Dr. Loren Walensky on Peptides

And is it fair to say that, look, we all have peptides, it's just a fancy word for amino acids and amino acids are just a core part of our cellular biology that makes our bodies hum.

And so really when we're talking about peptides in the context of wellness and health, we're talking about either some synthetic imitation of an amino acid that we either have or should have in the case of insulin.

Okay.

Type one diabetes.

I'm not producing insulin, but I need insulin to live.

Okay.

We figured out how to synthetically create it and we give it to you, you know, through a, you know, through a shot.

Or we are creating some new peptide that we think interacts with the body well.

And that's contextually how you hear the term peptides today.

We're not really spending a lot of time talking about the peptides that are just flowing through us and doing their job as they have been for hundreds of thousands of years.

You're essentially, if you're trying to develop peptides as drugs, you're trying to essentially take advantage of a normal biological pathway, you know, where these peptides are, you know, organically used within your body to do a job.

And so, you know, insulin is a great example because the pancreas is supposed to make insulin to respond to the different levels of sugar in your body.

And if you don't have enough of it, that's very dangerous and causes all sorts of organ dysfunctions.

And so replacing it is important.

Now, you know that this is something that needs to be manufactured.

It's something that needs to be, the dosing needs to be controlled because the old expression, too much of a good thing.

If you overdosed on insulin, that would kill you, right? So It's not as simple as saying I'm going to exactly make what the body or any organism makes and I'm going to inject it because there's several aspects to it.

Certain peptides are actually some of the most vicious toxins out there and, you know, venoms and various things that, you know, can really destroy your body and destroy your vasculature.

So there's a lot of dangers, you know, of natural peptides as well.

But then, you know, you have to ask the question, how do I make them? Right.

There's a whole manufacturing process.

So yes, you can purify them from species like the initial insulin was first purified, but it's a manufacturing process.

And as soon as you start talking about manufacturing process, you're talking about purity, you're talking about contaminants, because the process of synthesizing or making a peptide in a laboratory is obviously completely different.

than how the body does it.

You have to use chemicals.

And is it fair to say that, look, we all have peptides, it's just a fancy word for amino acids and amino acids are just a core part of our cellular biology that makes our bodies hum.

And so really when we're talking about peptides in the context of wellness and health, we're talking about either some synthetic imitation of an amino acid that we either have or should have in the case of insulin.

Okay.

Type one diabetes.

I'm not producing insulin, but I need insulin to live.

Okay.

We figured out how to synthetically create it and we give it to you, you know, through a, you know, through a shot.

Or we are creating some new peptide that we think interacts with the body well.

And that's contextually how you hear the term peptides today.

We're not really spending a lot of time talking about the peptides that are just flowing through us and doing their job as they have been for hundreds of thousands of years.

You're essentially, if you're trying to develop peptides as drugs, you're trying to essentially take advantage of a normal biological pathway, you know, where these peptides are, you know, organically used within your body to do a job.

And so, you know, insulin is a great example because the pancreas is supposed to make insulin to respond to the different levels of sugar in your body.

And if you don't have enough of it, that's very dangerous and causes all sorts of organ dysfunctions.

And so replacing it is important.

Now, you know that this is something that needs to be manufactured.

It's something that needs to be, the dosing needs to be controlled because the old expression, too much of a good thing.

If you overdosed on insulin, that would kill you, right? So It's not as simple as saying I'm going to exactly make what the body or any organism makes and I'm going to inject it because there's several aspects to it.

Certain peptides are actually some of the most vicious toxins out there and, you know, venoms and various things that, you know, can really destroy your body and destroy your vasculature.

So there's a lot of dangers, you know, of natural peptides as well.

But then, you know, you have to ask the question, how do I make them? Right.

There's a whole manufacturing process.

So yes, you can purify them from species like the initial insulin was first purified, but it's a manufacturing process.

And as soon as you start talking about manufacturing process, you're talking about purity, you're talking about contaminants, because the process of synthesizing or making a peptide in a laboratory is obviously completely different.

than how the body does it.

You have to use chemicals.