Open-Minded Healing
Find ways to heal yourself and become your own best advocate with Open Minded Healing. Marla interviews everyday people that overcame serious health conditions outside of their MD's office, and a variety of Health practitioners that offer effective, unconventional healing modalities.
Open-Minded Healing
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer - Real Healing Begins With Metabolic Health, Advanced Diagnostics, Peptides, Hormone Balancing and Lifestyle
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What if your symptoms aren’t random but signals asking for better inputs? We sit down with Dr. Alexandra Geyer, an emergency physician turned metabolic health expert, to map a clear route from “normal labs” to real recovery. Her story of hitting a wall during residency and rebuilding health informs a practical, hopeful framework that blends advanced diagnostics, evidence-backed peptides, and everyday habits that actually stick.
Dr. Geyer explains why metabolic health is the engine for energy, mood, sleep, and longevity, and how to measure it beyond the scale. We then widen the lens to hormone health, including free T3 and thyroid antibodies to catch early Hashimoto’s, plus sex hormones that determine drive and resilience. The message is simple: when you fix the signals, action feels possible again.
Peptides step in as precision tools, not magic bullets. You’ll hear how BPC-157 calms inflammation and supports tissue repair so movement stops hurting; how Selank and Semax lower neuroinflammation, lift BDNF, and restore calm focus; and how Pinealon can reset circadian rhythm with a short, yearly cycle. Safety comes first: no black-market sourcing, strict sterility and purity testing, and clear contraindications for cancer and pregnancy. We also dive into gut microbiome testing to address stubborn symptoms and the role of micronutrients when convenience foods drain capacity.
By the end, you’ll have a grounded plan: build lean muscle, favor whole foods that don’t hijack appetite, test what matters, repair the gut, and use targeted peptides to amplify the good habits you’re already trying to keep. Ready to trade quick fixes for lasting change? Follow, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review telling us which test or habit you’ll start this week.
You can find Alexsandra Gajer at:
Website - https://thegajerpractice.com/
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Note: By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others, including but not limited to patients that you are treating. Consult your own physician for any medical issues that you may be having. This entire disclaimer also applies to any guests or contributors to the podcast. Under no circumstances shall Marla Miller, Open-Minded Healing Podcast, any guests or contributors to the podcast, be responsible for damages arising from use of the podcast.
Welcome back to Open Minded Healing. My guest today, Dr. Alexandra Geyer, is a board certified physician and metabolic health expert. We'll be diving into important diagnostic tools for uncovering the root cause of one's illness, as well as the subject of peptides and how valuable they can be to you on your healing journey. Welcome, Dr. Geyer. Thank you so much. Today we are going to be diving into how you get to the root cause of someone's health issues and all the unique approaches you bring in, whether it's advanced diagnostics or lifestyle changes. We're going to talk about peptides and your whole bag of tricks, not tricks, actually science-backed ways to help people heal. But before we dive into all of that, I want to explore your background and what gives you this passion to dive into the root cause and not just go with typical protocols to address health issues that people come to you with.
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. Thanks for asking. So I trained in a conventional medical model and I went to medical school with a deep desire to help people. And I eventually landed on emergency medicine because I love being at ground zero. I love being the first place where people come to when a shit hits the fan or when things are not going the way they're supposed to. And I love the variety. I love the pace. I love being able to be there for people in really difficult moments. And my medical training, medical school residency, I found that I was learning much more about how to get people through very quickly and at least put band-aids on their problems until they could get to a next place, maybe where they'd find a solution. But there was a lack of depth sometimes of really understanding what was going on with people. And I loved my time in emergency medicine. There was a lot of great things I got to do, I got to save people's lives. I got to help people continue living who maybe wouldn't be anymore, who'd gone through accidents or acute illnesses. But I encountered some health problems myself when I was in residency that really knocked me off my feet. And some of them were probably related to stress and some were related to a Lyme infection, but I really kind of got sidelined and really didn't feel well for a long time. And I, of course, was trying to go to every doctor, figure out what was going on. I needed to be back on my feet. I had a small child. I was a resident. I just invested more than $200,000 in a medical education. And I needed to finish my training. I was going to do whatever it takes to get better. And I had a really, really hard time. I had a hard time finding someone who would work with me and try to figure out what's going on and try to help support my body so I could recover. And eventually I did. And it took many years, and I did recover completely and became healthier than I ever did before. But I continued to meet people like me who were struggling with health issues that were really derailing their lives and people who maybe didn't have a clear diagnosis but were just not feeling well. And it actually really made me curious about how do we create a state of health? You know, a lot of my training was about disease and pharmacontrols our medical training quite a bit. And if there's not a drug for something, often we don't learn about it. And there is this unspoken model where disease equals drug. It's an easy equation. There's a condition and you use a drug or a surgery or a procedure. You know, of course there's lifestyle, but teaching someone how to change their lifestyle takes much longer than our current model of medicine allows physicians to do. So eventually.
Marla Miller:Oh, I have a question for you before we move on further. So when you were healing yourself and you said you were able to do that, what were you doing? And how did you find that recovery?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Sure. I went everywhere. I went to anyone who could potentially help me. I mean, there was no rock that I didn't look under. And I went to conventional doctors and I went to integrative doctors and I read books and I really tried everything. And I can't say that there was one thing that just turned it around. I think it was a combination of treating a Lyme infection, of really supporting my body through the stress of residency and having a small child at that time. I got vitamin infusions. I changed the way I moved, the way I ate, the way I slept. And eventually my body healed and became healthier than ever before. And that inspired me to start my practice, which is called the Gaia Practice, like my name. And we really focus on optimizing health and what I like to call regenerative medicine, where we help people create a state of health at a cellular level. And this does take time and effort, but we've built a beautiful community of people who are really interested in being healthy and living the life they want and a body that thrives and that's able to enjoy all the fruits of our labors.
Marla Miller:Yeah, I think that it does take effort. It takes a commitment and you have to want to stick with it. But I think, like you've discovered, once you're on that path, you want to continue on that path because you experience true health and what that feels like. And once you get a feeling of what that's like, you don't want to lose that. And you don't want to start from ground zero again. You know, if you maintain the good health and your body can keep up, then when something happens like an illness, you're able to recover much more quickly and easily. I think sometimes people get afraid or overwhelmed when they're like, oh my gosh, this would take three years to do, or it's so hard. But it's not equally hard all the way through. It's very hard in the beginning when you're training your body and your mindset and all that, but you start getting results and it propels you forward.
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Absolutely.
Marla Miller:So that's really great that you not that you had that experience on one hand, but that you had that experience because you can really feel what your patients are feeling. You know, you understand their journey. So you can really connect with them in that way. And then you have all that knowledge you acquired through your own healing process. So, what are some of the diagnostic tools you use in your practice?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Yeah. That's a great question. I think that tools is a broad term. And I think there's a lot that happens, and I think the most foundational tool that we've lost in a lot of medicine is just the relationship that you have with your doctor, with your healer. And again, I went to medical school because I wanted to be a healer. And honestly, I felt like that was being trained out of me in my eight years of training. It was more about being an efficient people movering machine and sure you could do technical things. But I think that at the most basic level, having enough time to create a supportive environment where I can take care of people, which is what I love to do, you know, which is forming a relationship with another person, being a safe space where they can bring their problems, their struggles, their concerns, and knowing that they have a team around them who's totally dedicated to helping them overcome them and get to their goals. So I know that's not quite what you asked, but I think the therapeutic relationship and just the relationship between a physician and their patient is something that's lost in a lot of medicine. And it's really important to me. It's important to me that my patients know that they have a partner in their health and that we're going to do this together. And it may not be easy, and it may not be that the first thing we try works immediately and your life changes because that's not actually how medicine and health works. You know, there's a a lot of press right now around magic bullets. I don't think there is a magic bullet. I think that there are solutions and there are ways to optimize our health. And we have a lot of science now about how to do that, but it takes a little bit of time. So, so starting there, I think that one of the most foundational things to health is our metabolic health, which is basically how our body processes food and how our body takes in fuel and turns it into energy. And because we live in a highly stressed world and a world that has an abundance of chemicals that our ancient genes have never been exposed to before, for a lot of us, our metabolic health is suffering. And because of that, there's a lot of consequences. You know, we we think about it as just being related to weight. And a lot of men and women suffer because of weight that is very stubborn, that feels like no matter what you do, it won't come off. But metabolic health goes far beyond weight. It contributes to how you sleep, how much energy you have during the day, even symptoms like anxiety and depression. And I think that this often feels overwhelming or inaccessible, but small changes and being somewhat more mindful in how we eat, what we eat, how we're treating our bodies is a huge first step in creating health.
Marla Miller:Yeah, I think two great points that you just made. One is that relationship with the doctor and to feel like you have enough time to be heard and actually get out what you want to say and express all your symptoms so they can understand more fully what you are going through. I remember going to a doctor once and it was a very brief visit. I had all my questions ahead of time, which was good, you know, written down, like for my own research. But he left the room and I thought he just went out to get something. Like I didn't know that was the end of the appointment, and I was waiting in there. Then the nurse came in and, like, okay, you know, and and I was shocked because I I hadn't finished, I didn't think, you know, I hadn't finished with my questions. So yeah, that time with your doctor and have a true understanding of what's going on with them is so important and to feel free and safe enough to express what they're feeling, you know, not be dismissed so quickly. I think that is really important. I'm so glad that you have that as a priority. And then the metabolic health. Let's dive into that more because I think you're right. Like it really impacts so many different things in the body. So, how do you test someone's metabolic health? What are you doing?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Sure. So there's a few ways. There's lab work. There's also we do in-body scans just to look at percent body fat and the amount of muscle mass someone is carrying. Muscle mass, we now know that muscle is like an organ in itself in the body. And it produces chemicals called myokines, which are actually health-inducing chemicals that communicate with every other part of your body. So um, rather than being really focused on losing fat, we really focus on, hey, let's build that lean muscle. Let's make sure we're building lean muscle because that's a huge predictor of good metabolic health. And that's different for every person. Everyone is starting in a different place, but we do look at body composition. Visceral fat, which is fat around the organs, is a little more dangerous when it comes to heart disease and diabetes, then subcutaneous fat, which is the fat that's just that you can grab, which is a role. Um, so we also just look at that and see, see where you are. And the lab tests that are very important, of course, are blood sugar, um, a fasting blood sugar ideals, probably around 70 in the 70s. Hemoglobin A1C is a test traditionally used for diabetes. It tells us what your blood sugar has been running over three months. So it gives us, it gives us some idea of what your blood sugar is doing. And it is very highly predictive of how you'll feel, of your risk of dementia, of your, you know, we know about risk of diabetes and heart disease, but also it's very related to your energy levels, your athletic performance, your brain health. So it actually is tied to many things. And I also like to check fasting insulin level. So poor metabolic health is usually related to insulin resistance. And insulin is the hormone that opens the doors to our cells and lets sugar in. And sometimes for genetic reasons or if we've been overwhelmed by large amounts of sugar in the bloodstream, the cells become resistant to insulin. So insulin is knocking on the door and saying, please open the door. I have a delivery of sugar to bring to you, and the cells are resistant. They're saying, I don't want to respond to this insulin because they're barraging me all the time. So what happens is that sugar stays in the blood vessels and it damages the blood vessels, it corrodes the blood vessels. And that's a big reason why the number one cause of death in the US right now is heart disease, because that leads to heart attacks, to strokes, but also to brain health issues and dementia and focus issues, even high levels, high blood sugar swings can lead to panic attacks and many other issues like that. So having a fasting insulin level, which most doctors won't routinely draw, but keeping that somewhere around six, less than six, is really healthy. And one of the big ways that you can do that is just by building muscle, taking care of lean muscle by walking, by using the stairs, by just being as active as you can. And for, you know, for some people that means being really athletic and committing to being athletic. For other people, it's just walking when you can and taking the stairs and parking further from that store than you would otherwise, so that you can get a little movement in.
Marla Miller:Yeah, well, that's an easy thing if someone can do it physically, even like you said, just walking and focusing on that lean muscle. That's an easy fix compared to thinking even you have to dramatically change your diet or something like that. Right.
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Yeah, simpler and yes, and I think you know, when we think about diet, if we try to eat whole foods as much of the time as possible, that's a really powerful first step to being healthier. If we're eating real foods, the processed foods that are really highly available and very convenient, they often are engineered to be what's called highly palatable, which means that they trigger a response in your brain that makes it really hard to control your portions. And the sad thing is that everyone thinks it's just them. I mean a lot of women who are embarrassed that they have no self-control, that they've gotten to this point. But that's not at all the case. This is happening everywhere. Your brain is being hijacked by chemicals that are so powerful that you know, the Lay's potato chips commercials literally say you can't have just one. And we need to know that's not a good thing. Or maybe it's Doritos. I'm sorry. I think it's Doritos.
Marla Miller:But both of them are similar. You can't just have one. Exactly.
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:You can't you can't just have one. So if you're eating real foods, which means food that either grow from the earth or come from animals, you're far less likely to really overeat.
Marla Miller:Yeah, it's so easy to eat a whole bag of chips with the salt and whatever else is on it, the flavoring, than it is to overdo a bowl of vegetables. Like you're not gonna do that. Yeah.
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Exactly.
Marla Miller:Yeah.
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:So is there any other testing you want to go over? That's the foundation of metabolic health. And usually I look at hormone health and men and women as well, because hormones are really important chemical messengers that also determine a lot about how we feel, how much energy we have, how much drive we have. And again, because of the amount of stress a lot of us are under, and because of the chemical exposures in our environment, there are a lot of men and women who just have dysregulated hormones. So I like to check insulin, like we talked about for metabolic health, thyroid, and do extensive thyroid testing beyond just the usual TSH that a doctor will test. And then for women, estrogen, fragesterone, testosterone, and for men, primarily testosterone and a few other hormones too, some related to cortisol, others related to hormone precursors. But I like to do blood tests to see what people's hormonal status is because you know it's sort of a circular thing where people know they need to make changes and they don't feel good. But when you don't have the energy to do, or you don't have the drive, and maybe you're depressed, or maybe you're anxious, or maybe you're tired, or really overwhelmed by life, I think sometimes giving people hormonal support or using medications or supplements to help you get the energy to make good choices is quite worthwhile.
Marla Miller:Yeah, that's true. Especially if you're affected by, like you said, anxiety or depression that adds on to the problems. I mean, because you are making different types of choices or looking for coping mechanisms, which may be more bad food or it may be whatever people choose for that. So getting those things under control is really a health benefit. So you also mentioned the thyroid testing and uh regular doctor tests T3, T4, but you do additional and what are those?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:TFH is the screening test that most doctors will do with your physical. And that is thyroid secreting hormone, and it comes from a part of your brain called the hypothalamus, and it's what pushes your thyroid to produce thyroid hormones. And if your thyroid is underproducing, that number will go high because the brain is sending more signals to push it along, to produce more. And then if the number is low, that means that you might be producing too much thyroid. So it's kind of uh not what people think sometimes. A high TSH means that you're not producing enough thyroid, and a low means you're producing too much. So that's the master regulator. And it's a quick and easy way to check what the thyroid is doing, and it's what's checked on most physicals. But for people who are having symptoms, who are not feeling well, who are low in energy, who have trouble losing weight, who maybe are having dry skin, constipation, depression, low drive, I find it helpful to look a little deeper and look at something called free T3. That's the actual T3 is the active thyroid hormone in your body, the one that can actually bind different receptor sites and have the action that we're looking for. So actually looking at not just is there a signal for your thyroid to produce thyroid hormones, which we actually produce T4 and then we rely on the body to transmit it to T3. So I think that's an important one. I also look for thyroid antibodies because the autoimmune thyroid disease or Hashimoto's hypothyroidism is the most common autoimmune disease in the United States. We have very, very high rates of autoimmunity towards our thyroid. And sometimes you'll see that you have antibodies towards the thyroid, but your thyroid is still producing thyroid hormone. So usually it's very black and white in medicine. Until you don't produce enough yourself, we don't diagnose you. And then when you stop producing it, we give it back to you. But there's a much earlier time period. We can catch people 10 years back and see if we can optimize your health to reduce that autoimmunity and maybe not destroy your entire thyroid gland to the point where you need to have it replaced.
Marla Miller:Well, that would be amazing, very helpful. Anytime you can save an organ or, you know, improve something before it gets worse is always good. So let's talk about some other things that you use in your practice. Can we talk about peptides?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Absolutely. Yeah. So I think peptides are really exciting and they are an emerging form of therapy that we have been learning about for the past 10, 15 years, but are just now kind of coming more to the forefront, especially in integrative medicine. So peptides are short chains of amino acids that are messaging chemicals within your body. And we know that women in particular, after our fertile years, we stop producing hormones. Um, our fertile period ends around age 50 for most women, we stop producing hormones. But now we also know that after that fertile period, for both men and women, we start down regulating the peptides that we normally produce. So your body's constantly signaling, but we, you know, humans have been on Earth for about 3,000 years in our current form. And it's only been the last 200 that we've lived past the age of 45. So our bodies, our genes adapted for, you know, almost 200,000 years or more to keep us as healthy as we can for 45 years. And in the last 200 years, we've bought ourselves another 40 years of life, but we no longer have some of the supportive hormones or the peptides that keep us healthy. So peptide therapy is really about returning to our body some of the things that might be missing as we age or go through periods of high stress. And there are a few categories of peptides. I think the ones people are most familiar with are those having to do with body composition. And of course, the Ozempic and GLP1 type drugs have had a ton of attention. And these are technically a peptide. They're really a polypeptide. They're they're a little longer than most peptides, and they're at the doses they're used at, they act more like medications. But the fact that these medications have come on board and created a big stir have shed some lights on peptides and what they do. There are other peptides for body composition, but there are also peptides for inflammation and autoimmunity and immune system management. There are peptides for brain health. There are great peptides for supporting our mitochondrial health and energy levels, as well as for sleep and restoring circadian rhythm. So that there's numerous peptides available now, and a number of them also help with just longevity and keeping our DNA and our cells safe so that we can age, we can have these last 40 years of life be sort of optimized, and we can have the vitality that maybe we enjoyed when we were younger.
Marla Miller:So the people, say for example, the people taking peptides for the autoimmunity, because I have heard they've had a lot of success. They're very helpful. So can you explain a little bit how that might benefit someone with autoimmunity? Yes.
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Absolutely. Yes. I think the peptides for inflammation are really very exciting because they are what are called bioregulators, which means that they tune up your immune system to be less overreactive. So autoimmunity is what happens when our body recognizes our own cells as something foreign. It can sometimes happen after a viral infection, and the virus looks very similar to something in our own body, like thyroid tissue. And after healing from the virus, the body starts attacking the thyroid, for example. And some people don't have a diagnosed autoimmune condition, but they still deal with a lot of inflammation, which may show up as joint pains or swelling or periods of brain fog and real fogginess and drowsiness. And usually the people who deal with inflammation can say, I feel inflamed. You know, there's a there's a physical sensation that goes with it. And some people know their triggers. Sugar can be very inflammatory. There are blood tests for inflammation. But one of my favorite peptides for inflammation is something called the PC157. And it stands for body protective compound. And it has been used for about a decade or more. It's naturally produced in our stomachs. And what it does is it prevents the digestive juices from actually digesting the walls of the stomach. So scientists isolated it and noticed that when they gave people injections, it also would heal injuries. And even if there were small injections under the skin, it would find areas of inflammation or injured tissue, particularly in tendons and some in muscles. And it would go to that area and recruit the right cells to come and help heal that area. So I've worked with people who have really avoided walking or avoided any sort of movement because of joint aches. And we've started BPC, and all of a sudden they feel like they have a totally different life. And, you know, and it goes beyond just the aches and pains where people all of a sudden have energy and they can do workouts and they feel, you know, there's some people who naturally just feel that runner's high or feel great after a workout. But there are other people who are like, I don't know what you're talking about. I just feel tired and run down and everything hurts after I work out. And often that's excessive inflammation. And we've had incredible success stories with BPC to help turn down that inflammation and help people feel like themselves again and regulate their immune systems.
Marla Miller:So these different peptides, they're given intravenously. Is that what you're saying? No. Or through a shot?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:So they are a shot, which they are given through what's called subcutaneous shot, which means right under the skin with a very tiny needle. It's an insulin or an allergy needle. So it's the kind that is just very tiny and goes right under the skin. So peptides are just chains of amino acids. And amino acids are what make up protein that we eat. So it's in our eggs and our meats. And unlike medications, which have to be broken down by the liver and the kidneys and then excreted from our bodies, peptides just break down to the amino acids that they're made of and they're digested and they leave our bodies without putting any strain on the kidneys or the liver. But because they are short chains of amino acids and the stomach knows how to take care of that, most of them can't survive the GI tract to get to our bloodstream. That's why we have to use subcutaneous injections to deliver them, mostly because they would just disappear in the GI tract and never make it to the places where they need to do their job.
Marla Miller:Well, if someone is getting this, say I'll just stick with the autoimmune example, but are they getting this done every week? How often are they getting a question?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:So usually people will do it themselves at home. And for BPC, we do a two-month course usually, and people are giving themselves injections. Is it daily? Um it's daily. Yeah. There are some peptides that are not daily, some are once a week, um, some are twice a week, but this one in particular is daily. It's usually pretty easy once people know how to do it and it's pretty user friendly. But and the other thing I have to mention is that there are a lot of black market peptides out on the internet right now, which unfortunately are not safe whenever something. Like this comes out, and it's not regulated right now. There's not much regulation around peptides. If peptides are made in a way that is not sterile, there can be endotoxins that cause a lot of inflammation and a lot of harm. So I usually don't recommend that people run to the internet. And some are really just not what they say they are at all. So I work with a FDA-registered lab that makes pharmaceutical grade peptides. And all the peptides that we receive, we then send for independent testing by another lab that checks for sterility, which means that there's no bacteria in there, for endotoxicity to make sure that there's no toxins in there and for purity. And unless it passes 99% plus for purity, we don't use it. Because this is emerging and new and still somewhat investigational. I think it's very important that you work with a doctor and with someone who knows that they're getting safe peptides.
Marla Miller:Yeah, very good point. Even with supplements, when it's not regulated, you really have to watch where you're getting your supplements and have to really have a trusted source for those. Yes. So as far as the peptides, and you said there are some for the brain, and so there's different ones. So you're just figuring out which ones your patients need and just doing that particular one. You don't do all of them all at once or something like that.
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:No, generally I like to keep to three max. You can do up to you can stack them and do up to three at a time. And for some people, we're just treating an acute injury and they want to recover faster. They might have pulled something in their back or have a knee injury, and we just want to promote healing. And that's a short course of peptides that just promotes healing. We've also worked with people pre- and post-operatively who want to make sure they're back on their feet and that they can recover from surgery quickly. And then there are some people who are really interested in the cellular health and longevity, and we create a year-long plan where we cycle through multiple peptides to kind of hit all the major points that we need in order to live long and healthy. That's awesome.
Marla Miller:Well, so these peptides, it's a specific protocol. You do it for certain periods of time.
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Yes. They're pretty much all time limited. And sometimes you'll cycle back to one, but generally, for most peptides, the goal is to create some change within your body that can continue to support you after you finish taking them. So particularly, there is a sleep peptide called pinealion. And this is something that works on your pineal gland and your brain, and it optimizes your circadian rhythm and the hormone production from that gland. And we recommend it for three weeks, either once or twice a year. Once a year is usually enough. And I worked with patients who said, I've never been a good sleeper. I've never been able to stay asleep. I want to stay up till 2 a.m. And then I wake up two hours later who are now like all of a sudden I'm sleeping. And so much about my life is different. And I can get eight hours of sleep and it's uninterrupted. And you know, I don't think there's many drugs or anything out there that can get your body back to its rhythm like that. So there are a few peptides like that that are just really cool that can regulate something that might be off balance.
Marla Miller:Wow. Yeah, that could be life-changing. I mean, sleep just has so many benefits. Well, what about the brain one? You said there's one that kind of is targeted with the case.
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Yeah. So there's two of them that I like for the brain. They are called Celenc and Samax. And these were developed in Russia and they were developed for their cosmonauts and their military who had to stay calm but focused in austere environments for long periods of time. And they do a few things. They reduce neuroinflammation. So we've talked about inflammation several times, but the newest research on anxiety, depression, a lot of mental health issues shows us that there is a lot of neuroinflammation that happens. There's inflammation in our brain that makes us less focused, that makes us more anxious, sometimes makes us depressed. So these peptides specifically target the brain to reduce inflammation there. Celinc in particular increases something called brain-derived neurotropic factor, which is the juice that your neurons live in and they need to thrive. So it improves focus, but also calms people down by enhancing the GABA pathways, which are more of the calming pathways. So it doesn't feel at all like taking a benzodiapine like Xanox or anything, but what people notice is more focus and just an absence of anxiety that might have been there before and just a clearer brain. And there are multiple peptides that are being studied now for preserving brain health. And there have been some that have even shown promise for reversing dementia, especially early on. We're not quite there yet, but I think that we're moving towards a time when we could actually work on preserving brain health. And I think all the other things we talked about, moving your body, healthy muscle, you know, exercise is the hugest predictor of brain health. Our neurons are very sensitive to oxygen. And when you're exercising, you're bringing more oxygen up to your brain by increasing your heart rate and having your blood bring more oxygen there. And that kind of wakes up and revives the neurons. And research has shown that if neurons don't get that burst of oxygen with exercise, they die and we start losing them. We don't feel it at first, but eventually it all comes together. So I often will tell people peptides are wonderful and they can make such a difference. But most of the time they will tune in your body the good habits that you're already practicing. So with most of these things, they're not a substitute. They are just an intervention because we live in a stressful, chemical-filled world. And people often feel like now the good things I'm doing for myself, they're actually working. My body's listening and I'm I'm getting the outputs that I was looking for.
Marla Miller:Yeah, it enhances the good in you. Yeah. The good habits. That's good. Well, that's great. Well, I find that topic fascinating, peptides, because you are hearing more and more about it and the power of them. So you explained it so well. Is there any last thing you want to add about the peptides that we haven't talked about?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:I don't think I think it's important again to make sure that you're doing it safely. There are some peptides that are not right for certain people. So working with a doctor who understands your health history is really important because you want to make sure you're doing this correctly and that you are restoring health and cellular health in the long term.
Marla Miller:So speaking of that, are there any contraindications with using peptides?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:For certain ones, there are, particularly in people who have cancer. So some of the body composition peptides are growth hormone-promoting peptides. Those are not the GLP ones, it's a different class of medications, but they improve your body's natural production of growth hormone. If you're someone who's in remission from cancer or dealing with something that might be cancerous, you don't want to introduce more growth hormone into your body. So I always want to make sure women are up to date on their mammograms, that men are getting PSAs checked, talk about family history, if there's any other sort of screening that needs to be done. But cancer is a big one. And we never want to use peptides in pregnancy, of course, because there is another living thing on board that needs different inputs. So um, so those are just a few of them.
Marla Miller:Well, that's definitely good to know. And that's why it's good to work with the doctor and not just go and buy your peptides off the internet because you want someone who understands your health in particular. Well, that's very good information. So I want to see what else do you use? So we talked about the diagnostics and the peptide use. And what is something else that you find really beneficial to your patients?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:We use a number of things, of course, but the one thing that I also find very beneficial is gut health testing, testing the gut microbiome and looking at the bugs that are living inside us. Our colon contains more bugs than we have cells in our entire body. And those bugs are sending signals and regulating a lot of other things in our bodies. And a lot of people have diotic or non-optimal microbiomes, which can also increase inflammation and do all the other things that we talk about. It can make it hard to lose weight, it can drop your energy, may disrupt sleep, cause anxiety. So I find that gut health testing can be really helpful. And then we can potentially help the body get rid of bugs that shouldn't be there and give you back the bugs that are more beneficial to your health.
Marla Miller:Yeah, that is a big one. The gut health affects everything in your body. I'm sure you have patients come that have perhaps gone to typical MD protocols and are not finding the answers they need and they're still suffering. So, first of all, what do you tell them? I'm curious when they come in, what is sort of your whether it's a pep talk or it's, you know, what would you tell someone who's been like, I am exhausted. I've been to all these different doctors, no one's quite understanding what's wrong with me, or they help me a little bit and then they say there's nothing else we can do. What are you telling those people?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Yeah, so so I think those are really tough situations. And and there's a lot of medicine that we still don't understand. But I think the big thing is just let's see what we can figure out together. You know, I usually look at everything they've had done up to that point and try to help make sense of what we know so far and make it a little more cohesive. And I find that sometimes that helps because someone has seen a bunch of different people, but no one's communicated very well what we actually know so far. And then there may still be things that we don't know and that we need to uncover what might be going on. So some of that is just through conversations and understanding when symptoms show up, what the patterns are. And it's really different for each patient, whether there seems to be an underlying level of inflammation that's causing some of their issues, or maybe it is poor metabolic health, or maybe it's toxic exposures. And some people have heavy metal toxicity, and some people are just an overactive immune system. Sometimes we look at food sensitivities. Sometimes we also look for micronutrient deficiencies. Our bodies need quite a few micronutrients like vitamins and minerals to function well. And sometimes when people are very busy in pursuing their goals, they may be stuck on a convenience food roller coaster. And we find that there's a number of critical micronutrients that are just not allowing the body to work the way they should and causing some sort of dysfunction. So I think that the basics are really about, you know, trying to find if there may be some driver of disease and then trying to find what's taking us further away from health, what's going on in the body that is driving towards a dysfunctional state. And how can we start to create a state of health as well? Sometimes we find a neat diagnosis and everything fits into a package and there's a treatment and it works, but sometimes we don't. And I think that's okay. Sometimes there's just a lack of balance in a number of different systems, and we need to bring them back into balance and try to find health again in that way.
Marla Miller:So if you could tell them one thing just to spur them on or give them hope, what do you think you would tell them?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Don't give up. Don't give up. You know, you're the expert in your own body, and you should be your own experiment to some extent in terms of what helps, what hurts, what kind of inputs are making me better, what's making me worse. And at the same time, you know, our mental health really affects our physical body as well. And and trying not to have an illness define someone and kind of trying to go on with life in the best way possible. Because sometimes it can become when we're too introspective, it can become somewhat obsessive. And that doesn't help either. So how we're feeling and our mental health highly affects how the body feels as well. And trying to cultivate a healthy mind goes a long way to helping your body find balance again.
Marla Miller:Yeah, it's good if they work with someone like you, but also on their own, are doing things to calm their nervous system or finding tools for that, or meditating, or doing other things to address the mindset. Yes. Well, I like to ask three questions of people that have gone through their own health journey, like you have. So when you were healing yourself, doing the residency and things were kind of falling apart, what was the biggest obstacle for finding health?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Yeah, I think I saw a lot of doctors that just told me there was nothing else they could do. And that my, you know, my labs were normal and just feeling unsupported, feeling like there was nobody who was kind of gonna pull my hand through this or help me along. That was probably the biggest obstacle and just trying to kind of figure things out on my own. That's a big one. And what was the biggest lesson? I think the biggest lesson is just that even when things feel hopeless, our bodies have this incredible innate power to heal. And we can heal from a lot of things and get healthier, and that the foundational things really are foundational, like eating to nourish our bodies, being on a nutrient hunt when you're eating, not just trying to get rid of hunger, moving our bodies even when they hurt and it's inconvenient. Movement is medicine. And just everybody's going through something. My own journey definitely taught me a lot of empathy and helps me meet people where they are. And I think that goes a long way of knowing that everybody's going through something.
Marla Miller:Yeah. And what about the biggest act of kindness shown to you throughout that time?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:It's the people who further down the road really listened and stayed by my side to kind of figure things out. And even if things weren't working exactly well, I did work with some holistic practitioners who were supportive and invited me to keep coming. And I think feeling supported was the biggest help.
Marla Miller:And did you have that amongst family and friends, or was that difficult?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:I did. Yeah, I did. I definitely did. I had very supportive family and friends. And it was just a very challenging time because I, as residents, we work very long hours. And I had a two, three-year-old child at home. So you know, those conditions made it extra hard. But I, yes, family support was critical and really helpful and wonderful. That's great. You had that. Yeah.
Marla Miller:So do you treat people remotely?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Yes. I can do consultations with people all through the country. We are in Northern Virginia and I can see people in person in Virginia, DC, and Maryland. We I can see people through telehealth throughout the country. There are some restrictions where I can't, I'll have to sort of partner with your doctor, or I can't necessarily order labs or write prescriptions in states I'm not licensing, but I can always make recommendations and help you along while you're working with your physician.
Marla Miller:Yeah, that's good to know. And again, well where can people find you?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:So the best place is our website, which is called theguyerpractice.com. And Gaia is spelt G-A-J-E-R. The J is like a Y. And just on our homepage, there's a place to click a button that says book a free intro call. And that's the best way to get started. We just kind of want to get to know you on that first call and let you know how we can work together and make sure that everything fits your expectations. And then we can have a consultation and go from there.
Marla Miller:So is there any last thing you want to share? Is there anything we didn't touch upon regarding hormone health or something that's important?
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:Yes. I think that many of us are so busy and life can get really crowded that it's easy to neglect ourselves. But I think it's really worthwhile to make the effort to take care of your body and feel your best. And even if you are feeling pretty good now, the choices that you're making now will determine how you feel in 10 and 15 years. So the choices that you're making around diet, exercise, how you treat your body, how you handle stress will determine what your life looks like in 10, 15 years. And we can really have a lot of control. We can age gracefully, vitally, beautifully. And, you know, most people hope that they don't end up in a walker wheelchair, but actually it's up to you whether that happens or not. And it's best not to wait until it's too late. You know, what you do now, you're investing in your health in those future decades.
Marla Miller:Very well said. Thank you so much for all this information. Hopefully, when people listen, they jot things down because you really presented things quite well. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Dr. Alexsandra Gajer:It was lovely.