporting electrons around to make it. Um. NAD is a vitamin B3 derivative, and it's absolutely necessary for energy. It has a huge role in what we call redox or the oxidative reduction balance in the cell of oxidative stress, cellular aging, autophagy, mitochondrial biogenesis, making new mitochondria. Mitophagy, which is destroying and checking out old mitochondria that have overstayed their welcome. Um, so if we can keep NAD around this is kind of the holy grail.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: And kind of version 1.0 was, hey, let's just give everyone NAD either an IV or an injection or we give them nicotinamide mononucleotide, NMN, and nicotinamide riboside. These precursors that are one of the ways that you can make NAD. You can also make it, what we call de novo from tryptophan or from nicotinic acid. So the cell has all these different ways of making it, but most of it comes from being salvaged. It's used as a cofactor for a bunch of different cell processes. Um, and that's why it has such a broad implication of use. What we don't want is we don't want to metabolize it away. And 5-Amino-1MQ basically inhibits the nicotinamide N-methyltransferase. Sorry, geek out a little bit here. Enzyme that checks it out. It methylates it and it takes it out of the cycle. The active NAD pool. NAD gets broken down into something called niacin nicotinamide, NAM, which gets recycled through what we call a salvage pathway. And so if you can inhibit it from getting broken down and taking out of this pathway, you've gone a long ways to improving NAD levels in your cell. And why does that matter? We used to think that nad we just needed to give more, right? As we age, we know it drops in the cell, the levels. And what we're learning is that it's dropping because the enzymes that break it down are upregulated as you age. So you don't want to just focus on production and giving, giving, giving. You can use enzymes and things like this 5-Amino-1MQ to prevent it from being broken down and keeping it in the cell. As you age, it's probably a more efficient way to maintain levels. Uh apigenin, which is from parsley. It's a bioflavonoid. It's a supplement as well as known to inhibit this other enzyme called CD38 that breaks it down. So if you're doing a little bunch of parsley in your protein and you're doing some 5-Amino-1MQ, um, you can really do a lot besides just taking NAD precursors.

Amber Warren, PA-C: And this is oral and you take it every day.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Yep.

Amber Warren, PA-C: And it's not in from what I recall. It's not crazy expensive.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Not crazy expensive.

Amber Warren, PA-C: It was. It was pretty reasonable.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Exactly.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: I think it can be oral or injectable.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Really? Oh, I didn't know it was injectable as well.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: I think you're right. I have to look.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Oh, cool. Okay. Okay.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: And this compound was originally studied in metabolic research, looking at ways to improve insulin sensitivity and reduce fat accumulation. Specifically visceral fat. Visceral fat is.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Visceral fat is the inflammatory fat that drives everything bad fatty liver, diabetes. Uh, we think probably dementias and all kinds of things. Heart disease. Um, but there you are again. I mean, the GLP-1s/GIPs. We're going to talk about the growth hormone group 5-Amino-1MQ. They're all promoting this cellular environment of burning fatty acids, beta oxidation, and burning glucose. And so you have better body composition better visceral fat levels.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: And I read a study that there was a 30% reduction in cholesterol using 5-Amino-1MQ.

Amber Warren, PA-C: 30%?

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: 30%.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: That's pretty impressive. Um, that makes sense. Because it's going to affect your lipid balance in the cell.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Step aside Statins! We have a new kid on the block!

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Oh, yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: New kid on the block!

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Yeah, metabolic syndrome, obesity are some of its earliest indications. And I'm just digging it for an NAD. NADs, one of its primary roles in sirtuin and AMP kinase, that whole pathway, is to improve obesity, improve lipid profiles, improve redox again energy.

Amber Warren, PA-C: So you have all your weight loss clients on this compound.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: I don't have them all on that.

Amber Warren, PA-C: You're getting there. But you're getting there like you're.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: You know we have kind of the GLP-1/GIP phase one.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: And then we're kind of moving people down the line to, "hey, it's not so much now about weight loss. Now it's about all these other cellular benefits".

Amber Warren, PA-C: It's about cellular efficiency at that point.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Yeah, anti-aging.

Amber Warren, PA-C: For sure.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: So we're moving them toward the growth hormone secretagogues and we're moving them towards things like this.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah okay. Growth hormone secretagogues. This is my probably favorite class of peptides just because of all that they can do.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Yeah, yeah. Oh, I can start the ball. But you all have to help!

Amber Warren, PA-C: If you can, that'd be great.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Okay. So to set the stage, there's been HGH, human growth hormone that that some folks have given. It's historically been given by pediatric endocrinologists for kids that are short stature, that aren't growing properly. Um, the problem with giving growth hormone like that is that it's been associated with growing certain cancers and promoting things like diabetes.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: It also shuts down the natural negative feedback loop between IGF-1 and the hypothalamus and the pituitary and the brain, which is where you're making growth hormone.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: So what is brilliant about these peptides is that they're mimicking growth hormone releasing hormone that's made in your hypothalamus neurons naturally. And it's secreted right after you fall asleep in stage four delta sleep that real deep sleep that you're Oura ring shows you go into when you're watching those architectures. And and that's the first sleep that you get really, really deep. And you go through several cycles of that through the night. But this is normally when your hypothalamus, the master gland controlling your pituitary that then releases growth hormone is doing its thing during that deep sleep at night. So what these peptides are doing, growth hormone releasing hormones.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Why do we care about growth hormone?

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Why we care about growth hormone is because like things like testosterone their tissue regenerating, they're involved with taking out the trash in the the brain detox, what we call the glymphatic system that's happening. Um, it's involved with restoring natural deep sleep, which is the sleep we lose as we age.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Uh, so it's it's not only being secreted during that form of sleep, but it helps restore the very sleep that we're losing as we age.

Amber Warren, PA-C: And we start losing growth hormone in our 30s. It's not like our 60s. It starts to go down 15% each decade, starting in our 30s. So this is something that.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Sorry 30 somethings, you're not young anymore. I'm just joking! But it is pretty. The more we learn about longevity and anti-aging and cellular efficiency type of medicine, the more you do learn like, oh wow, you know, 50 is the new. I mean, it's just because you have to start really thinking in your 30s and 40s about what you want your metabolic health to look like in your 60s and 70s. You have to be proactive now.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: To have those results then.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah for sure. Yeah. Anyway, sorry. Okay.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: No, I wish I'd have known.

Amber Warren, PA-C: More about growth hormone, why we care about it, why we should be paying attention to it.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: And it keeps us, it keeps us, uh, thin. I mean, it basically promotes protein synthesis and muscle growth. And while it gets, it causes this fat loss that she was referring to in the product she was just mentioning very similarly. So it's a it's a body composition maintainer. It's involved with avoiding things like bone loss, osteopenia, osteoporosis. It's involved also with neuroprotection and the brain, the gut.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Collagen production.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Collagen. Absolutely. So there's a bunch of reasons why we should care about growth hormone. Uh, and now we've got these products that are natural mimics of what the body is used to seeing that it makes already. So growth hormone releasing hormone comes from the hypothalamus. And it kind of sets the stage of telling the pituitary, hey you need to make more growth hormone. So we also combine with something called a growth hormone releasing peptide. This gets a little confusing. But just think of both of these kind of working in tandem. One of them is setting up the supply and the transcription. The other one's a secretagogue, which is helping release it in a pulsed dose. Also deep sleep at night from the pituitary itself. Uh, it also, as a group, helps release growth hormone releasing hormone from the hypothalamus. In addition to growth hormone from the pituitary. So it has a dual synergism with the growth hormone releasing hormone. So CJC-1295, Ipamorelin that's an example of one of those duos that does that. There are some that are so strong that you don't need to use them in a combo. They work pretty well by themselves. But this family is really more about promoting all those benefits of of growth hormone, which is cellular, redox, anti-aging. Uh, autophagy detox. Um, immune modulating, anti-inflammatory, brain fog, cardiovascular, GI, renal benefits to say nothing of muscle and body composition and insulin regulation. These are as important, I think, as as many of the peptides that we use at helping with pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome and dyslipidemia, cholesterol.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Um, these are all diseases that come from mismanaged glucose and insulin signaling.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: At the cell level. So when you combine exercise, strength training, and high intensity interval training, where you're teaching your muscle to be sensitive to insulin, and you're optimizing the products in your brain that naturally are secreted at night like testosterone, especially in men and in in both genders with growth hormone to burn fat and use insulin more effectively. Oh my gosh, the limits, it's unlimited.

Amber Warren, PA-C: It has it's caveats though. We do have to be careful.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Yeah, you have to be careful with that. Um, unlike growth hormone you're not going to desensitize downstream receptors. You're not going to, um, cause those those cancers and the diabetes, the diabetes issues, we watch downstream, things like IGF-1 made by the liver in response to growth hormone as a marker. But these products don't usually raise that. So, you know, you're not harming the natural feedback and rhythm, which is what I like about that and why I never used growth hormone by itself.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Gosh you too. I feel like you guys have been paid by the makers of these peptides to speak about them. You're just speaking about them so brilliantly and passionately and eloquently. And these guys do not receive feedback from these companies. By the way, the makers of these peptides, we're just know about them.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: We use them ourselves. We use them on our friends and family.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Such great resources.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Our clients.

Amber Warren, PA-C: So good. Um. Anything, did you want to speak about some of these growth hormone analogs at all? I know you love CJC, Ipamorelin just as much as the rest of us.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: I do, yeah I do. I'm flooded with all just all the newer peptide and blends that are coming out and just drinking out of a fire hose to keep up with all of them.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Everything. Yeah.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: It's interesting how so many of them will kind of promote or function in a lot of the same ways, but I think, like Doctor Holthouse was just mentioning, because they target things at the cellular level to improve our cellular efficiency that drives obesity, that drives inflammation, that drives.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Aging.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Aging, all of those things. And these these peptides just really hit the cellular level and improve mitochondrial function and just back getting our bodies to function like they did in our youthful years. And so they really do have a, a wide breadth of.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yep.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Of targets and, and things that they can help.

Amber Warren, PA-C: I think peptides are one of the greatest tools of modern medicine. Like I really do.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: A common question we all probably get is, am I committed to having to do this, something like this the rest of my life?

Amber Warren, PA-C: Good point.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Great point.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: And I think that we want to come off as these are bridges. These are tools that are you know, you're not going to have the side effect profiles like you will with new to nature molecules and typical pharma.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Um, where the body's never seen what that is before. And those block enzymes and block. They poison enzymes and block receptors. As Doctor May says, um, these are actually coming alongside and doing the job that the things our bodies are already making in a way that's better. And at a time when we were younger to avoid the diseases that are killing us, which are heart diseases, stroke, dementias, insulin resistance, and diabetes and cancer. So it's going after what Peter Attia calls the Four Horsemen in his book Outlive. It's really what anti-aging is. So we see these things kind of like we do supplements where if they can be used as a safe alternative to medicines, which really don't address the root cause and are keeping the pharmaceutical companies very wealthy because they're forever drugs. And for a period of time and to buy time until we get the therapeutic lifestyle, the sleep, the stress, the cortisol, the exercise dialed, the hormones dialed. My intent is to get people off of. These are short, they're cycled. Um so just so nobody gets the wrong idea. We're not promoting like, these are something you need to be on the rest of your life.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: Right. Cycles.

Amber Warren, PA-C: You said it so well, I feel like, you know, anti-aging, longevity. That whole era started as just kind of esthetics, right? And almost like the superficial aspect of it. But this is so much deeper than that. This is truly. And you you just said it so well and so eloquently, like this is this is really internally trying to turn back time and fix the diseases that we see as we age. Um, and it truly has become root cause medicine in that, in that respect. So that's just oh so, so, so amazing.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: I think about the diseases of aging that are, that are now directly tied to oxidative stress.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Cataracts. You know, those are advanced glycation end products in our lens.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Ages. We call them. Things like macular degeneration. What are the ophthalmologists recommending? AREDS. That product, AREDS2. It's lutein and zeaxanthin. They're antioxidants. So and there's many cancers associated with inflammatory Diseases like diabetes. So if we can go at a root cause as to where these things have become uncoupled in the first place, we're dealing with cleaning up the cell, making it work better, dealing with inflammation.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Well, and what you just mentioned, that's why they're starting to use these GLP/GIPs in anticancer research because of for that reason. So it's yeah, it's pretty astounding. You start to think about obesity metabolic medicine. Um, and the new tools we have in our toolbox for that.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Yeah.

Amber Warren, PA-C: So much bigger than just losing weight.

Heather Lucas, MSN, FNP-C: You're almost saying like these peptides are a root cause approach.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Um, I mean, goodness.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Well, I think thats.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Sure can be.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: I think that's why we've embraced it even though they're pharmaceutical.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: And but you know category.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: These are not new to nature molecules that are just blocking enzymes and poisoning, you know, receptors and whatnot. These are actually,

Amber Warren, PA-C: Innate.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Innate. Addressing the pathways that have become dysfunctional, for whatever reason, genetically.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Multifactorial, yeah.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Epigenetically from your environmental exposures, what have you. Um, and getting people back to functioning cells, it's kind of like the idea of using stem cells and exosomes and some of these things where people are chasing.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: The early unadulterated version of themself, without having to do that, using their own cells and making their own cells healthier.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Right. Um, and I feel like as opposed to the IV exosomes or stem cell approach, which can be still a good approach. It's it actually is a little bit more, um, personalized, finite medicine, I think. Because we are now knowing that we can target very specific pathways with these peptides. So it's precision medicine.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Yes.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Which we've been saying is like the new functional, anti-aging term. Right. Precision medicine. And that's exactly what we just spent the last 45 minutes talking about.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: So now you've just set yourself up for the next podcast on regenerative protein arrays.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Oh, okay. Here we go. That's a little little saver for later. I love it.

Dr. Mark Holthouse, MD: Little carrot.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. Just dangle it. That's so awesome. Um, I mean, mic drop all the above. There's not much more we can say. You guys did such a fabulous job. Thank you so much for your time tonight. And definitely more to come on this topic. Uh, we could probably create six more episodes based on, um, a number of subjects we just discussed, and we'll plan on doing that.

Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah, well, I think next up, probably, NAD, you also dangled that carrot, too. Yeah. Let's just dive into NAD and all that it can do for us. So yeah. Thank you so much, you guys. And, um, yeah, come see us at the FMI Center for Optimal Health and for access to these type of peptides, compounds and more. So much more to come. Thank you so much.

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Amber Warren, PA-C: Thank you for listening to the Functional Medicine Foundation's podcast. For more information on topics covered today, specialties available at the FMI center for Optimal Health and the highest Quality of supplements, and more go to funmedfoundations.com.