You may have heard about peptides in terms of their skin-tightening and beauty-enhancing properties. Indeed, peptides are the key ingredient in collagen (and the collagen supplements that are all the rage these days). The anti-aging benefits of peptide therapy, however, are not just skin deep. Since the 1970’s, Russian scientists have been investigating what they can do to rebalance and heal the body’s systems to enhance longevity and prevent disease, including cancer.

What Are Peptides?

To understand the benefits of peptide therapy, we have to start at the beginning. And when I say beginning, I am not kidding!

That is because peptides literally provide the basic building blocks for all life.

Molecularly, peptides are pretty simple. They are made up of two, sometimes three, amino acids bound together. When peptides come together in a chain, they form proteins.

Proteins, in turn, are the basic “foundation” that make up all the tissues in the body—everything from skin cells to lung tissue.

It is the peptide, though, that determines which tissue is to be regenerated, repaired or recalibrated in the body.

Dr. Khavinson and the Russian Soldier Study

Back in the 1970’s, a Russian research scientist, Dr. Vladimir Khavinson, was asked by the Russian military to investigate why the country’s young navy soldiers seemed to be developing symptoms of premature aging. They were experiencing insomnia, gut disturbances, low immune function, anxiety/depression, and fatigue.

Khavinson and his team discovered that the soldiers who experienced the symptoms were all:

-Subjected to odd sleep cycles (working the night shift or getting to bed at irregular hours;

-Not getting enough sunlight exposure;

-Living in cold temperatures;

-Being exposed to toxic substances (in this case, it was mainly radiation).

Do some– or maybe even all? — of these sound familiar to you in your own life? What was true for those soldiers fifty years ago is still true today. The above factors all play a part in creating the foundational condition that causes all disease: STRESS.

Peptides Are Essential for Repair

Dr. Khavinson didn’t stop when he found out what was causing the soldiers to be in the stress response. He also wanted to find what would help bring these soldiers back from the brink of disease and kick-start longevity. This search would lead to his lifelong work on peptides.

Khavinson and his team were the first to not only discover peptides, but also create sound hypotheses as to what they did in the body. They discovered that peptides are needed for communication at the DNA level since they are responsible for signaling tissue regeneration and repair.

First of all, peptides are “tissue specific.” This means that there is one specific and unique peptide that acts as the “bioregulator” for each organ. The bioregulatory peptide for the liver, for example, will be different than that for the thymus, and so on.

Peptides are also epigenetically-dependent. This means that when the body is in balance, peptides don’t do much. When a specific organ is out of balance, stressed out and in need of re-calibration or repair because of some kind of external input, the specific peptide for a particular organ will “switch on” and get to work.

Aging in general involves “the gradual process of a slowdown in protein synthesis.” Factors that contribute to stress like the ones mentioned above accelerated this process.

Can you see why peptides play such a vital role in longevity?

Peptide Therapy

This leads us to the basic premise of what is known as “peptide therapy.” Dr. Khavinson eventually left the Russian

military and went on to create the Saint-Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology (IBG) in St. Petersburg, Russia. He also heads the Khavinson Peptides ® International Research Foundation, where he and his team continue to do investigations into how peptide therapy can help with a variety of conditions, including COVID 19.

At his institute and a handful of others in Europe, peptide therapy is done either by injection, supplementation or a combination. At the IBG, the normal course of therapy is ten days, with supplementation recommendations afterwards at home once a person leaves the clinic.

Tissue-specific peptides from other mammals can work in humans for that specific tissue as well. Animal-generated peptides have been utilized for the last forty years or so. In addition to this, researchers have also created synthetically-derived peptides designed to mimic peptides and proteins in the human body. Thus far, synthetics have proven to work faster than naturals while animal-derived peptides appear to work better over the long term. For that reason, patients at the IBG and elsewhere often utilize both during their course of therapy. 

Peptide Therapy for Disease Prevention and Longevity

Dr. Khavinson, who was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2010, has contributed to over 700 scientific studies over the course of his career. Many of these studies have shown an overall improvement in specific organ function, a lowering of stress responses, and a lowering of risk of disease. In short, the overwhelming evidence states that peptide therapy works to increase longevity and boost quality of life overall.

Peptides can also have an effect on telomere length. According to a 2016 study authored by Dr. Khavinson and published in the Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, the peptides “Lys-Glu, Glu-Asp-Arg,and Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly” play an important role in the production of irisin. Irisin is a fat-burning hormone that has geroprotective, neuroprotective and immunomodulatory properties and can “induce telomere elongation” directly.

You may recall that telomeres are the tiny genetic endcaps that cover and protect the ends of the DNA. The longer telomeres are, the better your health and the longer your life in general, according to many research studies.

Peptide Therapy and Cancer

In addition, promising research is showing that peptide therapy may potentially be utilized in a variety of ways for Breast Cancer. When research on peptides first began in Russia, scientists there noticed that certain peptide groupings, especially for the pineal gland, could boost melatonin levels and lower Breast Cancer tumors.

In addition, a 2015 report published in the Journal of Immunology Research outlines three different ways that peptides are currently being used in cancer therapy: as stand alone therapeutics, as peptide vaccines and in conjunction with nanotechnology to add more focused targeting for chemotherapy.

As the above report indicates, conventional medicine appears to be getting on the peptide bandwagon as well. Researchers at MIT are currently developing synthetic peptides aimed at blocking a protein called Mcl-1, which normally helps cancer cells avoid programmed cell death, or apoptosis. This research is in the beginning stage, however, and nothing is known as to the side effects of using peptides in this way.  

Should You Consider Peptide Therapy?

Of course, I always advocate working with your body naturally to help heal cancer. Peptide therapy that provides support for the natural repair and recalibration of the body’s organs is definitely a modality I would consider on your Healthy Breast journey.

In addition, according to experts, to date there appear to be NO SIDE EFFECTS whatsoever from either naturally-based or synthetically-based peptide therapy utilized in this way. This is great news if you are considering peptide therapy for disease prevention and longevity.

For more information about peptide therapy and the work of Dr. Vladimir Khavinson, please visit the Khavinson Peptides International Research Foundation as well as the Medical Center at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology for more information.

Peptide therapy may also be available to you in the United States through supplementation. Be sure to consult with your holistic healthy practitioner for more information!

 

Dr. Veronique Desaulniers, better known as Dr. V, is the founder of The 7 Essentials System ™, a step-by-step guide that teaches you exactly how to prevent and heal Breast Cancer Naturally. To get your F.R.E.E. 7-day mini e-course, and to receive her weekly action steps and inspiring articles on the power of Natural Medicine, visit https://breastcancerconqueror.com