The modern age has given men a lot to be grateful for. Better nutrition, the benefits of exercise, and medical breakthroughs have helped to extend life far beyond the experience of our parents or grandparents. Still, at a certain point, the “machinery” starts to falter and break down.

Old injuries can only be patched together for only so long. The aches and pains of your earlier years begin to take over on cold winter days or during tough training sessions. Weights that you use to warm-up with start to become a greater struggle for you to overcome. The long days in the office you used to put in, day after day, become more of a grind as your focus begins to nosedive as the day goes on.

No man can outrun Father Time forever.

It is one of the great paradoxes of life that just as you accumulate the knowledge, skills, and experience of life, aging causes you to lose your edge.

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When that happens, it is easy to fall into the trap of competing for average, slowing down, holding back, or not pushing yourself too far. Worse, the danger of what follows is rationalizing low standards and expectations. Of course, the effect of that decision usually marks the decline of living life more fully and productively.

Instead of rationalizing your way to lower standards and a below-average existence, view that decline as the challenge — to retain your physical edge while capitalizing on all the experience you have accumulated up to that point.

To do that, you must fight it at a molecular level.

In the past, this was not possible, but now a new breakthrough has emerged that may hold the key.

There is a prevailing theory that declining protein synthesis is the cause of aging at a molecular level. Protein synthesis is the process of creating protein molecules from amino acids. At the heart of this process are peptides.

“Peptides are short strings or chains of amino acids, anywhere from 2–50 amino acids. Amino acids are also the building blocks of proteins. Proteins, as you may know, are what make up our muscle tissue and other tissues of your body. Peptides may be easier for the body to absorb than whole proteins. They are smaller than typical proteins which allows them to penetrate the skin and intestines more easily. This allows them to enter the bloodstream more rapidly from either taking orally in supplement form or via injection subcutaneously,” explains Dr. Jerry Bailey, a functional medicine physician.

As a person gets older, their ability to synthesize proteins at the molecular level begins to decline. As a result, aging begins to set in. As it does, your health, ability to heal, strength, cognitive abilities, and all bodily functions begin to decline as well.

To counteract that, you must get down to that molecular level and boost your body’s ability to influence protein synthesis.

Peptide therapy is not a new idea.

In 1922, peptide therapy was medically used in the form of insulin to help Type 1 diabetics control their blood sugar which revolutionized diabetic care. Since then, over 7,000 peptides have been discovered and cataloged for medical use.

“Their function within medicine ranges far and wide,” reports Dr. Bailey. “From slowing the aging process, to wound healing, building lean muscle and strength, hair growth for baldness, digestive repair, weight loss and, for what many seek out, to make you superhuman like Wolverine in the comic books. You fully optimize your ability to regenerate tissue and fully slow the aging process.”

Peptides are like the concentrated orange juice you buy at the store, concentrated extracts of naturally occurring protein molecules consisting of amino acids that are linked in a chain. Some of these peptides are created naturally in your own body. Others must be consumed through plant and animal protein to be broken down. As such, they are a part of our natural existence and essential to our health.

Going even further, each organ and body function has its own unique peptide bioregulator that regulates its functions in your body’s systems. Acting like both neurotransmitters and hormones, each organ and body function has its own unique peptide bioregulator. It is the peptides that regulate the activity of your body’s molecules, and because of this, they influence body functions in several ways.

By kickstarting your body’s own peptide production via peptide bioregulators, specific organs, systems or conditions in the body can be targeted and influenced with specific peptide formulas.

“The world of age reversing is growing immensely,” reports Dr. Bailey. “As people are wanting to slow their aging down and live healthier and longer than our parents or grandparents.”

“Peptides work on the molecular level of the body stimulating or inhibiting specific signal proteins in the body such as mTOR, Sirtuins, PPARg, FOXO3, NFkB and AMPK. These terms may not mean much to many people but as physicians and scientists these are how the body regulates inflammation, aging, cellular senescence, cellular growth, and regeneration. It is how cells regulate energy, repair themselves, and also go through cellular death (apoptosis). These are what we know as the control mechanisms within the body from cell regulation,” says Bailey.

By customizing certain peptide compounds, you can positively target, and effect change in key areas such as:

You start by defining your goals and what you are trying to accomplish. Once you are clear on that, the next step is to consult with a physician that is well-versed on peptide therapy.

A trained physician in peptide therapy can consult with you on their use and advise you on what regimen to follow.

“Peptides can vary in cost. Some are around $40-50 while some can range up to $100-200 per vial or supplement bottle. Often people will stack them in use, taking two or three at a time or up to five or six in cycling processes. I know of people in the biohacking world that spend about $1,000 per month on these alone in addition to their other supplements, IV’s and injectables to slow the aging process and create the most optimal function system possible,” says Bailey.

“Peptides are taken in several ways, but most individuals go with injectable forms. These are given either in single injection doses daily to attain the regenerative/superhuman results you wish or throughout the day to attain weight loss and/or a fertility response. Cycling them is also important to allow rest of the body and its metabolic processes,” Bailey adds.

The simplest regimen is daily injections over a period of 6 to 12 months. It is also important to have reasonable expectations. Peptide therapy is not a sprint, but a marathon. You will start to notice results in 6 to 8 weeks, give or take a couple of weeks, with the best results coming long-term. The benefit is that these results can become permanent as your body’s natural processes are influenced at the molecular level by the peptides you are taking. That means you can stop at a certain point or tailor your approach to improve in other areas.

For best results, take injections in the morning and evening but avoid eating 60 minutes after your injections. This way your digestion does not interfere with the absorption of the peptides.

If you are like most men, you are eating well, exercising, and doing all the things you should be doing to take care of yourself but still not performing like you want, then peptides may be worth exploring.

Being ambitious and hard-working in your pursuit of achieving excellence in all areas of your life requires you to maximize your health. Without a strong body and being physically optimized, you will lack the energy to achieve excellence and fall short in your goals.

Peptides may be the bridge to get you from where you are now to where you want to be.