How to Biohack Your Health with the Power of Peptides
Found in your brain’s hypothalamus, vasopressin regulates the amount of water around your body’s cells by allowing your kidneys to absorb water. However, if you have too much vasopressin in your system, it can constrict blood vessels and lead to high blood pressure.
As for oxytocin, it’s found in your pituitary gland. Known as the “love hormone,” it’s released when you are having fun social interactions with others or when you may be snuggling up with your significant other.
Defensins are peptides found in your body’s immune system. Because they are antimicrobial, they are instrumental in helping you heal when you have wounds such as lacerations, muscle pulls, or tears.
Finally, angiotensins are peptides responsible for regulating your blood pressure. To accomplish this, they help release aldosterone, ensuring your kidneys retain just the right amount of sodium to keep you hydrated.
What Are the Foods That Boost Peptide Intake?
If you’re thinking it will be hard for you to always have plenty of peptides in your system doing their part to keep you looking and feeling great, the good news is that if you eat a variety of healthy foods each day, you’ll have more peptides in your body than you ever imagined.
Since peptides can come from protein sources that are both plant or animal, you’ll have no trouble getting plenty of peptides into your daily diet. Some of the most common peptide-rich foods include:
· Milk
· Meat
· Fish
· Beans
· Eggs
· Oats
· Wheat
Since your bloodstream can easily absorb peptides, introducing these foods in your daily diet for breakfast, lunch, and dinner will ensure your peptides will be hard at work, building muscle, helping you maintain a healthy weight, and having your hair look shiny and full.
The Uses and Benefits of Peptides
Peptides have plenty of uses and benefits associated with them. Medically, more than 60 different peptide drugs are currently being used by doctors around the world.
Vasopressin is a peptide used extensively in treating various forms of diabetes, while dipeptides such as carnosine are used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and epilepsy. In addition, the peptide hormone hepcidin is used to help regulate iron consumption and is regularly used to help people suffering from anemia.
Antimicrobial peptides are being used more and more to help treat various bacterial infections such as pneumonia, hepatitis, and HIV. In addition, since these peptides can be given orally, topically, or through an IV, they can be useful for various patients.
Peptide therapy is currently used to treat various cancers, especially colorectal and prostate. Since these are two of the most common cancers among men, you should discuss this with your doctor during your regular health checkups.
What Do Peptides Do to Your Skin?
Peptides can do plenty of great things for your skin, all of which may result in helping you take years off your looks.
As you age, the production of collagen, elastin, and keratin starts to slow down, leading to those lines and wrinkles you don’t like to see when you look in the mirror. However, protein production can increase by using a topical peptide cream or oral supplement.
Inside your body, peptides are always hard at work, sending signals to areas where healing is needed. In the case of your skin, this means producing more collagen in certain areas, such as your face. Using skin-specific peptides tricks your body into thinking an injury has occurred somewhere and healing needs to begin. Once this happens, the peptides begin producing more collagen, which helps your skin start looking and feeling years younger.
Can Peptides Help with Weight Loss?
Men who want to lose a few pounds can use peptides for weight loss and see some pretty good results.
Combining peptides like Ipamorelin with plenty of exercises and eating a healthy diet can help increase the production of HGH, boosting your energy and strength and helping you burn more calories.
In addition, some individual peptides such as CJC 1295 and MOTS-C can be used by your doctor to help decrease your body fat and accelerate your body’s fat cell breakdown. Since therapeutic peptide treatment programs are gaining in popularity within the medical community, you should discuss this with your doctor if you’re on a quest to lower your weight and improve your health.
What Do Peptides Do for Muscle Growth?
Since peptides like Ipamorelin can give you increased levels of HGH, they are great for helping you achieve muscle growth.
When your HGH is boosted, those peptides can also boost your testosterone levels. As a result, your muscle mass increases while your fat tissue decreases, leaving you looking more sculpted than ever. Higher HGH levels will also mean your muscles and tissue will repair and recover much quicker after your workouts, meaning you’ll get more out of each workout.
Can Peptides Help with Hair Growth?
If you’ve started to notice your hair looking thinner when you look in the mirror and dread the prospect of balding as you age, peptides may be able to help with your hair growth.
In numerous studies over the years, peptides have been shown to improve the thickness of hair follicles, giving you fuller hair. Copper peptides have proven particularly useful in this area since they help improve blood flow to the scalp. As you know, the more blood flows to your scalp, the more nourished your hair follicles become, leading to a greater hair volume.
How Do Peptides Affect the Brain?
Since peptides play a crucial role in acting as messengers throughout your body, they play a critical role in the health of your brain.
Peptides ensure signals move properly from one neuron to another within your brain, leading to greater cognitive health. Peptides have also been shown to help improve memory and learning by increasing your brain-derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF. When this is increased, you can expect to feel less anxiety and other depressive emotions.
Important in so many ways, peptides can play a key role in helping you turn back the clock on aging. First, find out what peptides are and how unleashing the power of peptides throughout your body can help with cognitive health, weight loss, muscle growth, etc. Then, you’ll be more eager to schedule a visit with your doctor to learn more about how these chains of amino acids can improve your health and wellness.
Do Peptides Have Side Effects?
If you’ve visited your doctor recently, had your annual physical exam, and been given a clean bill of health, you’ll be glad to know that if you decide to use peptide supplements, you will have little to no chance of experiencing peptide side effects.
As for why this is the case, it is because peptide supplements are so similar to the peptides that occur naturally in the foods you eat each day that your body can’t tell any difference between them.
However, in some situations where you may use a topical peptide cream or ointment, you may experience a rash or itching, especially when you first start using the supplement. As always, talk with your doctor before using any peptide supplement.
The Power of Peptides: FAQ
What are Collagen Peptides?
Found in animal collagen, collagen peptides are very small pieces of protein that make up your body’s skin, bone, and cartilage.
What are Collagen Peptides Good for?
Collagen peptides are good for many things. When taken as an oral supplement, collagen peptides have been shown to help improve some joint and skin conditions. Primarily, collagen peptides are used to help aging skin, brittle nails, and osteoarthritis.
What are Peptides in Skincare?
Peptides are the amino acids your skin needs that contain the building blocks of proteins such as collagen and elastin, which are crucial to keeping your skin free of lines and wrinkles as you age. If you use a peptide serum or moisturizer, it can make your skin firmer and younger-looking.
What Are Peptides Used for?
Since they are chains of amino acids, peptides can be used for many important things related to your physical and mental health. These can include improved cognitive health, thicker and fuller hair, reduced body fat, increased muscle mass and definition, higher levels of strength, stamina, and energy, and even a stronger sex drive. Peptides are also used to develop various vaccines and drugs to help treat a wide range of medical conditions, including diabetes and cancer.
Can You Take Peptides Every Day?
Generally, you can take peptides every day without experiencing any side effects. One dose per day is usually sufficient with most peptide supplements, whether they are taken orally, topically, or through an IV.
Do Peptides Increase Testosterone?
Yes, peptides can increase your testosterone levels and other key biomarkers if you’ve tested them and found them on the low side. For example, the peptide Gonadorelin increases the production of LH, which stimulates testosterone production in men. It is often used with men who want to maintain a certain level of testosterone production. It is also used with men not yet on TRT but whose doctors want them to maintain a certain testosterone level until their replacement therapy can begin.
Should You Consult a Doctor Before Taking Peptide Supplements?
Yes, you should always consult your doctor before taking a peptide or other supplement. While peptide supplements offer few, if any, side effects, you should still make sure these or other supplements will be safe to take if you are on other medications.