SS-31 Deep Dive | More Energy, Better Recovery, Stronger Cells

0:09 Hey everybody, this is Hunter Williams. I hope you are doing amazing wherever you were at in the world today. Today's video is going to be an update and refresher on SS 31. This was recently inspired by my use of SS 30 ones. So as you probably know, as I've made videos in past, I kind of rotate through mitochondrial agents throughout the year. And so sometimes I might be using Sometimes I'm using SLUPP-332 and then sometimes I am using SS31 and I use SS 31 a little bit more kind of in repair

0:45 mode and after trying some high dose SLUPP-332 which would be in the like 400mg per day range which I will be making more content about with my thoughts and risk and benefits of that. I wanted to use SS 31 because I know from a structural standpoint, when we look at the mitochondria, it's going to improve the structure. So if there was any quote unquote damage from SLU, which I wouldn't necessarily call it damage, maybe more like overuse of the Mitochondria through SL

1:16 U or overstimulation, the mighty conjurer or overspin of Mitech under through the SL you SS31 in my opinion based on what I've read and experienced myself can kind of come in and help with that because of what it does structurally to what i would call the hardware of the mitochondria. I love SS31. It's kind of one of those peptides. If someone asks you what it does, it's hard to quantify or verbalize. So today's video, I want to actually do that in a way that is scientific and rooted in different trials.

1:49 And the cool thing about SS 31 is there are quite a few human trials that we can use as a basis for examining what is does. I like to say it's an amplifier peptide. It kind of makes everything in your life better, which is pretty cool. But also if you're suffering from different chronic conditions, discrepancy on how you would use it would really come from the use case, where there's like a healthy optimized person that is really just looking to be a little bit more healthy, but use a lower dose,

2:21 whereas someone that has like, a severe chronic issue is going to use the higher dose. So that's what we're going be talking about today. I'm excited to do this. It'll be an update and expanded version of my old video, which I know was pretty in depth, But this one, I am going use some more of the clinical data we have to give you a framework and reference for how to understand SS31. I love SS 31. Yes, I'm biased because I loved it so much, but I think it's one of those that everyone can use healthy, sick, young, old to really get a fact to just make ourselves healthier and feel better. So that's what we have today. Wherever you're watching this is probably not YouTube at the time of this video, But don't forget to always check out the description,

2:55 sign up for the email list. That's the best place to get updates on my content. on when it goes out, when new videos come out and everything because what I'm doing right now with the YouTube channel being down and deleted is using my email list to send out updates on the content and the video content so you can see the slides and Everything. So thank you guys so much. I have the best audience world and without further ado, let's jump in the slide today on SS 31. All right, I'm Arthur Williams and today is going to be an SS 31 deep dive for advanced biohackers. Let's get into it. I think whether you are a newbie or a veteran of the peptide world, you're going use it, so let's look at a little background on SS-31.

3:28 So as we're actually discovered by a guy named Dr. Hazel H. Zetto SZETO that's actually written at Weill Cornell Medical College in the early 2000s. remarkably its mitochondrial effects were found serendipitously while searching for opioid receptor binding drugs. So maybe that's one of the blessings of opioid world is that we get things like SS 31. And I believe the S and SS-31 that where it comes from. What they found was that it dramatically improved mitochondria ATP production and reduced reactive oxygen species leading to the foundation of stealth

4:04 biotherapeutics to develop it clinically. Moving along, so we have the early 2000s, it was developed in 2017. It was granted orphan drug status for primary mitochondrial myopathy. And we're going to look at that today and why it Was granted that in 2019, there was a phase three, It Was called MM power three trial completed with mixed results in 2024. The FDA advisory committee positive positively voted for Barth syndrome approval. So it is approved for bar syndrome. 2025, it remains investigational with ongoing trials in multiple conditions.

4:37 But as you probably know, people in the research world are using it to great effect. Let's look at one of the primary mechanisms of SS31. So we have this target of cardiolipin. Cardiolippin is found almost exclusively on the inner mitochondrial membrane within the cell. It makes it an ideal target for mitochondria specific interventions like SS 31. That's where SS-31 really shines. So the phospholipid is crucial for maintaining mitochondrial structure and function, particularly in stabilizing electron transport chain,

5:10 super complex. So we have all this energy going on within the body, and this is where cardioliping comes into play. So cardiolipin is highly susceptible to oxidative damage of which we are exposed a lot to. So this leads to mitochondrial dysfunction and cellular aging over time. What happens is the body is exposed to oxidation stress. This cardiolypin is susceptible this oxidate damage and this causes mitochondria dysfunction over the time and as we're going to see today,

5:42 some people are actually genetically predisposed to have this. It is a condition that people have. However, when we live a stressful life, whether that's physical and emotional physical stress from the environment or emotional stress, this can lead to mitochondrial dysfunction over time. And this is where SS 31 comes into play. So let's look at how it works mechanistically. lies in its unique mitochondria-targeted mechanisms. As a cell-permeal aromatic cationic peptide, it accumulates in the inner mitochondrial membrane and interacts specifically with this cardiolipin that we

6:15 were just talking about. So, SS31 selectively binds to cardiolypin, stabilizing mitochondrio-criste and preserving electron transport chain super complex integrity. And so that's a lot of fancy words, but really think of this. When you have the cell, you had the mitochondria within that cell. SS31 is helping repair the actual structure of the self. So imagine you a house over time, wear and tear on the house. We come in, we bring a remodeling team in to help with the House. Now what this does in effect is it enhances ATP production, which is just another way of saying energy.

6:50 So it improves the function of electron transport chain complexes one, three, and four, permitting more electron flow and increased ATP generation or increased energy generation and reduced reactive oxygen specie production which this oxidative stress. It also helps with cell death prevention. So it maintains cytochrome C and electron carrier role and inhibits mitochondrial permeability transition port opening, which prevents apoptosis otherwise known as cell depth.

7:20 Basically we are healing the cell at a root level kind of in a hardware type manner. One of the most intriguing aspects is its ability to reverse age related mitochondria declines in animal studies, demonstrating remarkable rejuvenating effects. Let's look at this one study. So in 26 month old mice, eight weeks of SS31 treatment restored mitochondrial function to youthful levels and treated elderly mice showed dramatic increases in treadmill endurance and muscle fatigue resistance without increasing mitochondria content.

7:52 I will extrapolate that to my own experience and say one of the benefits that I love SS 31 so much for is It does help with endurance. It helps with athletic performance. Now, is it an anabolic steroid or testosterone? No, but I do notice I just exercise better and I have more energy when I'm on it. We also look at heart function and heart-function improvement. SS31 reversed cardiac diastolic dysfunction in aged rodents, substantially improving left ventricular relaxation and filling pressures, effectively turning back the clock on age-related cardiac deficits.

8:26 Over some of these studies we're going to see today, you will see time and time again that SS 31 Mostly through this improvement in mitochondrial function is actually going to help heal the heart in a lot of cases. And I think for people that, you know, heart disease is one of the, is, it's actually the largest killer of people in the world today. That's why everyone can benefit from methods SS 31. Cause it is making our heart healthier. This is just a graph of some clinical trial success. Basically what this is here is, just success in patients. So we have the empower three trial.

8:56 I forget which one we'll talk about that 25% success rate, the Barth trial actually 85% rate. And that's the people with mitochondrial myopathy. Progress HF trial, 15% success rate. Renal stenosis trial 90% of success success and then this age-related macular degeneration trial. We'll talk about 76, 70% percent success in that one. So pretty cool. Let's look at this Barth syndrome. The TAS power trial in Barthe syndrome represents SS 31's clearest clinical success.

9:26 This rare X-link condition, it's a genetic condition. based on what I have read. It basically involves cardiolipin dysfunction, making it an ideal target for SS-31's mechanism of action. So basically the people with Barre syndrome, after using SS 31, they were able to walk 96 meters further. The average improvement in six minute walk tests over long-term treatment. When they do a six-minute walk test, you're able go 96m further after doing SS31. They used SS30 for 168 weeks, which was the duration of the open-label extension showing sustained benefits.

10:00 And also too, I think when we look at peptide antibody buildup and peptides sensitivity, this was over a hundred or excuse me, 168 weeks. So that's at least what's that like three years until they were using this and they still notice benefits. I I personally would say I don't really notice like a tolerance buildup to SS 31, but you do notice that there's probably a limit on like the performance increase that you'll get from it. But anyway, and 100% of the patients showed cardiac improvement and increased left ventricular stroke volume, which was pretty cool because people with

10:34 bar syndrome are known to, it's notorious for making people pretty weak because of what it does to mitochondrial function. So let's look at some cardiovascular applications. My counter to that would be if you only gave people four weeks on SS31, how much structure change you're going to see in the heart, especially for someone with a damaged heart through a lifetime of living unhealthy, probably not that much, but if we do at least get some of the mitochondrial improvement,

11:08 that's still a win. And then we look at ischemia protection. So SS31 consistently mitigates ischaemia reperfusion damage in animal models and showed promising results in human renal artery stenosis procedures. Again, it's kind of having this very well-rounded, multifaceted effect on different areas of Let's look at renal or kidney protection. So SS-31 helped with hypoxia prevention. It prevented post-procedure kidney hypoxia. The placebo group showed an increase of 47% hyoxic signal versus a minus 6% with SS 31, which is a good thing.

11:46 Don't think of that like plus. Plus in this case would be bad. Minus would good. People post kidney procedure had an increased of hypoxia by 47%. They also had improved perfusion, so there was a 30% increase in renal blood flow to the kidney. So they had on average 202 to 262 milliliters per minute with improved GFR over just three months, which is another indicator of kidney health. And there was a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure indicating improved renal vascular health.

12:21 I also think for people too, I get asked all the time about what peptide is really good for high blood. Well, here you go. SS 31 you see time and time again, it does help with different markers of blood Let's look at some of the brain benefits because again, I think one of question that is on everyone's mind is what can I do to stem the tide of neurodegenerative disease or maybe a family member suffering from neuro-degeneral disease. SS31 absolutely has application there. So neurons are highly energy-dependent, making them prime candidates for mitochondrial intervention.

12:53 SS31 crosses the blood-brain barrier and demonstrates neuroprotective effects. So we have cognitive protection. It prevents anesthesia-induced cognitive decline in age mice by preserving hippocampal ATP and blocking MPTP opening. It also helps with synaptic health in the brain, so it helps maintain higher levels of synoptic proteins and BDNF signaling, crucial for memory and learning. And also too, there was a sleep deprivation study or so recent 2024 studies showed SS31 prevented memory impairment from chronic sleep depravation in mice,

13:24 which is kind of funny because I just created a video about GHKCU and sleep So imagine if you use SS31 and GHK, if your sleep deprived or suffering from some sort of sleep deprivation, how well that would do for you. I also noticed when I used SS 31, just as an aside, that it does help with my sleep. This was pretty cool because this is, I think, relative to some of the other mitochondrial peptides, something that we don't really see a lot, like in a MOTC, maybe a little bit in an SLU I've heard people report this, but I see this much more in SS-31.

13:56 So when we look at age-related macular degeneration, which is basically just eye and vision decline over time, the reclaimed trial in intermediate dry age related macula degeneration showed encouraging results. SS31 was safe with no serious ocular adverse events. Patients with high risk drusen showed improvements in visual acuity, especially under low light conditions. and it was best corrected visual acuity improved while untreated eyes typically decline over time. So results suggest SS-31 bolsters energy metabolism of photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium, helping them function despite AMD pathology.

14:33 I've always wondered too, never done this myself about SS 31 eye drops, I don't know how well those would stack up with like a bioregulator or a BPC TB 500 eye drop, which I do know help and I have used in the past. Now, I wanted to bring this up from a dosing standpoint because, again, probably much to the fault of me, people get really confused about the dosings for SS31. So, the standard clinical dose is actually 40 milligrams once daily.

15:03 Now, if you know anything about the price of SS31 in the research market, that probably becomes cost prohibitive for pretty much everyone out there. However, If you are doing it and you're using it for one of those mitochondrial myopathy conditions or a severe chronic issue, severe heart disease, Severe kidney disease. I would have no problem using that myself if I could afford it, a 40 milligrams. For people too, when we look at energy related problems in migraines, things of that nature, where there's just this weird energy,

15:37 whether it's an autoimmune thing going on, or you have mitochondrial dysfunction, a dose that high, I think is absolutely reasonable to do. There was no adverse or almost zero adverse events, because I'm just going off the top of my head that I saw in literature preparing this presentation. There's also an IV, so that was done over subcutaneous injection, 40 milligram daily. Obviously the easiest thing to do, right? There is an Ivy infusion protocol of 0.01 to 0,25 milligrams per kilogram per hour, which would basically be 25 milligrams.

16:08 So for someone like me is a hundred kilos, 25 milligram per milligram, per our for acute settings like cardiac renal procedures, typically over a few hours. Treatment duration. We've seen as little as four weeks in studies, and then we've see up to three years, depending on the condition. Obviously, I think that is relative to the severity, someone with Barth syndrome is going to use it for three year because it helps them. Someone maybe that's just looking to stay optimized, 8 to 12 weeks is a great cycle to run. So we did see continued improvement with those Barthe patients. I don't think they studied antibody buildup or anything like that.

16:38 However, they did use for 3 years and we saw continuous improvement. And 200 milligrams was used daily in some experimental protocols for four weeks maximum. We don't really know any safety beyond this. Again, I think that becomes cost prohibitive for most people to use that much. The larger point here to drive home is that SS 31 appears by all facets of studies and data that we can access to be virtually harmless and very safe to you. So when we look at the cost benefit of using it, essentially all upside and no downside.

17:13 Those are the dosing. Now personally, what I would say is if you're a super healthy optimized person, anywhere between 0.5 milligrams to two or three milligrams per day is absolutely reasonable to use. I think when we get in that chronic disease area, 10 to 20 milligrams is going to be a daily dose that I thing is really going create the needed benefit that someone is looking to get out of it. But if your just like me, you are using it to optimize mitochondrial function, stay healthy, have lots of energy, make sure everything is firing on cylinders, you know, 0.5 to three, two or three milligrams per day is totally fine for eight to 12 weeks.

17:47 So what I do is I start with a 10-milligram vial, that's the standard dosing you're going to find, add two milliliters of backwater, and then that makes it five milligrams per milliliter. And if I want to use 0.5 milligrams, I would use 10 units. If I wanted to one milligram, use 20 units, if i wanted two milligrams I'd use 40 units So one to two milligram per day for eight to 12 weeks for general health and optimization. Again, like I said, if you can afford it, 10 to 20 milligrams per day for chronic issues like CKD, anything of that nature where it's putting someone in

18:21 a bind, so to speak. So we have 95% positive results from people. There is the occasional injection site reaction. I would even say relative to like a MOTC, there's almost no reaction. In some cases, SS31 might sting a little bit that I've seen depending on the concentration of it, but 95% positive, 0% adverse or rents in major trials that we've see. And then obviously in the bar trial patients, three years of continued use, zero adverse events. So as far as peptides go, ss31 is going to be one of the least side effect inducing peptide zero.

18:57 So looking at this electron transport chain, I did just want to reinforce this. SS31's interaction with cardiolipin creates a cascade of beneficial effects through the electron transfer chain improving efficiency while reducing harmful reactive oxygen species production like we talked about. So it stabilizes cardiolipin, prevents oxidative damage, and maintains membrane integrity within the cell. And then when we stabilize cardiolypin, it promotes proper assembly of electron transport chain super complexes. This improves electron flow.

19:28 So the improved complex assembly leads to more efficient electron transfer and subsequently ATP production or energy production with the body. Then it also reduces RHS reactive oxygen specie production. So the efficient electron flow minimizes electron leak and reactive oxygen species generation, which as a bonus to note, if you are using something like an SLUPP-332, I think stands to benefit a lot because when we look at the potential side effects of overuse of SLUs,

19:58 whatever that over use number is, it's still really hard to say, SS31 is a good way to help hedge our bets, so to speak. So again, looking at these comparative trial outcomes, mitochondrial myopathy, the determined outcome of that was that it was failed. Tazpower-Bart syndrome, that success. Heart failure, it failed, but they did have improved mitochondria function. The renal stenosis and kidney ischemia, there was success there. So prevented hypoxia, improved GFR. And then the dry age-related macular degeneration looked promising and improved low light vision.

20:33 I think for those outcomes if you We're to say, okay, what's the expeptide for those things? SS31 is in my top three for all of those issues. So when we look at the results from clinical trials, The thing about this is you have people that are really bad off, and if SS31 doesn't heal it, it kind of comes off as a failure. So what we could do is develop predictive biomarkers. This could revolutionize SS 31's therapeutic application.

21:03 One thing we do, is look at genetic profiling. Seeing how the genetic profile of people changed, we obviously could measure cardiolipid levels, which gets expensive. And then we have advanced mitochondrial respiratory testing. this could identify patients with specific deficits amenable to SS 31 intervention. Now let's look at the emerging applications from it. I think as peptides become more mainstream, this is where you're really going to see it sign. You know, one thing I never really understood or realized before I got into this is how many people suffer from some sort of kidney issue.

21:36 And then we have chronic kidney disease. So mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to the progression of CKD. SS31's renal protective effects suggest potential therapeutic applications there. We also have inflammatory conditions. By reducing oxidative stress and supporting cellular energy, SS 31 may help in various inflammatory disorders. This is where I think there's a huge opportunity actually to use SS-31 because so few people still realize it, is for these people that have runaway inflammation, whether that's autoimmune disease, obesity, or having a GLP-1 and you're losing weight from a glp-one, and then the toxins are being released in the bloodstream

22:08 that causes inflammation that makes people tired when they're on GLPs, SS31 works really good there. I think it's a very under-tapped market or subset of people that could use SS31 to benefit there, basically if you have runaway inflammation. And we have orthopedic injuries. There are studies that show that SS 31 protects cartilage, cell mitochondria after joint injury, suggesting application in sports medicine. Could you inject SS-31 into an injury site and heal the same way you could with BPC or TB 500 or Cardilax or GHK?

22:38 No. However, I do think there is a place when we look at cellular health in the context of injury acute traumatic injury that you could absolutely use SS 31 either into the injury site or systemically into a belly to just help with overall cellular health in the healing process from an acute injury. Looking at Cardiolipin, so we have this CardioLipid Hub. So this is central lipid linking mitochondrial health and aging. We have the ROS production, reduced reactive oxygen species generation from SS31.

23:11 SS 31 is going to slow decline in cellular function. It also helps with maintaining cellular membrane stability and integrity over time. And obviously we had the electron transport chain efficiency. Those four things are what really make SS-31 shine. Looking at a risk-benefit analysis, I think if you were to ask yourself, okay, what peptides can I use? Can I afford? And it's going to give me the most bang for my buck and it is going have the least side effects. SS31 is absolutely a top three or top five. And here's why, so it improves mitochondrial function and energy production.

23:43 It enhances exercise endurance and muscle strength. So we do, in my experience, get a performance benefit, even at that low dose, a sleep benefit. There's positive cognitive protection enhancement over time, cardiovascular and renal protective effects, excellent safety profile in clinical trials, and then potential anti-aging effects out at cellular level. I would even venture to say that... Every person, if you are into longevity, into biohacking, all that stuff, 8 to 16 weeks per year of SS31 is absolutely a place that everyone can use, healthy or sick.

24:13 Risk and limitations, obviously not FDA approved. Limited long-term safety data, although what we do have is really good. The quality, depending on where you're sourcing it from. The high cost, because again, if we're using higher doses for some of those more chronic acute conditions, it does get kind of pricey, not kind, but very price. Again, when we look at clinical trials, those are evaluated in the context of specific things. So in terms of healing in four or eight week increments, that's healing those specific. Things didn't really pan out in some. However, there are others that showed a great effect.

24:44 And then again, we just don't know long-term like we have with most peptides. So again where does SS 31 shine? Cardiology, protecting our heart, longevity, addressing fundamental aging mechanisms of the mitochondrial level, kidney health, so protecting kidneys from ischemic injury and supporting renal function, muscle disorders for people with mitochondria myopathy, and age-related sarcopenia, neurology, just preserving cognitive function and then ophthalmology with her eyes. So you can see when I say that SS31 kind of does everything, there is a medical clinical evidence base to suggest that yes,

25:17 it kind does all these things. And that's why I'm so passionate about telling people about it. Cause again, It's just not one of those ones. You know, everyone talks about GLPs and PPC, which are great, but SS 31 just kind gets, well, I wouldn't even say it gets left to the wayside. It just, not a lot of people know about. So just some key takeaways. It's condition-dependent efficacy, so it's not universally gonna heal everything. Kind of depends on the underlying pathology. Is it gonna directly help you lose weight? Not really, but it is gonna optimize the environment in the body to help lose you weight.

25:47 Has an excellent safety profile. Its promising. You know, it still kind of one of these things that we're just fleshing out in research world. And then there's tons of future potential, I think, when you look at combining this. So combining with GLP-1s, combining growth hormone peptides, Combining with anti-inflammatory peptide. SS-31 is one that is going to enhance the effects of some of one of those stronger signaling peptides like a GLP-1 and really help move the needle in the right direction for someone and kind of offset some the unintended consequences that they may be experiencing.

26:19 So I think SS31 is one of those ones when we look at the different buckets of healing is going to help accentuate any other treatment that you're doing in those. SS 31 basically is just a beacon of hope in the quest to enhance mitochondrial fitness. Its journey from serendipitous discovery to clinical trials illustrates the promise and challenges of translating mitochondria biology into therapy And I think for advanced biohackers, it is one of the ones that has a place in every use case, I Think out there from the healthiest person to the sickest person. So I love SS 31 for that very purpose.

26:51 That is it for the slides. And that is my updated deep dive on SS31. Hopefully, if you haven't heard about it, you now are enlightened on the SS 31. Again, I can't stress the importance enough of helping bring this peptide into mainstream awareness, at least within the research world, a little bit more because there's so many use cases. I've even talked to bodybuilders because a lot of times body builders suffer from kidney issues or liver issues from lifetime of drug abuse in some cases,

27:21 from taxing the body from the amount of oxidative stress, and I have seen it help people in that community massively. Now, that's just one small use case, but I do think, again, this is one of those ones that we can extrapolate pretty much across every person out there and say that you stand to benefit and gain from this peptide. And again I think it has a place of at least eight to 16 weeks in every single person's protocol if they're using peptides for the year. So that is it for this one. I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on whether you found this helpful and whether it is lightning and just helpful on your journey.

27:56 So thank you guys so much. Really do have the best audience in the world. Don't know if I'll be back up on YouTube. It's kind of in limbo right now. If I find out that it's definitive that I will not be. Back. At least make another channel and to start pushing stuff there. And it'll take a long time to grow again, but that's totally okay. And just to reinforce, the email list is the best place to be and sign up. I don't spam you, I just send informational messages about new videos and new information that I come across that might be doing research on. So thank you guys so much. You really make this job and career and passion and lifestyle mind a dream come true because of the people that know this helps.

28:31 Thank you so to everyone out there that supports. My work and supports getting the word about this out there. I really appreciate you guys. You don't understand and I can't underscore enough the amount of gratitude I have for you. That's it for this one. Love to hear your thoughts and feedback. And I will see you in the next one, peace.