When it comes to our health, we tend to only think about the things we can notice—dark bags under the eyes, becoming out of breath by walking up the stairs or a few unwanted pounds around the midsection. While these can be indicators of poor health, our bodies are far more complex than we recognize. So many processes take place out of sight that knowing your actual condition requires regular check-ups. Rather than living at the doctor’s office, though, it would be more sensible to live a healthier lifestyle, incorporate regular exercise, and add vitamins and supplements when needed.
Of course, if you have not led the healthiest of lifestyles in recent years, or you are just at an age where it seems harder to stay in shape as before, exercise and clean eating might not be enough to make the cut. Sometimes we need a little boost in our metabolism. Many people turn to appetite suppressants or fad diets, but what if there is more going on within our bodies? Perhaps what is going on is a deficiency or imbalance in the vital chemical chains that drive our internal systems. If you are experiencing a hormonal imbalance or your body is no longer producing the necessary amounts of certain chemicals, the entire system could be thrown out of whack.
If you have been experiencing changes not just in your weight but also your mood, bone density, and cognitive functioning, merely starting a new diet won’t be enough to make changes to the whole structure. Instead, you should be considering peptide therapy. Unlike a standard diet, peptide therapy addresses multiple parts of the body, providing more benefits than many other medical weight loss treatments, without the side effects of others. If you have never heard of this therapy, we will walk you through every possible detail. We will explain what peptides are and how they can help you lose weight but also how they can help improve brain functioning, your hair and skin, and several other factors of your body.
What Are Peptides?
Entire doctoral dissertations could be spent discussing what a peptide is, but we will do our best to cut through much of the jargon and scientific lecturing. In short, a peptide is a small sub-cellular chain of roughly 2 to 50 amino acids. Amino acids are commonly referred to as the building blocks of proteins, but proteins are more complex than a peptide. A peptide is simply a chain of amino acids. This makes peptides more easily processed and transported throughout the body than proteins or other cellular components. They can easily be absorbed in the skin and digestive tract.
Peptides can be found in many different food sources, especially those we associate with proteins. For example, eggs, meat, fish, and dairy have peptides, but also foods such as wheat, oats, flax, and soy. However, getting a substantial amount of peptides just from food would require eating a vast amount. For anyone looking to lose weight, it’s not advisable to binge just to score some added peptides. Instead, it would be easier to receive occasional peptide injections or wear a transdermal peptide patch.
Because peptides are combinations of different amino acids, they are not one single thing. Peptides build larger cellular components so, when ingested, they can combine with other parts to restore broken down structures within the body. Two peptides that are most commonly used as supplements are collagen and creatine peptides. These two amino acid chains are beneficial to your hair and skin, which we will discuss later in this review.
Some Benefits of Peptide Therapy
As we said, because peptides come in a wide variety, they can be beneficial to many aspects of the body. Some peptides play a role in the production of hormones—particularly growth hormones—within the body, and it’s these types that will help you shed unwanted weight faster. But growth hormones can do more than just help shed pounds; they can benefit our bones, brains, and body muscles too. Because the benefits of peptide therapy are multifaceted, we are going to break them down into the regions that they affect. That should make things clearer and give a better understanding of how peptide therapy could help you.
Weight Loss
Possibly the main reason you are interested in peptide therapy, it can help speed up weight loss. For many people, as they get older, exercise becomes less and less effective as a weight loss program. This isn’t to say that regular exercise is pointless. On the contrary, staying fit is a vital part of living a long, happy, and healthy life. Without it, our bones and muscles would atrophy, and our cardiovascular systems would become too weak to support the effects of aging.
Then why does exercise stop being as effective? After the age of about 25, the average person will stop producing growth hormones. While it may seem counterintuitive to say that growth hormones would help reduce your size, they play a key role in muscle and bone production. Even without regular or prolonged exercise, human growth hormone has shown the potential to increase muscle mass and decrease fat percentage. When combined with exercise, this potential goes up immensely.
What is most interesting about HGH’s potential for weight loss is that it targets visceral fat specifically. Contrary to common belief, fat is necessary for our bodies to function properly, but only certain types. The fat that lines our organs helps to protect our insides, but visceral fat—the fat that sits on our midsection—serves little purpose and is also the most difficult to burn. Therefore, the potential for HGH to target visceral fat specifically opens many people to the opportunity for a flatter stomach.
Muscle Growth
As mentioned briefly, HGH boosting peptide therapies have a two-fold benefit—they help burn fat and also produce muscle. When ingested, certain peptides bind with other factors to create hormones responsible for protein synthesis. Proteins are then used within the body to build more muscle, making you not only stronger but also changing the shape of your body.
Peptides have long been of interest to athletes and bodybuilders for their potential to boost performance and muscle mass. Even without prolonged exercise, an increase in human growth hormone has been shown to boost muscle mass so, if taken in conjunction with a regular exercise routine, you will quickly see muscle gains on top of burned fat.
Just keep in mind that your health goals should not be determined by just weight. Consider your entire body composition. Compared to fat, muscle is much denser, so as you build more muscle, you could become heavier than before. The important thing is that you are burning fat and cholesterol. In too high a quantity, fat and cholesterol put stress on your heart and affect your overall health.
Improved Recovery
Again, because peptides make up a variety of larger cellular components, they play a role in multiple functions throughout the body. One of these is repairing damaged cells and fighting off diseases. Because peptides make up larger proteins, they are crucial for cellular repair and restoration. For this quality, peptides are often noted for their anti-aging abilities. The most common sports injuries are either muscular or related to the tendons. These sorts of injuries usually take several weeks to recover from because the connective tissues that bind muscles and tendons together are usually slow-growing. With peptide therapies, the recovery time is greatly reduced.
Yet, our bodies are more than just a collection of muscles and tendons. Without bones, we wouldn’t even be able to stand. While many people do break bones, it’s far less common than a torn muscle or tendon. The real issue with bones is that, as we age, they become more brittle. This is why broken hips, knees, and elbows are more common among the geriatric population. Fortunately, peptide therapies can help increase bone density.
Over the years, there have been numerous studies on how peptides can help prevent and treat osteoporosis, and the research backs it up. Certain peptides help to slow the rate that bones decay while others rebuild the structures. If you suffer from spinal or hip problems, peptide therapy can greatly assist in preventing further loss of density while also restoring any lost strength. For many people looking to lose weight, they may experience joint and back pain as well. Through peptide therapy, you can kill two birds with one stone.
Better Hair and Skin
As we mentioned at the beginning of this review, two of the most commonly used peptides are collagen and creatine. As anyone interested in skincare knows, the market is flooded with products promising younger, tighter, and more supple skin, all as a result of collagen. You can find collagen eye creams, collagen masks, collagen moisturizers, and the list goes on. But just smearing collagen onto your skin likely isn’t going to be as effective as most people think.
Collagen is a complex protein that isn’t easily absorbed through the skin’s surface. Even when ingested whole, our bodies struggle to break down and recombine collagen into something that would benefit the skin or hair. This is why it is better to receive collagen peptides. They are already broken down into an easily absorbed chain of amino acids that our bodies can utilize. Taking collagen peptides orally or through injection can help rejuvenate the skin, helping to restore elasticity and smooth out unwanted wrinkles.
As for better hair, hair loss is usually caused by one of a few things. For most people, though, as they age, hair follicles become weak and lose some functionality. Hair begins to thin as more and more follicles slow their growth, and hair begins to fall out. Certain peptides will interact with the hair follicle, prompting it to begin producing hair again. This is largely because peptides stimulate blood vessels around the follicle, increasing oxygen and nutrient transport to your hair.
How To Get Started With Peptide Therapy
As with any medical therapy, you should always talk to your doctor first. To get started with peptide therapy, you will first have to take a blood test. The doctor will measure your existing hormone levels to gauge whether or not you qualify for peptide therapy. The doctor will also need to know what you are looking for from the therapy. Because peptides are multifaceted, without an understanding of your intended health goals, the doctor cannot prescribe the proper peptide formula.
Introducing new cellular components into your body could also produce negative side effects, so be sure to talk to your doctor about what to expect. The most common way of delivering these compounds is through injection though there are some oral options as well. Your doctor should walk you through everything you need to know.
Fewer Side Effects + Added Benefits
Whether you are looking to shed a few pounds, build muscle, or slow the signs of aging, peptide therapy can be of great help to your overall health. Compared to other similar therapies, it carries fewer negative side effects with added benefits. Just understand that you should have clearly defined health goals before contacting your doctor. Remember that a peptide is a chain of 2 to 50 different amino acids. The combinations are various, so some peptides may not be well suited to your health concern.
If you would like to get started on peptide therapy today, we recommend that you schedule a consultation with your general practitioner. They can provide the latest and most beneficial information to help you reach your health goals. Any medical therapy should be completed under the eye of a trained medical professional to guarantee that you do not suffer any possible side effects. While peptide therapies are generally safe, a doctor can help with the appropriate dosages and guarantee your safety through therapy.
