Matt Kaeberlein, a longevity researcher, first started hearing about peptides a few years ago. “At that time it was mostly functional medicine doctors who were using peptides,” he says, referring to physicians adopting alternative medicine and supplements. “In the last six months, it’s been kind of crazy.”
Peptides have gone mainstream. At health-technology startup SuperPower in Los Angeles, employees can get free peptide shots on Fridays. At a health food store in Phoenix, a sign on the sidewalk reads, “We have peptides!” At a Tae Kwon Do center in South Carolina, a peptide wholesaler hosts an informational evening. On social media, they are everywhere. And that popularity seems poised to grow; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Promises to end FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of peptides.
However, the benefits and risks of many of these compounds are largely unknown. Some of the most popular peptides have never been tested in human trials. These are sold for research purposes, not for human consumption. There are illegal knockoffs of some extremely successful weight loss drugs. vast majority It came from China, a fact that has some lawmakers worried. Last week, Senator Tom Cotton FDA chief urged To crack down on illegal shipments of peptides from China. In Due to the absence of regulatory oversight, some people are sending purchased compounds for independent testing just to make sure the product is legitimate.
What is a peptide?
Peptides are short chains of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. “Scientists generally think of peptides as very small protein fragments, but in reality we have no precise cutoff between peptide and protein,” says Paul Knoepfler, a stem-cell researcher at the University of California, Davis. Insulin is a peptide, as is human growth hormone. There are also some neurotransmitters like oxytocin.
But when talking about health-affecting peptides, they often refer to special compounds – formulated as injections, pills or nasal sprays – that have recently become trendy.
Some of these peptides are FDA-approved prescription drugs. For example, GLP-1 drugs are approved to treat diabetes and obesity, but are readily available online to almost anyone who wants to use them. Many sites sell microdoses of GLP-1s with claims that they can “support longevity”, reduce cognitive decline, or prevent inflammation.
