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The mindbodygreen Podcast

636: The ultimate guide to peptides | Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

08 Feb 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What are peptides and how do they differ from hormones?

0.031 - 6.514 Jason Wachub

Welcome to the My Buddy Green podcast. I'm Jason Wachub, founder and co-CEO of My Buddy Green and your host.

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Chapter 2: What are the benefits of endogenous vs. exogenous peptides?

10.628 - 30.65 Jason Wachub

Today's guest is Dr. Elizabeth Urth, a pioneer in regenerative and functional medicine who has been at the forefront of peptide therapy long before it became an Instagram sensation. Dr. Urth specializes in helping patients optimize their health through strategic peptide use, hormone replacement, and a deep understanding of the body's natural biochemical pathways.

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31.011 - 34.054 Jason Wachub

In today's show, we explore what peptides actually are.

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Chapter 3: How do growth hormone secretagogues work and who should consider them?

34.034 - 55.255 Jason Wachub

and how they're different from hormones and therapies, and why quality sourcing matters more than most people realize. We also discuss why peptides are not magic pills and should not be used in isolation, how to think about peptides for women in midlife alongside HRT, and the promising role of peptides in cognitive health and reducing neuroinflammation.

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Chapter 4: What safety concerns are associated with the use of peptides?

55.575 - 56.397 Jason Wachub

Let's get to it.

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59.785 - 65.833 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

So how do you define peptides? So basically think about peptides as small protein chains.

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Chapter 5: How do peptides contribute to anti-aging and hormone replacement therapy?

65.953 - 86.311 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

So if you look at a protein, it's really greater than 50 amino acids. So proteins are just amino acid chains like glycine, arginine, lysine, right? They're just strings of amino acids linked together by bonds. Protein makes it greater than 50 amino acids. And then a peptide is anywhere from two to 48 amino acids, right? So it's very large peptides.

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Chapter 6: What role do peptides play in cognitive health and neuroinflammation?

86.692 - 104.627 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

And there's very small ones that are two or three amino acids. So GHK copper, things like that are just like three amino acids. They basically are, think of them as just signaling molecules in your body. So where proteins do one thing, hormones do one thing. Peptides have very specific signaling messages that they tell your body.

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104.647 - 111.217 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

That's why they're kind of unique is because they have very specific messages. So you can't really do as much harm with them as you might with other things.

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111.417 - 116.505 Jason Wachub

And then how do you think of broad categories of the different types of peptides and use cases?

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116.587 - 134.411 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

So when you think about the categories of peptides, the different types of peptides, people forget that we actually make peptides. So a lot of our peptides are what we call endogenous. They're made by our system, right? And in that way, they're a little bit natural, just like hormones. So people are doing hormone replacement. Should we be thinking about replacing the peptides we lose?

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134.731 - 146.429 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

So these endogenous peptides that our body makes all the time, and we haven't even identified all of them, and we can take those endogenous peptides and we can synthesize them. but they're basically the identical structure to what our body makes.

146.83 - 158.575 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

So your body makes peptides that are working on recovery, and your body's making peptides that work on immune system, and your body's making peptides that increase joint muscle function, increase growth.

158.555 - 172.131 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

So there's all these different categories our body makes, and this is what we call exogenous peptides, which are ones that are synthesized that our body doesn't make, but people have recognized in laboratory settings, things like that, that they have significant benefits, right?

172.492 - 188.655 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

So not all the peptides we use are going to be ones that our body naturally makes, but the ones that I like the best really are. They really are things that our body naturally is doing anyway. So just like you're replacing the hormones that drop as you age, should you also be replacing the peptides that drop as we age? In my mind, I think so. So which ones?

Chapter 7: How can nutrition and lifestyle impact the effectiveness of peptides?

188.835 - 190.817 Jason Wachub

What are your favorites?

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191.437 - 203.088 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

So you think about the peptides that are kind of high when we're young and growing and developing. And really, you know, through our 20s, we have very ample amounts of peptides.

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Chapter 8: What should you consider before starting peptide therapy?

203.969 - 218.744 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

And kind of the top of that list probably is the growth hormone peptides, right? So we call growth hormone secretagogues. And growth hormone secretagogues are not necessarily naturally made by our body, but they're trying to duplicate what our body does to release growth hormone. So as you age, your growth hormone levels drop. Naturally, all of us do.

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218.824 - 236.976 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

Some people are going to stay higher than others. If you exercise and eat well, you're going to have higher growth hormone levels. But we all drop just like your testosterone drops, just like your estrogen drops. So kind of top of the list, if you're looking at things that are going to keep your body functioning well as you age, you're going to be looking at the growth hormone secretogox.

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236.956 - 254.655 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

Now, how are those different from growth hormone? Because you hear all these people taking growth hormone, right? And growth hormone is wonderful. The problem with growth hormone is it kind of hits these very, what we call super physiologic, higher levels than your body would ever make, right? And it does that because you kind of need that to signal. But the That isn't so good for your body.

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254.675 - 263.67 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

Our bodies are not designed to have these sustained high levels of things all the time. So if you look at things like growth hormone, it's designed to kind of go up and down throughout the day and some days more than others.

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264.051 - 285.427 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

So basically using what we call growth hormone secretagogues, which are natural peptides that are both increase your pituitary making more growth hormone and then stepping on the gas, increasing your ability to release more. By doing that, you get much more physiologic cycling. The body's going to respond appropriately at the right times as opposed to just keeping it high all the time.

285.848 - 303.396 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

So we use things like CJC or tesamorelin. Those are what are called growth hormone-releasing hormones. They tell your pituitary to make more hormone. And then we can use things like ipamorelin, which is a growth hormone-releasing peptide, and that's like stepping on the gas. So think of these as fill up the tank, step on the gas. But if the body's designed, again, for the pituitary to kind of

303.376 - 310.647 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

still do what it wants to do. So now I'm not keeping these high levels all the time. I gave my body a nice physiologic levels. So that's kind of top of the list.

311.267 - 325.468 Jason Wachub

What's the use case for that one? Is that someone maybe, you know, in their north of 35, 40, not active, not feeling the energy, like walk us through the typical use case that you see in your office, who benefits?

325.6 - 342.659 Elizabeth Yurth, M.D.

In general, let's say there's, you know, if you look at the importance of growth hormone, it's important for muscle building. It's important for bone healing. It's important for your brain. It's important for your immune health. Even your immune health have these receptors for what we call IGF or insulin-like growth factor. So growth hormone is released by the pituitary.

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