346-SYNCPodcast_AleksandraGajer

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Welcome friends to this [00:01:00] episode of The Sink Your Life podcast. Today I’m joined by my friend Dr. Alexandra Geer. I’m super excited for this episode. You guys have been asking me for more information about peptides. That’s exactly what we’re gonna be talking about today. Dr. Alexandra is a board certified physician.

She’s also a leading expert in performance medicine. She’s the founder of the Geier Practice, A root cause focused medical clinic that helps patients. Transform their health from the inside out. When we had a chance to connect a few weeks ago, we talked a lot about hormone health, um, bio-individual supplementation, what peptides are really doing in this, in the health space right now, whether they’re helpful or harmful.

This is a common question that I get. So we’re gonna dive into all of that today, but I’m super excited for this connection. I just think that she’s such a bright light. Space of women’s health in the space of, um, you know, what’s really up and coming. And I think that’s, that’s really awesome. So, Dr.

Alexandra Guyer, welcome to the show. If you would just tell my listeners more about you. Yeah, thank you so much. What a wonderful intro. Uh, so yes, I’m Dr. Alexandra Guyer. I. Am a conventionally [00:02:00] trained physician. I initially was an emergency physician. I did emergency medicine for 10 years, and um, I got fairly burned out myself, and I found that a lot of the patients I was treating were coming back with the same illnesses over and over again that we were putting bandaids on, but they weren’t truly getting better.

And I took a big leap. I opened my own practice with a strong interest on how to create health. You know, I, I trained as a physician to treat and cure disease and, and find disease. Um, but my interest really lies in how do we create health? How do we keep hold onto health before disease takes hold? And that’s, that’s been my mission since I started my practice.

Yeah, I love that. I just, um, my, my listeners know that I’ve had sort of an interesting health journey myself, um, navigating what I like to call modern medicine and just feeling like. It’s a hamster wheel of really, really never landing on [00:03:00] root cause. Right? But functional wellness is a totally different avenue.

Um, but I’ll be honest with you, it’s not always the right direction either for people. Sometimes people end up on a hamster wheel there too, of, of constant testing and, and cash dollars spent, and without really reaching what they need, you know, their potential, their health potential. I like to call it maximum energy.

So I love this. I mean, I love that. You know, when we were chatting before, um. You know, you were, we were using the same language, like how do we optimize ourselves? Like how do we optimize our health? Mm-hmm. How do we optimize that energy? Tell me, you know, when you’re working with women in particular. What role does hormone balance play in the overall equation?

And then I wanna go from there. We’ll, we’ll dive more into sort of Yeah. That kind of thing. But let’s start there with wonderful. What, what, what do women, I guess, miss? Like what are we missing the mark on when it comes to hormone? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Most of the time when, when I meet women, they are usually. At an impasse in their lives where a, a lot of the things they were, that were working for them to stay healthy, stay vibrant, are no longer working anymore.

So [00:04:00] it may be a weight issue, it may be an energy issue. It rarely, sometimes is the, the classic hot flashes of menopause. You know, that’s kind of what we think of. But there’s so much more under the surface. It’s, it’s mostly women who feel not like themselves anymore. And, and a lot of times I meet with women and they’re, they’re high performers.

They’re women who have achieved so much, and now they, they want to enjoy it. And they’re, I’m meeting them and they’re saying, um. I just don’t feel like myself, I’ve, I’ve achieved all this and now I wanna enjoy it, but my body doesn’t feel right. I don’t feel good about myself. So, so, you know, I think the foundation, usually where I begin is metabolic health, whether someone is overweight or not, but it’s how our body uses food as fuel food movement is always the foundation and, and we have an incredible tool.

And we’ll talk a lot about those tools today and, and sometimes I think those tools are very useful early on just to give [00:05:00] women the energy and the drive to do some of the things they need to do to take care of themselves, to be able to choose whole Foods, to be able to prioritize their sleep. You know, sometimes we have to get you feeling a little better to make those good choices, but.

The foundation is the foundation. Uh, and without it, we can’t build much else. So, um, we have to be eating real food. We have to be nourishing. There’s so many women that I meet who’ve been stuck in diet, culture of crash, diet after crash, diet, losing weight, regaining it. And there’s been this message to women that we need to make ourselves smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller, restrict restrict, go faster, you know, cardio queens and um.

My first task is usually to dig that up a little bit and try to rethink how we’re treating ourselves and, and think a little bit more about building up how do we nourish our bodies, how do we build ourselves up and um. And hormones and metabolic health, of course, are, are a big part of that. But [00:06:00] the food and the movement, the sleep, the stress, that’s all the foundation.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you just invited me onto my soapbox, so here we go. No, um, no, I love this. And, and this is where I was hoping you would go with it, but I, I wanna define metabolic health for our listeners because I think, you know, a lot of us are used to sort of that. Uh, again, modern medicine way of even my, my, my 9-year-old recently was like, we went to a doc, the doctor, for her annual checkup, and she’s like, why do they weigh me on a scale?

You know, like, why do they take these? Like, what are the, what’s the value in these measurements? Right? Like, what is this telling me? And so, of course from the time she was really little, we would say things like, look how strong you are, right? Like, she’d get on the mm-hmm. And I’m like, I don’t wanna. Get into this, like how much do we weigh?

Like that whole thing, especially with females, right? So it’s always, this is how strong you are. And even to this day, she says it now to my 4-year-old, like if my 4-year-old goes, she’ll say, look how strong you are. Right? But we talk at our house about like, what really matters, right? Like what is our blood sugar doing, right?

Like what food mm-hmm. Fuel us versus give us spikes and crashes. Like that’s really what we wanna know. [00:07:00] Right? And I think a lot of people assume like, well, blood sugar doesn’t pertain to me because I’m not diabetic. Right? Like we, we have these generalized. Weird ideas of, of healthy, and I think people get too stuck and like, what’s my BMI or what’s my, like, am I overweight or not?

And it’s not really always about that. It’s about mus, it’s about muscle. It’s about how you’re performing in life. It’s about your, your functional mobility. It’s about, again, your blood sugar, stabilization, like these are all things that matters. I heard Dr. Mark Hyman say that he wishes in the future that.

Medicine would change from the scale in the doctor’s office to waist to hip ratio. Mm-hmm. And that’s such a brilliant, um, a brilliant thing that really people aren’t paying attention to. Right. So I wanna, I define that for people, that they understand that metabolic health is not just like how much you weigh, right?

Or whether you’re overweight or not. It’s really like how is your body, um, performing? So diet culture, well, you invited me onto the soapbox here, but I love this because I think you’re right. Like so many women think that they’re doing all the things right. [00:08:00] And I don’t know if you’ve experienced the same thing, but women will come to me and they’re like, I’m eating healthy, I’m exercising.

I can’t seem to lose the weight. And then we actually take a look at their food diary or what they’re eating. They’re not eating anywhere near enough to really have a booming metabolism, right? Like you want a good thriving metabolism. And so if you’re undereating, you’re under fueling your body for the performance that it wants.

You know, it’s giving you, like if you’re an exerciser, which you mentioned like these achieving women who are. They are doing the things. That’s who I work with too, right? And so they come to me and they’re like, I don’t know, but I just, I’m out of energy, right? And I’m not getting results. Well, a lot of times it comes back to like, are you fueling enough?

Are you getting enough protein in your day? Are you eating enough healthy fats? And when, when, when, when I say to them, you need more food. They look at me like I have four eyes. They’re like, what? Like, ’cause everything they’ve ever been taught is this diet culture mentality of eat less, be smaller, work harder, right?

Mm-hmm. So let’s kind of dissect that a little bit. Let’s talk more about like, why is that the case and what do you do to help women sort of [00:09:00] transform their mindset around that? Yeah. And that’s, that’s great. And that’s exactly what we see too, is, is a lot of women sort of double down on what’s worked before, and especially in perimenopause, which is that 10, 15 year period before your, um, fertile years end and, and you transition into a non cycling female no longer having periods.

So yes, a lot of women. Start restricting quite a bit more and maybe some restriction worked for them in the past and, and cardio, we were always taught that doing more cardio, burning more calories, being hyper fixated on calories and, and having as little as possible is, is the way to go. So, so I think it’s, it’s a huge jump and, um, just helping women feel safe in their bodies to, to nourish the body, to start eating for energy.

I loved your definition of metabolic health. You know, the way I think about it is, what happens to food after it goes in your [00:10:00] body? Does it turn into fuel and help fuel your passions, your energy, your body? Or does it get stored as fat and become a source of inflammation and, uh, uh, risk factor for, for poor health?

And, and, you know, the, the timing of your meals, what you’re eating, how you’re eating. The timing of your movements can all impact your metabolic health. And um, when I start working with women, I usually look at fasting insulin just to get an understanding of if there is some insulin resistance as well as a couple other labs, like a hemoglobin A1C, which tells you your blood sugar average over three months, and a fasting blood sugar.

That gives us some idea of. That goes far beyond the number of the scale. How are you fueling? How are you fueling? And. Are we turning that food into energy? And you mentioned blood sugar and why it’s so important. And again, yeah. A lot of people think this is only a problem if you’re [00:11:00] diabetic, but blood sugar, if it cannot get into cells, if it stays in your bloodstream, it is toxic.

It becomes very toxic. It is what breaks down our blood vessels, the number one cause of death O overall in the US right now is cardiovascular disease and, and that destruction of our blood vessels by blood sugar just sitting around. Causes that as well, as well as our brain vessels. Um, and it, it causes a lot of inflammation, which can cause fat gain, mood swings, low energy, bad sleep, so it’s all connected, you know?

And, and we touched a little bit about how medicine is so siloed and that’s. Exactly what I, even going through my medical training, it never just made sense to me. How, how can people be staying in this very narrow lane when like we’re, we’re really just so connected. So yeah. Um, and blood sugar is a, is a foundation of that.

And, and I think we, we start with that and then we can build from [00:12:00] that, um, onto hormones and other. Other issues and techniques. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you’re speaking my language because just in the last couple of years I’ve been dealing with Vertigo as my, as my listeners know. And you know, I’ve been sent to all the specialists.

Like I’ve seen the ear doctors, I’ve seen three ENTs. I’ve seen neurotologists, right? Like, because they think that it’s all coming from the inner ear. But my ears have been proven clear. Everyone I’ve done all the testing, ears are clear. Right? So then they’re like, oh, you must need a brain scan. Right? So we do, like we, we look at the brain.

Brain looks good too, right? It’s funny to me that all these sections of your body are looked at before they will look at your metabolic health before they’re, before they will look at like your endocrine markers, right? Like no one mentioned, I mean, I was of course advocating for like thyroid testing and all these different things, um, but I had to ask for it.

And so I just think the average person is being siloed into these specialties over whatever issues they’re facing or symptoms they’re facing. And a lot of times it’s like. Like these women that come to me with low energy and I’m like a simple [00:13:00] change, like eating enough food or eating enough protein, switches their game plan, right?

Like I think of my friend Jolie, shout out to Jolie. When she went through my course, you know, I started, she’s an influencer on social media. I started following her and all of a sudden she’s posting how much she’s eating, right? And she’s showing like, this is how much more I’m eating. And this girl, Jenny tells me this is what I’m supposed to do.

And so she starts doing it and her, her body transforms, her energy transforms. Everything changes, right? Because now we’re focusing more on fueling the body. So, yeah, I wanna make sure we have, we get into this conversation of, of peptides because mm-hmm. This is a, a topic that my listeners have been asking for and it’s, it’s something that I’m learning more and more about.

It feels very, like even though it’s kind of been used, it’s not brand new. Um, I think there’s some misconceptions, right? I think people are hearing about Ozempic and all these different brand names, and then there’s people out there talking about microdosing. I was just listening to Dr. Tina this week on her podcast, and she’s like.

Throwing in the towel. She seems like she’s just upset over the whole thing because it’s just being taken to another level now with influencers promoting oral peptides. And it [00:14:00] is literally like all over the map. And what’s interesting is I have several of my clients who I am seeing use microdosing peptides two great, great benefit.

Um, and so it’s interesting because when you look at the science, like the science is also pretty supportive of that too, but it gets a little controversial when we’re looking at sort of the bigger brand names, higher dosing. And when we start looking at. Health ramifications if people are not embracing a lifestyle in addition to these peptides.

Right. If we’re not strength training, if we’re not focusing on, again, proper fueling. So I don’t know where to start, but let’s start the conversation on peptides. I love it. Yes. What do you love about it? I know you’re using them, so give us the, the real information here. Absolutely. So peptides, the, the word peptide just means a short chain of amino acids.

And amino acids are building blocks of proteins. Uh, so the, the food that you eat is made of, what if it’s a protein, it’s made of amino acids and peptides are just shorter chains of amino acids, [00:15:00] and our body makes thousands of peptides. And those peptides communicate between different parts of our bodies.

They, they are similar. But not the same as hormones. But as we downregulate some of our hormones, as we enter our forties, fifties and beyond, we’re also downregulating some of the peptide pathways in our bodies. So peptides became popular, of course, because of the GLP ones, which is a class of drugs that.

Helped a lot of people lose weight and have been highly controversial, just like you said. So those are manufactured under the brand names of Ozempic, wegovy, Majaro, Ze bound, and, but a lot of practitioners have found that sometimes using those medications or those compounds at lower doses. Helps them work as peptides because once you start getting to a certain dose, they become medications and they can have their own side effects.

[00:16:00] But again, all peptides enhance something that’s going on in the body. So we can start with ozempic, which is semaglutide, and that enhances the action of something called GLP one. So GLP one is a chemical that’s released in your stomach that helps signal to your body that you’re full, that you don’t need any more food.

It does a number of things, but it helps you feel full longer. It reduces cravings for carbs and less healthy foods. And for a lot of us, because we’ve had processed foods for, we’ve. We, the processed foods are so highly accessible, so highly palatable that they’ve become the obvious choice for, for a lot of people, our metabolisms and, and our ability to produce compounds like GLP one has.

Diminished. So for some people who are stuck at a certain weight and their body doesn’t tap into fat [00:17:00] stores very well, replacing that, uh, for a period of time could be really helpful. So when I work with patients when it comes to weight, we do use a minimal effective dose, which is different for every woman.

We don’t always use this, but for some women who really, who we’ve really tuned up their lifestyle and they really are doing everything right, sometimes using the minimal effective dose for uh, the minimum necessary time can move the needle and help move the body into fat loss. I know there’s a lot of people who say, you have to stay on this forever.

I don’t think you have to stay on on this forever. I think that. Sometimes your body needs a little push in the right direction. And if you are, and everyone who we put on these medications, we do intensive health coaching with, so we work with them every week. And if you’re not willing to make some lifestyle changes, then we don’t offer them medication.

’cause I just don’t think [00:18:00] it’s worth it, you know? Um, the, the medication can I, I, the way I think of it is it helps your body listen to the good inputs that you’re already putting in. So if you’re making good choices, you’re eating enough protein, if you’re nourishing your body, if you’re doing strength training, it will just.

Tune in the dial a little bit so your body listens to those inputs a little better. And so that’s how peptides sort of became popularized is G GLP ones. But there are, I also use peptides for anxiety and brain health. There are different peptides that enhance that increase something called brain derived neurotropic factor that help women feel more focused, more calm.

There are mitochondrial peptides for energy and we can go into these and there are other peptides. That, um, help with body composition, help women gain muscle. So there are, I use probably about 20 different peptides and, and when a woman comes in and she’s really stuck, and, and maybe the problem is [00:19:00] weight, we don’t necessarily jump right to GLP ones.

The GLP ones are good for, for some women and some people that there are other peptides that we can use for, that are meant for short term use that can just. Tune up. Any sort of genetic predispositions you may have can help counteract the chemical imbalances that we might have from exposures in our environment and can push through whatever our body’s resisting to, to get closer to where we wanna be.

Yeah. So it’s like a jumpstart almost. Just like a jumpstart. Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. Yeah. Well, I love that you mentioned that it’s personalized. ’cause I think that’s what medicine should be is a personalized right approach. And again, I heard Dr. Tina talking about this recently where she was saying that.

That’s where it’s gotten lost is, you know, she feels like when she’s brought onto podcasts, like she’s, she’s asked, well, what dose? Right? And she’s like, it’s different for everyone. And so, yes, that’s, that’s the key. Like if you are right now, like maybe you’re, you’re intrigued by peptides, maybe you’re looking into this, I know there’s a lot of like telehealth [00:20:00] companies popping up for this, or network marketing companies I’ve even seen out there now, and I think people are falling victim to it because.

They’re just like, okay, this is peptides. Like this is what I need. ’cause they hear the trend word and they know it’s about weight loss and so they go for it without paying any attention to any sort of personalized plan. Like there’s sometimes not even a meetup with a doctor. There’s no conversation about what someone uniquely needs, and so don’t fall victim to sort of like the.

You know, um, what’s the word I’m looking for? Just sort of the mass handout of peptides. Like you need to, that, that one-on-one conversation with a well-versed practitioner who can walk you through this. I love that you guys offer the lifestyle coaching alongside it. So this is sort of new territory for me.

You know, I, I’ve not done peptides myself, um, but I have several friends, like I mentioned who are. I have a, a doctor that works on our team, Dr. Mag Mill, who has been talking to me about using like BPC 1 57 and some others for, uh, inflammation. I have migraines. Um, so thinking that might, that might be something for me to look into.

So I would love to talk about, like, [00:21:00] if you wanna share like what, what are the most commonly used, um, peptides that you’re using in your space? And maybe people don’t know about that. ’cause I think, like you said, yes, I think, think peptides equal weight loss, but in reality there are other uses of peptides that are really powerful.

Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah, I’ll tell you some of my favorites, and I have a few that I’ve had amazing results with and I’ve tried many of them that are appropriate for myself as well as, um. It, my own health has guided a lot of my, my practice, you know, and we kind of started talking about some of that in the beginning, but, um, but I, I want anything that I offer my patients to be effective, efficient, affordable, and, and actually work without wasting too much of your time.

So, um, and I, and I found that the peptides in the right situations and what you said was so important, I need to understand your health history. You know, I need to have. 45 minute visit with you before I can recommend a peptide. And I think going on the internet and just clicking yes, [00:22:00] please is not safe.

And there’s a lot of sources of, of peptides that are also not safe if they’re, some of the peptides manufactured overseas have something called endotoxins, which, um. Something called lipopolysaccharides or LPS that can be highly inflammatory, very toxic. So whenever something new comes out, there’s a lot of people who jump on it to try to make money, of course.

And there is going to be unsafe versions of it. So just, just buyer beware, we don’t wanna just go to the internet and click Yes please. I think this is very individualized and I want to. Emphasize that you should work with someone who understands your health history, who has enough medical background to, to put the pieces together and understand what this is going to do in in your body because you are changing your physiology to some extent.

So you mentioned BPC, and I think that’s a wonderful place to start. So, BPC 1 57 is something called Body protective compound. And it was isolated from the [00:23:00] stomach. Uh, when we, uh, digest food, we put out a lot of stomach acid and if there wasn’t something protecting our stomach, we would burn the lining of our stomach.

So scientists isolated BPC 1 57 and found that it protects the stomach lining. And then it was isolated and given to people with stomach ulcers and it was found that it healed those ulcers. And then we started studying it for other purposes and it was found that it can heal tendon injuries as well.

And it. As more studies were done, it was found that it had quite a few healing properties where it can basically find injured tissue in your body and help recruit the right cells to heal some of that inflammation and to help heal injuries faster. So. I love BPC 1 57 for four injuries for high performing people who may have a tendon injury.

I took it [00:24:00] when I broke my foot. Um, it works best for tendons and ligaments, but also just overall inflammation. I’ve found that even people who suffer a lot with seasonal allergies do better when they take BPC and recovery from. From exercise where some women in particular, you know, perimenopause can be a highly inflammatory state.

As we lose the protection from our hormones from estrogen and progesterone, there are more inflammatory cytokines in our bodies that can, that can kind of start a little bit of a fire so we don’t recover quickly enough. Maybe. Workouts drain us and you can’t do anything for three days. And I think BBC is really helpful.

Short term, I usually have women take it for about two months and what women notice, I’ve had some. Incredible results for, from women who have been dealing with, um, I’m thinking of one woman who was dealing with just aches and pains, uh, muscle aches and pains, joints, a [00:25:00] lot of swelling. And she was diagnosed with this sort of non-specific autoimmunity.

Nobody could kind of pinpoint it, but it was very hard for her to exercise. It made her feel worse pretty much every time. And we got her in BPC and she is a different woman. She. If she can go out and she can actually do the things that are good for her and she, her quality of life has just drastically improved.

So there are a lot of good, good case, good uses for, for BPC. There are other anti-inflammatory peptides that work from a little bit of a different angle. Another one that I love is, um, KPB, and that is more used for to dampen down the immune system. So really for autoimmunity. So for people who are attacking their own body, um, KPV is really great for that.

And then there are peptides used more for body composition. Uh, another very popular category [00:26:00] of peptides are those that increase secretion of growth hormone. Um, growth hormone replacement is not safe because it can increase your heart size and, um, cause a lot of side effects. But there are a number of peptides that increase your natural production of growth hormone.

And just like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, growth hormone can really decrease as we enter our forties, fifties, and beyond. And growth hormone is really important for energy, for strength, for building muscle, and for sleep. We produce all our growth hormone at night and it’s really crucial to actually be asleep, especially between 10 and 2:00 AM because that’s when our biggest production of growth hormone happens and, uh, reaps and taking these peptides that.

Stimulate your pituitary gland to put out just a little bit more growth Hormone naturally has also been really great for people who are working on body [00:27:00] composition, who are already basically at a good weight, but are having trouble transforming some fat to muscle, or gaining muscle or getting what they, what they want out of their workouts.

So that, that has been really powerful too, uh, especially for women who don’t want GLP ones. Um. Because these are, there’s, we don’t see that weight gain when you stop. With these. So there’s one in particular called Tein, and that targets what’s called visceral fat, which is a more dangerous fat that really lives around your organs, like your liver and spleen.

That’s the hard fat. So it’s not the fat rolls that you can grab. It’s the, it’s like if you’ve ever seen the guise with the beer gut, the really, the, the hard fat that just sort of bulges out. So Tessa Morelin increases your growth hormone level, but it’s actually FDA approved for. Um, visceral adiposity very expensive if you go that [00:28:00] route.

But, um, it will decrease that visceral fat, which we often have difficulty getting rid of in other ways and, and, um, again. I think it’s really important to work with someone who understands your medical history. People with certain cancers, um, should not take this just because you don’t want to increase your circulating levels of growth hormone if you have a tumor that might be growing somewhere.

So, so again, not for everybody, but for, for some women, it’s really been a game changer just to kind of. Get to the next, next level. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think that’s so cool. And I think that, you know, it’s funny, I, I listened to a, a podcast probably about two years ago, and I can’t remember the guy’s name, but he was using peptides for migraine.

He had like a clinic specific for peptides, for migraine. And when I heard about it, I thought, huh, like, because everything I’d heard about peptides was like weight loss and, and all the mm-hmm. Stigmas and stuff like that. And it’s funny too, ’cause a, as a health [00:29:00] coach, as someone who’s been in sort of the health coaching space.

For 15 years. Um, at first it was like, what, what is this? It’s a pharmaceutical, like, no, like we can, we can’t have people doing this. Right? And so I feel like there was this mission of a lot of health coaches to be like, no, not the peptides, right? Like mm-hmm. Lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle. And it turns out there can be a good mix of microdosing in addition to lifestyle.

So there’s a couple questions I wanna ask you. The first one before we get into the lifestyle factors is. Let me ask you this, ’cause this is a question that’s coming up to me. Maybe it’s because of my network marketing background. Maybe it’s because people are now seeing peptides from people like you, people like pharma, people like influencers online, like they’re seeing it from everywhere.

And so when you are prescribing peptides, I’m assuming you’re prescribing the injectable peptides. What are your, what is your stance on, or what do you feel about these other things coming out there that people can mix into their drinks, that people can take orally, capsules? Like what are your thoughts on those types of websites?

Is it all marketing [00:30:00] or is it the same as injectables? It really depends. I think there is. So peptides again are these short amino acids and the thing about them is that unlike medications when they enter your body and you meta, they do what they’re supposed to do, they break back down to amino acids and you digest them like it was food.

For most drugs, we have to use our liver or your kidney to break down a drug and excrete it as something else. So. Having said that, most peptides will not survive the GI tract to get anywhere else. Mm-hmm. I think the one exception, two exceptions, um, BPC one fifty seven is gut derived. It’s born in the gut, so that.

I think the oral BPC 1 57 can do some gut healing and help with reflux. Potentially there may be at very high doses. It may [00:31:00] actually reach muscles and other tissues, but most other peptides are. Not what ha, what happens when you take a medication is that it has to be broken down and then in your intestines it has to cross the barrier and get into your bloodstream to actually get to other places and do what it’s supposed to do.

Because the peptides are so small and they’re these tiny amino acids, most of them will not survive the trip. So I would say buyer beware, most of them just don’t work. Um, yeah. Yeah. I’m sure there are exceptions, but. But most of them, unfortunately, and, and most peptides are also, they aren’t meant to survive for a long time.

So if you do inject them under the skin, they are sort of like tipping the first domino in a reaction. So even the the BPC, it’s recruiting the right cells and it starts a reaction. Tips the first domino and then it goes [00:32:00] away and it doesn’t have to be there anymore. And it can break up into its amino acids.

But, but yeah, most of them will not survive the trip from your gut into anywhere else. Yeah. I’m so glad you said that. I mean, we’ve, we’ve had this conversation before about. Probiotics, right? Probiotics. Like what probiotics will actually reach the depths of your gut and which ones won’t. Yeah. Um, I have this conversation with women on hormones, even like, they wanna know why I’m such a fan of progesterone cream versus oral tablet.

And I tell them, because your body’s most likely going to absorb more and better through the skin than it will through an oral tablet. Um, because it has to be broken down by the liver, it has to go through the digestive process. So it makes total sense to me. But I’m starting to see all this stuff flung out there now.

Like there’s. Um, you know, drink mixes and all these things that are saying peptides, and I think it’s just marketing my friends for the most part. So just buyer beware. Yeah. Yeah. So, I wanna talk a little bit too, just about, I, I wanna hear what you have to say about like, your health coaching, um, piece.

Like what are you guys ensuring that people do? You said earlier like, we will not prescribe this if they [00:33:00] don’t take on the, the lifestyle markers. I’m assuming you’re getting them moving, you’re getting them, you know, strength training, proper fueling with nutrition. Like what does that look like? Yeah, it’s, that’s a great question.

So, and again, it’s very highly individualized because movement for some, we do work with older adults as well, and for, for some people just getting up and going out to the mailbox is a lot of movement and, and walking. And for others who are athletes and we have some who’ve been Olympic athletes and, and so we started a very different place, but.

But appropriately fueling your body. So I focus a lot on macronutrients and getting enough protein, not an insane amount of protein. Some people do go overboard with this, and we look at your level of activity, your age, your height to determine how much protein you should be eating. But protein is really an incredible fuel to build muscle.

And my, my biggest goal for everyone [00:34:00] is to burn fat while we. Preserve or gain muscle. And we’ve been very successful with this. We do body scans and body body scans where we look at body composition rather than weight. And I have a number of really impressive ones where we see the muscle mass go up by 10 pounds and you know, the body fat go down by 20 and um, and it’s actually.

Often very hard to convince women that we do not need to focus on a number, right? Like, you don’t need to be 140 pounds. That number is arbitrary and doesn’t really matter. We wanna focus on that body composition. So, um, and, and protein also feeds your brain. It actually increases your natural production of GLP one, which is that hormone that can be really good for blood sugar, um, insulin sensitivity and keeping you full longer.

So definitely focusing on protein, on healthy fats too, you know, and teaching people that they can eat some fat. [00:35:00] Fats are really important for hormone health. All our hormones are made from a backbone of fats. So, um, a lot of women have become fat phobic because that’s kind of what the nineties were all about.

And, um, reintroducing fat, fat keeps you full for a long time as well, and can be a really. Healthy source of fuel, um, and getting enough fiber trying to aim somewhere around 2021 grams of fiber a day. And that of course, keeps your gut healthy, but very importantly, it feeds your gut microbiome, which we could speak for another hour about, I’m sure.

But you have more little. Bugs living in your gut when you have cells in your entire body and those guys are talking to each other, they’re talking to the other cells in your body, they’re sending messages to your brain about how you’re gonna feel, about your mood, about your focus. They’re sending messages to your fat tissue, your [00:36:00] muscle tissue.

So I think that focusing on those three things, of course, trying to minimize our um. Processed foods is gonna be really, really important because those are loaded with non-food chemicals and, and I think we’re, we’re starting to learn that non-food chemicals are extremely harmful and they can. Do a number on your metabolism, on your brain health, um, on everything.

So, um, so trying to eat food and, and fuel our bodies is, is the big thing. And, and movement, of course, strategic movement for, um, for people who are very insulin resistant, taking a walk within an hour of dinner, um, of your big meal, you know, um. Muscle is the only tissue that can passively soak up blood sugar.

So insulin is the gatekeeper for getting [00:37:00] blood sugar out of the blood vessels and every or every tissue in your body except muscle needs insulin to do its job to get that sugar out of the blood vessels and into the cells except for muscle. So if you’re moving muscle. Right after you eat, then you are passively soaking up some of that blood sugar and it can’t do its damage and the blood vessels and, and, um, it can’t signal more insulin to be secreted, which insulin is the fat storage hormone.

So, um, there are a lot of tricks and, um. Little tips that we can give people that help their body naturally produce what, what it needs to produce. And then, but sometimes there is a gen genetic conditions. There are environmental reasons why our bodies are not listening to the inputs the way they should.

And that’s where I think. Peptides and sometimes other supplements come in to, to help our body tune in to the good [00:38:00] things that we’re already doing. But my goal in working with people is that they’ll never see me again. They’ll never need me again after this three months, six months, however long it takes.

You know, we, we want you to have all the tools to, to really feel your best. And again, it’s personalized, right? So when, if I have an appointment with, with, with Dr. Geier, it’s gonna be different from my mom having an appointment, right? Because we’re different people, we’re different body types, we’re different ages, all the different things factor in.

So just a reminder to my listeners that health is individual and also that muscles the key to longevity as Dr. Gabrielle LY says, right? So if we can really focus on. Muscle. I love that you mentioned, you know, we’re gaining muscle mass when we’re following people over time with these microdosing peptides, we’re seeing muscle mass increase and fat loss.

Right. And that’s what we wanna see. And I think some of the things that were scaring me about. The big names, the Ozempic was some of the information that was coming out about, actually, yes, people are losing weight, but they’re losing a lot of muscle, and so that’s where [00:39:00] we really have to take a look at.

Okay. Is there a lifestyle foundation? There are people still strength training. I think about my women in my community. Most of ’em are like me. They’re type A, they’re go-getters. There’re achievers, they’re exercising, they’re lifting weights, they’re eating healthy, they’re finally eating enough. And they maybe still can’t get that, that body composition to shift, that is the perfect person to be looking into, um, microdosing peptides because it could just be the thing that, as you said earlier, shifts the body in the right direction or jumpstarts the body in the right direction.

Right? So, um, but if we’re not gonna embrace that, like if we’re gonna be, well, I’d really like to just kind of continue my lifestyle as is processed. Foods not moving a lot. Then, then you’re not looking at the right combination. Right. So it’s, it’s a good, um, good reminder that we need both pieces. So hopefully my midlife ladies listening to this show have taken something from this as well, and the fact that something, sometimes things do change, right?

Our bodies change as we get older. And sometimes we have to do something different. We can’t just go back to, like you said earlier, all the intense cardio and restricting calories and assume our body’s gonna respond. [00:40:00] Right? Our body is now under a different sort, sort of stress, and our body’s transitioning, right?

I like to say the ovaries are waving fare along slow, farewell. And so as our body’s transitioning, maybe sometimes it needs a little bit of help, right? So I’m not here to provide to you guys with my specific opinion. I’ve not done peptides myself, so I can’t speak to the experience, but I can tell you.

Based on Dr. ER’s expertise, based on the people that I’ve spoken to in my circles, Dr. Page, that works with us as well, that this is really moving the needle for a lot of people, pun intended. And I really think that, um, it can be a solution for many. It’s just up to you. It’s up to you to look into your individual body and your individual, um, situation.

So as we wrap this up, I would love for you to share with people, I know you have lots of resources, so tell us where people can find you, um, and, and what you have to share. Yeah, so our website is the gaer practice.com and that’s spelled G-A-J-E-R. And it should be in the show notes. If you’re interested in anything that we’re doing there.

On the main page, it’s, there’s a option to book a free introductory [00:41:00] call that’s free for everybody, and that just gives you all the info that you can have that you may want about working with us in any way. Uh, we do work with. People across the country I personally work with, with, um, both men and women across the country and in on Instagram.

We are at the Guyer practice. Um, and you can find us there as well. Perfect. Awesome. Well, as she said, we’ll have that all linked up for you guys in the show notes. Thank you so much Dr. Geier, for being here with us today. Yeah, peptide. Thank We might have to have you back ’cause I’d love to talk more about hormones and stuff too, but I wanted to make sure we got this out to our listeners ’cause this is one of my most, most frequently asked questions.

So thank you so much for being here. Until next time, we will talk soon. Take care. Thank you. [00:42:00]