Are Research Peptides Safe? A Clinician's Take on Viral Health Trends

All right. Oh, yeah. Can't hear you. I'll be right back. All right. Welcome to the MedMatrix Method podcast, where one to two times a week, we talk about all things functional medicine and how to take a more personalized preventative approach to your health. Uh, quick disclaimer, this podcast is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to be nor replace any medical advice. If you are seeking medical help or attention, please refer to your physician. Um, if you are interested in us giving you medical advice, you can become a patient through um by booking a discovery call on our website. So, I am Brian. I'm the one that usually signs the bottom of all your marketing emails.

And today I am here with the one and only Colin Renard who is going to help us cut through all the noise and tell us which trends have some teeth and are worth um kind of getting into and which trends are just straight up a waste of money and or time. Um Colin, would you mind just introducing yourself for any new people that are listening? Sure. Yeah, thanks Brian. I'm happy to be here with you. Um, I'm Colin Bernard. I'm one of the lead u providers at Med Matrix. I have a pretty unique background. Uh, I have a background in chiropractic medicine as well as natural medicine. I am um currently practicing as a PA at MedMatrix practicing medicine there. I am multiple board certified uh in multiple disciplines including anti-aging medicine and I'm fellowship trained in functional medicine. I've been functional medicine practitioner for about 10 a little over 10 years now.

So, I specialize in hormone health, gut health, weight loss, nutrition, all kinds of things. Um, so I'm I'm excited to talk about this topic. I think it it's really important because a lot of my patients and I'll speak for the other clinicians that we get these questions all the time because people see stuff on their Instagram or Tik Tok or whatever and it's like, does this actually do anything? Um, so I think certain things work for certain people at the right time. So, I'm happy to have this discussion. I think it's important. So, health trends worth paying attention to. Hormones, peptides, so much more. Uh, you know, health trends, they're everywhere right now. They follow you around all over the internet, on your Instagram, on Tik Tok, even when you search stuff on Google and YouTube.

things like, you know, peptides, GLP-1s, hormone therapy, NAD, various longevity uh supplements, biohacking protocols, wellness clinics, and all, you know, things that are even deemed research peptides. All things being, you know, promoted across social media. Some of these things actually have real real clinical value. and we'll get into that uh in a few moments. But um a lot of them are super misunderstood, misused, poorly sourced and or just taken without actually understanding what's actually happening when you inject some foreign substance into your body. And when you say it kind of out loud in simple terms, it sounds sounds really bad. Yeah. Get this weird clear vial from China that with some powder in it. Some powder in it that going to mix myself. Yeah. Right next to my kitchen sink. And then based on some information I heard on the internet, I'm going to inject it into my body.

How could that? Do you remember? Do you remember anthrax? The whole anthrax thing years ago, like in the early 2000s, and people were afraid to get like powder in the, you know, getting powder in their mail. Now we're just buying it online and just injecting it in ourselves. Wow. We've really changed. We've really come full circle. Yeah. With a giant label on the package that is not for human use. Anyway, in this episode, we're actually going to be taking like a functional medicine look at some of these health trends. um highlight the ones that are worth paying attention to, talk a little bit more in depth about where some of them started from, like where there's value in them, ones that require caution, which is a decent amount of them, believe it or not.

Um, and the goal today is not to just chase what's viral, but to actually understand um, what your body needs, what your labs are showing, what risks may be present, and why having like a qualified health care, you know, professional guide the process actually matters if you're injecting things into your body because they're actually is an awful lot that can go wrong. So, uh, based on what you're seeing, Colin, like with all the stuff that's floating around the internet, which are the ones, which trends are the ones that patients are asking about the most when they come through the door? Yeah. So, um, the health trends that most people are talking about right now are fortunately and unfortunately the sexy ones that are on social media.

Um a lot of peptides get a lot of questions about peptides both oral peptides injectable peptides GLP-1 medications which are the weight loss drugs the ompics the semiglutides the tzepides majoros all those a lot of patients are talking about hormone replacement therapy guys talking about testosterone you know there's a lot of people on social media in the fitness space talking about testosterone kind of influencing the younger crowd to get on testosterone and that's can be a bit of an issue.

Um NAD and the precursors of NAD are really really big right now which is really important can be really important for energy supported brain cognitive function support um sleep support gut health is huge right everybody's got a probiotic nowadays every every famous you know health care person or doctor trying to sell you a probiotic or some sort of gut support detox supportive things you know they advertise these kits like oh detox and liver things and it's like these three or four supplements ments that you buy and it detoxes your liver or parasite cleanse or whatever. So, there's so many different um protocols, tools, supplements, things for aging, body composition tools. So, those are the things we're seeing a lot of. And like I said, patients will come in and ask, "Do I need a parasite cleanse? Do I need to cleanse my liver? Should I be taking mitochondrial support?

Should I be on a peptide? Should I be taking vitamins? Should I be taking a multivitamin?" there's so much floating around and I think it's important that um people are drawn to new therapies because they're kind of like tired of the old stuff. They're tired of kind of like the healthc care journey in general and the sort of what healthcare is offering them. But um so I am happy that people are seeing things but there is so much noise on social media and I think people just don't know where to start. So, I'm happy they come to me with their questions rather than as we said as we started just buy some Chinese powder online and start just have at it injecting and not know what happens. So, I'm happy to answer people's questions. I'm glad they're coming with questions so that they can kind of u edit the noise down a little bit.

So I mean with that said, how do you help patients get clear on what is a true medical tool that is appropriate for them versus some weird viral wellness thing. Yeah. So um that's where we excel really at Matrix and our method is um telling them what they need versus what they are just seeing online. So, when when patients find things online, um it's targeting a very specific thing usually. And patients have to remember that you're trying to be sold something, right? They're trying to sell a product, they're trying to sell a supplement, um if they're trying to sell you a supplement that promises energy and vitality and you're going to feel like a million dollars. Well, sure. But if you have hormone deficiency, if your diet is crap, if you're nutritionally deficient, if you're not sleeping, if you're stressed to the max, uh this magical supplement is not going to work.

The company got your money, right? They did their job. They made money. You're still at square one. So, our approach from a functional perspective and at MedMatrix is highlighting what patients need right from the get-go. That's why we do really extensive testing. We start all new patients with over 80 biioarker check um in blood work and we really get a good sense of what patients need versus just kind of a gimmick. Um gimmicks don't really work and um but people buy into them. That's why they're there. So it is fun to think on some level that you're getting some new secret information. Yeah. Going to make things a little easier. Like there is a certain level of like seduction to that. Like oh this is like the real the cool stuff that conventional medicine doesn't want you to know.

And you know, we touched on it a little bit, like why why is it so risky for people to treat peptides, hormones, and GLP1s that can be safe, but why is it risky for people to treat these things like some, you know, some supplement that they can just buy at a CVS over the counter? Yeah. So, it's risky when people treat uh peptides and hormones like like and GLP-1s too, like a casual sort of wellness product because they're not basic lifestyle hacks. They are they are medicines. They are require a medical license to prescribe um because they and they affect your appetite. They affect your hormone levels. They affect your immune system, your blood sugar, um your body composition. So there is this huge push I see a lot with fitness influencers, younger guys um into bodybuilding or fitness in some way.

They are just pouring onto social media telling young men to get on testosterone, you know, um push tea as they call it or cycle tea or whatever this terminology they're using. And it's very dangerous because this fitness influ has no medical experience and they have no license or any type of accrediting agency to that's responsible for them. So they can say whatever they want. No one's going to get them no one's going to get them in trouble. Um they're not going to get in trouble with anybody. But if you're encouraging a young man in his 20s to get on testosterone, that could affect his health for the rest of his life in a negative way. It could affect his fertility, could affect other things. So there's um there are definitely reasons why you need to be evaluated properly because it can work against what the patient is trying to help.

Um and as you said the things are very very sexy, very you know lucrative um to kind of this is going to cure all my maladies but if it was that easy everybody would do it. So, you know, it's not like a holy grail. This supplement on Instagram, I mean, you know, it's kind of takes them a little basic reasoning like, oh, is this magic supplement going to cure all my maladies? I don't know that that's true. I think people need to use a little bit more deductive reasoning when they see these things. So, it's just not that simple. Why I guess why might it be problematic if people are just copying protocols and or getting instructions from fitness influencers online beyond just like this person isn't licensed and they don't know what they're talking about. I I personally can totally appreciate that.

um that a guy with a tattoo on his neck might not be the best person to get fit, you know, health advice from, but that's that's me and my own biases. Um but like why is just I mean, yeah, nothing against tattoos, but yeah, it's tough because it's tough because not everybody is the same, right? And everybody has different bodies and different needs and different hormone needs and um different coorbidities or medical risk factors or contraindications with certain medication that they take or they've had a history of cancer and they can't take this thing or they have they're on a psychiatric medication and they can't take this thing or there's there's lots of um there's lots of reasons why not everybody does the same thing and that's why it takes a very skilled practitioner to know all those variables. Even something like a supplement, an herb, right?

There are a lot of herbs that interact with medications. So, if you go buying herbal things just from somebody online, you might be taking a medication that interacts with that herb and it could cause something pretty significant. So if you don't have somebody checking those, like a check and balance, you could be setting yourself up for a difficult time. So you really need a skilled person to evaluate what you need. It's not about like a one-sizefits-all. That's not health care. Um, and that's really what functional medicine is, is we excel at personalized health care, what people really need as a person on a personal level. So why do patients or just you know the average consumer like why do they need to understand the difference between what's available and what's appropriate for me? Yeah, it's a good question.

So patients need to understand the difference between quote unquote available versus appropriate. So just because someone can buy something doesn't mean it's good for you. And a lot of places are selling things, you know, med spas, online people, the fitness people, the influencers, they're making tons of money. Um, these these influencers on Tik Tok, they do the Tik Tok shop, they're selling you a supplement or some sort of wellness something, um, some sort of, uh, device or whatever. They make a ton of money, these people. Um, and it doesn't is that is that thing really appropriate for your body? Well, maybe it might not hurt you, right? But like, did you just spend 50 bucks and you're not going to it's going to do diddly crap? Like, you know, you're kind of wasting money.

And then you do that like 50 times over the course of however long, you're just throwing money out the window, right? And are you actually getting better? Are your are your health concerns being addressed? Maybe probably not. I would I would guess probably not. So functional medicine as a philosophical approach to health care really asks whether it makes sense clinically, not whether it's accessible. A lot of things are accessible. That doesn't mean we give them to everybody. Um I use this analogy all the time when patients ask me about supplements. There's a ton of supplements on the market, tons, and they all do great things. Do we all need to be on all of them? Like 50 supplements? No. Just because they do good things doesn't mean we need them all. So it needs to be a personalized approach. Definitely. Yeah.

I mean and with the internet and so many loopholes like just about anything could be available. Um so just because it's scrolling ac across your feed does not mean it's for you specifically. Right. because there's a lot that can go wrong with these therapies if you're injecting them, taking things that aren't appropriate. Like other than just like some sight injection infections, what are some real deal things that can happen to people if they're putting these things in their body and they don't understand the consequences? Yeah, it's a that's a good point. Like you we talked about these research peptides people are ordering from who knows where and basically they send you a little bottle of dilution fluid and you buy a couple insulin syringes on Amazon and have at it, right? Um are you even injecting it in the right place? Are you practicing proper sterile technique?

Have you dosed it right? Like do you even know how to how to reconstitute it so that it's the right dose? Um, so therapies can backfire when they're not personalized because patients can do a number of things in terms of affect their appetite, uh, muscle metabolism or muscle loss. Um, a lot of things can really upset people's GI. Um, it can if people struggle with mental health issues, could you have, you know, an exacerbation of anxiety or over stimulation of your system essentially? Um, there's also, like I said, contraindications to things. There are reasons why people shouldn't be taking something. So, if there's a missed, deeper diagnosis in the person and you're like shooting up something you found online from China, could you be doing something really bad to yourself? It's very possible.

Um, so this this adage of like more is better or you know this guy on Instagram is like totally ripped and like has an amazing body so I'm going to do exactly what he's doing. Yeah, it's all smoke and mirrors though. There's a lot that goes into the way these people function and look. Um, you know, you you're a triathlete, right? I'm a bodybuilder. We we understand the how how becoming an athletic level person, performing at that level, how what that takes. It doesn't happen from a little vial that you get in the mail necessarily, right? It's a lot more to it than that. So these people on the internet, they look they look really sexy. It looks really nice. Like I want that life. But a supplement doesn't produce that life. It doesn't produce that figure. it doesn't produce that physique. It's a lot more than that. So, um you have to really personalize things.

If um if you don't, it really backfires. So, one of the things that I think can be confusing for people, especially with the peptide thing, is they are a lot of them are naturally occurring in the body. Right. Right. So, it's it's this idea of like, well, it's already in my body. Why not add a little more? Can you speak to like why that might not be the best philosophy. The the main thing is is the dose right? You know, that's like the main thing. Are you are you dosing it appropriately? Um if you if you need to increase your vitamin D, right, and you buy a vitamin D supplement, do you take the whole bottle? No. Intuitively, you take it like once a day, right? That's even probably what the bottle says. Take one capsule every day. If you buy a peptide online, there's no directions, none. You have to put fluid in there to kind of dilute the powder.

And then you have to is it the right amount? And then how much am I pulling out? And then the needle and how much am I injecting? Am I doing it every day? Am I doing it twice a day? Do I only do it certain days a week? That's the biggest thing is the is the dosing really is is where the the peptides come into play because if you're not doing it right, you could cause some pretty significant side effects. GI side effects, diarrhea, um it could, like I said, screw with the medication you're taking. There's a lot of things that have to be considered. So when people are searching for these trends, what's usually the thing that kind of sets it off in terms of symptoms that you're seeing?

So like patients are coming to you, they're presenting, they're saying, "Hey, I'm feeling this, this, and this, and should I be doing X, Y, and Z?" What are some of the symptoms that people are actually presenting with? Yeah. The common things that people are searching for that kind of hook them into these trends in the first place are the most common things that most people are struggling with nowadays. Fatigue is a big one. Weight gain is a huge one. Um athleticism of some kind, whether it's muscle building or fat loss or a fat burner of some kind. Um they're not recovering well after the gym. um a lot of targets towards men with like low libido, erectile dysfunction, sexual performance, muscle mass. Um you know, there's this whole kind of visual in the in the uh social media space that men are supposed to be Spartans, right? If you don't look like a Spartan, you're not jacked.

You're not a man, right? men want to, you know, attain that. And when you see these fitness influencers telling you to do something and you're say overweight, out of shape, you might do it because they look like, you know, the stereotypical man's physique is supposed to look. Um, so there's a lot of catch on that. Same thing with women, right? Women struggle with um um weight and and the way they view themselves physically. So, if you have this very very thin attractive female that's trying to kind of sell you some sort of something online, it becomes very attractive to you. Um, so weight, the way you look, fat, that's a big driving point. Um, pain is another big thing that people struggle with, whether it's joint pain or muscularkeeletal pain.

Uh and then also stuff around food, food cravings, uh body composition, um dietary advice, um you know, dietary advice for anything, inflammation or weight loss or muscle building. So lot those are some big things I see that try to grab people and those are kind of the things that those are a lot of the things that patients come to us for. So I'm glad they're coming to us. And a lot of times they might say, "Oh, I saw XYZ on my social media, but I'm here because I want you to help me. I don't want to get help from a fitness guy on social media, which is great, but they're also seeing it, but they're actually coming to be seen and get personalized care, which is great.

So when people do come and they're curious about some of these trends, peptides, hormone therapy, whatever it is, what are some of the causes that you try to evaluate or or you think should be evaluated before someone starts something like a peptide um that isn't a GLP-1 or maybe a GLP-1 hormone therapy, etc.? Yeah. So, the there's a lot of root causes that should be evaluated before someone starts any type of you want to call it like wellness quote unquote wellness therapy um whether it's a GLP1 hormones, peptides. We need to look at people's insulin resistance or how well they control their blood sugar. We need to look at their thyroid, how well is your thyroid working. Your thyroid basically dictates how your metabolism works. Uh we need to look at hormones, right? Are you menopausal, permenopausal, post-menopausal as a female? um do you have low or sub-optimal testosterone as a male?

Um and then right from the get-go on day one when we evaluate patients as clinicians, uh we talk about their stress, we talk about their sleep, we talk about their diet, we talk about how often do they poop, right? Is it normal? Does it are you is it softer? Is it diarrhea? Um what do you eat? Right? How much protein do you get? Do you eat snacks? Do you drink soda? Do you smoke? Do you drink alcohol? um you know what what do you do for physical activity? Do you sit all day at a desk job, right? Do you go to the gym? Do you do any kind of physical activity? Do you walk? How many steps do you get maybe in a day? Um you know what what what is liver function looking like, kidney function, inflammatory markers.

Um, and then the big one, like I said, is that's is this is where a provider comes in is if we're going to start some sort of peptide therapy, a GLP1, it needs to agree with the other things you're taking. Some people do have some extensive health histories, we need to make sure it's not contraindicated. People have had cancer or other types of disease or other types of major health conditions that contraindicate certain things. And they might be on a medication that's contraindicated. So all of this plays into um what we do in the initial visit when we're evaluating someone for some of these these things. It's very important. Very very important. So with that said, I mean why is it that two people can take the same peptide hormone whatever but still have two completely different outcomes? So the thing is with two different outcomes is you have two different people, right?

So if you're taking the same peptide, the same GLP1, the same hormone, people have different issues, different root causes, different body types, different genetics, uh gut health is different, the way people detoxify is different. Um their baseline is different, right? How they started. So you could have two, say, 35year-old men. One is, you know, 10% body fat, works out all the time, eats a great diet. The other one has never lifted a weight the day in his life. He's grossly obese, eats really poorly, maybe smokes occasionally. Those are very two different people. They might need the same thing. Maybe they both have suboptimal test, but it does not mean that they're the same person, that they need the same treat uh treatment plan. So dosing can be different. Um they're they might be on different medications that could interact.

So very very important to understand that everybody is different and that's why when you're trying to look for something on social media, the person selling you that thing doesn't understand how you're different from the other person that just looked at it, you know, five minutes ago. So it's an important distinction. So, with that said, um I guess it's important to say that some of these things do actually work, which is why it's actually so like confusing and so difficult to navigate. So, you know, if a person ends up going to their conventional doctor, where are you hearing or how can they leave feeling frustrated if they're bringing these new ideas to a conventional doctor? Yeah. And I say this all the time on on this podcast. Um, Med Matrix and myself and my other providers, we are not anti- medicine. We prescribe medication. We are not anti our medical colleagues.

We just think that the standard health care model is not doing the best to optimize health. And I think that's very well understood. So a lot of times patients are going to conventional doctors or their primary care provider, family doctor talking about something they saw online, a hormone, GLP1s, a peptide. If you're if you're talking about peptides to your family doctor, they're probably going to have no idea what you're talking about. or they're going to say, "Do not do it. It's very dangerous." And the reason why they're saying that is because what we're saying, you know, if you get them, source them from an online place, you have no idea. Yeah. Can be very dangerous. If you come to Med Matrix and get peptides, we're sourcing it from a very reputable compounding pharmacy where there's regulation and it's all up to up to par, right?

Um, so the other thing is is that these these therapies require some time. you know, you have to review the necessity, you have to review the symptoms, you have to review the risks, the alternatives, what the patients goals are, um how it interacts with other things they're doing. And um most of the time there's just not a lot of time in the visit in a primary care setting for this. And one of my perfect examples of this is any most of the time when I have patients that have started or talked to their doctors um about a GLP-1, which are the weight loss drugs, nine times out of 10 their provider did not talk to them about diet, which is essential when it comes to GLP-1s. You have to make sure you're eating the right things, eating enough protein, eating enough calories, otherwise it's not going to work or you might get some long-term health effects from it.

So that's sort of a no, it's a non-negotiable for me with my patients. If you're if I'm going to start you on a GLP1, we got to do all the other work. You got to meet me halfway. We got to do the diet. We got to talk about your lifestyle. We got to talk about your alcohol consumption. All of that stuff is going to affect the effectiveness of the drug. So there's just not a lot of time in the conventional health care system and setting for these discussions to be had. And that's where I think patients are getting frustrated. Um, and they're coming to us instead because we give them the time and we have the time to review and go over all these parameters with them. And I think that's what patients are looking for. Um, from my experience, they're really looking for someone to go over it so they can understand it because that's really the goal.

The patient needs to understand why they're doing this stuff. So I mean in your opinion why do patients end up vulnerable to online health trends when they don't feel heard? Yeah provider. Yeah. Patients are really vulnerable to health trends because when a patient is dismissed um then they can start searching for answers elsewhere. Um, back in the day before social media, you had to listen to your doctor, right? You had to, you didn't have another choice. You could talk to maybe a friend or a relative or something about a problem, but you didn't have the internet to go looking for other information. So, you had to listen to your healthcare provider.

Now in the advent of so much information on the internet being shared um people can go and find information on their own and the reality is their doctors are going to have to start listening because they are looking patients are looking elsewhere for help and the problem is is that social media will give very confident advice to patients. As you said it sounds very sexy. It sounds really nice from a person that looks exactly maybe the way the patient wants to look or lives this kind of wellness lifestyle that they want to aspire to. Um, but that person in your phone on their page on social media doesn't know anything about you. They don't know anything about your medical history. They don't know anything about your labs. They don't know any anything. Nothing. They might not even be a medical provider. Probably they're not.

Um so it is very it is very um trendy and you know people are attached to their phones you know how often do you see your doctor once a year twice a year you know you can you can get information at 3:00 in the morning about health if you go searching for it you can't do that from your doctor so people are flooded much more with health information online than they are from their regular providers nowadays which is kind of scary but Um, that's where, you know, you need someone that's that's talented and has the experience to kind of weed away all the all the noise. So, I think it's worth just touching on because we we've talked about this a lot, but I realized we haven't actually explained what this is. What actually is a research peptide for the people that don't even know what Good question. So um yeah, sorry for those that are listening what we just assumed.

Um a a peptide, so to take it a little step back, a peptide is a molecule made up of amino acids, which are chemicals found in the body and found in food that um have some sort of direct effect on other parts of the body. So peptides can affect hormones, they can affect receptors, they can affect uh your immune system. Um so when we talk about research peptides really what that means is the peptide is being formulated by a company that is not a medical company nor is it a pharmacy and they are creating these peptides um for quote unquote research purposes only which means because they're not a pharmacy or a pharmaceutical company or a medicalbased company they do not have appropriate licensing to produce a human consumed substance. So, they have to put on the vial.

It's for research purposes only and should not be used for human or veterinary consumption, but people still buy them and still use them because that's what is trendy on TikTok right now. Um, so the problem here is is the substances may not be tested properly. They may not be approved for human consumption at all. They might be contaminated. You don't even know if what you're getting is in there. Could it be sugar water? Could it be unsafe? Could it be contaminated with some sort of heavy metal? All that is very possible. So, the research word implies that it was not formulated necessarily to human consumption standards by some sort of medical or pharmaceutical company. And that's really where the research part comes. So they can get away with it because they're putting this disclaimer.

We'll produce this thing, but you shouldn't use it for human consumption and you can get away with that legally. I think as time goes on, there will probably be legislation that will change this. Um, especially if the FDA starts to approve the use of peptides regularly. all these research companies are sadly going to not be able to exist because they're going to be producing things that are FDA approved and that's against the law. So, um it might be actually a good thing if the um federal government does take some hold on this. I I have other opinions about that. But if we do recognize peptides as um medically necessary and FDA approved, then it does take away some of this research stuff, which would be good. Yes, for sure. And you know, when someone does come through the door specifically to Medatrix asking about a viral health trend, where does the process begin for that person?

So, um, MedMatrix is sort of a a starting place as a functional medicine clinic, but it it is a place for patients to really understand their health story. So, when they come to us and they're asking about all these things, these viral trends, uh, the process really begins by understanding the patient. you know, at the very first visit, any of the providers you see at MedMatrix, whether it's me or any of my um handful of other colleagues that I work with, we go through all of your symptoms, what are your chief concerns, what are your goals, tell me about your health history, what's happened to you, have you had any surgery, have you gotten hit by a bus, you know, have you had cancer, right? What medications do you take? What's your lifestyle all about? How much do you sleep? Do you sleep well? Do you wake up rested? Are you stressed? Do you have kids? What's your family like?

What's the family dynamic? What do you eat every day? How much water do you drink? Um, you know, what's your digestion like? Do you have good solid bowel movements? Do you go every day? Um, and then, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, we do test about 80 plus biomarkers on every new patient that walks in the door. So when you see a clinician at MedMatrix for the first visit, uh we do go through all of these different biioarkers with you to give you a really solid plan about what you need and what's going on and what we sort of think is going to help you. And that's where we can start introducing some of these type of uh therapies if appropriate. Uh like we said before, Brian, we're not trying to give everybody everything and not everything is appropriate to everybody.

We really have to look at it objectively and put it together as a story and say, "Okay, these are some options that could help you. What what are you interested in and what are your goals and how can these things help attain your goals?" So, that's really what we strive for and that's what we do really well, I think, at MedMatrix. We do it really, really well every day. So, what are some safe uh what is some safe monitoring for these things and what does it look like? Like specifically like what does safe monitoring actually look like when using newer therapies, off label therapies, etc. Because there's there's a lot to it. Yeah. So um when we're monitoring therapies, it depends on the therapy, but um all therapies need to be monitored depending on the patient, depending on what the goals are. So what we're trying to do is we're trying to track symptoms.

Number one, how do you feel on this therapy? Is it a hormone? Is it a peptide? Is it a weight loss thing? Right? What what are those um what are those goals that you had when we first started? Are we starting to achieve those goals? Um, are you having any side effects? Right, the GLP-1 medications for weight loss, they do carry some level of side effects. Hormones can have some temporary mild side effects. So, are you having any of those things? Um, then we also look at follow-up labs, right? If you're on hormone replacement therapy, we're looking at hormones. We're checking to make sure that we're not overdosing or underdosing. We're trying to find the right, you know, the perfect perfect balance there. We're checking people's body composition, right? If they're on a weight loss protocol, are they losing weight? Are they building muscle? Are they losing body fat?

Um, we're assessing nutrition. I talk about nutrition at every visit with every patient. You know, are you eating the right things to complement and help make the therapy the most effective? Um, are you sleeping better? Is your mood better? How's your energy levels? Um, we look at inflammatory markers. Are your blood sugar numbers more balanced? Um, and really ultimately what we're looking for is if the therapy is moving the patient toward their goal, right? And my charts when I document my patients notes from each visit, I have all their goals written down um from the first day. That's a question I ask. What are your goals? What do you want? Why are you here? Right? What do you want out of this? So, we always go back to those goals. We set long-term goals. We set short-term goals. And we always talk about are we are we achieving your goals and are there new goals?

Because when a patient starts to achieve some of the goals that they that they looked to achieve when they started the program with the Med Matrix or they started therapy, maybe six months goes by, right? Then they have a new goal. It's like, "Oh, I never thought I'd be doing this, but like I lost a bunch of weight and I want to compete in a marathon." Oh, okay. So, how do we do that? Right? Um, so people will attain new goals as their health changes. So that's a huge part of what we're doing too is in terms of the monitoring is understanding goals. Hugely important. And along with the monitoring, like what would you say to a person who might say, "Hey, I can just order this stuff online myself. What do I actually need a physician for or a provider or whatever?" Yeah. Um, so patients do do that sometimes.

Um, and it is a little bit frustrating because it kind of takes the wind out of our sales like we just kind of gave you the all this education and all these things that we can do and I'm I'm telling you all the different parameters and then well I saw this thing on Tik Tok. It's like oh brother why did I you know no we're not talking about Tik Tok. So if someone wants to do stuff online, um you may be able to do it, right? A lot of people can do it. You know, you can find these peptide companies or these online companies that sell GLP1s, but you're not getting any you're not getting a lot of support. You're not getting nutritional support. You're not getting individualized care from somebody. A lot of these online companies that provide um services to people for hormones or GLP1s, a lot of who you're interacting with is AI.

I mean, there's clearly people at these companies that have medical licenses that can order these prescriptions for you, but when you have follow-ups, you're typing in a questionnaire based on algorithmic data, and they're kind of spitting back a plan to you, all generated through AI. you're not actually sitting down talking to someone talking through what you're going what's going on or interactions or issues and people really do in the advent of AI it helps us a lot in our modern life but people really are longing for human connection when it comes to their health I am told that all the time I'll have patients tell me like yeah I ran my labs through AI but I'm really happy to sit and talk to you because I have some questions I really want to understand this I want to talk through this with you I need that human connection So, I do think that people are still longing for that.

Um, which is really good. You know, I don't want to be out of a job and like AI takes over. Um, as soon as AI can write prescriptions, that's going to be tough. But, um, so you might be able to order something online, but like we said before, if you don't know how to use it, if you don't know how to dose it, you didn't know where it came from, um, is it interacting with anything else I take, uh, you know, if you haven't been evaluated, you're really taking some risks. And I think people are really eager to make change in their health, which rightfully so. I don't blame them for that. But your health is not a place to start just like experimenting and guessing. Uh cuz things can go wrong and if it does then you really, you know, it's going to be it's going to be tough. So we we really really do not recommend people just kind of take the information and then go figure it out on their own.

That really defeats the purpose. And so with everything we've discussed today around trends and research peptides and hormone therapy and all different kinds of supplements, what is what's the biggest takeaway or the one thing you want people listening to have gotten from this? Like what's the one big idea or word of wisdom or whatever? Yeah. So, the biggest takeaway from this conversation, I think we've covered a lot um for people that are curious about peptides or weight loss medications or hormones or some sort of trendy thing is some trends are really really worth paying attention to.

And like I said earlier in the podcast, I think the fact that people are looking for answers elsewhere aside from their their health care provider is sometimes a good thing because if your health care provider is is dismissing you or gaslighting you or not giving you answers and you're struggling with something, I definitely encourage you to go looking elsewhere because you deserve to get help. Um, but you deserve to get help from someone that will actually guide you, not just kind of come up with your own solution based on someone you see on Tik Tok or Instagram. Um, the goal is not to chase something that's viral. It's to better understand your body. And that's one of my that's one of my biggest philosophies as a healthc care provider is educating my patients on how their body works.

And if they can really start to understand that, then they take ownership of themselves and ownership of what they're doing to their body and how they feed it and how they treat it. So, um, you know, you need to understand your body. You need to understand the root cause of why things are happening. You need to understand safety and efficacy. And you need to really ultimately build a plan, like I said before, of goals, long-term, short-term, that supports your health instead of finding something trendy. because not only will you probably waste your money, you probably waste your time and then it's, you know, it just becomes a vicious cycle if you do that over and over again. So, I hope people take away that from this discussion that um personalized care is really the best way to do that and that's what we do. That's kind of the pinnacle of the med matrix way.

So, well, thank you so much for joining us today, Colin. Sure. Um, if anyone is interested in like I said, having us give you some medical advice, you can do that by being a patient by going to our website, uh, medmatrixusa.com and then booking a discovery call. Um, super honored to be here, Colin. information as usual and uh we will see you here on is it Thursday or Friday? I think it's Friday. We are here again on Thursday. I'm back on Thursday. Um so on Thursday's episode uh we are talking about um statin medications or cholesterol lowering medications. So kind of some of the truth behind any of that. um you know the the risks, the benefits, how they're used. Uh so I will be back doing Thursday afternoon talking about that. Yeah.

And if there's anybody that is interested in streaming any of our old episodes, you can find us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts um or on YouTube to get old episodes if you want to send to a friend or something. We do one to two of these a week. So we are here spreading as much information as we can. All right, everybody. Thank you. We'll see you in a couple of days. Thanks everybody. Thanks Brian. Bye call.