To mis-quote Bono from the 1980s band U2: “There’s been a lot of talk about peptides, maybe too much talk…”
The point is that there is currently a lot of hype around the topic of peptide injections, and I hope that this article dispels some of the myths about peptides, but keeps us excited about this new area of medicine.
Firstly, I would like to say that at IHA, although we are exploring this new field of peptide injections, we use them in limited amounts and for specific reasons. We generally employ peptides to heal injuries, boost a weak immune system and improve skin and hair quality.
What is a peptide?
We have two main types of hormone in the body.
Firstly, we have steroid hormones like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone that are made from the building block cholesterol. Cholesterol is a sterol which is in the family of steroids and so hence the name steroid hormones. These cannot and never will be peptides, as they are made from the wrong substance (cholesterol). To maintain our testosterone and estrogen, we need a decent amount of cholesterol in the body to construct these important hormones.
Secondly, we have peptide hormones like growth hormone and insulin. These are made up of amino acids, which form groups of peptides (hence the name). Each hormone is made up of a set number of amino acids, for example growth hormone is made up of 191 amino acids and insulin is made up of 50 amino acids. Ever since the Millenium, where our scientists unraveled the secrets of our DNA, they have been able to copy either parts of, or the entire peptide hormone and synthesize it as an injection to perform a particular job in the body.
Favourite peptides
Thymosin hormones are a group of hormones that are produced in the thymus (a gland behind the sternum that withers through life). They work to boost our immune system and also stabilise our immune system. However, as the thymus gland shrinks with age, these hormones and their abilities decrease.
For example, thymosin alpha (known in the industry as TA1), is particularly good at stabilising the immune system – we use it to help stabilise auto-immune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, and we are also trialling it in patients with allergy.
Thymosin beta (TB4 or TB500) is another thymosin hormone and it boosts our white blood cells. If somebody is suffering, for example, from recurrent chest infections and has a poor white cell count on blood testing, then this peptide injection helps significantly with boosting their white blood cells and keeping infections at bay.
BPC157 is a peptide that is made up of just a small part of the peptide hormone called Body Protection Compound. The hormone is naturally secreted from the stomach and stimulates wound healing, decreases inflammation and improves blood flow to the targeted area.
Perhaps the most famous of all peptides is the weight loss injection Ozempic – it weighs in at 31 amino acids. Add 8 more amino acids and you get the newer, upgraded weight-loss peptide called Mounjaro. These injections are proving to be one of the most significant breakthroughs in modern medicine. Not only are they helping to tackle obesity, but they are proving themselves (at least in overweight, diabetic patients) to be able to protect the heart, the kidneys and the brain.
A note of caution
We have only just begun on this journey where scientists add amino acids together to synthetically build a peptide to enhance healing in the body. There are still so many more exciting developments to come in this field.
Because this is a new technology, we cannot be entirely sure how safe peptides are. For example, Ozempic (and other GLP-1 agonist injections) have been approved by the FDA, suggesting that they are safe to use in humans. However, we still find the occasional patient who suffers from significant liver damage when using these injections.
Neither the immune boosting peptide TB500 nor and the anti-inflammatory peptide BPC-157 have been approved for human use by the FDA. Therefore, we use them cautiously at the clinic on a case-by-case basis to boost the immune system and heal injuries.
There is still much to learn about this new area of healing and although we are excited about this topic and are having great success with peptides, we are cautious in our approach to them.
Ready to Learn More?
Contact the IHA team Tel: 021 434 2564 WhatsApp: 074 447 4275
Stay healthy, stay strong, and see you at the clinic soon!
