Regan Archibald:
All right, everybody. So we’ve got Ryan Smith and, Ryan, you’ve been just an inspiration to me in cultivating this peptide advantage course, and just in leading the way in this new revolution of medicine, and so really appreciate you and all you’re doing. So, how did you get into peptide therapy and what do you think some of the top peptides are right now? What are the hot ones?
Ryan Smith:
Yeah, absolutely, and likewise. I think that this space is absolutely exploding and having people who are able to provide the information you provide is extremely helpful, to help patients actually get some of this stuff, and so, my experience with peptides has been one that’s relatively short, but in the realm of things, pretty long. I started in undergrad with protein and peptide biochemistry. So how do you make these things in the lab for experimental research? And then, even pharmaceuticals, and so after, I did some med school as well, but after I got done, I ran into this whole world of integrative medicine. Now, a world I didn’t know existed while I was in medical school, and some of my past, with this protein peptide creation, just fit really, really well into the needs that were presenting themselves in the integrative space.
Ryan Smith:
And so, we started providing a lot of these things to physicians. At first, it started with things like the growth hormone secretagogues, things which probably still reign as the most popular products, just because everyone can benefit from the narrative that growth hormone adds, a better body composition, better aging type results, but now I would say, yeah. Now some of the things that I would say we see I’m most excited about, are things you have in your course, right? Things like how to activate sirtuins, things like how to boost the immune system and things like how to help with mental functioning and, of course, body comp, as cardiovascular disease and metabolic disease are still some of the biggest risk factors for disease, and so, peptides in all of those different things. There are definitely some that are more popular than others, but I think that there’s really every condition or every patient could probably benefit from one peptide or another.
Regan Archibald:
Great. And as you look at peptides, you have some of your favorites for, let’s just say, like performance. I mean, I’ve heard you talk about 5-amino-1MQ. It’s probably the first time I heard you speak on stage, where I was like, “Oh, I’ve got to try that.” So maybe you can tell us about that one or some of your other favorites for performance?
Ryan Smith:
Yeah, performance is definitely one that’s a relative passion, right? Because it can help just about everybody be optimal, and as we talk about performance from a physical perspective, the 5-amino-1MQ is definitely up there. I always talk about my personal experience, which is pretty incredible. I had some really good performance results. That one works by inhibiting that enzyme, NNMT, which increases as we age. It takes away a lot of the, I would say the cofactors, which help reduce NAD, so by blocking that enzyme, you can increase NAD levels, along with a bunch of other things, such as activating senescent muscle stem cells that reactivate, and even in mice, it showed a 70% increase in contractile muscle force and a similar benefit to reduce lipogenesis, so you’re putting on less fat. Your muscles are functioning more appropriately. You’re increasing NAD, which is an anti-aging compound, and then you’re increasing contractile force, so that one is one that is really interesting, for a variety of reasons and mechanisms, but beyond that, we have things like the mitochondrial peptides.
Ryan Smith:
One of the newer mitochondrial peptides we have, and are going to be having available even next week, is a product called SS-31. That’s a product that goes to the inner mitochondrial membrane to optimize the electron transport chain, so basically it optimizes how you produce energy, and as we get older, that process becomes not as well functioning, and so one of the big statistics that was published on this product, I like to say for performance, is that one injection is essentially the mitochondrial equivalent of 30 days of endurance exercise. So, as you talk about performance training, this is one that hits that quality as well, and then we also have some of the other things.
Ryan Smith:
I know that in your online training, you mentioned amlexanox, and we always mix that with Tetradecylthioacetic Acid for some of the metabolic benefit, but one of the other things, is it activates these PPAR, which increase mitochondrial biogenesis as well, and so all of these things can help with endurance performance, increasing lean muscle mass or skeletal muscle mass and decreasing fat tissue. So, all of these things help in a variety of ways but those are probably some of the most exciting.
Regan Archibald:
That’s great and so have you seen, like rapamycin is a big one. We have patients calling us and, “Hey, Regan, I want to get on some rapamycin.” What would you say is a good peptide that you could use in place of rapamycin, for example?
Ryan Smith:
Yeah, so, it’s hard. The immunotory inhibition that rapamycin provides is well studied and we know that it increases longevity. I think the reason people like it for longevity is because it can also reduce senescence, right? One of those hallmarks of aging and so, as we talk about peptides, which can help in senescence, the number one thing that usually comes up is the FOXO4-DRI, which is a very, very, very new peptide, but works on causing apoptosis of those senescent cells, so they can’t cause inflammation. They can’t cause that inflammaging process, and so the FOXO4-DRI is probably the most, I would say, similar to the rapamycin, in that regard, but we don’t really have anything at the moment which directly inhibits it.
Regan Archibald:
Okay, got it, and as far as an immunomodulatory is like, if the World Health Organization said, “Okay, Ryan, we need you to solve the coronavirus issue.” What would you do to solve that problem?
Ryan Smith:
Yeah, actually that’s a great question, one that I’ve actually been getting a lot lately, and so, another one of which is my favorite of all the peptides is the thymosin-alpha1. The thymosin-alpha1 is FDA approved for malignant melanoma, hepatitis C and hepatitis B, and its mechanism of action is to sort of increase the immune system or increase the innate immune response, so your immune system functions better. I mean it’s been studied with just about every cancer cell you can imagine because it helps the immune system find these cancer cells and eliminate them, same with virally infected cells, and that’s the reason that it’s approved for those two indications, but beyond that, it’s been studied for influenza. It’s been studied as a vaccine adjuvant to just make sure that you can fight off these infections, and beyond that it even has, in some monographs, it says less side effects than placebo, so it’s really an extremely safe product. That one is, by far, I would say, the lead, but beyond that we have a couple of other products as well.
Ryan Smith:
One that we talk a lot about for its nootropic benefits, it’s actually called the selank. Selank is a Russian peptide that was derived initially from an immune molecule, tuftsin, but in addition to its effects on causing some anti-anxiety behavior, it also has a great antiviral behavior, not a lot of people know that, that essentially two doses of selank intranasally, reduced flu titers to non recognizable in patients and so those two are definitely, I would say, the leaders in immune stimulation.
Regan Archibald:
Wow, and selank, we’ve used that a lot with our patients who want to get off their benzos, they’re trying to get off their opiates, they’ve got anxiety. That’s phenomenal and I’ve seen immunomodulatory is basically all that it’s been said, so you’d use selank, get some thymosin-alpha1 and just solve the problem.
Ryan Smith:
Exactly, and then, I actually was even given a study recently. It was actually a patent for thymosin-beta4, showing that just six weeks of administration of thymosin-beta4 could even reduce any HIV levels and increase the T-cells in HIV patients, so that one might be something to add to the list as well.
Regan Archibald:
Okay. Yeah, and phenomenal, and you could use all three of those together, no problem.
Ryan Smith:
Exactly.
Regan Archibald:
What’s the most peptides you’ve ever stacked, like yourself personally or what patients will. What do you recommend is kind of the max?
Ryan Smith:
Oh, yeah. I think, unfortunately it all depends on the product, but I’ve been up there to be honest with you. So, there’s been quite a few that I would say I have been using at one time, but, again, unfortunately, it’s all peptides specific. For the majority of these, there’s nothing to worry about for combining six to eight, I would say, but again, it’s a discussion you have to have on an individual level.
Regan Archibald:
Sure. Yeah, and I love how you can compound like the TB4 with cerebrolysin, for example, for some of the cognitive decline. That one’s been super powerful for us. We tend to throw in BPC-157 with almost every patient who’s undergoing any regenerative medicine therapies and I dig that one. If you had one peptide that you think outperforms the others for influencing stem cells, which one would that be?
Ryan Smith:
Oh, that’s hard. It’s difficult because.
Regan Archibald:
You’ve got the coppers.
Ryan Smith:
Yeah, exactly, exactly. A lot of them help with differentiation of certain tissues, right? So, if I were going to talk about combining some peptides with autologous stem cells, to differentiate into bone repair or cartilage regeneration, I might choose some different ones but, like you’ve mentioned with the GHK copper, GHK copper is one of those that actually can increase the stemness of stem cells, right? And so it allows the stem cells to be more active and alert and ready to differentiate into whatever it’s needed, whatever it’s signal to do and so I would say that the GHK is probably the biggest on that list, although for certain indications, I might recommend others.
Regan Archibald:
Okay, and like BPC-157, I mean, that’s working on some of the growth hormone receptors right there in the tendons and ligaments, and so we’ve found that to be incredibly effective. The thymosin beta-4, that one, there is some studies that show that it forces stem cells to take on a lineage of more of an adipocyte, and so would that be something you probably wouldn’t want to use if you’re trying to regenerate cartilage or repair a ligament?
Ryan Smith:
Yeah, definitely. It definitely has some other type of effects which are positive. It actually has a stem cell recruitment effect in certain tissues. It can increase MMP2 and VEGF, which allows it to attract stem cells and so it’s one that we’ve had… We wouldn’t necessarily avoid, if you’re trying to localize it to a certain tissue, for instance. People, for instance, have been using it in our hair protocols to help regrow hair and the way that it has an effect on hair is through stem cells, and so, I think, again, it all just depends on the procedure, but you’re absolutely right. For some of those more cartilage regeneration, osteoarthritis procedures, it might not be the best application.
Regan Archibald:
Got it. Okay, and the other one that’s fascinating is the epitalon, and epitalon, I mean, the studies show, it’s another peptide formulated in Russia, but this one, it influences telomeres, and you are onto some innovative… I mean, you’re going to be launching a brand new test that I’m so excited about. Not as excited as you. I don’t know that I could match that excitement when you were telling me about it earlier, but maybe you could tell us about telomeres and then would epitalon actually be something that we’d want to use with our patients, when we start your new methylation test?
Ryan Smith:
Yeah, absolutely. So the epitalon is a really, really interesting one because all the research has been done in Russia, as you mentioned, by Dr. Khavinson, and Dr. Khavinson studies these products, which are called, he terms the bio regulators. So, things that help restore body functioning and homeostasis and so, the telomere, the epitalon is one that he believes mimics a product that’s produced by your pineal gland to regulate cortisol melatonin, but beyond that, it has a lung fibroblast study, where it increases telomerase. It increases telomerase by 33% and so that’s a pretty drastic telomere increase. Not much has compared with that.
Ryan Smith:
I will say that clinically, it’s really hard to see the effects of telomerase increase. A lot of times, you’re sort of hoping that by increasing your telomeres, you’re extending lifespan. I will say that Dr. Khavinson actually has even better studies, showing how epitalon can affect lifespan and disease risk, particularly with cardiovascular disease. He did a 12 year followup study, which showed that you had a much, much, much less higher, you had less risk for cardiovascular disease, like heart attack and stroke, whenever you dose this, and even in very, very short courses, they only did essentially two courses a year of essentially 10 days and… Oh, sorry, 15 days, which was five injections, and they did that twice a year for three years and showed 15 years of benefit, and so what I say is, with all of his research, it doesn’t look like a lot of patients might not be able to feel the difference, but it’s worth the risk if you can have a 40% reduction in cardiovascular morbidity for essentially the course of 30 injections.
Regan Archibald:
Yeah, yeah. That’s phenomenal, and so tell us a little bit about the methylation test. I mean, if you can, because this will be a game changer and you guys are going to be the first to learn about it, so tell us about your new test.
Ryan Smith:
Yeah. I’ve never, never talked about this publicly until now, so this would be the first time but Dr. Horvath, from UCLA, has been a researcher biostatistician, who’s basically looked at all of the changes that happen on your DNA, and so, unlike 23andme, which measures sort of the infrastructure of your DNA, the methylation and acetylation of your DNA, what turns your genes on and off. It’s the gene where genes are turned on and off, differentiates your eye cells versus your skin cells and it’s a really important thing, because aging is classified as the deterioration of function. It’s whenever those eye cells aren’t really functioning as great as they once were, they’re functioning less like the eye cells they’re programmed to be, and a lot of that happens through what genes are turned on and off, and, in fact, a lot of how we live our life affects what genes are turned on and off.
Ryan Smith:
Dr. David Sinclair recently came out with a book where he talked a lot about sirtuins and anti-aging, and sirtuins are sort of these molecules, which make sure that the methylation and acetylation is happening appropriately, and one of the theories of aging is when you don’t give them the ability to do their job, this product messes up, and so this epigenetic testing is measuring something called biological age. Everyone knows their chronological age. It’s how many candles they’re blowing out on their cake but the biological age is a cellular level of age and so, how, in reducing that, I told you this statistic as well, if you reduce the aging rate by seven years, you cut the incidence of disease in the United States by 50% and so you can imagine what that would do to healthcare spending, what that would do to people’s quality of lives, and so this provides one single metric for both physicians and patients to look at to say, “Hey, am I reducing my risk in a way that I understand?”
Ryan Smith:
And if someone looks at their age and says, “I’m 50 but my biological age is 30,” good for you. Keep doing what you’re doing. Keep that lifestyle going. If they say, “Hey, I’m 50 but my age reads 54,” that means, hey, maybe let’s do some intervention. Let’s change some lifestyle factors and so many different things have been correlated to these changes. Everything from Alzheimer’s, to risk of addiction, to physical activity. So, it really affects every area of your body but it’s one metric, which is just math. You know how important and you know how correlated it is to outcomes because it’s one single metric, which is huge, and so I would say that this is going to be a test that insurance companies require twice a year because they can predict when you’re going to die, and if we can slow that, we can save people’s lives and that’s really exciting for me.
Regan Archibald:
And you’ve got kind of the antidote. I mean, you’ve got, I mean the metformin, the DHEA and what was the third thing?
Ryan Smith:
Yeah, so that one was a growth hormone.
Regan Archibald:
Growth hormone, correct.
Ryan Smith:
So, the study you’re referencing is the Fahy study that came out in September of 2019. It was a groundbreaking study. He only had 10 patients, but it was a proof of concept that, hey, you can reduce the aging rate, and if you can reduce the aging rate, you can, again, prevent people from getting sick and dying, and so, it looked at DHEA, Metformin and growth hormone and, to be honest with you, we already have a study that’s going underway with a growth hormone, thymosin-alpha1, as a way to help clear the body’s cells, and a couple other things, like I said, to sort of help that aging process, and so we’re hoping to prove the same thing with the same test.
Regan Archibald:
Wow, and that’s exciting, and so you think this test will be available for clinicians, maybe April? May? What do you…?
Ryan Smith:
Mid March is when we’re hoping to offer it.
Regan Archibald:
Mid March?
Ryan Smith:
Yeah, absolutely, and it will be the most… Unfortunately, this area of medicine is one that is going to explode, like I said. I think Dr. Horvath will probably win the Nobel prize, but right now, it’s relatively unavailable. It’s an expensive test. Most people are only looking at really small segments of the DNA. Usually most people are testing it. They’re doing this test, less than 500 spots on the DNA. Our tests will be looking at over 850,000 and so it will be the most robust of its kind, and the other thing is you can take our tests with us once, we’ll give you updates. If our algorithm gets better and more predicting, then you’ll see it. You’ll see how it relates to Alzheimer’s. You’ll see how it relates to telomere linked. You’ll get all of those things, and so we’re really excited to roll that out.
Regan Archibald:
Man, I love that. I love the tests that are always evolving. That’s what I love about Naveen Jain with the biome test. I’m always getting updates. My Tesla at night, it updates itself, so my car gets better. I mean, life is just, it’s pretty fascinating, the technology.
Ryan Smith:
Exactly, and just like Tesla sort of argues, it’s the only car that appreciates in value. It’s the same with this test. You pay for it once but you’ve learned for a long time, as our data gets better, you get more knowledgeable, and I think that that’s for anyone who’s wanting to look at their health journey, both clinician or patient, that’s a huge thing.
Regan Archibald:
Right? And when we consider meaningful markers, we didn’t want objective tasks, where we can actually tell our patients. It’s one thing to say, “Hey, we got your blood pressure regulated,” or, “Your Hemoglobin A1c looks fine now,” it’s another to actually say, “Hey, we just took off seven years of your life, so we decreased the incidences of your chronic disease by 50%.” I mean, that’s huge.
Ryan Smith:
It’s absolutely huge and one of the big things I always like to say is if you have diabetes, you’re paying around $55,000 a year for that treatment. It might not be you out of pocket, it might be your insurance company, but that’s an expensive thing and so, now we can even put an ROI on it and say, “Hey, for patients who spend $200 a month with me, I can reduce their risk of spending $55,000 a month by 7x,” and then you say it’s an investment. It’s an investment in your own health and that’s something that people understand.
Regan Archibald:
No, and this test will be the the forefront, I mean, because we do all the functional medicine tests for our patients, so all of you on the peptide course, this will be the forefront, the very first test you can take, and then, even the peptide therapies that we’re doing, if you don’t want to use the Metformin or the DHEA growth hormone, there’s some peptides that can influence this process and so only time will tell us. We start retesting our patients and we’ll say, “Okay, we’ve got some new things that work.” So I’m excited for this.
Ryan Smith:
Exactly. Yeah, definitely excited as well and that’s the beauty of it too, is that, through big data and knowing what works, we’re able to help outcomes. So, if we see patients who are on DHEA have a reduction that’s more significant than the regular population, we’re going to publish that, and then everyone will know, hey, DHEA’s one of those things that is a low cost and effective way to slow the aging process and decrease disease, and so it’s definitely something I would encourage everyone to click to because it really is the future of preventative medicine, which we know is sort of the future of the world.
Regan Archibald:
Yeah. Preventative, predictive. I mean, it’s proactive. All the P’s that are covered by this one.
Ryan Smith:
Definitely.
Regan Archibald:
So, you guys heard it first here in the peptide advantage and so, Ryan, if we just looked at some over all, like nootropics, brain performance, you’re a dude that can just rattle off and you stay on point better than any other speaker in the industry I’ve heard. I mean, I’ve heard a lot of the great researchers out there and they have on days and off days. I’ve never seen you to have an off day yet so what is it that you feed your brain with to keep it going?
Ryan Smith:
Yeah, I try to make sure no one posts those ones. For me, the genetic testing and knowing that I’m an APOE4 variant, I talked about it before, but I’ve seen family members lose cognitive processes and I think anyone who’s seen that knows how heartbreaking it can be, and so this is one that’s very close to my heart for my own sake, as well as just knowing that, that’s how the world… The better you function your brain in the world, the better you can do, and so there are a lot of things that I like. One of the ones that I know that you’ve had some experience with as well is the Cerebrolysin. It’s one that has so much data and literature, that it’s really reassuring and we’ve seen it work in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke, TBI, even peripheral neuropathies, so really any neuronal tissue, it’s really affected them but they’re probably the one that I’m most excited about now, just I know that we have a limited time, is a product called the FGL or the FG Loop.
Ryan Smith:
I’m quite excited. Yeah, very new, but that is one that within seven days of administration, I can 100% tell the difference. I can remember details I wouldn’t have normally remembered and it’s one that I’ve made sure to add to my list. It’s a product that came out of Denmark, mimics a neural cell adhesion molecule, so it mimics a protein that’s on all neuronal cells that helps give it some of that encouragement to create new neurons, connections and it does it in a way that facilitates long term memory, and so I’m a big, big fan of that one right now and excited to also say that it’s been traditionally very pricey, but that will actually change here very shortly.
Regan Archibald:
Great. I think mine just arrived at my office and it’s one of those where I’ve recommended it to a couple of patients and I’m like, “Yeah, the cost is cumbersome.” I’m glad to hear it’s going to be a little more normalized.
Ryan Smith:
I’m definitely in it.
Regan Archibald:
And so on the nootropic side, I mean, Cerebrolysin, it comes from the brains of pigs, so I imagine it’s not easy to keep it in stock. We’ve struggled with that one, and as far as the demand goes, Tailor Made, it’s just grown exponentially. I mean it’s wild to see what you’ve created over there and the team that you’ve got. What would you say makes it a successful laboratory and pharmacy?
Ryan Smith:
Yeah, so I think that number one is that we try and not just provide a product. We try and provide education. I think that whenever we talk about some of these products, which are not well known, we try to make sure that every information you would need to learn about them is available. A lot of times though that presents things like scientific literature papers, it’s not actual implementation, which might be a, I would say, one of the biggest things that we don’t cover, but we still hopefully provide a lot of resources to get you to where you can understand those questions. The other one I would say is we maintain a high commitment to quality. Whenever we work in these spaces, it can sometimes be a little bit difficult to keep… Announce a product and have it be FDA regulated and be, are all T’s crossed and all I’s dotted.
Ryan Smith:
We’ve made it a huge point to do that, so much so, we’re even doing a lot of research and development from IRB’s, to even the creation you see behind me with our own in house mass specs and HPLC, things to measure potency and purity. We do that on every batch. Most pharmacies will do that just once to show that their method for compounding works, but we do it on every single batch, and so we want to make sure that what we’re providing is safe and that it is what it says it is and the concentration we said that it is. We think that that’s the absolute fundamental necessity of what we do and if we can do that well, I think, usually our patients see the results.
Regan Archibald:
Awesome. Well you guys have done a phenomenal job. I can’t thank you enough because the patient experiences that we’ve had, the amount of results, the rapidness that peptides work, is just, it’s phenomenal and I get our patients now, who have been working with us for years, now they want the next level and so before, we’re trying to get nuanced with bio hacking and herbs and things like that and some of the king of random nootropics, but now we can get very selective, and so I appreciate your innovation and your drive and I can’t wait for the new tests to come out, so we’ll provide… Do you have a website or anything yet or we’ll get a link?
Ryan Smith:
Yeah, we definitely will, and so, what we’ll do is we’ll definitely obviously work with you and your course to make sure that that’s available and linked out and we’re looking at a four week time span, so we’re excited and it should be right around the corner.
Regan Archibald:
Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Ryan, and appreciate all you’re doing.
Ryan Smith:
All right, thanks so much.