Peptalk: Peptides Unpacked

#1 What Are Peptides? From Insulin to GLP-1s Explained

• Dr. Kylie Burton & Jessica Briecke • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Peptides are everywhere right now—but the science isn't new. Insulin? That's a peptide. And it's been saving lives for over a century.

So what exactly are peptides, and how can they help you?

In this episode, Dr. Kylie Burton and Jessica Briecke strip away the buzzwords and give you a clear, practical understanding of what peptides are, how they work, and why they're sitting at the intersection of supplements and pharmaceuticals.

Think of peptides as tiny text messages your body sends to direct repair, metabolism, appetite, and inflammation in real time. They're short chains of amino acids that signal change—and when used responsibly, they can be incredibly powerful.

What We Cover:

  • What peptides actually are and how they differ from (and overlap with) hormones
  • A century of peptide history: from insulin to somatostatin, calcitonin, and today's GLP-1s
  • Why GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy grabbed headlines—and what they do beyond weight loss
  • Benefits like improved blood sugar control, reduced systemic inflammation, and emerging neuroprotective effects for cognitive health and stroke risk
  • Why Jessica got into peptide therapy: the brain outcomes no one talks about
  • Delivery methods demystified: subcutaneous injections, nasal sprays, oral routes, and bioavailability
  • Beyond GLP-1s: repair-focused peptides like BPC-157 and performance pathways that support lean mass and recovery
  • How to build a peptide plan that respects training, protein, sleep, and labs

For Anyone Curious About Peptide Therapy: This episode lays the foundation for a smarter, safer peptide journey—no hype, just real-world guidance you can trust.

Want to connect more with the hosts? We'd love it! Connect with Jess at B2BwithJess.com or on Instagram @JessB_LMT_NC. Connect with Dr. Kylie at her other podcast Unshakeable Brain where new episodes are posted weekly.

Ready to explore peptide therapy for yourself? Visit the company we recommend for advanced peptide therapy and one-on-one support at drkylieburton.com/peptides

Want to offer peptide therapy in your business? Whether you're adding it to your existing practice or building something new, learn how to get started—and how we'll help you make the sales and marketing much easier—at drkylieburton.com/peptides

Legal Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before starting any new health protocol. Dr. Kylie Burton and Jessica Briecke are affiliates and may receive compensation for referrals. Individual results may vary.

You have the science. You have the tools. Now it's time to take the next step.

This is PepTalk: Peptides Unpacked—science made simple, results made real.

SPEAKER_01:

Peptides are powerful and often misunderstood. But we're here to change that. I'm Dr. Kylie Burton. I'm Jessica Brickie. This is PepTalk. Peptides Unpacked. Science made simple. Results made real. Welcome to episode one. What is a peptide? Did you know peptides have been used in medicine for more than a hundred years? And today there are over 80 FDA-approved peptide drugs. Everything from insulin to GLP1s like Ozempic. Peptides aren't new. We're just finally realizing what else they can do. And that's what we're here for.

SPEAKER_00:

So again, welcome to Pep Talk. Peptides Unpacked. I'm Jessica Brickie, a licensed massage therapist and a functional nutritionist with more than 30 years of experience helping people heal through foundational wellness and now through the power of peptides.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm Dr. Kylie Burton, a chiropractor who hates adjusting. I'm a functional medicine doctor who spent years helping people get answers when traditional labs say everything looks fine. Together, Jess and I are pulling back the curtain on one on the science of peptides and how they fit into real-world healing.

SPEAKER_00:

We're going to mix science with simplicity so that you can understand what these little molecules actually do and why they matter for your gut, your mood, your metabolism, and your longevity.

SPEAKER_01:

So let's start at the beginning. What exactly is a peptide and why is everybody suddenly talking about them? Jess?

SPEAKER_00:

Hold on, Kylie. Sorry. Sorry. So peptides can we can overcomplicate it when we talk about it. I think everybody is trying to understand what peptides are, but the short story is that they're just a grouping of amino acids and they act like little messengers in the body, which hormones do too, and there's a lot of confusion between the diff the difference between a hormone and a peptide. But they do function similarly, but they do have also different roles. When I think of what a peptide actually is, it's like these little cells that are telling our body either to repair, to burn fat, to make hormones, to calm down inflammation in the body. So maybe we caught ourselves, we get a caught in our skin, and we are going to actually have peptides that do the signaling that tell our body to make whatever those next steps are in the healing process. So think of them as little messengers. They're like little text messages between our cells, and they're telling the next level of worker what they have to do. So it's just this constant communication highway of amino acids that are chatting within the body.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I'm gonna unpack that for you. Amino acids are what make up a protein. So as you think about food, your carbs, your fats, your proteins, amino acids would be the very basic block of a protein. A peptide is a group of amino acids, but not as big as a protein. So it's like in that middle gap there. Another way to think about it is you have nutraceuticals or supplements on one end of the spectrum. Then on the other end of the spectrum, you have pharmaceuticals, things that you have to have a prescription for. And in the middle, you have peptides. And peptide therapy, as Jess mentioned, is similar to hormone therapy. I want you guys to think about it in that manner. It's not like peptides are this mysterious thing. It's a peptide therapy, which is no different than going to your doctor's and getting testosterone injections or getting a bioidentical hormone from a hormone therapy clinic. It's just a different type of therapy, doing different actions in the body.

SPEAKER_00:

Constantly happening all the time. I would like to say that people think that this is a brand new idea that all of a sudden we're using peptides. It's just that is now like that's the catchphrases that we're hearing all the time. But when we look at the history of peptides back in the 1920s, that's when insulin was introduced. We wouldn't think twice about somebody that's not producing insulin in the body, somebody that's a type 1 diabetic whose pancreas isn't working. We wouldn't think anything of giving them those peptides to help them have the insulin that is necessary to carry out all these uh metabolic functions in the body. Uh, same with a thyroid, right? Thyroid, also, we wouldn't think anything of just like hormone replacement HRT, we wouldn't think anything of somebody that's not producing enough thyroid hormone, giving them. It's the same situation here with peptides. When we're talking about peptide therapy, we are talking about something that's been around for a long time, and it's helping the body have the signaling once again to do those basic life functions, whether it's metabolizing food, healing a wound, having healthy skin, reducing inflammation in the body, there's so many things that peptides are doing that we're completely unaware of.

SPEAKER_01:

And and I want to bring that stat back, meaning, you know, peptides have been used in therapy for over a hundred years. Insulin is a peptide. Right. When I learned that, I'm like, wait, what? No one told me that was a peptide in school. They never used that word, they just said insulin is used to balance blood sugar. Right. But insulin itself, the compound of it, is a peptide.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And breaking that down one step further, it's a communicator. Like we're talking about all these peptides as being these communicators, but insulin tells our body what to do with blood sugar when we eat. When our blood sugar rises after we eat a meal, that insulin is that that driver, that guy that he's like the boss that's telling all the little workers what to do with all this blood sugar now that it's in the body.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Insulin is just one of them. In the 1970s, peptide therapy expanded research in areas like immunotherapy, cancer treatment, and vaccine development. And then in the 80s and 90s, the peptides somatostatin and calcitonin began to help regulate calcium and other hormone production. So this stuff isn't new. It's not new. It's being commercialized and branded effectively, but it's not new.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. So we're hearing the names Ozempic and Wagovi and Manjaro, all this social media hype that's around it. But the reality is, even these particular GLP1 peptides, they've been around for over 20 years. We've been using them for over 20 years. And now we're seeing that, oh my goodness, not only are we controlling people's blood sugar levels with these, we're seeing them reduce inflammation. We're seeing them lose weight. We're seeing this signaling in their brain that tells them when they're actually hungry or when they're full. These are side benefits that are happening. What else is there? It's exciting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, one of the reasons why I got interested in peptides, because I asked a couple different people about it, and they said, Oh, I'm taking the peptide because I heard of its neuroprotective components. The weight loss is just a cool side effect if that happens. Um, but there are multiple aspects to these peptides that we just don't talk about because weight loss is such a big proponent and such a huge market that companies have gone after. So there are additional peptides and just the B the GLP ones and the weight loss. And that's what we're gonna get into. This we're gonna get into that a little bit past.

SPEAKER_00:

I you touched on something that neuroprotective, though, Kylie. Um, so that's where my story kind of even begins, my relationship with them. So I had to dive deep and really dig in on the information because I was seeing people in practice that were coming to me using what I these these peptides would, in a way that I thought was kind of irresponsible. Big major doses, standard dosing that their doctors were prescribing without any guidance whatsoever. Um, and then they would come to me because either things they hit plateaued, things weren't working anymore, or they were seeing too much wasting and they were getting what the isempic base and you know, not a healthy body. So they were coming to me for for guidance on how to do that. And I didn't know how to help them. So I dove deep into the education, and along the way, I discovered that neuroprotective benefit that those GLPs were offering. So type uh Alzheimer's is referred to as type 3 diabetes. So it's no wonder that we are seeing these brain benefits, this neuroprotective aspect of a GLP 1 and a GIP. And that's what made me want to start using them myself. I think it's one of the saddest diseases that we're facing is Alzheimer's and uh dementia. And I am the daughter of a stroke survivor who is the daughter of a stroke survivor, and when we're seeing lowered brain inflammation and a lower reduce uh reducing our risk of stroke, I wanted in on that. So that's where I began my journey. Anything else was going to be icing on the cake, they've changed my life, but the benefits of these are so massive. So when we talk about peptides, there's so many out there that are outside of this GLP1 that we were talking about. There is something like BPC 157 or TCTB500, and maybe you can speak to that a little bit because I know that you have dove into a little of these other beneficial peptides.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, there's more than just the GLP ones for sure. And I don't you name these like letters and then the numbers on can we not come up with a better name for these things? BP157 THC blah blah blah blah blah. Uh I just have to laugh about it. But inside the inside the uh athletic space or the physical exercise space, there's this thing called growth hormone, GH. And that growth hormone is is uh targeted to build more muscle mass. And there is a peptide that stimulates GH in a very natural way to grow more muscle mass. So there are multiple facets to these peptides. We're just gonna pick a couple of them and discuss them in this limited series podcast. But the the real reason why we're sitting down recording this content for you and helping to educate not just the end user who's interested in consuming these peptides for their own health, but the practitioners who are in who are interested in incorporating this into their business is because we wanted to get through the myth that's out there and we wanted to provide real education, real stories, and take the science and make it understandable for everybody. So that's why we're here today. Um, and that's why we're here on this pep talk podcast, and we are so excited to have you guys join us. If you know of a friend who could benefit from this, send it to them. If you know of a practitioner who has maybe you're going to ask your practitioner about peptides and they really aren't sure where the answers can come from, we'll share this with them. And uh we're in this journey together. So welcome aboard. I'm Dr. Kylie. And Jess, do you have anything else to say as we finish up? What is a peptide?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I think we covered it. That's just a good introduction to what peptides are and that the possibilities are endless. We're gonna see as time goes on. This is cutting-edge modern health care at its finest, and it's really exciting to start learning and teaching about it.

SPEAKER_01:

And you guys, the stories that we are hearing that we're gonna share with you are absolutely incredible. We've already recorded some of them. So go through each episode, they'll build upon each other. You need to understand what a peptide actually is, and if we want to reiterate that, it is a group of amino acids put together in a certain specific manner, just like a protein is, but it's not as large as a protein. So, speaking of that, Jess, um, the reason why these are more of an injectable is because they are a larger compound. Right. It's not like a nutraceutical where you can just have a powder in a drink. It is something that needs to be probably subcutaneous, so it goes underneath your skin in order for the body to utilize it effectively.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and we'll probably get into that a little bit. Yeah, we'll get into that probably a little bit more down the road with that. But there are some peptides that can be done either with a nasal spray or in a capsule form, they are not going to be as absorbed as efficiently as a subcutaneous something that we are injecting into our belly or into our thigh because of the size of the molecules. But for some people that do have needle phobias, we will talk about the other ways that you can get that and how you can still benefit even if you don't like needles. So we'll do that in a future episode. But you're right, it's it's best used when it's done sub Q.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I'm one of those with needle phobia. I don't like them. Jess has experienced it all, and so she's gonna talk from that spectrum. If you are curious about starting peptide therapy, where can they go learn, Jess?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you know what? They can follow both of us on our social media. For me, I am on Instagram, Jess B is in boy, Jess B underscore LMT underscore M C, or you can come and find me on my website. That's b2bwith.com.

SPEAKER_01:

And I can be found on another podcast called Unshakable Brain, where that one is continuous. We do drop episodes every week where this one is not designed in that manner. However, if you are interested in getting some peptide therapy or starting your journey on it, go to drkylieburton.com slash peptides. That said, if you are sent here from somebody else, especially a practitioner, go reach back out to them and make sure you have that follow final follow-up final conversation with them and use their code. If you are interested in starting the business side of this for yourself and adding some extra income, go to drkylyburton.com slash peptides and we will walk you through the right avenue for that. If you've been sent by somebody else, please don't bypass them. Go back to them and make sure you're getting the correct information to go underneath them as well so that they we can all benefit. Because ultimately, with the model that we have chosen, Jess and I in this podcast, is that we all can grow this together because together we are a bigger powerful force. Let's see on the next episode.