What are Peptides, and how do we use them? Plus, Two ways of investing in yourself
Spend more time implementing wisdom, not collecting it.
Category - Health & Wellness
Episode: Benefits & risks of Peptide therapeutics for physical and mental health
What is a Peptide? A peptide is a protein made up of small chains of amino acids. Picture a long string of 100-200 beads. Each bead represents an amino acid. The order of these amino acids determines what a peptide is and what it does.
Peptides affect aspects of your cells. Peptides rarely have a single action. They work across many organs and systems.
Prescription peptides remove LPS which makes it the purest. LPS creates an immune response which over time can result in complications. Work with a board-certified physician and use reliable sources such as compounding pharmacies.
4 types or uses of Peptides: Rejuvenation, Therapeutics, Therapeutic for longevity, and Therapeutic for vitality
BPC 157 - Naturally occurring peptide in the gut responsible for cell repair in the gut. BPC causes cell repair by improving blood circulation and laying down new blood vessels at the injured site. BPC 157 can help heal systemic and joint injuries anywhere in the body as well. No human data is available. Most of the data comes from animal studies.
BPC 157 facilitates growth hormone production at the site of an injury which results in faster healing.
BPC 157 can accelerate tumor growth if a tumor is present. This is the biggest risk around taking BPC 157.
BPC 157 increases VEGF production. On the contrary, some cancer treatments use VEGF inhibitors to reduce tumor size. BPC 157 and cancer treatments are not compatible.
Thymosin Beta 4 (TB-4) - creates tissue rejuvenation, wound healing and repair.
TB-4 promotes stem cell proliferation and growth of the extracellular matrix (shell around each cell).
SEMORELIN is a GHRH (Growth hormone release hormone) peptide that increases the production of growth hormones resulting in muscle growth and fat loss. GHRH mimics the pathways for growth hormones and IGEF-1 without having a negative loop where your body stops producing growth hormones. A similar peptide is CJC-1295 but has known side effects such as fluid retention.
Growth hormones are naturally released during sleep.
Growth hormone production drops by 15% every decade after 30 years of age.
Ipamorelin is a peptide that releases growth hormone (GHRP) within the body. It does this by signaling the anterior pituitary gland, found at the base of the brain. Ipamorelin aids growth hormone production by suppressing metastatic (removing the breaks on growth hormone production) and improving sleep.
Hexarelin is the strongest synthetic growth hormone-releasing peptide but has many known side effects, such as reduction in libido and reduction in natural production of growth hormone.
Peptides for Longevity - Epitalon is a synthetic peptide, telomerase activator, and putative anti-aging compound. Epitalon naturally occurs in the body and is created by the pineal gland. Epitalon is anti-inflammatory and helps in melatonin regulation, restful sleep, and cellular longevity.
Peptides for vitality (mood and libido) - include melanocyte-stimulating hormones (a group of hormones produced by the pituitary gland, hypothalamus, and skin cells). Peptides in this category are known as melanotan 1, melanotan 2 - and melanotan 3 & 4. They can cross the blood-brain barrier and, therefore, affect the mood and suppress appetite. Peptide PT141 is an FDA-approved drug for addressing low libido. Peptide Kisspeptin stimulates testosterone in men and estrogen in females. Kisspeptin is a potent stimulator of LH and affects libido.
Peptides are not without side effects, so take caution if you are considering Peptide Therapy. Pay attention to where you source the peptides. Preferably work with a board-certified physician and compounding pharmacies. Stay off the black market.
Category - Productivity
The Productivity Show: Asian Efficiency
Episode - Pathways to progress: The essentials of investing in yourself
Two ways of investing in yourself:
1) Go wide: Learn additional complementary skills. Be a generalist - better than average at multiple things. Example: If you are a writer, learn to market on social media to get more readers. or
2) Go deep: Become the domain expert in one particular area. For example, ESPN is great at doing one thing: Sports.
Build your network. Networking can get you a job that no degree can.
The best book on networking- Never Eat Alone
Be relentlessly helpful to others even if there is nothing in it for you.
Constantly seek feedback and coaching because you cannot ‘read the ingredients list from inside the jar.’
Category - Relationships & Love
451: Improve your relationship by asking better questions
Most of our responses are ‘societal presets’. For example, why are you still single? The common answer is that I am still figuring myself out, but this is often not the real answer.
Deep listening is listening from the heart, not listening to respond. To cultivate deep listening, slow down before you respond.
You don’t have to solve everything when you respond.
To improve your relationship, create space with your partner and go through these 12 questions. Follow the sequence of these questions.
Our hearts want to connect. But, first, it has to deal with the emotional scar tissue of a person. Their lack of trust, vulnerability, and fear of judgment. After all that, it has to work through the maze of social constructs. Make it easier for your heart to connect by reducing this emotional baggage.
In addition to the 12 questions mentioned above, here are some questions you shouldn’t ask:
Don’t ask Yes/No questions. Example: Do you love me?
Don’t ask questions with an agenda. Example: Why are you always so angry at me? Instead, ask, Why do I feel you are angry with me? This makes the other person less defensive.
Ask questions with constructive ends. Example: Why do we fight so much? Instead, ask, What is our biggest challenge right now and what is it teaching us?
Category - Self Improvement & Lifestyle design
To find your passion, follow your fascinations and interests. Go all in on the one that engages you fully.
Journaling helps you capture your emotional state which you will lose over time. It’s always fascinating to look back 5 or 10 years to learn what you were going through emotionally.
If you are shutting people down and not allowing them to speak the truth, then you have already lost.
Don’t ignore the truth. Seek it. Sit with it. And learn from it.
Take extreme ownership of yourself and your decisions. Use your failures as stepping stones to success, by identifying what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future. Remember, growth comes from taking charge and owning your decisions.
Want to get ahead in life? Aim to be the most knowledgeable person in the room about a given situation.
To create a new habit, use triggers to replace old behaviors. For instance, if you feel anxious before a big meeting, treat it as a reminder to learn more about the topic. Older neural networks are faster, but neuroplasticity requires repetition, patience, and time.
Want to help people? Focus on getting so good that people seek you. So, lock yourself in a room, blinders on, and get to work.
Get your physical state under control first (get in shape). This will help create a better mindset, and discipline and create success in other areas of your life.
Category - Business
Episode: Helping others make money made me a millionaire - Ravi Abuvala
Don’t expect others to know what’s best for you If you don’t know what’s best for you.
A tactician is trying to win the battle. A strategist is trying to win the war. Use this to choose where you should invest your energy. Example: Should you keep working for minimum wage to pay your rent (tactician) or start investing in learning new skills so you can ultimately achieve financial freedom (strategist)?
You are always building two businesses; the one you have right now and the business you will have in the future.
Your biggest customer retention tool is - “Coming Soon”. People stick around if future expectations are exciting and clearly communicated.
A good leader knows how to hire both the superstars who can execute and the thought leaders who can build domain expertise.
The growth potential of the business is determined solely by the combined knowledge of the individuals within the company or those leading it.
One of the most important jobs of a CEO is to find and hire talent.
Exercise your muscle of hiring and firing people. Do not accept mediocrity. Have systems in place to hire so that there is less anxiety around firing.
Hire to solve a specific pain. The more specific the better.
Category - Productivity
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
Ep.294: A tactical assault on busyness
Digital busyness: It’s a techno-human issue. Humans struggle to balance all the tech around them. Humans jump from email to Slack to TikTok, looking for dopamine hits disguised as productive work.
The advent of the personal computer meant the end of specialization and all support work. The administrative overhead increased. Having the access and ability to communicate made the speed of action the most important metric. Slow, methodical specialised work became undesirable.
The solution is to say Yes to a limited number of projects/tasks and reduce the overall administrative overhead.
Manage your incoming tasks and delegations. Post them on an online queue (tools like Trello). Anyone interested can refer to your schedule online. They can check the status of the queue and learn when you will get to their task.
To be more productive, get out of reactive mode. Have a system where you intentionally ‘pull’ the work onto your plate.
To have a productive day, spend 30 minutes at the end of each day where you plan and schedule all the things you have to do the next day. Try completing these tasks in the first half of the day or complete them as scheduled.
Allow planning time. Allow for 10 minutes after a meeting to write down the next steps, and action items and schedule them in your calendar. The goal is to not have all the things circulating in your head.
Set an expectation that if you are being invited to a meeting, you have prior notice of what specific help or input is expected from you. This will ensure that you are not invited to brainstorming sessions and no one is outsourcing the troubleshooting and thinking part to you instead of doing it themselves first.
Category - Self Improvement & Lifestyle design
Too afraid to take risks? Break down your decisions into reversible and irreversible risks. This will provide clarity.
Teams vs. family. Netflix’s culture was built around superstars who had each other’s backs. Loyalty and trust were put first.
People who only focus on a few key things, get things done.
To disagree silently is disloyal. (Part of Netflix’s culture deck)
Favorite failures: Sometimes you can be so strategic that you forget to bring the customer along with you. Netflix was strategically too early for streaming services and forgot to address that streaming was not available on TV yet, only on laptops.
Jeff Bezos’s philosophy of ‘obsessing over customers’ is incomplete. A more complete version is to obsess over customers and grow operating income.
A major issue with the US school system is the high turnover of school district superintendents. It creates instability and chaos in the whole organization. Charter schools (schools run by non-profit instead of government funding) solve this problem by providing longer-tenured staff.
Message Reed will put on a billboard for millions to see - “Hope is everything “
As a parent try’s essential to try and understand childhood from your child's perspective. If your child appears lost or hopeless, it may be because they are feeling overwhelmed and confused by the world around them. You can help them by explaining that growing up is difficult, but as they mature, it gets easier.
How is Reed spending his Netflix retirement money? He has invested over 100 million in creating private skiing at affordable rates. Powdermountain.com
Category - Fun
Stuff you should know: What’s the deal with ‘Knock on wood’
It comes from a Celtic belief. The houses back then were built from wood esp. Oakwood. The belief was that the spirits lived in Oak trees and by knocking the trees you were invoking the spirits and asking for good luck.
The common saying ‘Touch wood’ is based on the same idea.
Other good luck customs:
Fingers crossed: The symbol was first made by early Christians during Roman persecution. Crossed fingers symbolized the cross and were used to communicate that one is also Christian. However academic research has found this claim unfounded.
In China, good luck enters through the front door so every Chinese New Year, the Chinese won’t sweep the house through their front door to avoid sweeping all the good luck away.
Category - Business
Episode: Step-by-step process of building a $1M business
This is specific to how Sam Parr started Hampton,(Joinhampton. com), a network for high-net-worth founders.
Sam went through 5 false starts in identifying who the customer was. The takeaway is to learn from your failures and to keep iterating.
Business name is important. It should be easy and accessible. Sam used the street names around the area where he grew up.
Use a branding agency. The value comes from going through the exercise of intimately explaining what your brand stands for. You will create a deeper connection with your brand because of this exercise.
Use the founder's story. Share how you arrived where you are. What drove you to solve this specific problem?
Category - Productivity
Episode: The relationship between documentation and productivity (Adrienne Bellehumeur)
Documentation is the intersection between Information management, organizational design, and personal productivity.
Documentation helps by improving your understanding. You also increase your chances of doing something if you write it down.
Big D (Documentation such as sales process). Little D (Documenting notes from a sales call). Both are important.
Your short-term memory is weak. To act on the information you gathered throughout the day, create a practice to write key things down. This can be lessons learned, opportunities to pursue, or next steps on a project.
Documentation doesn’t have to be perfect. If the person you are sharing the document with can understand your thinking by reading it, the document is ready to be shared.
6 steps of efficient documentation: Capture the information. Structure the information. Presentation of the information. Communicate the information. Store and leverage the information. Use information to lead and innovate.
I hope this was useful.
Please share your Top 3 takeaways from this week in the comments below.
Much Love
PM
Disclaimers: I have no affiliation with any sources linked above. The information mentioned should not be used for medical diagnosis or medical treatment purposes. The information provided is not financial advice.