GHK Boosts Brain Health

Brain Health

How much do you know about brain health?  More specifically, do you know how a tiny peptide called GHK could be the difference between a healthy brain and body and an unhealthy one? The research is starting to consolidate on GHK and it’s good news.  GHK has “multiple biological actions, all of which, according to our current knowledge, appear to be health positive.”  Here is the current evidence that shows how GHK and GHK-Cu may be positively impacting on your brain health.

GHK-Cu

But first,  you need to understand the basics of the field of epigenetics.

 EPIGENTICS

Epigenetics is the study of how cells control gene activity without changing the DNA sequence. The easiest way to understand it is that your genes stay the same, but the epigenetic changes are modifications that determine whether a gene is turned on or off.

The next thing to understand is that genes can be overactive and underactive.  If a gene is underactive you want to upregulate it, and if it’s overactive you will want to downregulate it.

Now, consider this.  According to the research Pickart et al reports “the number of human genes stimulated or suppressed by GHK with a change greater than or equal to 50% is 31.2%.  GHK induced a significant change in the gene expression, UP or DOWN of 50% in 31.8% of the human genes.

In other words, almost 32% of your genes are impacted, significantly, by this one peptide GHK!  If you don’t have healthy GHK levels you can be negatively impacting 32% of your genes and in turn health.  Sadly, the levels of GHK in a 60 year old is just a fraction of what it is in 20 year olds.

NEURONS

If we look first at the effect on neurons (nerve cells) they found that “408 genes go up and 230 go down.” This was from the study titled Regenerative and Protective Actions of the GHK-Cu Peptide in the Light of the New Gene Data.  So a good number of genes are either upregulated or downregulated in a positive direction.

The below chart shows the top 10 genes upregulated by GHK and the top 10 downregulated.  Notice the percent change.  It’s over 1000% for the top two.

genes affected by GHK

They state that “GHK has a significant effect on neurons, but we don’t know exactly what this means.  With time, we will be able to analyze the huge amount of data.”

ANXIETY AND PAIN

We also know that the peptide has “potent anti-pain, anti-anxiety and anti-aggression actions” which are primarily brain regulated.  In the chart below you can see the genes identified that help to reduce pain.

pain genes affected by GHK

COHERENCE

A different study titled Non-Invasive Scanning and Subtle Energy Testing Lab Effect of LifeWave X39 Patches on Brain as Seen with P3 Brain Mapping: Preliminary Results found different results when they looked at the brain.

First a little bit of background on the X39 patch.  It’s a non-transdermal skin patch that is worn for 12 hours per day.  When studied it “showed a significant increase in the GHK-Cu concentration present in the blood as a result of wearing the LifeWave X39 patch for 1 week in individuals age 40 to 80.”

Lifewave X39 patch

Getting back to the brain mapping study they found that “according to their coherence maps, the majority of participants started with an over active brain and their brain calmed down significantly after 3 weeks of wearing the X39 patch.

STROKE

Have a look at this study titled Glycine-Histidine-Lysine (GHK) Alleviates Neuronal Apoptosis Due to Intracerebral Hemorrhage via the miR-339-5p/VEGFA Pathway.  Fancy talk but here is what you need to know.

“GHK enhances wound healing, exerts neuroprotective effects against neurodegenerative disease, and improves tissue regeneration. This study examined whether GHK can alleviate injury due to intracerebral hemorrhage (stroke).”

They found that “GHK-induced downregulation of miR-339-5p (a gene), and that the miR-339-5p/VEGFA axis plays a role in preventing neuronal apoptosis”

In simple speak, the GHK downregulated a gene, or genes, and this prevented nerve death following a stroke. They concluded that “these findings indicate that GHK may represent a novel therapeutic strategy for stroke.”

ANTI-AGING

One final CRITICAL point to note is that the levels of GHK average “200ng/ml at age 20 but decline to an average of 80ng/ml by age 60.

As we age and need it for brain health, the levels decrease.

However, the following discovery is interesting and very promising.

“Because GHK is absorbed at a high efficiency across the blood brain barrier in to the brains of rodents and nonhuman primates …… testing the effects on the peptide on neurological function is warranted”  A study on aging mice found “evidence of decreased inflammation….. suggesting that in addition to an anti-inflammatory effect, GHK may be triggering an epigentic pathway in the amelioration of cognitive impairment in aging mice.”

SUMMARY

It is very likely that there are multiple pathways and genes that are being up and down regulated when it comes to our brain health.

Studies have shown that some age-related changes in gene expression are not permanent and can be reversed.  For example we know that as little as 30 minutes of exercise per day can reset mitochondrial DNA to a gene expression more like that of a younger person.

When you put all the information together it’s clear that this peptide can have significant impacts on our brain and overall health.

It’s a safe, inexpensive, and extensively studied peptide that has a huge upside in the brain and many other tissues.

Considering one of the proposed pathways to increase GHK is via photobiomodulation this would make sense as there is a large volume of evidence that shows that photobiomodulation helps with the aging brain in humans.

Lifestyle Integration provides natural solutions for stress and lifestyle-based health issues for men over 50. Raising your GHK levels with the X39 patch and/or with photobiomodulation has been shown to be effective, easy and a go to bio-hack as we age.

Yours in Health,
Dr. Todd Lizon B.P.H.E., D.C.

Dr Todd Lizon

A renowned educator, Dr. Todd Lizon (B.P.H.E., D.C.)  is the founder of Lifestyle Integration.  By embracing modern technology and research we bring you the tools and products to help you reshape the assumption you might have on how we lose and rebuild health as we age.

We care deeply about your metabolic health here at Lifestyle Integration.

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High Copper Natural Detoxification via GHK Peptide

High copper detoxification

Copper overload, or high copper levels in the human body is a pervasive, under diagnosed and significantly damaging problem.  I have been looking at this metal in patients with hair mineral analysis since 2010 and in all this time I’ve only seen a few with copper deficiency.  However, I’ve seen hundreds with elevated copper. The challenge has been in how to effectively detoxify this excessive toxic copper.  Recently, a new way has been discovered that shows tremendous promise to help in this battle.

If you are already familiar with high copper issues feel free to skip down to the GHK heading for the new information.

High Copper

Copper is distributed in the body the following ways. Bones (44%), muscles (25%), liver (10%), brain (6%), blood (6%), kidneys (3%), heart (2%) and lungs (1%).  It’s easy to see with such a wide distribution, how a person with excessive levels would struggle with multiple symptoms.

copper pipe

These symptoms tend to fall into the following categories.

  • Hormone imbalance
  • Joint pains
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Anxiety/depression
  • Cancer

Current methods of treatment and detoxification include the following.

Detoxification is suggested with near infrared saunas, coffee enemas, and potentially a few other strategies such as binders, spirulina and occasionally medical chelation.  Caution should be taken with medical chelation as it can be very rough on already fatigued and burnt out bodies and energy crashes can occur post treatment.

Antagonists are minerals or vitamins that cancel or work against other minerals.  When used strategically they can assist with copper overload.  Copper antagonists that can effectively be used include zinc, molybdenum, Vitamin C, B6 and more.

Exposure reduction is also critical.  This includes IUD’s, vegetarian diets, tap water, some swimming pools, and anything that is high in estrogens or xenoestrogens.

There are more treatments, but you get the idea.

Hidden Copper

In my experience it has proven to be difficult to get rid of all the overt copper as well as what is called the hidden copper.

Hidden copper is the amount that is stored deep in the body’s tissues and organs.  It won’t show up on any test other than a direct biopsy.  We usually only get to see this copper slowly over time as we detoxify AND monitor it regularly every 6 months with a hair analysis test.

GHK-Cu

GHK-Cu

The human copper-binding peptide GHK-Cu is a small, naturally occurring tri-peptide present in human plasma that also can be released from tissues in case of an injury.  Loren Pickart writes in Regenerative and Protective Actions of the GHK-Cu Peptide in the Light of the New Gene Data that “most authors would attribute effects of GHK to its ability to bind copper (II) ions. It was proposed that because of the GHK’s small size and its ability to bind copper, it can play a crucial part in copper metabolism.”

There is more to the story with up and down gene regulation (a LOT more as the article reviews)but the copper binding is the part to pay attention to here.

A 2020 study in fish called Expression and Purification of Recombinant GHK Tripeptides Are Able to Protect against Acute Cardiotoxicity from Exposure to Waterborne-Copper in Zebrafish suggests a significant role for GHK-Cu in copper detoxification.

Zebrafish were used as they have a similar homology to humans. The simplified version of the study is that they exposed the fish to water that was high in copper.  The control group had NO GHK and the experimental group was given GHK.  So, some fish had GHK and some fish didn’t when they were exposed to toxic copper laced water.

The study found that “a GHK peptide could rescue cardiotoxicity induced by copper.”  They concluded that the study “now paves the way for further testing of GHK tripeptide as a potent agent for detoxification or cardio-protection in rodents and other preclinical vertebrate animal tests.”

Now the disclaimers.  This was a single animal study into the potential detoxification effect of GHK on excessive copper levels.  It doesn’t mean that the same effect will occur in humans.

With that said, let’s look at how we can increase our GHK.

How To Increase GHK

The X-39 patch by LifeWave is the easiest proven way to increase GHK.  You can get a powder and inject it or use it in other ways but the powder is very degradable and light sensitive and not practical to use.  The patch is simple.  You simply put it on in the morning and take if off at night.

Lifewave X39 patch

Here are two studies that show increases in GHK when you use the Lifewave X39 patch.

Changes in Tripeptides Produced By the LifeWave X39 Patch
Double-Blind Testing of the Lifewave X39 Patch to Determine GHK-Cu Production Levels.

Now The Interesting Part

Can we safely recommend the use of GHK to detoxify copper?  No.

Can we safely recommend the use of GHK to reap all of the well-established health and anti-aging benefits you can read about here?  Yes.

If you have high copper overload, I know how difficult it can be.  The brain fog and the anxiety can be crippling.  The fatigue and the aches can be overwhelming.  It can seem like there is no effective safe treatment and you are stuck in a constant revolving circle of frustration.

As a result, I would suggest that the use of GHK peptide to address the genes, epigenetics and other established health benefits make it worthwhile trialing for these things alone.  Then, if, you start to notice copper detoxification  we can consider this a wonderful bonus.

To further this point, we know that “in human plasma, the level of GHK is typically 200ng/ml at the age of 20, but it declines to 80ng/ml by the age of 60” So if you are older then you will be needing to increase your GHK from a purely anti-aging perspective.

Pickart states “GHK is safe and very inexpensive. Its safety record and its ability to reverse gene expression back to health warrant its use as a dietary supplement to support health and vitality of skin, hair and the entire body.”

The other point I would re-iterate is that if you have high copper or copper symptoms you should undergo a hair analysis about every 6 months to help track the progress as well as determine if you would benefit from some of the antagonist minerals mentioned earlier.

Lifestyle Integration

Lifestyle Integration has been working with high copper overload patients since 2010.  We manufacture and sell near infrared saunas (also known as full spectrum saunas), provide hair analysis tests as well as consult regarding supplement needs and provide the LifeForce X39 patch.

We welcome all comments and questions.  Shoot us an email at info@lifestyleintegration.com.au or put a question in the comments.

Alternatively please consider signing up for our newsletter to join our growing tribe and get regular updates, discounts and benefits.

Yours in Health,

Dr Todd Lizon (Chiropractor)
B.P.H.E., D.C.