The Definitive Series on Longevity and Anti-Aging: Part II
One of the things I’m most excited about as I study functional medicine is anti-aging protocols, designed for longevity and well-being. There is a lot of great information not taught in medical school on this topic. Once you start down the rabbit-hole, it’s deep and full of information.
I personally started myself, my husband, and my 84-year-old parents on a peptide regimen, based on what I believe is today’s best data.
I plan to stay on top of breaking information updating you regularly, as new findings are released, so this is the second in a series on anti-aging, where I’ll share studies, insights, and my personal regimens with you.
Can peptide therapy turn back the clock? Turns out, if you are talking about the “Horvath clock,” the answer is yes.
The Horvath clock measures your personal telomere length, which shows the age of an individual cell and how many more times it is able to replicate. If your telomeres are short, you don’t have as much time left before that cell can no longer divide, and will die or become senescent. The answer may lie in a pineal gland peptide, epitalon.
You may have heard of the pineal gland. Most people recognize it because they know about melatonin, a pineal peptide that helps regulate sleep cycles. The pineal gland has also been shown to activate in Chinese meditation. Stimulating the pineal gland is akin to opening the “third eye” in the Buddhist practice through Khechari Mudra.
The pineal gland is physically above and acts on the hypothalamic/pituitary axis, and epitalon appears to do a lot more than the average peptide.
An old but renowned Russian study administered epitalon and thymulin to 266 elderly individuals for 6-8 years with annual ten-day peptide treatments. The treatment group registered a 4.1-fold mortality decrease in the interval (versus the placebo group).
Additional studies show the ability of epitalon to modulate neurogenesis with an epigenetic role, actually changing the way that proteins that neural proteins are transcribed from DNA to allow for regrowth and learning.
There are also many exciting studies showing lengthening of telomeres, as well as bioregulation of the endocrine system, reduction of reactive oxygen species, and even restoration of reproduction capacity in older female rats.
As we age, the pineal gland atrophies and calcifies, which is even more pronounced in neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Another gland, the thymus, similarly atrophies, and has little activity even by age 40.
This decreases the ability of our immune system to deal with new threats and may make us prone to auto-immunity and inflammation. Thymulin (made by the thymus) shifts the immune system away from inflammation, and helps fight oxidative stress. It allows T-lymphocytes to differentiate and function. Taking thymulin in bursts rejuvenates our immune system by recreating those signals we had as young adults and immune-senescence.
This summer, I decided to try it out on myself. On my first pass, I combined Epitalon with thymulin (as in the classic Russian study). After a ten-day course of these two peptides, I felt reenergized and dramatically more “normal”, like my regular self.
Before the peptides, I would get exhausted after work. It was hard to come up with the energy for the usual end-of day activities like dinner and dog-walking. But after the regimen, the fog was gone, and I would say I felt “normal” again. My surgical team is kind of hating it as they were having trouble keeping up with me as it was! Anecdotally, I have also not been sick since I took this combo, but that may just be luck.
For the day-to-day, there are about a billion things doctors (and just about everybody else), recommend. In my next blog, I’ll share the other supplements and peptides I take to address aging, muscle tone and energy levels.
