Welcome to The Morning Dose, your one-stop shop for all things peptides, TRT, fitness, anti-aging, and everything in between.
We’ve got a great newsletter for you today, with some scary new FDA investigations, brand-new aging research, and our thoughts on dry January.
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In this week’s edition of The Morning Dose:
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Time for another peptide spotlight, where we explain the ins and outs of the lesser-known peptides you may not be familiar with.
In this week’s peptide spotlight, we’re going to take a break from injectable peptides and look at a fascinating nootropic, Selank Nasal Spray.
First of all, Selank is also available as an injectable peptide, so if you search around the internet and only see injections, that’s the same thing. However, it seems that the nasal spray is the preferred option, due the faster absorption.
Selank is a nootropic, or cognitive enhancer, and seems to decrease anxiety and depression without causing any sort of sedative effect, the way many anti-anxiety medications do.
Disclaimer: We are not suggesting you stop taking any anxiety medications without speaking to your physician.
This is just an interesting alternative, and worth trying for those who aren’t currently taking anything.
Anyway, Selank promotes the release of enkephalins in the body, which are natural compounds that decrease stress, anxiety, fear, and reckless behavior.
Selank is a Russian drug that’s meant to deliver similar effects as benzodiazepines, without the harsh side effects. It’s not FDA-approved, so you’ll need to use trusted research peptide sources, but it seems to work very well for managing chronic anxiety.
To learn more, check out our complete guide to Selank Nasal Spray right here.
Image courtesy of FDA.gov
It seems like every week we have new headlines about Wegovy or Ozempic.
This time, these peptides are under investigation by the FDA.
Most of the time, we aren’t big fans of the FDA getting involved with peptides, as they’re usually looking to shut down compounding pharmacy production and protect the big pharmaceutical companies.
However, this time they may have a good reason, as they’re currently investigating two side effects of GLP-1 drugs: suicidal ideation and hair loss.
Now, we’re not medical professionals, and we haven’t seen or heard anything about suicidal ideation from GLP-1 peptides, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a real thing.
Even the FDA themselves are cautious to jump to conclusions, with the official statement on the matter reminding readers that “preliminary evaluation does not mean causation.”
They’ve received reports of suicidal ideation and hair loss from GLP-1 users, but they can’t say for sure if the peptides are causing them, hence the investigation.
We’ll keep you posted on any updates, but for now, here’s the FDA’s official advice to GLP-1 users:
“Patients should not stop taking GLP-1 RAs without first consulting your health care professional, as stopping these medicines may worsen your condition. Talk to your healthcare professional if you have questions or concerns. Tell your healthcare professional if you experience new or worsening depression, suicidal thoughts, or any unusual changes in mood or behavior. Call or text 988 or go to the website at https://988lifeline.org/External Link Disclaimer, which provides free support for people in distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
If you’d like to read the FDA’s statement, which was last updated yesterday, you can do so right here.
Many biohackers and health enthusiasts are well aware of the influence the gut microbiome has on our overall health, wellness, and even cognitive function.
But here’s a new one you may not know about – the microbiome of your skin.
New research from the University of California San Diego (UCSD), in collaboration with the Center for Microbiome Innovation (CMI) and L’Oréal Research took a closer look at the microorganisms that live within our skin, and that our skin microbiome influences the appearance of aging skin.
Yes, L’Oréal is a beauty company, but they aren’t using this research to sell anything just yet.
Se Jin Song, one of the study authors from CMI, said:
“Our skin also changes physiologically with age; for example, we gain wrinkles and our skin gets drier. But there is variation in what this looks like in people — you’ve probably noticed that there are some people who have younger or older-looking skin than many others their age. Using advanced statistical methods, we were able to tease apart the microbes that are associated with these types of aging signs for skin, like crow’s feet wrinkles, from those that are associated with simply age as a chronological number.”
Researchers found a relationship between the microbiome of our skin and the development of things like crow’s fee, those pesky wrinkles around the eyes.
Now, it’s still too early to do much with this information, but frankly, so is the current state of gut microbiome research.
But it’s a fascinating discovery, and one of the first research papers to identify the impact of our skin microbiome on the aging process.
For now, keep up the usual anti-aging practices for your skin, like drinking plenty of water and using sunscreen every day, and consider speaking to your dermatologist about tretinoin use, which has been shown to reduce wrinkles, photoaging, and stimulate new collagen production.
Hopefully, further research will lead to new discoveries of how we can improve our skin microbiome.
To read the full story, you can check out the official release from UCSD right here.
Dry January is a popular health trend that involves avoiding alcohol for the entire month, to promote your health and start the year on the right foot.
Influencers are doing it, grocery stores and bars are stocking alcohol-free beverage alternatives, and I can’t open any social media apps without being flooded with ads for alcohol alternatives, like “calming gummies.”
So what’s the big deal? Should we all be going an entire month without drinking? What if you already did Sober October?
Here’s the current state of alcohol and its impact on your health.
First, if you’ve been trying to convince yourself that alcohol has any health benefits, you’re lying to yourself.
Over the last 10-20 years, you probably heard about the benefits of resveratrol for anti-aging, how daily wine intake reduces stress, or maybe you saw that 2008 video of health enthusiast/author/podcaster Tim Ferriss chugging wine directly out of a bottle with breakfast “for his health.”
However, the more we learn about alcohol, the more the evidence supports the fact that alcohol in any dose is simply not good for us.
It can mess up your sleep, sabotage your hormones, decrease cognitive function, increase weight gain and inflammation, and that’s not even mentioning the dangerous behavior that alcohol can trigger.
In 2023, the World Health Organization officially declared that no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health, and a new research review looked at 90 studies and found alcohol intake increases cancer risk due to increased levels of formaldehyde in the body.
In other words, there is NO reason to believe that alcohol has any positive benefit on your health.
Now, does that mean you need to give it up entirely?
Ideally, yes… but we know that’s not realistic for a lot of people. Alcohol always has been, and always will be, a staple in human social interactions.
And while Dry January is a great idea, it’s not the perfect solution for everyone. Some people find they feel so good they never want to drink again, and some spend the entire month counting down to a massive binge-drinking night on February 1st.
Rather than doing an extreme challenge that’s going to lead you to binge drink, we suggest taking some time to carefully consider your relationship with alcohol, and make your own decision.
You may decide to do Dry January, Sober October, or any other month-long period of alcohol abstinence, followed by a return to normal consumption.
Maybe you decide to drink once per week, or once per month. Or maybe you decide to give it up entirely.
Whatever you decide, we encourage looking at lifelong habits, rather than short-term challenges.
Just like a 30-day weight loss challenge does you no good if you gain it all back in a week, a 30-day no-alcohol period is useless if you’re only going to drink even more aggressively once it’s done.
Instead, carefully reflect on your own relationship with alcohol, understanding there’s no benefit, and figure out how much you want to indulge, if at all.
The idea behind Dry January is great, but in the real world, sustainable practices always beat short-term challenges.
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-The Morning Dose
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Disclaimer: This content is NOT medical advice. The information included in these emails is intended for entertainment and informational purposes only.