#52 For GLP-1 Skeptics (and Lovers): They do Much More than Assist with Weight Loss

Why do GLP-1 peptides keep showing up in places like heart health, kidney function, inflammation, sleep apnea, joint pain, cravings, and even long-range conversations about aging? Yet, most people believe they only have a positive impact on weight loss. 

If you believe GLP-1s are only good for weight loss, think again. 

We make the science simple without dumbing it down: 

• We explain randomized controlled trials versus observational cohort studies, why both matter, and how to spot the difference between a proven outcome and a promising pattern. 
• We walk through major areas where GLP-1 receptor agonists are being studied beyond blood sugar and the scale, including cardiovascular protection signals, kidney outcomes, and inflammation improvements. 

We also slow way down for the most sensitive topic: cancer. We share what large observational datasets are suggesting, why that is not the same as proof, and why this is never a reason to gamble with gray market peptides or start anything without your oncology or medical team involved. 

Studies have also shown improvements in two areas nobody saw coming:  improved obstructive sleep apnea results in trials, and shifts in the brain’s reward loop that may affect alcohol, nicotine, gambling, opioids, and disordered eating. 

If this conversation helps you think more clearly about GLP-1 medications, peptides, and evidence-based wellness, subscribe, share this with a friend who only hears the commercials and fear tactics. Help everyone you know understand GLP's go far beyond weight loss and the benefits just keep stacking up. 

Where do you start with peptide therapy? What do you add next? If you're a go-getter, check out Dr. Kylie's new program AMPLIFY. You'll find it on the homepage of her website: drkylieburton.com

Ready to explore peptide therapy for yourself? Join through Jessica's platform at B2BwithJess.com/peptides or through Dr. Kylie's platform at drkylieburton.com/shop. 

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 mentor you along the way—at drkylieburton.com/peptidesaffiliate. You can also get started through Jessica's platform at B2BwithJess.com. 

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.

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Transcript

Peptides, The Problem, And The Hype

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Peptides are powerful and often misunderstood.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

But we're here to change that one conversation at a time.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

I'm Dr. Kylie Burton. And I'm Jessica Brickie. This is Peptoc, Peptides Impact. Science made simple, results made real. Right now, 74% of Americans are overweight, 38% are pre-diabetic, and about half of us have high blood pressure. Some researchers are saying that within five to ten years, 80% of the country could be on a GLP1 type medication. Not some wild guess. This is the base case. The starting assumption.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

But 80% of our population needing this is it's not the goal either, right? We don't want 80% of people to have to be on there. We want people to feel better. We want them to live longer and better and use the peptides, but at the same time, 80%, that's a

Personal Results And Endometriosis Context

SPEAKER_01 1:32

lot. I can speak a little bit here to my own personal experience, though. So since I started them, I was chasing the brain benefits, and so many other things have come along the way: lowered inflammation, 18 pounds of weight loss, my incontinence.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

When I saw you start posting about it, I was like, Jess, what the heck are you doing over there? Yeah. Because in the functional space, we've tried just about everything. We've seen just about everything. Yeah. And to actually have something work to this extent. There's a reason why these are so trendy right now, because they work.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

They're so powerful. And I have a history of endometriosis. Many years ago, I stumbled upon the Atkins diet, and that really reduced any of the symptoms that I had, but that wasn't a sustainable thing. So 30 years ago, Atkins was huge. No carbs, no sugar. You could live on bacon if you wanted to, right? Bacon and cheese.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

And obviously that's not a big deal, too, because if you think about what our grandparents were told, what your parents were told, my grandparents, red meat is bad, fat is bad. Everything had the low fat label. That's what you wanted. Yep. And salt is bad. It was the cats come around and it's complete the opposite.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

We understand what that is all about. But for me, there still isn't a formal plan of treatment for endometriosis. We haven't even decided if it's autoimmune, if it's metabolic. I believe it's both, a little bit of both.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

But it's not. Let's just briefly explain what endo is. So endometriosis is when your uterine lining, which is called the endometrium, gets enlarged or grows bigger than normal, which leaves a woman with very heavy and painful periods, is the typical primary symptoms.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

But in addition, it causes scarring, and that endometrial tissue will they've even found it in women's brains. So it kind of sheds and it goes all over the body. So endometriosis becomes a much larger problem than even just in the pelvic area for some women. And I would put myself in that category. Extremely painful. I was having laparoscopic surgeries to clean my scar tissue out every couple of years. It was in my 20s. I just had shared with you in a previous episode we recorded where I at 24 years old, 30 years ago, I was told to have a hysterectomy. It was the only cure, and that would have made me sterile. And at PS, I wouldn't have the three beautiful boys that I have today.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

And not the dating life. Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

How many women did take that advice? Because when I tell you, there were times I couldn't sit because the pressure from my backside sitting on my fanny was so excruciating in my entire pelvic region. I if I laid on my side and my husband and I spooned and he like his thighs, maybe touched, just grazed my backside, I would go through the room. It was so bad. And so the fact that I said no thanks is a miracle in and of itself because it was so painful. But my point being, for me, I sought out the brain benefits. Now we're seeing all these other things that GLPs, as we're going to uncover today, cover. And for me, this is a big part of I probably have never made it in my life. I would have considered myself a carbohydrate addict. So it was always metabolic, even though I controlled it because I walked the talk, it was still a thing for me. So I don't think I've ever genetically made GLP1 properly in my body.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

That's a thing. Science and research has proven that those individuals, these women who've been suffering with mysterious symptoms for years, don't make these important peptides, which are communicators.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Right. And so long women have been blown off. So that's my story. And anyway, so our job here sticking to it.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

That's my story. Don't worry, I play the piano for a reason I don't think. But I will right here.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Our job, you and I, our job here is to educate so that people can be an advocate for their own wellness. And I am a massive fan. If they 60 episodes in haven't figured out that I'm a huge fan of peptides from being an absolutely not to a absolutely, I'll never, based on my endo story and how my body's responded, never stop using a small amount of GLPs. And the more research I've done with the conditions that I've had my entire life, like endometriosis, it's probably something I've never

The Case For GLP-1 Beyond Weight

SPEAKER_01 6:18

made, as I mentioned before. So let's just get into it. What about GLPs beyond weight loss? Because right now there's this wave of research looking at what these medications do for the heart, the kidneys, sleep apnea, joint pain, autoimmune flares, addiction, which we've covered a lot here, and even cancer outcomes, which I say that gently because we're going to get into that. A very gentle conversation about cancer, cancer.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

By the time this podcast airs, we will have Jen's podcast episode about how when her oncologist told her that she should be taking these. And we've had a couple episodes with her since.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

So yeah, that's a big story. Yep, I can't wait for that to come out. Go back and see it because it this will come out after that. So before anybody gets excited and thinks I'm about to tell you that this is a miracle cure for everything, it's not, it's not a substitute for good nutrition, movement, strength training, and sleep. They're all still foundational pieces. That's just how it is. But the amount of research that's coming out of this is really hard to ignore. So we're just going to kind of walk through those different pieces and some of the studies. We don't typically get into a lot of studies here because we want to keep the science light and we're still going to keep this episode light. But I think it's important for us to just give a little bit of more than just what you and I say. We'll attach it to a little bit of those studies.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Yeah. And I came from a chiropractic school where that was the thing: studies, research, proof. And I've got my own perception because, as we've alluded to

RCTs Versus Observational Research

SPEAKER_00 7:58

beforehand, there's always a reason that the study exists in the first place. And there's always somebody who has to pay for the study to exist. So let's talk about studies. What exactly is the difference between a study that actually proves something and one that's just an interesting pattern? Somebody noticed.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Why don't you go ahead, Kylie, and talk about the first type of study, which is more of a controlled study?

SPEAKER_00 8:26

A randomized controlled trial, otherwise known as an RCT, which we were grilled on in chiropractic school, is where researchers take a group of people and they split them randomly into two groups. One group gets the real medication, the other gets a placebo. And then they watch what happens to both groups over time. Because it's random, that cancels out a lot of other explanations for why one group did better, hence why it's considered the gold standard.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Yep, exactly. That's going to matter as we get later into the episode, especially when we talk about the cancer part. But then there's the other side of research, and that is called a cohort study or an observational study. When I think with peptides, we talk about the you hear observational study more and more than you hear cohort, but the same thing. This is where researchers look at big groups of real-world patients who are already taking a certain medication for other reasons and see what happens to their healthcare over time compared to those that maybe aren't. Those studies are really useful for spotting patterns, but they can't fully prove that the medication caused the outcome because there could be other differences between the two groups. So both of the studies matter, but they tell you different things. Now, I want you to understand when it comes to peptides specifically, it's true across almost everything else that we cover in this show, not just DLPs. Observational studies almost always come first, and then the randomized control studies come later. It's the normal order of science. The researchers see a pattern in real world use. Then it takes years, sometimes decades, to design and more importantly, fund, as you alluded to, depends on who wants to do it, these randomized trials that confirm what they are seeing in those observational studies. So with the peptides, so many of these compounds have been used for decades. But we're watching brand new research emerge on other things like heart health, cancer outcomes, joints, mood, things beyond weight loss and blood sugar. So this isn't day one for a lot of these molecules that we're talking about. People have been using them and feeling better for such a long time. That real world track record, though, is exactly why I take these observational studies really seriously. They're not weaker, it's they're not a weaker cousin of the real research, but they're all often just this first honest look and the first signal that we get before the randomized trial catches up.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Yeah. And can I just say at a conference with Dr. Jason Penchek, he would often say, you know, the studies are the studies are the studies, but so is my experience. And as a practitioner with lots of handfuls of years of experience, thousands of patients, I'm going to lean on my experience. So I don't ever under underestimate experience either.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Experience and also the feedback, right? Like, what is the patient saying? What are they telling you? Like, we're so we have this medical system that just shuts down. Like it's black and it's white. No, that's not what if I go look in my medical book. This is what it's telling me to do for A, B, C, and D. You know, let's listen to the patient.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Right. And on the opposite side of things, we have functional medicine who's just like, oh, well, maybe this thyroid support supplement might help. And they're throwing darts at the dartboard just as well. Yeah. Which is why five years ago, I feel like I was one of the lead runners in this. Use labs as a revolution because labs can guide you, numbers can guide you. So whatever your feelings are towards research, it's there, it's helpful. We're gonna dive into some of that research in a very simple term. So you've got the research, you've got the different types of trials, you've got experience. Just know that it's not unproven, it's the proof is still catching up to what people are living as far as the scientific research goes. Because again, you've got to have the observational. And then once the observational happens, now you can start talking about a full, true research-funded scientific experiment. Really is what it is. So yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

All right, let's start off

Heart And Kidney Protection Evidence

SPEAKER_01 12:54

with this. We're gonna start with the heart because I don't think this gets talked about enough. There is a randomized trial called SELECT. It's the gold standard kind that we just talked about, and it's shown a 20% reduction in heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular health. Now, remember, if you heard any of my stories, part of what I did was because I'm the daughter of a stroke survivor who was the daughter of a stroke survivor. So this one sentence right here is a big reason why I started using them personally. So here's the part that surprises a lot of people. This was in people who did not have diabetes, they didn't have a problem with their blood sugar. The cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in America. So a 20% drop in a trial designed the right way in a population this large, that's really enormous. So take a look at the randomized trial called select. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

So this isn't just about you lost some weight, your heart risk went down. This is something else that the drug has an impact on.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Exactly. Yep. So researchers are starting to believe that yes, some of this benefit is how is now understood to be independent of the weight loss, meaning accounting for how much weight someone's lost, and there's still this protective effect that's left over, and it's pointing to something else that's going on, likely related to inflammation, which we're gonna come back to in a little bit. There's another study called STEP STEP HFP E F, right? That's it's a specific type of heart failure. They recruited the name of that study, they created the name of the peptides too. Use some help. Yeah, I know. We got to get on board with these marketing teams. Yeah. This particular trial is based on a specific type of heart failure, and it showed some major improvement in symptoms. A trial called flow, F L O W showed a 24% reduction in kidney disease progression. So put these three together heart, kidneys, blood vessels, all three are showing protection in properly designed trials.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

It's basically the entire cardiovascular system in one category: heart, kidneys, and the vessels connecting everything. I will throw out to I talked to an MD, a cardiologist, and we've actually had some MDs, some cardiologists come in and do some trainings for us inside our telemedicine company as well. So this goes far beyond weight loss. But one of the MDs, he said that kidney dialysis centers are going to be shutting their doors immense. Like the numbers of kidney dialysis centers closing their doors in the next five years will be tremendous because kidneys are gaining their function back. He's a perfect example of this.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Yeah. It's really unusual that one medication is showing up in all these different places, which is why researchers are so interested right now. Most of the time, medications basically are one link. They have one job. And we're seeing this show up in several, which is why there's what's driving so much of the research that we're kind of going over today. But I just want you to remember that a lot of these, most of these peptides we're talking about, we make them naturally. So it's not a shock to me that we're seeing this show up in so many places because the body's remarkable, it's doing millions of jobs at the same time, showing up as one cohesive working unit. So when you support a pathway that your body is already using, and it's definitely going to show up in more than one place, is just how the body works. So this isn't a shock

Safety, Medical Advice, And Sourcing

SPEAKER_01 16:55

to me, I guess is my point. Um, I just want to say too, just for you and I to put this out there, that Kylie and I are not physicians. We're not giving you medical advice here. That doesn't mean that we don't know what we're talking about. Both of us have Kylie studied, she went into medical school, which is chiropractic school is medical school, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:17

I'm saying that if you had a known if I knew what I was walking into, I probably wouldn't have done it. We we had to perform gynecology exams, prostate exams. I had no idea surgery, phlebotomy. Like I said, if I knew what I was walking into, I probably wouldn't have done it.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

I had no idea that you had to do those kinds of things. Holy cow. Well, I'm left people, mind you, Jess. On left people. Oh my gosh. That's I didn't I didn't know. Well, anyway, the point being, Kylie and I know a lot of things, but we are not here to give you medical advice. What we're doing is trying to give you the idea that you can be educated and an advocate for your own health and take this to your licensed provider that knows your entire story and use this information wisely. We just want you to be able to stand up and say, wait a minute, maybe there's another way.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

And that said, too, if your typical provider doesn't know peptides, you want to work with somebody who does and think about it as an entire health team. The telemedicine company we work with, and we highly recommend that you get your safe peptides through them and they're elite sourcing, is because you have a prescription license physician at your fingertips. So you're working with them underneath their license because they're going to give you the prescription and they're in partnership with your whole health team. So if you're needing one, well, that's why we are here. It's to help you provide, help you find the right source with the right guidance. Okay, let's be

Cancer Data With Careful Caveats

SPEAKER_00 18:58

very careful about this next part. And slow down because there's research about GLP1 use for cancer.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

We're saying this with extreme caution. And again, we will have just sharing the research.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

That's what we're gonna limit this to. That's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Yes, okay. We're not gonna get in trouble, right? So there was a study that was published in JAMA, J A M A Network in 2026, earlier this year. That is a respected peer-reviewed medical journey journal, and it looked at a cohort or observational study, remember what that means, of over 800,000 patients. Let me just say that number again. 800,000 patients, more than almost 900, um, with breast cancer. And it found that GLP1 use was associated with improved survival and reduced recurrence, especially in patients who had obesity or type 2 diabetes. Then at a can at a cancer research conference called ASCO, ASCO, in 2026, researchers from Penn Medicine presented data on about just over 100,000 women linking GLP1 use to roughly 30% lower breast cancer risk. So preventative, right? So we have the patients with breast cancer history, and now this study is talking about more of a preventative. And then separately, Cleveland clinic data found that women already diagnosed with breast cancer who were taking a GLP 1 were 50% less likely to progress to stage four. Three studies.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

How cool would this be if your cancer research in the near future consisted of peptides? I mean your cancer treatment plan. Like, I don't know if the medical industry would ever allow that because um the dollar sign, but how cool uh is this potential? These observational studies.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

There really is. And again, I can't wait for everybody. We're talking as if it's out, it's not out, but Jen's story is pretty remarkable. So go back and listen to Jen's. I think that's gonna be episode number 49. If I did look that up before, every single one of the studies, so this is why we're being careful, or observational study, it's is not a randomized trial. So going back to what we said earlier, corehort studies shows us a pattern that's worth paying closer attention to, but they are not a fully proven medication that's causing the improvement on their own. So there could be other differences between these women who were prescribed a GLP 1 and the women that weren't. Uh researchers who are running these studies say the same thing. They're calling for more randomized research to confirm it. And I'm sure that it is going to happen. But uh think of it this way uh these cohort studies the way that we're seeing this and we're talking about an almost looking at almost a million women promising watching closely to the studies that are coming out but this is not it is not a reason to go out and go to the gray market and start a medication for cancer prevention prevention or if you're in cancer treatment going and getting it this is a conversation for you to absolutely have with your oncologist or your physician who knows your entire medical history even with our telemedicine company that we work with cancer doesn't automatically rule you out for using them but it is something that they will require you to get a note from your doctor from your oncologist or your at-home care even though they are prescribing doctors also they are going to want you to have that second layer of protection when they come to do this it's not an automatic no but they are going to again protect it's a cohort of healthcare team it's a healthcare team that's working with you and you mentioned this but if you are getting your peptides from the gray market meaning you have to mix them up in your house or you're ordering them from someplace online that really we don't know where they're coming from because things that are coming from China showing up in Chinese letters that we're not reading. So it really doesn't it there's just it's so scary okay scary please stop gambling with this yeah that's a great way to put it all right moving on to the next thing I want to touch on that's where this kind of all maybe pulls together if we come back far enough to everything that we've talked about in this episode maybe some of the roots of this even through all the episodes that we've recorded

Inflammation As The Common Thread

SPEAKER_01 23:52

there's one thing that it keeps coming back to when it comes to GLPs and that is inflammation. If you don't understand what inflammation is because I think it's a term that we do throw around a lot but inflammation is your body's alarm system. And a little bit of that is really important for a short time it's really good, right? You get a cut, you're fighting off a cold you sprain your ankle that inflammation is really important but it's when that alarm system is turned on for months or even years it does damage to your heart your joints your brain pretty much everything in your body chronic inflammation and it's considered a root driver for most of the diseases that are connected we connect them to aging oh I'm just getting older but really it is the driver to the bad side of aging but at the same point like how many people are ill in young I mean you said you had endometriosis at 24.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Yeah you've got kids and one of the greatest tennis players he's got type one diabetes at the age of four like these are happening right type one type one yeah that's a little different like they're just they're we're having to deal with health concerns at a much younger age than we should be.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Yes for sure with my endometriosis story though we talk about a lifestyle a lot and I had a very happy active outdoor lifestyle I am the daughter of a former farmer we had gardens my dad hunted we canned we froze food we had things that were fermented in our diet regularly like all of the lifestyle things that we talk about were in check. So for me with the endometriosis and again we mentioned it at the top of the episode with the PMOS I just believe for me this is a genetic thing. But we are seeing more and more type two diabetes of kids being diagnosed young crazy and crazy other diagnoses and autoimmune issues and of kids that are thyroid issues and babies you know it's it's mind blowing but if we go back to Steve's story Steve's auto autoimmune started at age 11.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

11 he was basically like this is so rare you're not gonna live for another decade.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Yeah absolutely yeah crazy well what's interesting is that the GLPs appear to lower systemic inflammation on their own independent of weight loss. Again setting weight loss aside so markers that you love to look at with your blood labs CRP which is a blood marker that doctors use to measure the inflammation in the body go down inflammatory cytokines which are just little signaling molecules that your immune system uses they go down and that's why we're seeing these early signs in autoimmune conditions like psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, IBS, Parkinson's MS patients are reporting fewer flares. So the likely mechanism that's running through what's called the gut immune axis, basically your gut health and your immune system that are talking to each other constantly and calming inflammation down in one place, it calms the other.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Those HSCRP and the cylokine markers those are direct inflammatory markers. Another indirect marker for those would be your cholesterol panel. So if your doctors ever said do you have a poor cholesterol panel or we need to work on something think inflammation. The same medications helping joints and autoimmune flares and the heart because underneath it's all the same inflammatory problem.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Right I think we have one more kind of category to go over the next two studies we're going to talk about is kind of one that people don't necessarily see coming. There's a trial called surmount OSA

Sleep Apnea And Joint Pain Gains

SPEAKER_01 27:34

and OSA stands for obstructive sleep apnea which is when your airway partially collapses while you sleep so you stop breathing over and over through the night this is something my husband was diagnosed post 911 a lot of post 911 people were diagnosed with this is one of the one of the unfortunate side effects of the exposure which we go back to toxic overload and inflammation and all these things on the body right when they were exposed during that but more and more and more we're seeing people that are struggling with sleep apnea these people are overweight these people are highly inflamed and most likely they have a massive blood sugar imbalance but this trial is showing that trzepatide which is a dual agonist the GLP1 and the GIP cut sleep apnea events by up to 63% that's huge. That's a bigger result than what a CPAP machine is typically achieving for most people and better sleep isn't just there by itself it's going to cascade into all these other things like metabolism and mood and focus clarity so this is a really important look at what sleep is doing when we're reducing all these side effects with the sleep apnea and then there's another study because we're all about studies today this trial is called step nine S T E P step nine this one's looking at knee osteoarthritis now I've been a massage therapist for many years. Oh it'll be 35 years this fall when I first started in work I almost never saw a knee injury or a shoulder injury like I it was so incredibly rare. And now fast forward 35 years how common are ACL tears, shoulder tears, rotator cough, all these things right and so for years I have had this idea that this is completely about how we're nourishing our body we're not eating we're eating crap food we don't have enough protein our blood sugar is running really high right that was my theory that was well before I got into peptides but I've seen this in practice over many decades. Now we have this study that's talking about the wear and tear of arthritis that most people get as they age using some of these GLPs pain dropped dramatically and here's a really big part far beyond what you'd expect from the weight loss alone people are walking again right so the pain is down inflammation is down and people that weren't going for their daily walks or after dinner walks or whatever they stopped moving because it hurt too much. And now those people are moving again which again is going to help so many other things so they're believing that the anti-inflammatory effect is acting directly on the joint tissue itself not just taking pressure off so my thought is one GLPs if you're not on them and if you're scared of them you just don't understand them yet two one of the biggest combinations you can do is GLPs with BPC.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Think of the powerful combination that has with your joint specifically huge so you've got help with the sleep you've got help with the joint pain so both of these the sleep number and the joint pain number are bigger than what weight loss would explain on its own.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Yep 100% I think that's the theme through all of these things. All right I lied there's one more one more thing we have in our show notes here that we wanted to cover. We have had we're there's two more we have oh there's two more see I'm not even looking down at our show notes so there okay so two more hang with us guys we got two more to go over these ones are shorter though so we can bust through we've done we've covered this next one a bunch of times with many episodes but it's way way too important to not include into this and that is the conversation across alcohol use nicotine gambling and opioids so and eating disorders we can have that one too right disordered eating for sure really any addictive kind of behavior I would say I think it's safe to say that but GLPs appear to dampen the reward loop in the brain. And because of that I think as a side note there are some people that are talking about their joy for life with people that are doing big doses long term are feeling like their moods are dampened a little bit but also because the reward pathway is changing what they used to use to make them happy is no longer there. So it's really this whole lifestyle is changing for them. The the circuit the circuits that light up when you crave something

Addiction, Cravings, And The Reward Loop

SPEAKER_01 32:18

that give you that hit of satisfaction when you get it is the same circuitory that's involved in craving and compulsive behavior.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

That feels like a really big deal to say out loud and I know we've had multiple stories on this and it's been one thing that hits home because every single person knows somebody who has fought some type of addiction. And if you haven't heard this yet it's being actively studied I believe through Lily pharmaceuticals right now if I've heard the word on the street enough they are actively pursuing GLPs as a medication to help with alcohol and addiction recovery.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

Yeah I think we're gonna hear about that come up a lot more yeah this has moved past like I think observation but being taken seriously enough that it's shaping how people think about addiction treatment going forward. Like it's just changing the entire course of how somebody is treating um somebody that's coming in for active addiction.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Yeah and as we've alluded to before like yes research can say things and yes experience can say things as well and I'm never going to underestimate Samantha's story in episode 33. I'm never going to underestimate Stephanie's story in episode number 14 and one of our most recent ones with Christine she's got a story plus of friends like if this can help people out in any way shape or form by all means get on board with it.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

100% yeah okay is this the last one this is the last one okay search but it kind of was boring I know which is why we don't really do it that often but I feel like this is an episode where we like it's not yes we keep saying it because we've done it on the background and we want to bring it to everybody but it's important for people to know yes there are real studies. This isn't just us like deciding hey let's talk about peptides because it's a great business to be in no guys this is real this is probably the only time you're really going to hear us talk about studies because it's it is boring but it's important for us to just note this is how my how often have I said numbers never lie right we have data here we have numbers whether it be an observational study whether it be an RCT study like we are seeing benefits across multiple aspects of your health and over or beyond above and beyond weight loss.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Yes I mean weight loss is a huge category to market to it's really big business industry we want to provide to you the the evidence the research the experience that yes these things go far beyond weight loss which is why we love them so much.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

Before peptides weight loss and I don't remember this number off the top of my head but the weight loss industry was a multi-billion with a B billion dollar industry. I don't know what it is now with peptides. Because you know what the thing is about weight loss is that it's something that's measurable you can see it where some of these other things are quieter in the background and people feel better about themselves when they're feeling better in their skin. I get it I get that's why we're talking about it so much more the point here

A1C, Longevity Questions, And Closing

SPEAKER_01 35:38

is that even if you are of a healthy weight you can still be skinny fat. So you don't need it for weight loss but we're trying to prove a point here is that they go so much farther beyond that. So you could be somebody that genetically is super super skinny but you eat complete crap. So I could put you in the skinny fat category your insides are not reflecting what you're seeing on the outside and you may have a lot of these conditions that are popping up and these aches and pains and inflammation and injury but it doesn't reflect on the scale what's happening inside the body so that's why we're bringing this to you another aspect too is before we dive into this final one is you've got my generation you've got your generation who are seeing the 80 90 year old 80 year olds the 90 year olds they're Heidi said that she lost her mom mentally when her mom was 62 but not physically for another 10 years and Heidi's 50 back in that episode in 48 47 ish where we want to be more proactive yeah and if there's research backing up that these things are helping kidneys they're helping heart they're helping brain they're helping reduce the Alzheimer's of those kind of things why not what do we have to lose what do we really because again they're mimicking something we naturally make that most people are even if it's just a byproduct of getting older you're not making them the way that you did when you were younger so let's talk to this last piece here A1C. A lot of people get this tested it's showing your average blood sugar over about a three month time. So it is different from a glucose test which is showing what your blood sugar is doing in the moment A1C is representative over what it has done over time. So a lower A1C is going to correlate typically with a longer life even in people that are not diabetic. An A1C between five and 5.4 has the lowest mortality rate but an A1C of 6.5 and higher it almost doubles the cardiovascular death risk and every 1% rise above 5.5 we would say that 5.55 is the probably that top end of the normal range and I think that is across the board with functional labs and traditional labs that 5.6 is like that cutoff of our of our marker it meaningfully raises the risk of dying from any cause really so that's part of why these longevity physicians are now asking whether GLPs might do something bigger than treat one disease at a time whether they might actually slow down the aging process itself I want to be clear this is hypothesis being actively researched right now not a proved use or a settled fact the pattern that we're seeing over and over protection across the heart the kidneys joints all at once even at low tiny doses is exactly what is pointing researchers in that direction. So if I zoom all the way out the heart the kidneys the joints sleep inflammation our brain maybe even how we age none of those started out as the goal they have all just been discovered along the way right nobody set out looking for half of this it came from paying attention to what was really happening to patients out there, what they're experiencing and then the researchers started to ask why and that's how science works.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Mm-hmm this one gave me a lot to sit with I came in thinking weight loss drug because that's what we see in the commercials and I'm leaving thinking about something so much bigger and honestly we keep showing up here talking to so many different wellness providers hearing real people tell their real experiences and we keep landing in the same place this is and has potential to go so far beyond weight loss.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Yep. Again none of what we talked about today is going to replace nutrition movement strength training sleep the foundations are still at the utmost importance but if your healthcare provider is not familiar with this research or isn't willing to sit down and talk to you about it, it might be worth finding somebody who stays current with the literature and practices evidence-based medicine because the future of medicine isn't just treating disease it's preventing it I know that doesn't make money for a lot of people but I know for me personally I want to prevent all this stuff I want to live longer better and that's why we keep doing what we are doing here on this podcast. Jess people want to work with you where do they find you all right if you want to learn more about peptides or start your own journey explore building a business whatever it is you can find me at my website b2bwithjess.com you can also come and find me and listen along on Instagram jessb.talkshealth all the doors are open I'd love to walk you through whichever one is calling you and you have Kylie you can work with also you can find me at drkylieburton.com where my new amplify program sits this is pep talk peptides unpacked we want to help you stay curious stay informed and keep unpacking see you next time