VIP Peptide Updated Guide: Uses Beyond Mold and Lung Health

0:09 Hey everybody, this is Hunter Williams. I hope you're doing amazing wherever you might be in the world. Today's video is going to be a much needed update to my old video on a peptide called VIP. VIP stands for vasoactive intestinal peptides. I believe we were doing a coffee talk. It's been about a week ago now, Taylor and I, and someone was asking us what we thought the trends were for 2026 and peptides. And so I don't really know what the trend are going to be. I think obviously GLPs are here to stay, but my prediction and my hope, maybe I can have kind of an active role in making this a trend,

0:44 you can too, is bringing to spotlight some of these more, not fringe, I would call them, more ancillary peptide that seem to have very specific use cases, but actually do many more things than what we typically think of them for. And VIP is absolutely one of those peptides. So what I'm going to do today is an update video. I have an older video on VIP. Obviously that was deleted off of YouTube and it's just time to More stuff around just studies and personal use that I'm going to put into this video,

1:15 but VIP is amazing peptide. It really is one of the most versatile peptides out there. Whether someone's really healthy or someone is really sick, there's almost a use case for it everywhere. I think it's a peptid that works distinctively different from some of other peptids that we know and love like BPC, TB, GHK, Definitely the GLP ones. And this is one that I think really when it comes to every area of health, it does something, but specifically with gut health. Again, I know people think of it as like VIP, isn't that for your lungs? Isn't it for mold?

1:45 It is for those things, But I'm going to more talk about it from a broad survey standpoint. So VIP is used a lot in mold cases. It's used for people with lung issues, which it is great for. but there's a broader spectrum of what it does. And that's what I want to talk about today is more of kind of a general survey of VIP. Obviously we will go into how to use it, what the best practices are for dosing and everything, but I really love this peptide and hopefully this will kind kickstart and have ripple effects to the ether of other people that do such good jobs of talking about peptides. Hopefully they kind start to pick this up and promote it because Again, as we're moving in this world where peptides may be a little bit more underground,

2:21 a bit a more great market than they've been, I think it looks like it will be harder to get peptide than it may have been in the past to where you can just go on an e-commerce website, check out their credit card, and it shows up in your house in two to three days. Maybe a lot more convoluted, little more tough to do. I still think you'll be able to access to them, but it's not going to be how it has always been. Probably more decentralized than in past. definitely I think a little bit more gray market than it's been. And with that being said, some of the peptides that we have had really good access to, like the GLP-1s, might be harder to find.

2:53 Whereas VIP, I don't think anyone really cares, at least from a big pharma standpoint, about VIP until it becomes something that's so prevalent that it is just eating into the profits of pharmaceutical drugs. But anyway, nonetheless, i would like to see more of these peptide like VIP. I'm going to be making more content about them because few people understand What they are, what they do, let alone how to use them and how they would use it in practice. And I want to give you kind of background and fill you in on what the best practices would be and then potentially how you could use whether it's for clients,

3:23 patients, or even on yourself for research. So that's what we'll talk about today. As always, before I jump in, make sure you're on the email list. Just to keep up with me, I just send out notifications of when new videos go out. and other things I'm working on from a research standpoint. Also to check out my new group, it's called the Axion Collective. It's a private group. Its 99 bucks a month. You can cancel any time, but you can direct message me. I'll make sure that I answer all your questions. We do live calls there Thursday nights at 8 p.m. Eastern. So you come on the calls and ask me questions live there, or you could message my privately.

3:53 And then also to the biggest benefit I think is having the forum to where you ask questions and get the feedback from, you know, over the from over 200 plus members that are already in there interacting and doing really cool things. So check that out. But without further ado, I'm going to share my screen and today we're going talk about VIP. All right, let's get into it. Today we're going to go over VIP, which stands for vasoactive intestinal peptide. This is really just going be a comprehensive overview. I'm not going gonna be talking about it specifically for any use case, just more from a broad general use. Now let us look at it as a master regulator throughout the body.

4:25 Again, this is one of the peptides that not a lot of people know about, but it's doing a ton of things. But basically it is a 28 amino acid regulatory peptid first isolated from the intestines in 1970. And despite his name, VIP isn't limited to the gut. It's produced throughout the body with high concentrations, specifically in the brain, the lungs, heart, intestinal tract, and endocrine organs. And in nervous system VIP acts as a neurotransmitter, which is why it's so powerful for helping with brain fog. In the immune system, it functions like a cytokine modulator and this broad presence underlies VIP's diverse roles in maintaining homeostasis.

4:57 Again, discovered in 1970, so it has been around for 15 years and it is 28 amino acids. Let's look at how it works with receptors and signaling. So we have these receptors on our cell called the VPAC1 and VP AC2 receptors. And what happens is when we inject VIP, it binds the G protein coupled receptors widely distributed on cells throughout the body, which then triggers cyclic AMP, signals via adenylite cyclase activation. Now that sounds really complicated. I promise we'll walk through what that means practically for you.

5:28 Then the cells have a response, so rising cyclic AMP activates protein kinase A, another pathway, which causes smooth muscles to relax, glands to secrete, and immune cells to shift behavior. So a whole host of things. And this is why when I talk about it being such a versatile peptide, like a Swiss army knife peptides, how many peptids are doing the category of just those three things right there? Very few. And then we have receptor distribution. So VPAC1 found on immune cells of many tissues and VPACT2 is abundant in lungs and inducible during inflammation.

5:58 And again, so it's acting on those pathways to help muscles relax, help our glands to secrete, and then immune to shift behavior in the right direction to us. Now let's look at what that means practically. When we look smooth muscle relaxation of vasodilation, This is very important for endothelial health, which ends up affecting metabolic health. It ends affecting heart health brain health everything you name it. But basically what happens is it causes vasodilation which is the increase of blood flow throughout the body. it relaxes airway smooth muscle which gives you a bronchodilation effect which makes it easier to breathe in through your lungs.

6:34 It also reduces gastrointestinal spasms, which means that it opens up some of the GI tract pathways to help you void your bowels. And then it also blocks vascular smooth muscle proliferation. Then we look at the molecular mechanism. VIP's cyclic AMP mediated signaling lowers intracellular calcium and smooth muscles, causing them to relax and reduce vascular resistance. Another huge thing that when we looked at issues that people may be experiencing, they don't know, is this intracellular calcium.

7:04 Again, even EMF exposure, which is Wi-Fi and cell phone exposure is going to affect calcium channels which then can cause more restricted blood flow and even thicker blood. And VIP is helping to counteract that to doing so much. Now let's look at it as the immune switch. So it exerts a powerful anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effect by engaging BPAC receptors on immune cells. When it suppresses inflammation, this is what's really cool. BPC, yes, it's an anti-inflammatory peptide, but it is not doing what VIP is doing on specific inflammatory cytokines.

7:40 So what it does is it reduces TNF-alpha, interleukin-6, Interleucin 12, and IFN-gamma and other inflammatory side accounts about the body. In doing so, it actually boosts anti-inflammatory signals. So it increases interleukin-10 and inter-leucin 1RA production, which is going to help bring down inflammation. It also promotes immune balance. That generates regulatory T cells that maintain immune equilibrium. Basically, VIP shifts the immune response from a high alert inflammation state toward a more resolving tolerance state, making it valuable for autoimmune conditions.

8:12 I can't stress the importance of VIP in an auto immune stack because in a lot of cases, A person with autoimmune has all of these things running wild. They have all these inflammatory cytokines running while the immune system is basically in hyper vigilance, meaning that it is looking at everything in the body and having a reaction to it. And I would even say, dare I say that VIP could be a really good peptide to help calm down mast cell reactions to peptides that you may be having. Now, one thing that I like to tell people is that low dose naltrexone works really well for calming the immune system.

8:46 And so I've rarely seen someone that's using low-dose naltrexon have an immune response or a mast-cell response, or histamine response to the peptide. But VIP is another one of those through a different mechanism, albeit But it's helping calm down the immune system to where people that are having these overactive immune reactions will tie things of that nature to the peptide. It's going to help that calm that down. So I can't guarantee that, but in principle it works. And again, I think for people they're using LDN or even VIP, the likelihood that you're going experience an immune event or go through an autoimmune phase

9:20 is very low. Now let's look at the nervous system and circadian rhythm. And again, what's cool about this, there's all those VP receptors throughout the body and we're using VIP to help with those across multiple different pathways. So let us look the the Nervous System and Circadian Rhythm. It actually works to synchronize and sync up our circadian rhythm into a healthy pattern. I can tell you that having used VIP and tracking objectively with my aura ring that days that I use VIP, my readiness score and my sleep score is almost

10:06 always in the 80s and 90s without fail. Whereas most of the time without it, it's probably in 70s if I'm being honest. And VIP has really driven my readiness score into the 90's, into my high 80's and sometimes the90's. So again, take that for what it is worth. Again, not going to guarantee that it will do that to you. But I have seen noticeable improvements in sleep quality and I think a lot of it has to do with this regulation of circadian rhythm. Next we have mood and anxiety regulation. I think this is huge. And a lot of times when we look at peptides for anxiety, I get that.

10:36 Wish I had a dime for every time I've been asked that question because it's one of the most common questions I give. Anxiety is a very real problem in the world today and it sucks. It's not fun. You know, I've, been a person that has had panic attacks before. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I don't struggle with some of the same things that you guys have and do. And it sucks. Like I, a lot of people will tell like, Oh, it's all in your head, right? Like in some cases it is. In some there is a very real physiological component to anxiety.

11:06 But anyway, there are VIP receptors in the amygdala and hippocampus that affect neural activity linked to anxiety and depression, which enhance neuroplasticity. So when we use VIP, we are actually helping modulate that system, Which is going to calm us down. And whether you use the VIP in The morning to help with anxiety or use it at night to Help calm you down, There is a noticeable effect of reduction in anxiety with VIP. I absolutely think that anyone with anxiety, I'm not saying VIP is going to cure it, but in a lot of cases will help modulate it and make it better.

11:37 And then we have a rest and digest response. VIP coexists with acetylcholine and parasympathetic neurons, which causes blood vessel dilation and glandular secretion again, to help with these neurotransmitter pathways that are going to translate into us having a more stable, better mood. So really cool with VIP when we see across all these different things that it's doing in the brain specifically, that alone for me would be worth using VIP obviously does many more things, but one of the reasons that I love it so much. And I think, although I wouldn't say at present, I am suffering from anxiety, even still there is a very calming therapeutic effect from using the IP.

12:15 Now let's sum up some of the wide ranging health benefits. Obviously we have pulmonary health, it's a potent bronchodilator and vasodilatory in the lungs. It improves airflow in people with asthma and COPD. it reduces pulmonary artery pressure in PAH and enhances exercise capacity and oxygenation. So again, Whether or not you are looking to heal an issue or maybe you're looking for performance enhancement, VIP has a place there too. Neuroinflammation of brain health reduces brain inflammation and multiple esclerosis, Alzheimer's and chronic inflammatory syndromes. Definitely people with CIRS should absolutely be using VIP protection neurons by inhibiting inflammatory cytokine release from microglia and astrocytes.

12:52 We have immune regulation. It shifts immune balance and autoimmune disease. promotes TH2 regulatory responses or inflammatory TH1 and TH17 responses, preventing tissue damage. We also have mood and anxiety. Higher VIP levels correlate with lower anxiety and depression. It also promotes neural plasticity, dampens stress circuits, and improves brain fog and sleep quality. We have cardiovascular report. Again, this is the vasodilation comes into place. Regulates blood pressure and vascular tone, dilates systemic vessels, inhibits platelet aggregation, improves cardiac output and coronary blood flow,

13:28 And lastly, but definitely not least because so much is tied to our gut health. It promotes healthy digestion and intestinal balance, relaxes GI smooth muscle, stimulates accretions, maintains mucosal barrier and reduces colitis severely. I will say times that I use VIP, my bowel movements are much more regular, they're much more comfortable, and they are much I would say like a turd should

13:58 be without polishing it. They are exactly how my stool should rather than being loose or kind of loose or aggregated or whatever, it comes out much better. So for me, VIP does wonders for gut health. And I think anyone with colitis or any one of these gut dysbiotic things, is VIP the answer to solve everything? Absolutely not, but it will absolutely improve things. Especially if you're constipated, It does have a laxative effect in a good way.

14:29 Let's look at some human study results. One, it was studied in pulmonary arterial hypertension, inhaled VIP at 200 micrograms a day for 12 to 24 weeks, lowered pulmonary pressures by around 10 mmHg. It reduced vascular resistance by 50% and improved six minute walk distance by about 100 meters. Now, six-minute walk-distance by 100m, that's pretty significant. That's really the length of a football field. It's well tolerated with virtually no side effects. We also have ARDS and COVID-19.

15:01 Early case series showed promise but larger RCT found no significant improvement in 90-day recovery. Again, is it going to solve COVID? No, but it definitely would help alongside some other peptides if you have long COVID, COVID flu, whatever, you name it. Anxiety and Depression. A 2021 observational study found higher plasma VIP correlated with lower anxiety and depression scores and stronger amygdala frontal connectivity, which suggests VIP protects against mood disturbances. And then we look at CRS, mold toxicity.

15:32 Again, this is arguably the reason that most people know about VIP. 2013 open-label trial, 20 patients using intranasal VIP for 18 months or more. showed 100% improvement in quality of life after being diagnosed with mold toxicity, their inflammatory markers, all normalized hormonal imbalances corrected, and there were no major side effects. Again, will VIP completely solve mold toxicity? No. And I think in a lot of cases, the person needs to make sure they're removed from the mold environment and that also the mode is removed from them.

16:04 However, in the healing process of healing from mold, I would absolutely use VIP amongst other peptides, but mold toxicity is a big thing in a world today, especially living in Southeast where it's more prevalent with humidity. And I know people personally, and I live in North Carolina that deal with that. I've had family members that have dealt with it in When we look at dosage and administration, there's oftentimes confusions, especially around the subcutaneous injection, because not a lot of people know that. I prefer sub-cutanious injection. You can obviously use a nasal spray if you want to, but most VIP is going to come in a five milligram vial.

16:41 Sometimes it'll come in a 10 milligram vial and what I do is I add three milliliters of bacteriostatic water to that. And for a 50 to 100 microgram dose in five milligram bile with three back, three millimeters of bacteria, static water, that's going to be three to six units. Three being 50 micro grams, six being 100 micrograms. You can do that one to four times daily. I've gone as high as like 150 micro-grams, Honestly, it just makes you flush a little bit more. So the dose is not super high and you can do it multiple times per day. You could even do like 100 micrograms in the morning and 100 grams in evening.

17:12 There's usually a rapid onset within five minutes at peaks of 15 minutes. And the duration is 30 to 45 minutes, although you will notice some of those benefits carry throughout the day, but typically the overwhelming response is going to be within that short window. Then again, just keep refrigerated. With intranasal spray, typically you're going to be like 50 to 100 micrograms per spray. Start with one spray and one nostril two times daily, build to one, spray in each natural four times, daily. You can do up to around 400 micro grams intranasally daily I don't know that you get that much more benefit beyond that.

17:42 Typically the intrasal is going have less of the flushing effect. and the rapid, or not rapid but increase in heart rate effect than the injection when you're doing intranasally. So if you want the same effects with a little bit more mild response, you could do intrasasaly. Again, I always think the induction is going to be better, but again, just gentle inhale, stay upright for one minute post spray, avoid sniffing hard and kind of letting it fall back out of your nose because sometimes that does happen. I know when I do nasal spray I got to kind keep it back to hold it in. And again, it does well as a nasal spray.

18:12 So if there's, you know, some of these peptides that we would say you definitely can't do as an nasal, spray VIP is actually one that you can do well and have good effects as in nasal. Spray and really get, I would, say the majority of the benefits as it is a spray, so if you don't want to inject or you would like to use in a child, like I know some people don' want their children injecting, this one would do really well. I think so many cases of anxiety for teenage teenagers now, whether it's girls or boys, VIP would massively help with teenage angst and anxiety and also gut health because I know a lot of young kids have gut-health issues probably due to the toxin exposure through the food.

18:47 Now looking at the side effects, I did want to walk you through. This will be one that it has more of a pronounced feel. So right when you inject, you're going to get flushing and warmth. And this is the most common effect. It's very transient, but you will notice your face probably gets red. Upper chest area will get red from the vasodilation. Usually will last five to 15 minutes. Kind of feels like a niacin flush. Or if you've used oxytocin, it's almost identical to how you feel when he first injects oxytocin. Some people do get a headache because of the vasodilation. This is similar to other vasodiolators like Cialis or Viagra.

19:17 Cerebral vasodylation can cause mild headache or pressure. It's usually brief in response to common analgesics. Its rare in typical therapeutic doses. I've even in my experience, if you do have this and it is wearing on you, Honestly, if you take a vasoconstrictor like caffeine, it kind of like offsets it a little bit. And I think in the case of VIP, It's not going to negate any of the effects other than the vasodilation. Some people, because it does open the blood vessels and the stomach to loose stool or diarrhea from increased intestinal secretion,

19:48 usually mild in transit and managed by lowering your dose. Or if take it with food, take fast, obviously it's going have a more pronounced effect. If you do get kind this like GI upset or nausea, uh, With that. Similarly with dizziness and fatigue, it can cause momentary diziness, especially when standing, some feel relaxed or sleepy, 30 to 60 minutes post dose from parasympathetic tone. I always, I do VIP in the morning, but you can definitely do it at night. And so like I can take it in morning and I'll do fine. It doesn't make me sleep or anything, But if it does absolutely take you to night, feels good, warms you up at you know,

20:21 if you get cold at and it really helps relax you and help you fall asleep. How do you even put this in a sleep sack? You can't get nasal irritation. Intranasal route may cause mild burning, runny nose or sneezing. Again, used after blowing nose, saline rinse can soothe the mucosa if needed. VIPO, other than those things, it's generally well tolerated, serious adverse effects are rare, and most side effects from mild transient diminish with continued use or dose adjustment. The more you use it, the more the flushing and the nausea tends to go away, but you do notice pronounced benefit in the long term.

20:52 So just because you're not experiencing those thing doesn't mean it is working or it isn't working. Again, what to expect on your first dose. I just put this on here. Rapid onset in five to 15 minutes, you'll get mild warmth or flushing. Like I said, heart rate may change subtly and intranasal absorption slightly slower than injection, which typically means you're going to either get those effects later or even in a diminished way. Peak relaxation is around 15 to 30 minutes. You'll get relaxation, muscle tension release, easier breathing. Again, for some people, if they already have low blood pressure, this could mean possible lightheadedness.

21:24 And then some really get this mental clarity or brain fog lifting. Then 30 to 60 minutes, the acute effects subside. As it metabolizes by one hour, it returns a baseline feeling. but you're usually more relaxed or even a little tired. The intranasal may have subtle effects up to two hours. Subcutaneous, you can get more pronounced flush, stronger bronchodilation. Intranosal is going to be milder systemically and you may more cognitive or neuro effects targeting of brain pathways. I do think that's the case and my experience with intrasal, is you kind of have more, it seems to work more on the brain,

21:55 even though the subcute does more for the Dose dependent effects, obviously 25 to 50 micrograms. If you really want to be conservative, you can start there. You get into higher doses. Obviously the effects are going to higher. But for most people with CIRS, POTS is another thing I didn't mention. if someone has Pots, it improves blood pooling. For pulmonary people, COPD makes breathing easier, oxygen saturation higher, so a lot of really cool things. Now, just to sum up, VIP is a master regulator. I would call it, if not the most versatile peptide, one of the first versatile peptides out there, some remarkable regulatory peptide orchestrating communication

22:28 between the nervous system, the immune system and our endocrine systems. And by enhancing VIP beyond natural levels, we can restore balancing conditions where regulation has gone awry. So VIP nudges the body toward a rest and repair state, which a lot of people need. dilates blood vessels, calms inflammation and supports neuroplasticity. Again, we see benefit in pulmonary patients, people with lung issues and breathing issues, chronic inflammation, again, mold toxicity, CRS, autoimmune disease, severe asthma. We see it in cognitive enhancement for people or circadian misalignment through travel or just overwork from stress.

23:03 And then dysautonomia, which is for POTS, long COVID. Things of that nature with the nervous system is completely dysregulated because it's been kind of over-worked for so long. VIP helps restore vascular and immune function balance. Then where would we go from here? It's not FDA approved, obviously, like most good things are not, but it is available through compounding pharmacies and then obviously the research world. And then again, hopefully we see more research on VIP. I would like to see people in the research community harnessing the benefits of it because I think there are so many.

23:34 And again it's one of those things, even if you're already healthy, you just notice everything else tends to work a little bit better. But that being said, that's it for the slides. And that is my comprehensive guide to VIP. Hopefully that was enlightening to you. If you have never used VIP and you're someone that has been in the peptide world, I hope that you would at least give yourself a shot at it and maybe order some and try it out. Because I think this is one of those peptides, if it gets more of a foothold in mainstream consciousness, We'll start to use it more and relative to the

24:08 cost of it, at least in the research world, or if you're getting it compounded to benefit, it's one of the probably best bang for buck peptides. Obviously today we see it working across really six different categories of benefits and organ systems within the body. Again, so I can't stress the importance enough of how cool and useful of a peptide VIP is. I would almost say it has a use case in everyone. As one those peptids, you might not need to us it all the time. You can cycle on and off, but you can kind of use it on as, as neat as basis too. I know I didn't put that in there of how long to use. It really could be one that you do eight weeks on eight, weeks off.

24:38 Or you could just have it. For when you get anxiety or when do you feel like your circadian rhythm isn't doing well, or maybe you need a little help sleeping and you've been struggling sleeping. Again, so it has a use case across all of those various functions within the body. But thank you guys so much. If this was helpful to you, I would just ask that you share it with someone that might find interesting or helpful them as well. And again, in closing, and I say all the time, but thank guys, you so I am truly blessed and privileged to be able to bring these messages to and if you help support me, whether it's just liking, commenting, subscribing, using my code at places, sharing this with friends and family and telling other people

25:14 about it, or even joining the community and being inside the Community. My heart goes out to you guys. Thank you so much. Without you, I don't exist. So keep supporting and I promise to keep bringing these messages to each and every week. It is a joy and pleasure for me to do so. And I have gratitude that I get to this for a living. That's super fun for. Me. Hopefully that comes across in the material, but thank you. I will see you in. Peace.