The guest
Brigham Buhler: Founder of Ways2Well and a compounding pharmacy serving 90,000+ patients, and a leading advocate lobbying the FDA and state governments to legalize and regulate peptides, stem cells, and cash-pay preventative medicine.
What this episode covers
Joe Rogan and Brigham Buhler discuss the fight to reclassify peptides at the FDA under Secretary Kennedy and the MAHA movement. Buhler argues that the U.S. healthcare system is built to monetize chronic disease rather than prevent it, and that Big Pharma lobbying has unfairly cast peptides, compounded GLP-1s, and stem cells as dangerous. He lays out a vision for an affordable cash-pay 'life raft' alternative built on diagnostics, AI, wearables, and gene sequencing. The conversation goes deep on testosterone myths, the gray/black-market peptide problem, gene editing, and especially MUSE stem cells, a rare regenerative cell type he believes could be a holy grail for healing.
Recommended on this episode
ProductRecommended
Armra Colostrum
Armra
“I take colostrum, that armra ... Makes a big difference ... Take it every day”
“One thing that does help is colostrum. I take colostrum, that armra. Yeah. Makes a big difference. Take it every day, stay consistent.”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
BookReferenced
Blind Spot
Marty Makary
“Have you ever read his book? It's called Blind Spot. One of the things that I love is I philosophically agree with everything that Marty laid out.”— Brigham Buhler
ProductReferenced
Ozempic
Novo Nordisk
“I know there's a bunch of celebrities that you see that get Ozempic face.”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
BPC 157
(peptide)
“there's a reason why like BPC 157, there's a patent out of Croatia, I believe, on that molecule. And that patent is I think last three more years.”— Brigham Buhler
ProductReferenced
Function Health
Function Health
“You're going to be able to load your blood work from anywhere. I don't care if you got it from Hims, if you got it from Function Health, doesn't matter.”— Brigham Buhler
ProductReferenced
CJC-1295 / Ipamorelin
(peptide)
“there's certain peptides that have a physiological response when you take them like uh CJC Ipamorelin you could feel it when you take it.”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Retatrutide
Eli Lilly
“retatrutide is a triple agonist being developed by Eli Lilly ... It has less muscle wasting, much better safety profile, but people drop substantial amounts of body fat.”— Brigham Buhler
ProductReferenced
Dihexa
(peptide)
“I've taken things like Dihexa ... it a 100% improved my neurocognitive function. It a 100% improved my data recall and retention. It moved the needle.”— Brigham Buhler
Big reveals from this episode
- Buhler says the Trump administration is actively working to reclassify the 19 peptides banned under Biden, and he's the most optimistic he's ever been.
- Claims the entire prostate-cancer fear around testosterone traces to a 1930s study with only three patients, one of whom dropped out and one chemically castrated.
- Alleges Hims deliberately violated the law in a Super Bowl ad as a 'landmine,' then inked a Novo Nordisk deal within two weeks while its stock soared.
- Says preventative longevity medicine was extremely close to being shut down entirely, and that an FDA for Texas was being considered as a hedge.
- Reveals four out of five peptides/GLP-1s are filled through gray or black market with no clinician in the chain of custody.
- Claims there's a gene-editing injection that can make bone mineral density eight times stronger, and that China and Russia are pushing such enhancements.
- Recounts flying to Japan to 'debunk' MUSE stem cells and instead concluding they could change everything in regenerative medicine.
- Tells a story of a UAE sheikh's comatose son, declared brain-dead for organ harvest, regaining brain function after IV MUSE cell treatment.
Worth remembering
- Buhler claims 60 to 80% of drugs that pass FDA approval later get a major label change or recall.
- States exercise is six to sevenfold more efficacious than antidepressants, and the serotonin theory of depression was never backed by a single study.
- Says 1.7 to 1.9 million Americans die of chronic disease every year, more than all U.S. war deaths combined.
- The average American is on four or more prescription drugs.
- Eli Lilly is worth around $800 billion, 7x its prior value, off the GLP-1 boom.
- 71% of young Americans can't qualify for military service.
- Strongman Brian Shaw's bone mineral density is said to be one in 500 million.
- MUSE stem cells were discovered by Mari Dezawa in 2010 after she accidentally left them out overnight and they survived.
- Traditional stem cells have a 3-5% engraftment rate; MUSE cells reach 15-30%.
- After reducing microplastics, friend Philip's testosterone rose from ~80-90 to 1,200 with no TRT.
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