Recording 2026-05-08 15:27

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]So, let's get started. Okay.

[00:00:03]Before we get to the peptides, I just want to make sure we're all on a solid foundation with understanding cell membranes, okay? I know, boring, but we have to understand that first.

[00:00:13]What is a lipid, right? So, our cell membranes are made up of lipids. Lipids are just fats. And fats So, fats make up the membranes of our cell, the mitochondrial membrane as well as just the cellular membrane. So, think of that as like the skin on your body, right? It keeps everything on the inside contained and the outside separate, right? And that's the same thing with your cell. So, all the organelles, the mitochondria, the nucleus with the DNA, everything's inside and then that that membrane surrounds the cell, keeping everything inside where it's supposed to be.

[00:00:48]Okay. Now, the thing about fats is, you probably already know this, they're very easily oxidized. So, they're vulnerable to damage from what's called reactive oxygen species.

[00:00:58]So, these are free radicals. Um the irony is that our mitochondria actually produce reactive oxygen species.

[00:01:07]And that's actually as a byproduct of making ATP. You remember ATP? That's your cellular energy currency. So, that's what the cell uses to basically it's the the currency of the cell. So, whatever the cell needs, it needs ATP to run it.

[00:01:21]Um and so, the process of making ATP also creates damage to those membranes, those lipids, right? So, it's kind of a weird design, but that's the biology that we're working with and it's important to understand this, so as we get into this. So, when we're young and healthy, our cells have this antioxidant system. Well, all of our cells have an antioxidant system. But when we're young, it's more robust, it's healthy, and it manages that damage. So, you have antioxidants that combat the oxidants, the reactive ox um reactive oxygen species.

[00:01:52]But, when we get older, as we age, in certain disease contexts, the repair capacity slows down, our ability to produce those antioxidants slows down, lipids in the membrane can accumulate damage. And then, those membranes can break down, and that's when the cellular function degrades, which we're going to talk about. Now, before we talk about SS-31 cardiolipin, I want to talk about another very important lipid in the membrane, which is called phosphatidylcholine, or PC. This is actually the major structural lipid in most cell membranes, not just the mitochondria, but also in all the all the cell at large.

[00:02:31]And you can actually supplement with this. There's I take a supplement called PC by a company called BioBody, and it's a very high-quality phospholipid. It basically replaces those oxidized older lipids in your cell membranes, and um supports your cells overall, your mitochondria and your all your cells.

[00:02:49]Um and so, that's a really fundamental thing that I think people overlook.

[00:02:54]So, just thought I'd throw that in there. So, now, talking about another lipid, cardiolipin, and that's where SS-31 comes in.

[00:03:03]So, cardiolipin, it's a very unique phospholipid lipid um fat that's it it's almost it's exclusively found in the inner mitochondrial membrane of the mitochondria. So, it's a structural component, okay?

[00:03:19]So, phosphatidylcholine kind of makes up the whole membrane, that's the major, and this lipid is small, and it kind of pulls the electron transport chain together. This is the machinery that makes ATP, that makes our energy. So, it's a series of proteins, complex 1 2 3 4. They need to be organized so that they're close together to be efficient, right? If they're spread out, like it's just not as as good. Like, imagine working in a factory, and you've got to walk over there and hand something off. No, you want it to be right there. Boom, boom, boom. So, that's how we we want this structured and that's exactly what cardiolipin does. It holds It's like a glue that holds those complexes together so that ATP can just go boom, boom, boom.

[00:04:03]So, when cardiolipin gets oxidized and damaged, those complexes start to drift apart, our ATP production becomes less efficient, you get more electron leakage, and that can generate more of those electro or sorry, reactive oxygen species. So, it's basically just like reinforcing that damage, that cycle of damage.

[00:04:23]This and and by the way, this cardiolipin is damaged in certain mitochondrial diseases, and that's where SS-31 comes in.

[00:04:32]So, it's called a lamiripide. It's a small mitochondrial targeting peptide.

[00:04:39]It's not not nor not natural to our body. It's a you know, it was developed in the lab, but it binds directly to cardiolipin in that mitochondrial membrane. It actually has such a strong affinity. It goes there like within minutes, and it forms a structure for cardiolipin. So, if cardiolipin is damaged or sort of broken, think of it as like the scaffolding that's going to hold that that membrane together and pull those complexes together.

[00:05:08]So, even if it's lip if it's oxidised or damaged, this is going to help. This is going to support that system. And second is what the research shows visually, it physically draws those electron transport complexes closer together, meaning we can make better energy.

[00:05:26]So, it is it's basically think of it as restoring that architecture. I always think of it as a scaffold that's basically holding up the building, okay?

[00:05:34]And this is going to be important later, cuz I'm going to explain so I'm going to explain a mis- a common misconception.

[00:05:39]So, think of that scaffold. Now, in theory, is the results of this in theory is improved electron flow, less leakage, less reactive oxygen species, better ATP output. Now, the research is interesting.

[00:05:56]It's more the mechanism is really interesting and cool, what what I just described.

[00:06:02]The the data is less exciting, okay? So, there was one study Okay, let me just say Let me back up.

[00:06:10]The clinical trials, they all had They were all for very uh sick, you know, sick children or sick people like with mitochondrial myopathies.

[00:06:19]And the end point was a 6-minute walk test. So, meaning, do you take this peptide and can you walk farther in 6 minutes? And none of them met that those end points.

[00:06:30]Um and so, that's where it's a little bit disappointing cuz it's like, "Okay, so what is it really doing?"

[00:06:36]There wasn't one study though in older adults that were otherwise healthy, they did not have any mitochondrial disease.

[00:06:41]They gave them a single infusion of SS-31.

[00:06:45]And their ATP went up. So, they were able to show like, yes, it improves ATP output.

[00:06:52]However, 7 days later, levels back to baseline, okay? So, that was one study, but it's really important to understand also that all the studies that were done are the patent holder, this one company.

[00:07:07]Um all the studies were done by them.

[00:07:10]Okay?

[00:07:11]And it is FDA approved, but it doesn't have that that robust of a result in these studies, okay?

[00:07:22]Now, but let's let's take that out for a second. Let's assume that it it does work the way the mechanism show. It's going to repair this damage, right?

[00:07:33]Okay. Like I said, that's scaffolding.

[00:07:36]So, while it's present, it's holding this thing this complex together. It's providing that structure, that scaffolding.

[00:07:44]But, it's temporary. So, as soon as we remove the peptide, I think the half-life is like 16 hours. So, as soon as it's gone, that it's just going to fall back down.

[00:07:54]Okay? So, it's not repairing anything.

[00:07:57]It's temporary. It's not like a It's not fixing anything. That's the point that I think everyone is Well, not everybody, but I think a lot of people miss that, that it's actually not repairing anything. It's just working while it's present. It's holding things together.

[00:08:12]If you take If you put a scaffold up to hold a building, yeah, great. It's there. The sca- It's great. But, when you remove the scaffolding, everything is going to collapse again. Think of it that way.

[00:08:22]So, if somebody has damaged cardiolipin and somebody needs SS-31, it's not a temporary need. It's not Okay, you can do this SS-31 and then you do MOTS-c because you're fixing your membranes. No, not unless you're doing something else to repair why it's damaged in the first place.

[00:08:43]So, if there's you know, if there's something that's causing that oxidative damage, then yes, maybe you're maybe you can temporarily support that while you fix the the root cause. But, otherwise, it's just a bandage. It's not a fix. Okay?

[00:08:57]So, keep that in mind.

[00:09:00]Now, let's talk about MOTS-c, right?

[00:09:03]MOTS-c, this is a peptide that's encoded in our mitochondrial genome. Very, very cool. It makes it really unique. It's a signal that your mitochondria produce to communicate with the rest of the cell.

[00:09:15]So, MOTS-c does several things. It First, it activates the AMPK pathway.

[00:09:20]This is the same cellular energy sensing pathway that's activated by fasting, caloric restriction, that kind of thing.

[00:09:28]So, when um it's like a fuel gauge. So, when resources are low, you are not eating, you know, you're fasting, or there just isn't any fuel coming in, AMPK gets activated and this the cell is going to shift into a more like adaptive efficient mode, so it's going to break down what you have already stored. It's like recycling program. That's how I always think of it. You're just recycling using up what you have in storage rather than using the fuel in the food that you're consuming in that moment.

[00:09:56]And the second thing that Matasi does um that I find this to be the most fascinating part, Matasi actually translocates or mo moves into the nucleus, so it goes out of the mitochondria and it goes into the cell nucleus and when it's in there, it turns on what's called AREs or antioxidant response elements.

[00:10:17]This is your cell's antioxidant defense system. This is so cool. So this is where there is if there's elevated oxidative stress, we can turn on our own antioxidants, but of course this process gets slowed down as we age.

[00:10:31]This is called the NRF2 pathway. So I'm going to come back to that in a moment.

[00:10:36]But the third thing that Matasi does is it activates PGC1 alpha.

[00:10:41]This is associated with mitochondrial biogenesis, which is the creation of new mitochondria.

[00:10:46]Now there are conflicting uh studies at the moment where may it may or may not actually induce mitochondrial biogenesis. Um so this is still being studied. The most recent study is implying that it doesn't do this, but we have studies that show that it does activate PGC1 alpha. So that's just throwing in there. So it may or may not help with creating new mitochondria.

[00:11:10]Um so now now we have the mouse studies, right? So in the mouse in mouse models, what it's been shown to do, very cool, reverses insulin resistance.

[00:11:19]Um it also counteracts or reverses the effects of a high fat diet. So the mice that gained you know, became obese because of a high fat diet, Matasi reversed that.

[00:11:30]And it didn't they didn't change their food, they didn't change their intake, um and they didn't change their exercise. So, it was just because of Mat C that they were able to lose the the fat.

[00:11:41]Um and then in aged mice or both mice, but especially in aged mice, they were able to run longer, so they had better endurance um for exercise. So, that was really cool. And it also preserves muscle.

[00:11:55]So, it does a lot of good things. So, it's also referred to as an exercise mimetic, which means that it has basically activates the same pathways as as exercise.

[00:12:05]Um the cellular pathways. So, that is pretty cool. Does not, I will say, it does not replace the full benefits of exercise. Let's just be clear about that. So, you still have to exercise. It just, you know, maybe if you're having surgery or something along those lines or you're, you know, incapacitated, it might be a a way to kind of help with some of the benefits of exercise, but it does definitely doesn't replace the benefits. We still need exercise. Okay.

[00:12:30]So, now go back Let's go back to the Nrf2. I want to explain that briefly because um I talk about this a lot and it's probably going to come up again.

[00:12:39]So, Nrf2, NRF2, it's a transcription factor. That just means that it's a protein that goes into the nucleus and sits on your DNA and turns your genes on. Like think of it as flipping a light switch. It's going to turn on some genes. Specifically, it turns on the endogenous antioxidants and detox pathways.

[00:12:58]So, what does that mean? Okay, that means that we had we have we can make glutathione, we can make antioxidants.

[00:13:04]We don't just have to eat blueberries and and oranges. We actually have the ability in our cells in our DNA to turn on antioxidants. And it's a defense mechanism.

[00:13:14]So, that's what's cool about Mat C because it can turn on this process. So, it senses the cell is under stress, like exercise, and it goes and turns on something that combats that stress.

[00:13:27]Super cool.

[00:13:28]Now, what I find really exciting is that several of the compounds that I talk about activate this pathway. So, MOTS-c activates the Nrf2 pathway, GHK copper also activates Nrf2, and there's a compound called um Oh my gosh, I lost my train of thought.

[00:13:45]It's um Protandim that activates It's a synergistic blend of several natural ingredients that turn on this Nrf2 pathway. So, these kind of are a little bit different, but overlap in that regard. So, you know, you don't just have to take, you know, glutathione or eat, you know, eat eat blueberries and things like that, although that's a good idea, too.

[00:14:09]But, you can actually activate your own genes to turn on. And it's not just when you eat blueberries, right? There's like a one-to-one where you've got one reactive oxygen species, one antioxidant, you know, combating each other. But, when you turn on your genes, it's like there's a fold change. So, you're getting much more activation and um combating of that oxidative stress. And by the way, I didn't mention this yet, but oxidative stress is related to every major disease. If you go to PubMed and you type in oxidative stress, there's like I think maybe like a half a million publications or something.

[00:14:45]Um 300,000, something like that. So, it's it's a lot. And if you type in oxidative stress plus cancer, oxidative stress plus heart disease, you'll find a plethora of information on that cuz it's related to It's linked to everything.

[00:15:01]Um so, essentially, we don't want this, right? We do need a little bit, but we we want to reduce that as much as possible.

[00:15:09]Um things that increase oxidative stress are like processed seed oils. They They're very prone to oxidation, as we know. Um disrupted sleep, circadian rhythm disruption. so oxidative stress can accumulate during sleep deprivation and then um you know not you know poor diet essentially cuz if you you need to have a Mediterranean like polyphenol rich diet in order to support those antioxidant pathways. Also perimenopause and menopause um that declining estrogen also reduces the endogenous antioxidant capacity. So one of the reasons why women in midlife and men um this is very critical as well.

[00:15:51]Okay, so let's go back to that original question of do you need SS-31 before MOTS-c?

[00:15:59]And my answer is no, but not as a rule. And hopefully I I did a good job of explaining why I'm saying that. So you do not need to run SS-31 before. It's the keyword before MOTS-c. These peptides operate through totally different mechanisms as you now see.

[00:16:17]MOTS-c is helping your mitochondria adapt to like those energy sensing pathways. It's going to improve cellular resilience.

[00:16:24]But it does not require SS-31 to do that. These are like two separate things. I I totally get why people are are putting these together. SS-31, this is addressing that structural integrity to the complex that creates our energy.

[00:16:39]And it's doing that through that cardiolipin and stabilizing that. So that's a very specific use case. And if somebody has a mitochondrial disease or metabolic dysfunction, heavily damaged mitochondria, especially the lipid, you know, the the the membrane.

[00:16:55]Or if someone has, you know, a lot of oxidative damage due to aging.

[00:17:00]Um then that's a concern and and and I agree, yes, SS-31 would probably be very helpful because it's supporting that mitochondria, right? But even if you fall into that category, this is what I want to understand is as a is not resolving that problem, okay?

[00:17:20]It is supporting the structure, right?

[00:17:22]In in theory, mechanistically, that's how it looks like it's supporting that structure.

[00:17:28]But if you stop using it, that structural benefit goes away.

[00:17:32]So this is an ongoing need. It's not a one-time fix. So it's very different from MOTS-c, which is basically helping your cells develop their own resilience.

[00:17:41]And again, MOTS-c, or I didn't say this before, but MOTS-c is something that declines as we get older.

[00:17:47]So, um, you know, so yeah, building up that resilience again when we're in, you know, in mid-age, mid-life.

[00:17:55]So, my recommendation is that if you're looking to optimize mitochondrial health, I would start with the foundations. I wouldn't get too wrapped up in SS-31.

[00:18:06]The data just isn't there to say that it's super robust, right? So, where I'd put my money, not saying don't do it. You can do it. It's There's nothing wrong with it. Yeah, people feel better on it.

[00:18:19]Go ahead, try it. Um, but if I had, you know, only $100, I wouldn't invest it in that. I would optimize my mitochondrial health by starting with my foundations.

[00:18:31]Phosphatidylcholine supplementation, that's going to help with the membrane integrity. Broadly, more It's a It's a more prevalent lipid anyway in all of our membranes. So if you feel like you have a lipid damage, that would be my number one recommendation.

[00:18:47]Um, antioxidant support. So activating those Nrf2 pathways, or tandem, or GHK copper, or thing even glutathione, you know, use injectable glutathione.

[00:18:59]Activating those antioxidant supports.

[00:19:02]That's what's going to help support that membrane from getting damaged in the first place. So if you're not fixing that, if you know what I mean, or your lifestyle, like do do an audit of your lifestyle. Like how much seed oils are you eating? How, you know, are you eating highly nutritious food? Are you exercising?

[00:19:19]Are you getting enough nutrition that supports all the micronutrients that we need?

[00:19:24]Um and then MOTS-c can be a peptide that you is used for the like adaptive mitochondrial function and it also turns on those antioxidant pathways.

[00:19:34]Now, SS-31, that's more like on top of all that if you're already doing all these things because again, it's not going to fix anything. So it's like I don't know. Why why would you do why would you add something that um if you're still creating that damage is what I'm trying to say. So make sure you're eating highly nutritious meals, supporting your stress levels, getting good sleep, exercising.

[00:19:59]Those things are way more important and then things that our mitochondria need like NAD+ um zinc, copper iron, um oxygen. So keep breathing. Um and then micro you know, all the micronutrients, the B vitamins, things like that. So supplement or get that from food.

[00:20:19]Nowadays, most of us have to supplement, but foundation's always first and especially especially with this.

[00:20:26]Otherwise, I think it's a waste of money. So I hope that was helpful.

[00:20:30]Um I love this. I love that I can talk about this here. I um you know, this is this is one of those protocols that I think it makes sense. I get why people are saying it, but it also feels a little bit like people are just throwing things at the wall without understanding the complexity of this you know, the mitochondria. They're they're beautiful organelles.

[00:20:52]And we should support them. So hopefully I hope that helps. If you if you have questions or you want to go deeper on any of these topics, then drop it below. I will read it. I will develop more videos like this or more content.

[00:21:05]And if you need personalized guidance on how to build mitochondrial protocols um with your specific health history or labs or genetics, and that's what my one-on-one coaching problem is for. I will link that below or it's in my website longevity with Christie. And I will be doing more of these, so stay tuned. I'll see you soon.