#330 Dr. Craig Koniver - The Godfather of Peptides

**Shawn Ryan** (0:05)
Dr. Craig Koniver, welcome.

**Craig Koniver** (0:07)
Thank you very much for having me, Shawn. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to talk to you.

**Shawn Ryan** (0:11)
I'm excited that you're here too. And so I guess we've been, we've known each other for two years already.

**Craig Koniver** (0:18)
I think about two years.

**Shawn Ryan** (0:20)
Yeah. That's like, it feels like six months.

**Craig Koniver** (0:23)
Yeah, I know. Well, time is a crazy thing, right?

**Shawn Ryan** (0:26)
It is. It is.

**Craig Koniver** (0:27)
Yeah. Now, I think it's been about two years we've been working together.

**Shawn Ryan** (0:30)
Well, my health has gotten a lot better in the last two years. Good to hear. So thank you for that.

**Craig Koniver** (0:36)
Yeah, you're welcome. Yeah, it's an honor to work with you.

**Shawn Ryan** (0:39)
Yep. Likewise. Likewise. Yes. So Andrew Huberman.

**Craig Koniver** (0:44)
Shout out to Andrew.

**Shawn Ryan** (0:45)
Connected us.

**Craig Koniver** (0:45)
Right.

**Shawn Ryan** (0:47)
And we've been working together ever since. Not together. You've been my doctor ever since.

**Craig Koniver** (0:52)
So it's an extreme pleasure and honor.

**Shawn Ryan** (0:55)
Likewise. Likewise. But I'm going to go ahead and give you an introduction. We've got a lot of stuff to talk about today. So here we go.
Dr. Craig Koniver, 20 years ago, you walked away from the disease-based model of medicine and founded Koniver Wellness in Charleston, South Carolina, a science-driven practice focused on performance optimization and longevity. Since then, you've administered more than 50,000 peptide treatments, giving you what many consider the most extensive clinical experience in biological optimization in the country. Your patients include Navy SEALs, Hall of Fame athletes, Fortune 100 executives and members of Congress. At 46, a near-fatal blood clot nearly took your life, changing not only your health, but the way you viewed medicine and performance overall. Once again, welcome to the show.

**Craig Koniver** (1:49)
Thank you for having me.

**Shawn Ryan** (1:51)
So before we get to it, we've got a couple of things to knock out here. One, everybody gets a gift.

**Craig Koniver** (1:57)
Amazing.

**Shawn Ryan** (1:58)
That's definitely not going to help with your longevity, but they do taste pretty damn good.

**Craig Koniver** (2:03)
I love gummy bears.

**Shawn Ryan** (2:04)
Literally.

**Craig Koniver** (2:04)
Perfect for me. Seriously.

**Shawn Ryan** (2:06)
Right on.

**Craig Koniver** (2:06)
Thank you.

**Shawn Ryan** (2:07)
Right on.
And then I got a Patreon account. And that is, we've grown it into one hell of a community. I think we're like 200,000 strong on there now.

**Craig Koniver** (2:18)
Okay.

**Shawn Ryan** (2:19)
And so, honestly, you know, they are... When I started this thing, I couldn't get anybody to... I had no advertisers. Nobody wanted to do business with me. Right. And so, we started a Patreon account. And they've grown it into one hell of a community. So they've been... A lot of these people have been with me since I was in the attic of my house.
And then you see what it's grown into today, and that's all because of these guys. So, one of the things I give them to give back is they get the opportunity to ask every single guest a question. Okay. So this is from Eric Allger.
If you had a healthy 45-year-old guy in your office who wanted to be as strong, healthy, and mentally sharp as possible for the next 40 years, what are the top five things you'd tell him to do?

**Craig Koniver** (3:11)
That's a good question. Yeah, I mean, I still think the... I think there's... I'd mesh at some basics and then some things that probably aren't basic. So I think everyone's familiar with sleep and how important sleep is, right? I think sleep is really challenging for people, particularly in the modern day.
I think the trouble is, is, you know, from my perspective, people have sleep attachments. So they're very worried about going to sleep, and if they get enough sleep, you know, what does it mean the next day if they only get four hours or six hours, and so then people end up turning to pharmaceuticals, for example, right? And now they're taking Ambien. And I have plenty of patients who, you know, maintain good sleep on these drugs. However, we just have to wonder, what is that doing to them long term? And even more than that, I don't know if they're getting to the deep restorative sleep phases from these drugs that help them fall asleep. So first thing is, you know, kind of lose the sleep attachment, but find some things that you can take intermittently for sleep. Like I look at sleep as like some nights I'll take theanine. I'm a big fan of theanine right now. Some nights ashwagandha, some nights glycine. Different compounds that are natural. We can get into peptides for sure, that help promote not only falling asleep, but staying asleep. I think that's number one. I think we'll get into further in the show about how important rest is, you know, for optimization, whatever that means. That'd be number one. Number two, I think the most important thing for people, once you can sleep and have that foundation, is changing, you know, what happens between your ears, you know, and changing your thought process, understanding that not every thought you think has to be true and forming more of an empowerment type of approach and being positive. I think I want to talk to you more about that because I think positivity is such a powerful tool that's not talked about, particularly in the longevity space. We talk about compounds. Number three, things that people can take.