Peptides and Weight Loss
In recent years there has been an interest in the use of peptides in anti-aging and longevity medicine. Peptides are by definition a string of amino acids no longer than 50 base pairs in length. At this relatively short string of amino acids, they will maintain a stereochemistry of a liner configuration. Much longer and the string of amino-acids will turn in on themselves and represent a 3-D configuration.
Peptides are smaller than proteins. Traditionally, peptides are defined as molecules that consist of between 2 and 50 amino acids, whereas proteins (3-D) are made up of 50 or more amino acids.
For the purpose of this discussion peptides are short and straight and when discussing human use, natural. Examples of natural human peptides are insulin and growth hormone. Today modern science can create bio-identical peptides in a laboratory that are exactly the same that occur in nature.
We know that insulin is necessary for survival of humans to control the serum levels of glucose and allow much needed glucose molecules into our cells for energy production. Growth Hormone (GH) have anti-aging properties in nature and required while we are young for proper growth and development. As we age our endogenous GH becomes much lower. By administering rhGH (recombinant human growth hormone) we can slow down or even reverse the aging process. However, this therapy is awfully expensive and most people cannot afford this type of therapy. Insurance as of this writing does not cover it for anti-aging purposes. It is covered for those with dwarfism. So, peptides can step in as much more cost effective than commercially available GH to save the day. Also since peptides are messengers to the gland to produce GH, which are referred to as stimulating hormones they allow our own glands to produce (if they can) and reduce the chances for suppression of an active gland.
Another use for peptides is in weight loss or weight management. There are hundreds of peptides that we know are helpful in human health, fighting cancers to enhancing wellbeing to weight loss. Carolina Holistic Medicine now has a practitioner very experienced in the use of peptides for health and weight control. The FDA recently has placed restrictions on compounding pharmacies (cPharm) in their ability to compound these substances, but we have ways to work around this to keep this therapy affordable.