Our Story: Why We Started This Journey! If someone had told us a few years ago that we'd be educating people about peptide therapy, hormone optimization, and healthy aging, we probably would have laughed. The truth is... We didn't go looking for peptides. Peptides found us. Our journey began in March of 2025, when Didi and I made one of the most important decisions of our lives—we decided it was time to take control of our health. While we were both dealing with health concerns, the appointment was really about me. At the time, my health was heading in the wrong direction. I had been diagnosed with Stage 3A Chronic Kidney Disease, with an eGFR of just 49. For more than a decade, I had an enlarged liver, and despite seeing multiple doctors, no one could explain why. I also had fatty liver disease, high blood pressure, cholesterol over 350, triglycerides at 370, and a C-Reactive Protein (CRP)level of 9—an inflammation marker that placed me in the severe high-risk category. Didi wasn't feeling like herself either. She was beginning to experience the effects of perimenopause. Her sleep was constantly interrupted. She was gaining weight despite eating healthy and exercising. Her hormones were changing, and she simply didn't feel like herself anymore. Her cholesterol was over 300. Her triglycerides were 359. Her CRP measured 8.5, which also placed her in the severe high-risk category for inflammation. The frustrating part? We were already doing what we thought were all the right things. We exercised. We ate healthy. We took care of ourselves. Yet our bodies weren't responding the way they used to. That's what led us to a functional medicine practitioner. Initially, our goal was simple: Hormone optimization. Peptides weren't even on our radar. Ironically, a couple of years earlier, we'd met some friends in the Virgin Islands who had told us about peptides. At the time, we brushed it off. We knew absolutely nothing about them, and honestly, they sounded a little strange.