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Biohack-it
The Constant Chatter About Food in Your Brain Has a Name. And There Is a Fix for It.
00:54:13
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- [00:00]
A
If you, like the rest of the Internet, have heard about GLP1s but are so scared to try GLP1s because of all the side effects they also list which are not great when it comes to things from a longevity perspective. Well, this episode is for you. I just interviewed an incredible founder who formulated biotech company called Evolve and they came up with a product that has all the benefits of GLP1s without any of the side effects. So if you're curious, this is the episode for you to try and learn about GLP1s without any of the side effects.
- [00:30]
B
We have to back up a little bit and understand that GLP1 hormone is a natural hormone that exists in our body already and it's misrepresented and misunderstood. I think when we sit still, we die. You're not going to get beneficial advice from Instagram or from your doctor. Sadly, the only way you're going to try things is during the episode.
- [00:48]
A
We talk about a clinical study that they're running with 100 women. And the results these people are seeing in 90 days were totally fascinating to me. So tune into the episode, learn about the study and the research, and then I want to hear from you guys if you decide to try the products and see how you guys feel. So we're just going to do this very conversational.
- [01:17]
B
Perfect.
- [01:17]
A
Because I just think the whole space is so fascinating right now. So with every thing that's blowing up around Peptides right now. Right. And then GOP one just got thrown in. I think it was like three, four years ago. They started getting talked about a lot and now the whole world seems to be on fire with them. How did you guys decide to start the company? Like, what was the idea that, you know what, instead of taking something injectable, we want to do it in a pill form?
- [01:41]
B
Yeah. For me, it was a couple of years ago. It was that one summer when all of a sudden it felt like everybody was on an injection and it felt off. It felt like here was this solution that was built for people who have a disease indication and it was being used by otherwise healthy people for effective weight loss. And so for me, I went on a just a long journey and a deep dive into figuring out what this would mean. I've been in the fitness and health industry for decades, so what that would mean for the fitness industry that I was a part of for so long. And there were very clearly two sides, you know, the people, the diet and exercise aficionados and loyalists and which obviously there's. It's an important space. And then the people who were considering GLP1 as the more innovative solution for helping people. And. And so for me, it was like, if there's this solution that exists for a diseased population, what do we do to make and translate that solution for an otherwise healthy population? And it's not buying and modifying injections to yourself. It's. There's got to be a better way.
- [02:57]
A
So I also think it's much more obviously looking from a cost perspective. When GLP1s first came on the market, they were so ridiculously expensive, and a lot of people, the average consumer, could not afford it. Now we're seeing that GLP1s are more than just losing weight. They have so many other health benefits for certain people if they need them, so, such as mitochondrial dysfunction. So if you have metabolic health issues, which, you know, 97% of the population in America does, 97% of us are not metabolically healthy, then that's where they can play a really important role. So you're saying that basically the product that you guys have created can do that without the price tag, without the injection, without any of the other side effects?
- [03:37]
B
Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the. The GLP1 landscape is tricky because we have to back up a little bit and understand that GLP1 hormone is a natural hormone that exists in our body already, and it's misrepresented and misunderstood pretty widely. We use this term, GLP1s, to describe a category of drug when that's just not, in fact, the case. So we have to adjust our terminology a little bit because it's confusing people. And I think it's better to refer to GLP1 as our native hormone, a hormone that exists just like any other hormone that exists in our body. And the category of biomimetic or mimetic or incre. Mimetic functional peptides that imitate that function in the body can be referred to as GLP1 RAS or GLP1 receptor agonists. And those are the only real two categories inside of the GLP1 landscape.
- [04:33]
A
Do you know, I was listening to a podcast or something the other day, and they said that they discovered GLP1s and what they do in the body because they found a reptile in the Amazon. I forgot the name of the lizard. And when they found that, they realized that, hey, this guy secretes this thing that can also be done in your body naturally. And that's how they even discovered GLP1s.
- [04:53]
B
Absolutely.
- [04:54]
A
And I was, like, fascinated with that. I Was like, who would have thought something that is in a reptile form, then they kind of mimic that and they're like, wait, we can actually do this in the human body? So that's how GLP1s even came to be.
- [05:04]
B
Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's so much that's possible in biotech and at our core, I mean, even though we have a brilliant consumer brand and product and products, we are a biotech company. And so you can create peptides that mimic functions in the body. The big challenge of peptides and small molecules is and continues to be oral bioavailability and oral delivery. And so that's what we've effectively solved. And what is kind of the race at the moment to solve for.
- [05:33]
A
What's your take on the hot one right now? Renatrootride.
- [05:37]
B
It's in the category of GLP1ras. It's another peptide and another solution that fits into that category of drugs that for people who need that level of GLP1 support, is highly effective for us. You know, again, inside that category of GLP1RAs, you have semaglutide, tirzepatide and reteptretide. And there's also evolved GLP1 inside of that category. So where you're evaluating which of those peptide solutions is best for you, your biology, your, your needs, an an otherwise healthy person is going to want to choose evolved EV1 peptide in that mix because that's the first step that you should take towards preventative health. If you have a diagnosis related to obesity or diabetes, then those other solutions are probably a stronger fit for you.
- [06:31]
A
So when it comes to evolve, like what are the top three things that targets that help you versus somebody who's taking know, besides obesity, what are the other mechanisms it's working on versus injectable GLP1s?
- [06:44]
B
So it functions mechanistically in pretty much the same way as any other GLP1RA. So the category itself, when you, when you biomimic or imitate the function of the GLP1 pathway in the body, it is very similar across the board. You obviously experience satiety and along with that satiety comes weight loss. But there's also this really lovely downstream effect of relief from food noise and that has so many other implications and ramifications in your life. When you're free from constant chatter in your brain around food and you know, when your next meal is, or your caloric intake for the day, or you're always thinking about what's next, it really frees you from that anxiety and at times depression, depression and frustration associated with food. So that's one of the best, in my opinion, effects of our product and of GLP1ras broadly. And there's also, in addition, obviously to weight loss, there's this inflammation impact. For me personally, I saw that pretty significantly. There's a lot of studies that have shown that GLP1RAs do have a positive impact on chronic inflammation. But even if it's not chronic, even if you just have mild inflammation, you'll notice when you take evolved GLP1 that your neck doesn't hurt as much. You're a little, your knees don't hurt as much. And as we age, that's more and more noticeable, at least for me.
- [08:21]
A
The number one hallmark that essentially is going to age you and you're going to develop disease in your body is chronic inflammation at a cellular level. That is the number one reason that anybody's getting sick. It's the start of autoimmune disease, it's the start of cancer, cardiovascular disease. It's inflammation in the body. And because we're bombarded with environmental toxins, our food systems are so broken, what we're taking in, even the air, the water, it is causing us to be so chronically inflamed. I'm so petite, and there are days that I wake up when I'm in the US And I'm like, my, my aura ring won't come off my finger.
- [08:52]
B
Yeah.
- [08:52]
A
And so I'm somebody who's constantly, I'm in the space, I'm in the industry, and I'm always having to deal with it. I'm like, I don't even know how the average person feels.
- [08:59]
B
Yeah, gosh, you said it all. I, I mean, I couldn't agree more. I feel exactly the same way. So many people resonate with that. And yeah, I, I think there's GLP1 offers that, that solution. But, you know, functional health as a, as a category also is responsible for helping people address their, their chronic inflammation, for sure. And it has to be a toolbox approach. I mean, you have to take all of the different tools that we have available and use them in combination. It's not, you know, there's no one trick pony.
- [09:33]
A
And when it comes to an average. So somebody who is taking like a renatrutide or some, you know, semaglutide, any of these things, and they start taking your product if you, is it. You see the effects in the same amount of time. You know how they're like, okay, if you take renatrutide you see X amount of weight loss and X amount of time. Is it comparable? Is it about the same with the, with evolve?
- [09:51]
B
Yes. So you will see effects in day one. It does function similarly to any other receptor agonist. So evolve EV1 peptide is a dual agonist. It's a GLP1 and GIP dual receptor agonist, meaning that it is functionally achieving that same pathway, you know, in the body. So yes, so you will feel that experience and within the first day you'll feel that, that increased satiety, that absence of food noise and over time that starts to compound. And so you can see evidence of weight loss oftentimes within the first few weeks. We're in the middle of a study that's looking specifically at efficacy and there's a, an interim report that we just released that in the first eight weeks of the study, participants are seeing up to 12 pounds and up to 4 inches of weight loss in this, in the study. So yeah, so it is as effective and on par with our peers and we designed it that way. Like I said, I mean, we're a biotech company with a proprietary, patented novel asset that we brought to market as a dietary supplement, but we ensured has the same level of efficacy as our peers.
- [11:04]
A
So I was actually going to. This brings me to the next question based on that. So I want to talk about the elephant in the room because Elliot Lilly and Novo just came, launched their own GLP1 pills. Does that concern you about what you're offering versus what they're offering? Because pharma is not getting involved in the conversation. Right? They're getting involved from, you know, taking it like a supplement. So how does that affect you guys and what you're building?
- [11:28]
B
There's room for both. It doesn't really affect us because we differ from pharma in so many ways, but in one key fundamental way, and that is that pharma has invested so much in sick care and in drug development. So they are highly invested in the, the pathway of, of distribution through, through healthcare and you know, sick care of systems. And for us, which means for them you have to, you know, it's, it's gate kept and you have to have a diagnosis or a doctor's approval. And for us, fundamentally, it's part of our entire thesis as a company that we offer these solutions direct to consumer, that we are serving the preventative health population for their health needs or their vanity needs without judgment and without justification.
- [12:21]
A
Spring cleaning looks a little different in my house these days. It's not Just about organizing my closets. It's about what I'm actually bringing into my space. Especially as someone who cares deeply about my metabolic health and lowering overall toxin burden load. I've been using Branch Basics for almost five years and it's just one of those swaps that totally makes sense to me. I used to have a whole cabinet of different cleaners, all with ingredients I couldn't even pronounce. And the more I learned about hormonal health and environmental toxins, the more that started to bother me. So I switched. What I love is that everything is built around one powerful concentrate. I dilute it to clean my kitchen, bathrooms, laundry floors, even produce and makeup brushes. It's plant based and mineral based, fragrance free and made safe certified, which means it's screened against known and suspected harmful chemicals that we do not want in our homes or in our bodies. It feels aligned with how I live. I'm not extreme about everything, but I am intentional. And this is one of those small shifts that adds up day in and day out. If you're doing a reset in your home, I really encourage you to look at what's under your sink too. Branch Basics is available@target.com target in store, Amazon and of course branch basics.com you can get 20% off@branchbasics.com with code biohackit20, which is B I O H E C K I T20. After you purchase, make sure you tell them you heard about them from our show because a clean home should actually feel clean also for your body. I'm really interested in also the research and if you have any extra data on this, with everything that GLP1s can do for women entering perimenopause, the effects, the positive effects it has on menopause and when it comes to fertility. So one of the big reasons a lot of women struggle conceiving is metabolic health. They're chronically inflamed, their body is not receptive, so they're actually having trouble conceiving. So a lot of the fertility doctors are now putting their clients going through IVF or having trouble conceiving essentially on low, low dose. Yep, GLP1s and then these clients miraculously kind of get pregnant because the inflammation drops. Their metabolic health kind of blood sugar levels kind of regulate. So it's fascinating to me what it can do for fertility, but it's also fascinating for me what it can do for people when they go into perimenopause and menopause when our hormones shift so much, and how you can get your sleep back, how you can get your mood back. There's just. And so are you guys seeing people who are taking the product or coming to you in those categories and seeing an improvement?
- [14:54]
B
Nonstop. We hear that. Nonstop. And I think it helps the population of women going through perimenopause to be able to have more of that conversation with their doctor. For me, personally, that was absolutely. My unlock was a combination of hormone replacement therapy in pairing with GLP1 support. And I think as again, people go through that phase of life, more and more research is emerging. We need lots more. But there's definitely a correlation between easing and the transition through the menopausal phases for women and GLP1 support. Absolutely. And we actually also looked at sleep. So we just sponsored a study that we worked closely with oura ring on, and it looked at the impact of GLP1RA on sleep. And we saw that in that study, 80%, 85% of respondents and participants noticed an improvement in their sleep quality and in their recovery scores. So there's definitely all kinds of new data to unpack across the board and downstream.
- [15:59]
A
And why is that, do you think? It's. They're sleeping better because they're not having, you know, after a meal, they're not having their blood glucose spike or they're able to get better. Deep sleep. Like, what is it correlated to?
- [16:09]
B
Hard to say. And we haven't really gone that deep in it. However, anecdotally, that absolutely makes sense. When you wear a CGM and you take evolved GLP1, you immediately see a reduction in your blood glucose spikes and dips. And so that leveling off is clearly gonna impact your sleep, it's gonna impact your overall mood, it's gonna impact your relationships. So, yeah, and that's definitely a part of it.
- [16:31]
A
I'm also thinking that if you're on this product or you're taking a GLP1 in injectable form, you're essentially not eating as much. So you're not having a really heavy meal just before you go to sleep. And therefore, your body has more time to rest and digest, so you're not going to bed with a really full stomach. And that should be something that's really counterproductive. It actually is really productive. Not counterproductive. Actually productive to how much improvement you get in your sleep.
- [16:55]
B
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
- [16:56]
A
Because that's what I was. I was always, like, stepping back and being like, how does the mechanism actually work when it comes to sleep?
- [17:01]
B
Yeah, yeah. So when you'll notice that when you take evolve GLP1. And when you take any GLP1RA, you, you immediately feel like these food choices are options. So you're no longer compulsive about dessert and you're no longer at the mercy of your snacking impulses. And so with that, you're able to make healthier choices across the board, including what time you go to bed. And yeah, I mean, there's all kinds of interconnectedness there.
- [17:31]
A
Is there anything that's a do and don't when you're taking the products or kind of like what to pair it with or not? Because traditional, again, injectable GLP1s are like, increase your protein intake. You have to do resistance training three to four times a week because you have essentially you can lose muscle mass and women are losing muscle mass per decade as it is. So you really want to not do that because of all the dangers that come with it. Is there anything when taking the product orally in this manner that you have to be careful of?
- [17:58]
B
So I think it's really important to differentiate between the GLP1RA ORALS and our oral because they have different side effect profiles and different requirements. I would say to anyone who's taking a GLP1RA oral, like retatrutide that you absolutely need to be careful of your protein intake. You might have harsh side effects like muscle loss and hair loss and you might experience things like, you know, sunken face and mood flattening. And so in those moments, obviously you're working with your doctor to ensure that.
- [18:34]
A
Well, we hope people are working with their doctor.
- [18:36]
B
Right, right. However, with that, the reason behind that is important to know it's resulting from the overstimulation that happens in the mechanism of that peptide. With our product, there aren't those harsh side effects because of the way we've engineered it. So we've engineered it to be an all natural product. We only contain canonical amino acids, we only contain natural composition. So it's familiar to the body and we're not overstimulating those receptors. So the experience is that you're giving your body something that it expects and not again overstimulating or overriding your biological systems. And so as a result, again, we don't see that harsh side effect profile. That said, whenever you're taking something that's reducing your appetite and increasing your satiety, yes, you need to be mindful of your nutrition. And the good news is that you're incentivized to do that because you're losing weight and because the food noise is gone and you're not snacking compulsively. You're saying, it's time for me to eat. I'm hungry. I'm not hungry. But I know that I need nutrition. And so I'm going to make choices that make sense. Not I'm desperate to get a snack
- [19:52]
A
in my body, which is essentially a lot of people. Because also there's a correlation between people who have a lot of food noise to other aspects of their life. It ties back to distress, trauma. Food is always linked to something with childhood, Right?
- [20:06]
B
Totally.
- [20:07]
A
And so there's also that piece of it which I find fascinating. And I'm like, you know, if we looked at people taking, you know, GLP1s and are really like, obese or having real health issues. Right. And they actually took the route of saying, I'm gonna step back and take a look deeper under the hood and be like, where is this food noise even coming from?
- [20:22]
B
Yep.
- [20:23]
A
And kind of like setting myself free from that.
- [20:26]
B
Yeah.
- [20:26]
A
And it is so crazy to me that all the research that ties it back to childhood trauma, childhood experiences, what you've been through, and I was like, I wouldn't even. I personally wouldn't have thought of that. But I'm like, our food is such a big part of a lot of people's culture, how you share food in the family, but what it means to you, did you have enough? Did you not have enough food? And so it's just fascinating to me that it can completely rule your life.
- [20:48]
B
Absolutely, yes. You said so much there. Yeah. I mean, the. The psychology behind it and understanding the root cause of your disordered relationship with food is so, so important. I was a college athlete. I was a rower, and I was a lightweight rower. So weight was always in the conversation for me. It wasn't as much of a challenge as for other people, but it was always a conversation. And so we had to be really intentional with nutrition and about our biomechanics in the boat. And that just filters through the rest of your life. As soon as you decide to, as a woman, get pregnant, you're immediately confronted with this baby bounce back body, and it's throughout your life. Obviously, we have it hard, so it's really important that we understand how to navigate that. And also, again, like you said, what's really driving the psychology behind those decisions. And it's also important to know that there's a tool that can help you navigate that without necessarily overriding your system too. Right. And GLP1s are also starting to be prescribed for other Addictive tendencies like alcoholism and food addiction. So how great, you know, how great. I truly believe that GLP1 support and GLP1 innovation will go down in history as one of the greatest advancements, scientific advancements of our lifetime. And how great to be a part of that.
- [22:12]
A
Part of that. Yeah, I was going to say looking at the industry and obviously you guys are like heart and center kind of the focus of it. What do you think the next biggest trend is going to evolve after this? So GLP1s are at the heart and core of everything. Obviously we're talking about peptides. This belongs to the category of peptides in a way. So what is going to be next, you feel, when it comes to the health and wellness industry, what do we think we're going to be able to treat next further?
- [22:33]
B
Oh, great question.
- [22:35]
A
Because I always wonder, I was like, yeah, what is going to come up next? That can be something as a function to what we're desperately in need of. That will be the next frontier.
- [22:45]
B
Well, the understanding around peptides and what peptides can do for our body is really the next frontier. And the next challenge for us is getting access to those solutions through them being available and also through them being orally bioavailable. Because these small molecules are really hard to get orally bioavailable in meaningful amounts because they're easily degraded in the stomach environment. So you have to inject them. Or like in our case, you have to design really brilliant molecular technology to get around that. So that is the next frontier for us as a consumer product and being as passionate as we are about bringing solutions directly to consumers and bypassing the healthcare sick care system. For us, we're really focused on things that improve people's lives at a biomechanical and physiological level, but that also permeate their lives in other ways. And call it vanity, call it self improvement, call it longevity, whatever you want to call it. But people take GLP1s to lose weight, feel better in their body, and ultimately have a better life. And there are a lot of things that we can do with peptides that in other aspects of our biology that also have a similar effect. Hair health is a big one, especially
- [24:10]
A
after your, like late 30s, early 40s. All women, including myself, is like, our hair has gotten so affected. I used to have so much hair and recently I was like, what happened? You know, it's not even that I'm shedding so much, but the quality goes down.
- [24:22]
B
Yeah, it does, it does. And we go through all these strange hormonal Phases as women too. And your hair changes and you don't really have an understanding of it. And it's not like you can go to your doctor and say, I'm really dissatisfied with what's happening with my hair. They're just not gonna listen to you.
- [24:35]
A
Yeah. They're gonna be like, get out.
- [24:36]
B
Right, right. So, yeah, it's, you know, but it's one of those things you, you know, you present to the world every day. And so it changes how you show up in the world. It changes how you show up as a partner, as a parent, as a friend. And so we're really excited about what's possible in hair, in skin and other aspect of Peptide innovation.
- [24:56]
A
For you personally, what were the top three changes that you saw that positively benefited your life from GLP? 1, from getting, you know, kind of discovering the product, getting on it yourself and then documenting where the biggest impact for you was. Yeah, because it's, it's. We're also bio individual. Right. So some people can measure it in a certain different way. So I'm just wondering for you personally, what was your experience with it?
- [25:18]
B
For me personally, it was being able to manage those pesky five to ten pounds, candidly. Right. You know.
- [25:26]
A
Yeah. Because you're an athlete as well.
- [25:27]
B
I'm an athlete. I love to move, I love to work out. I hit a wall in perimenopause where I was. No matter what I did, no matter how healthy I ate, I just gained weight. And it's frustrating. It's really, you know, and it's hard to say that to your doctor to say, you know, I. I used to be a little thinner and I felt better and I moved better and my clothes fit better and I don't really love how I feel right now. They'll just say no, you know, that's not. They'll prov. Prescribe me something for stress. So that's a big challenge is for. For me was a big challenge was making sure that I could find a tool or a mechanism that could get me comfortable there that I could go on vacation and indulge and come home and not feel like I had to really, you know, reset and struggle to get back to where I felt comfortable. So that was the biggest unlock for me for sure. And I think, as I said too, you know, there's this kind of calming effect that happened for me with the reduction in food noise and the reduction in snacking impulse. So I can move through an entire day. I'm very busy as you are. I can get through my entire day and not have any compulsive thoughts around food where I'm, you know, it's 3 o' clock and I'm like, should I snack? I want a snack. What am I going to have for a snack? Do I need coffee? Shall have coffee instead. Right. Like, it's just not there. And there's a real sense of calm and control and betterness that comes with that. And. And again, like I said, for me personally, the reduction in chronic inflammation was huge. I don't wake up feeling puffy ever anyway.
- [26:59]
A
Really?
- [26:59]
B
Yeah.
- [27:00]
A
That's the biggest thing I've been struggling with recently. Like this morning I went to get a lymphatic massage and I was so inflamed, I'm like, I don't even know what I'm eating to feel like this. And again, it goes back to what I said earlier when we started the episode. If I'm feeling this way, a person who does everything and has access to so much, I don't even want to know how the average person feels.
- [27:20]
B
I know.
- [27:21]
A
You know, and we're running around, we're busy, we're traveling, we have all these different things on our to do list. And the last thing you want to deal with is inflammation that makes you feel sluggish and horrible. And it just impacts everything.
- [27:33]
B
It impacts everything. It impacts how you show up in every way, in every aspect of your personality. And it's sad, it's. And we have no way of acting on that information either. Even when you say to yourself, I know something's not right, I'm gonna trust my gut. I'm gonna not listen to my doctor. I'm going to self advocate. I know this is not who I'm supposed to be. Then what, what do you do? You don't know who to contact or what to do. It's so hard. So, yeah, it's. I, I feel for people.
- [28:02]
A
I wanted to also understand dose so, you know, when you take, you know, depending on the condition you have or how much you're trying to lose, what are you dealing with? Dosing can sometimes vary with when it comes to peptides and injectables and stuff, but when it comes to your product, the dosing is pretty much standard across the board.
- [28:18]
B
Yeah, for us it was really important that if we were creating something that was for an otherwise healthy population, that it was personalizable. And there's also. I've taken every, experimented with every GLP1RA out there. And so I, you know, I've gone through the experience of, of Getting a dose that lasts a week and feeling like, oh, I wish I could kind of, you know, adjust this midweek. And you know, same thing with getting a prescription and then learning how that interacts in your body and then wanting to make a change and you can't. So it's really important for us that day by day you're able to adjust that. So we recommend starting at two tablets a day, but you can dial up to three or dial down to one, depending on how you feel that day. Because you truly feel differently every day. I know for me, inside of a month, I need different things in different weeks.
- [29:07]
A
Yeah. Because we have, we have like four different cycles, essentially. Exactly. We run across. Women are not as simple as men. Right. They have essentially testosterone as their main hormone. That's kind of how it functions. Whereas women, we're based on four different windows throughout the month.
- [29:22]
B
Right.
- [29:22]
A
And that gets worse and gets more affected as we age.
- [29:25]
B
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And you feel that when you take any GLP1 support, where something that worked one week all of a sudden stops working and you're like, I could really use a little more. And. Or you just have day by day, different stresses in your life, different things going on. You're on a flight one day, you're not the next. So again, it's just really important that as a dietary supplement, this is able to be adjusted to your lifestyle and your biology. That changes all the time.
- [29:50]
A
I also am fascinated to see, because a lot of people who are taking the semaglutides and the renatrutides and stuff, they're all complaining about hair loss and alopecia. It's a very common side effect nowadays. And, and so I'm wondering, kind of taking this other, more holistic way, I would say, essentially. And your body self regulates itself and metabolic inflammation, essentially cellular inflammation is a major cause for alopecia as well. So I'm thinking that if you have less inflammation, this should actually have a positive impact on things like hair loss, which becomes a real problem for a
- [30:22]
B
lot of people after 40,000%. There's also. There are GLP1 receptors all over the body.
- [30:29]
A
Yeah.
- [30:30]
B
And we're learning more and more about that. But when you overstimulate or overload your system with GLP1 support and overload those receptors in every part of your body. That can happen. Right. Because you're essentially overstimulating your receptors. So the ability to have a solution like ours that doesn't do that and doesn't just system override and instead works with Your biology in a targeted way is, you know, is really important for, for some people, accepting alopecia and accepting hair loss is okay because their alternative is they're at risk of a heart event or, you know, they're dealing with something really hard related to their obesity. So totally understand and no judgment for those people. But again, if you're, if you're taking GLP1 for other reasons and you're taking our product, you're not gonna see those same harsh side effects.
- [31:25]
A
Have you seen a lot of people wanting to convert from taking, you know, kind of the more traditional GLP ones to your product and being able to make that change easily and sustain that change?
- [31:34]
B
Absolutely, yeah. We're a really lovely compliment to other GLP1RA support. Absolutely.
- [31:39]
A
And it doesn't over exhaust the body through combining it with, you know, kind of the. Combining the two together.
- [31:44]
B
No, it's really your own decision to decide to figure out how to navigate that and what works best for your body. Not everybody wants to be on a GLP1 prescription for the rest of their life. So if you're somebody who benefited from GLP1 support and you want to come off of a prescription drug, our product is a perfect off ramp for you because you're going to feel some of those same similar feelings. It's going to feel familiar to you, but you're going to be able to stop taking it at any point rather than feeling like if you stop taking it, you're going to rebound. And knowing that you have that safety net there is also really nice. You can try and come off of our product and spend a couple weeks off of it and see how you do. And if you start to gain the weight back, you come right back on it and it's there for you rather than, you know, having to always revert back to a prescription drug when it
- [32:38]
A
comes to your personal dosage and kind of how you've tempered and kind of tweaked with the product yourself. Have you gone up, down? Where are you at now? Are you still doing, are you doing two tablets a day or how are you dosing yourself for where your needs are today?
- [32:51]
B
I absolutely personalize it depending on the day.
- [32:53]
A
So it depends from week by week, depending on what you need that week for support.
- [32:57]
B
Yeah, that day. That day. I absolutely vary it by day. So today I traveled, I took three because I said, you know, I know it's going to be a difficult day. I don't want to feel like I have to eat an airplane meal. I don't want to feel, you know, I want to be in charge of what. What I'm feeling and how I'm moving through the day. Most days I take two a day, and. And some days, if I feel, like, in control and I have my wits about me, then I'll just take one. But it really, again, it really is just how you're feeling that day. And if I'm in a certain part of my cycle, then I definitely take three, because the hormones in that cycle will override any GLP1 support.
- [33:36]
A
You're just gonna be like, give me the carbs. Give me everything. You're like. It's like, sometimes I feel like we are women again. The hormones are like the wild, wild west. And if you don't have a gauge on that, and because in your kind of 40s, it starts kind of like dipping so much, your cycle gets shorter, your cycle gets longer. It starts, like, changing and evolving. You're like, who am I? Month to month.
- [33:56]
B
Absolutely. Month to month. Week to week, really.
- [33:58]
A
And so having a product that allows you to be a little bit more regulated.
- [34:02]
B
Yeah.
- [34:02]
A
Around your moods and your food intake, or if you're busy, kind of not having all that food noise is such an incredible gift.
- [34:08]
B
Yeah. Yeah. And really just an incredible scientific innovation and discovery. You know, it really is a credit to the. The team that worked on this product for years and the scientific advisors that we have and the doctors that have helped build this. I mean, it's really one of the most incredible things in the GLP1 landscape. And we're just getting started.
- [34:29]
A
How long did it take you guys to formulate the product, patent it, all that stuff?
- [34:33]
B
Oh, forever. We started it about three years ago, and we started with a novel peptide. So we designed and patented a proprietary peptide, and we named that peptide EV1 peptide. And. And then we tested the heck out of it. So we tested receptor activation, and we made sure that what we were going to say about the product was correct. I mean, for us, efficacy is not like a marketing term. It's our entire business model. So we made sure that we could stand behind what we were saying about the product at a cellular level, at a functional level. And then from there, we just built upon it. So we created the molecule around it for oral delivery and oral bioavailability. And then from there, we had to engineer it into a delivery mechanism, into a host organism. So we bioengineered it into a strain of yeast, which gave us an ingredient and the ability to scale the delivery of that peptide to the masses. And then, yeah, ultimately from there, we were able to formulate the product. But even as I say it, I'm just struck by all of the pain and trauma and hardship that you go through as a founder to bring something to life and all the setbacks. Every time you take one step forward, it's five steps backwards.
- [35:53]
A
And that's founder life.
- [35:54]
B
Yeah, like that's.
- [35:55]
A
I literally told my team yesterday, we had such a hard start to the week and I was supposed to actually record a solo episode today. And I called David. I'm like, david, you're not getting it out of me. I'm so overwhelmed. Like sometimes running the business and being a founder versus a creator, like, I haven't quite found that rhythm in myself yet. And it. Being an entrepreneur and founder is so nerve wracking. And I think products like this are also super supportive because the last thing you want to do is like, I'm stressed out. I'm going to order a pizza and I'm going to binge eat. So also that kind of chronic stress and the cortisol rising that you go through when you're stressed out, your body's stressed out and the inflammation you have, anything that can counteract inflammation in your body is like a go to.
- [36:33]
B
Yeah. Yeah. Have you experienced GLP1?
- [36:36]
A
So I tampered with semi glutide like 3 years ago for the first time. Micro. Micro dosed it. But so I have this obsession with not wanting to lose fat on my face because I'm like, I'm petite. So I'm like, that's the first thing it'll go. And it did. And I did not feel good. And I felt that I lost way too much weight. I became like, I'm already petite, so I became way too thin. And I did it to just kind of see how my body would react to it. And I again was micro dosing and I didn't necessarily like the effects. So for me, having something oral that can help navigate food cravings when I have them help navigate inflammation for me with your product was one of my biggest things. All the support on that. So when I. When you guys reached out to me and I started taking the product, I think it was like two weeks ago that I arrived. My biggest thing is right now is working on the inflammation.
- [37:21]
B
Yeah.
- [37:21]
A
And calming that down. And because I travel a lot, I have a lot going on with work. I was sold on that piece of it because I'm like, chronic inflammation is the number one. Like we discuss health marker to develop disease later.
- [37:32]
B
Yeah.
- [37:33]
A
So if I can like Modulate that. That's going to make a big difference.
- [37:35]
B
Yeah.
- [37:35]
A
But with everything going on with glp, once everyone's like, why don't you try renatrutide? I'm like, for what? Yeah, you know, I said, for what? What aspect am I going to try it for? You know.
- [37:43]
B
Right.
- [37:44]
A
I'm already stressed. I'm already working all the time. I need to focus on my sleep. I said, should I add more stress to my body? Because, listen, at the end of the day, I'm not a professional athlete. Right. I'm doing it to essentially optimize my health.
- [37:54]
B
Right.
- [37:55]
A
So if there's an option that's oral without the side effects.
- [37:57]
B
Yeah.
- [37:57]
A
They don't have to also focus on like, oh, I might have hair loss and now I have to work on my protein intake.
- [38:01]
B
Why would I not do that A thousand percent. I mean, a controversial opinion maybe, but anyone who's considering retatrue tide who already is a healthy person should absolutely start with evolve.
- [38:11]
A
And that was my big thing. So I and everybody, you know, kind of, we go place and they're like, do you want to microdose renatrutide? And I'm like, not really. You know, there are days that I'm just so busy, I'm not even getting in my full calories. The last thing I'm going to do is take a product that is so aggressive, that's going to shut down my appetite even more and force me to be like, oh, I'm not going to think about this. So for me personally, I think, you know, kind of products like Semaglutide, renatrutide are incredible for the right person, for the right profile, if you need it. But I don't think the average person needs to push themselves to that far. And I do think with evolve, with what you guys have built, I'm really interested to see when it comes to women's health, when it comes to fertility, when it comes to perimenopause, the signs and symptoms that can be mitigated and how women can get their health back. We're just taking something oral. That does not have all the list of side effects you're seeing on the other side. Yeah, like liver function being affected, that's another big side effect. Right. A lot of people's liver is getting affected, they're developing gastric issues. So at the end of the day, we are bio individual and you should, you know, the motto of the show is curiosity heals and you should try and test what works for you. But for me it's always options to bring on holistic versions of a product and see how that works better for somebody.
- [39:22]
B
Yeah.
- [39:23]
A
To support your body's natural needs is always better than to work against it a thousand percent. So. And that's what I think the product does so well.
- [39:30]
B
Yeah. Yeah. I love the. I love the Curiosity Heals model. I think the. One of the challenges that we have in this space is that people are not willing to be curious about GLP1 and they see generally supplements as ineffective. Right. And. And I get it, right? The. The things that are the ingredients in most supplements that put GLP1 or WP1 or whatever P1s on the label, they generally consist of ingredients that are food ingredients, and they're gonna elicit a GLP1 response. That's just the same thing that you would experience if you ate an avocado. It's the same experience.
- [40:11]
A
It's the same thing.
- [40:12]
B
Right. So to see people put us in that category and immediately say, oh, well, this is a supplement. It doesn't work, to me, is the opposite of Curiosity Heals. It's the opposite of education and understanding. It's. It's one of the biggest frustrations of us being in the supplement industry. And. But at the same time, I wouldn't have it any other way because I'm so passionate about giving this directly to consumers, so.
- [40:43]
A
And how do you guys struggle with the whole, like, you know, you said yeast was a big part of, you know, kind of how you formulated it. Do people, like, look there and they're like, well, it's yeast. How does it really work? It doesn't do the same thing, you know, as a GLP1 agonist. Like, how do you guys respond to that?
- [40:56]
B
Yeah, that's a tough one, because in order for us to have that conversation, there has to be a base level understanding of bioengineering. And that's complex and hard to understand. So we essentially, what we try to tell people is, listen, we have a peptide that we had to find an organism host for, and we explain that as best we can, and we do a lot of work educating people around what our product is. So we just like you do in any other. I mean, we're surrounded by bioengineered products. Right. We have giant blueberries that resist pesticide, resist insects, and also drought. Right. And that's good. There's lots of good things that have come from bioengineered foods.
- [41:42]
A
Just not bioengineered chicken.
- [41:45]
B
Right? Yeah, no, right. There's so many. Right. There's pros and cons on all sides. But for us, what we had to do was we had to instruct an organism. Again, in order for us to do this at scale and not be injecting people with peptide, we had to find a way for this organism to express our peptide recombinantly and our molecule recombinantly. So we had to go about the process of finding that host. And yeast is a really great organism to work with in bioengineering because it absorbs new information really easily.
- [42:18]
A
Oh, it does?
- [42:20]
B
Yeah, yeah, it, you know, it responds really easily to adjustments in its DNA. So we instruct it to produce our peptide and the outcome is a dried yeast lysate and all of the cells of the yeast have been broken open and are dead and the insides of the cell include our peptide. And so is it yeast? Yes, it's dead yeast powder, but it's really peptide powder. And again that's, you know, that's really hard to explain to people and it's really disappointing when, especially when Dr. Influencers and other people comment and are uneducated and say, you know, oh, it's just yeast, it's. You haven't made any attempt to educate,
- [43:01]
A
to understand what we have created essentially.
- [43:04]
B
Right.
- [43:04]
A
You also talked about how you think peptides, essentially, oral peptides, will be the next frontier. Right now when it comes to oral peptides, except for BPC157, nothing else can kind of go through the gut and kind of sustain itself and be effective. So which ones do you think would be next and which will be most effective in an oral form because they have to be stabilized?
- [43:25]
B
Yeah, well, we're working on a BPC157 solution. So we're really excited about that. We also are bringing a GHK copper solution to market very soon.
- [43:36]
A
So GHK copper for anybody listening, is incredible for hair, skin and nails. Your body needs it to thrive. And so a lot of us have a copper deficiency essentially. And it's a great add on to thicken the hair and nails. It's essentially one of the beauty peptides.
- [43:51]
B
It is. And it works at the root of hair and creates healthy hair from the root. So it's. Yeah, we're excited about that product for sure.
- [44:00]
A
And BBC 157, when are you guys going to release that TBD? Okay.
- [44:05]
B
TBD? Yeah.
- [44:06]
A
And is there anything different about the one that you guys are going to essentially bring to market? Any add ons, any ingredients you guys are going to add to it versus what some of these compounding pharmacies currently have orally price point, maybe.
- [44:19]
B
Yeah, I mean there are, you know, again, our philosophy is access. So price point will always be somewhat premium and somewhat accessible. We. Yeah, yeah. I mean we have created formulas in any of our products that not only leverage the benefits of the peptide, but also work in combination with other necessary ingredients to just build the most optimal formulation for the body. So you'll see in a very short time we're going to be releasing our next product which is Evolve Grow. And that will be our first next product that leverages the GHK Copper memetic. And we're excited about it.
- [45:03]
A
So we talked about so many different things. But for to leave our audience with, if you had to give your top three tips for somebody to lose weight and have a better quality of life besides Evolve, adding that in, what would be the other three? Oh, where would they start? Like you've been a professional athlete. Okay. You're a founder, formulated this incredible product. In order.
- [45:25]
B
What would you recommend in order to. I'm also, you know, I'll say what's for me, what's best for me and what I would recommend to a friend. The first would be sleep, bar none. I think sleep has the most amount of impact across our overall health. So understanding how much deep sleep you're getting, understanding how to get more and better quality of sleep would be number one. Number two is movement. I think when we sit still, we die. You have to find a way to move your body, even if it's just walking or standing in place and doing calisthenics. That would probably be number two. And then again, understanding how to get access to better nutrition and being curious about your own individual biology and what nutrition is best for you. It's, it's really experiment and trial and error. And so I encourage anybody who's struggling with that to experiment. You're not going to get advice, beneficial advice from Instagram or from your doctor, sadly. So the only way you're going to try things is finding new ways to get access to healthy foods and trying to.
- [46:50]
A
Becca, what are some of the, what is the data essentially suggesting? What are you guys seeing with a product in real time? With research being done?
- [46:57]
B
We study our product extensively. We look at safety and clinical efficacy. We're in the middle of a major clinical study that's looking at efficacy of our product and I can share some early readouts from an interim report that looks at the eight week mark is in a 12 week study. We're seeing at the eight week mark that participants in the study are losing up to 12 pounds of weight and are seeing up to 4 inches of waste reduction and are consuming approximately 750 less calories per day.
- [47:35]
A
Over how long? What was the duration of that?
- [47:38]
B
It's a 90 day study, so three months.
- [47:39]
A
Wow. And how big is the focus group in the study?
- [47:42]
B
We have a hundred participants total.
- [47:44]
A
That's insane to see over 90 days that kind of correlated data in such a short amount of time. Because 90 days is really not that long a time. So that's incredible that you guys are already seeing these results.
- [47:55]
B
Yeah, yeah. The results are really on par with the data from some of the other GLP1RAs out there. And it's, you know, it's also important to flag that results can vary. People are going to have different experiences based on their own biology and. But this is a really positive indication for people who are questioning and curious about seeing the data behind what we know works.
- [48:16]
A
It's amazing that you guys at such an early stage are already running like, you know, studies and kind of really trying to correlate in real time what impacts people are having with the product. A lot of brands don't do that. They essentially release products. They're like, here's a supplement, try it. See how it goes from there. They don't back into the research.
- [48:33]
B
Yeah, we're not a supplement company, we're a biotech company and we're a team of scientists, myself excluded. So there's a lot of science thought and innovation that goes into everything that we do. We don't bring anything to market that hasn't been extensively studied for safety, toxicity and efficacy. And we continue to study our product every step of the way. Third party, double blinded. So we're really careful and intentional about how we approach data. And it's clear. Yeah, yeah. And results. It's really the entire ethos of who we are.
- [49:10]
A
Another thing I would add in that you talked about earlier was hrt. So hormone replacement therapy. I think for women it is so important if your tank is on empty and your body is not producing the right amount of progesterone, estrogen or testosterone, which happens essentially when you start going into perimenopause into menopause, your body doesn't have the fuel to give. So everything that you do, you want to push yourself at the gym, you want to get better quality sleep, but you can't because your body's essentially fighting against you. Me personally, last year, because I had a lot of stress going on, my progesterone markers were like terrible. I Was really struggling, sleeping and getting good quality sleep. When I was put on oral progesterone, that completely changed for me. And so I would say those things paired with hormones is so important, but to be guided by somebody who really knows what they're doing when it comes to hormones.
- [49:57]
B
Totally. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you have to start with the fundamentals, but a thousand percent, I mean, hormones change my life. I wouldn't even be sitting here if it weren't for my oral progesterone. I mean, I, I was a disaster. Same thing. It just.
- [50:11]
A
How long ago did you start it?
- [50:14]
B
About two years.
- [50:14]
A
Okay.
- [50:15]
B
Yeah. But the symptoms that I, that were plaguing me were hot flashes. I didn't have hot flashes. I had crippling fatigue and pain. So I mean, you know how that feeling when you have the flu and you just are like, I am not.
- [50:32]
A
I'm dying.
- [50:33]
B
I'm not getting out of bed today. I had that a lot. And I could tell that it was related to my cycle and to my hormone fluctuations and just so many other weird things. Like, I really experienced pretty substantial brain fog and mood swings and sleep. Right. My sleep was just different. All of a sudden, like one day, I've always had great sleep. Eight and a half hours. I know what I need. Crushed sleep. And then literally one day, for the next 300 days, it was like, no,
- [51:10]
A
who hijacked my sleep?
- [51:11]
B
No, you're not getting sleep. You're going to wake up from 2:30 to 3:30 or 4 and you're just going to sit there and then you're gonna go ahead and wake up at like 5:30 and be up for the day. It was just crazy.
- [51:22]
A
Yeah.
- [51:24]
B
And, and no one talks about this. No. You know, I had to go to my girlfriends and be like, do you have this going on? Do you have this going on? Who's, who's got this going on? What's happening? And everyone's like, yeah, me too. Yeah. And there are so many other weird things. So the fact that we aren't prepared for it, the fact that there's no real education around it and no one talks to you about this. When you go through the phases of. Right. Of life, your OB doesn't, your GYN doesn't sit you down and be like, hey, how old are you? What do you have going on? Anything going on? No, no.
- [51:50]
A
You have 15 minutes in your office. You go in, they check everything off against a paper and they're like, okay, bye, take care. Right. And that's why I feel like longevity and like Health span, functional medicine are going to become the new way to live and it will become the main form of medicine because America, like you said when we started the episode, it's built on a sick care system, it's not a health care system. And, and so unless we, and everybody's being like, okay, if I can afford it, I'm going to go the functional route because I want to feel better. I don't just want to be put on one prescription drug after another after another and just mitigate my signs and symptoms. I actually want to feel good.
- [52:21]
B
Yeah.
- [52:22]
A
And so this is how people are going to start living their life. But it comes down to accessibility, which is a problem you guys are obviously solving, but other aspects of the industry need to solve that as well. So seeing a functional medicine doctor is not going to cost you 10, 15, $20,000 because a lot of people can't afford that.
- [52:37]
B
Right.
- [52:37]
A
And so it's about price point accessibility, education, and really helping treat people so that they can live a better life.
- [52:44]
B
Yeah. It also comes down to, like you said in the beginning, healthcare reform and food system reform. We're not going to get anywhere until we change how much access we have to ultra processed foods and how much dependency we have on them. That's just the fundamental layer here that no one wants to talk about.
- [53:03]
A
Right.
- [53:04]
B
We won't need these other tools for support if we reform that and if we educate our doctors differently around perimenopause, around obesity, around nutrition and more of our. Our system doctors are our functional medicine doctors. How great would that be?
- [53:21]
A
100%. I'm so grateful that you guys put the time and effort to really bring something to the market that's different. I always tell people, they're like, oh, I. For me, the supplements industry is so unregulated, it is oversaturated. And for me, it's very exciting to sit down with brands that have really patented something that's unique in solving a problem. Not trying to do the next zinc or vitamin D or magnesium, really trying to solve a problem and being something that's affordable, approachable, and then you can really back into the science. And that's what excites me about the space about brands such as yours.
- [53:52]
B
Thank you so much. Yeah, that means the world to us. Obviously you're a legend, so hearing that from you is epic. So thank you.
- [53:58]
A
Thank you for coming on to biohacket.
- [54:00]
B
Yeah, happy to be here.