In the early 2020s, interest in GLP-1 weight loss drugs exploded. Now, as we move deeper into the decade, a new buzzword is taking over: peptides.
And the demand for peptides continues to surge.
“The GLP-1s put it on the map, and then people were like, ‘Well, what’s next?’” said Evan Miller, founder and CEO of Gameday Men’s Health, a concierge men’s health network that provides peptides and other care.
You’ve probably seen wellness TikTokers or elite athletes refer to peptides as a way to speed muscle recovery, slow aging or simply optimize overall health. At the same time, federal health officials are starting to take notice.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a number of peptides as medications, but many other peptides promoted online are not approved. Under current FDA rules, many of these also are not eligible to be dispensed by compounding pharmacies, and experts warn that rising demand is fueling an online black market that could be risky.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he’s “a big fan of peptides” and has used them himself. He’s also said he hopes to relax restrictions around them but has been faced with some resistance within the FDA, which previously determined that some peptides lack sufficient safety data.
Here’s what to know about how peptides work and what to do if you’re interested in them.
How do peptides work?
All of us have peptides in our bodies. They’re short chains of amino acids that play key roles in regulating important functions such as building muscle, controlling blood pressure, producing hormones or managing weight.
“Companies now manufacture peptides with the intent of mimicking natural processes in the body,” Dr. Jessica Alvarez, a professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Lipids at the Emory University School of Medicine, said in an email. “We’re hearing about peptides more often because technology advances have made them easier and cheaper to synthesize.”
So when someone is taking peptides, either through injections or by mouth, they’re getting a synthetic form of what’s naturally found in the body.
“What we’re really doing is working with compounds that naturally exist in the body and increasing them to achieve targeted clinical effects,” said Dr. Lisa Cassileth, founder and CEO of The Practice Healthcare in Beverly Hills, who specializes in peptides, breast reconstruction for cancer patients and cosmetic procedures.
“Peptides are messengers, and they’re messengers that are going to tell your body to do something,” Miller said. “These messengers can be telling your body to reduce inflammation; that’s a peptide called BPC-157. Or another messenger might tell it to regenerate cellular levels of the skin, like a copper peptide.”
Popular diabetes and weight-loss medications called GLP-1s, such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound and Mounjaro, are peptides. Insulin, the hormone that helps regulate blood sugar, is probably the best-known peptide.
And similar to how scientists have turned insulin into a diabetes medication, other peptides have been synthesized and turned into medications that require prescriptions, over-the-counter supplements or cosmetic products.
Why do people use peptides?
People may seek out peptide therapies for medical, cosmetic or performance reasons, such as muscle growth, fat loss, injury recovery, osteoporosis treatment, sleep quality, skin care, body building or anti-aging.
Dr. Hal Mohammed entered the world of peptides in 2023 when he started to use tirzepatide, a GLP-1 that’s sold under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound. He wanted to lose unhealthy weight, he said, and he had been diagnosed with prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be considered type 2 diabetes.
After months of using tirzepatide, “I lost 70 pounds. My blood sugar completely normalized. So being prediabetic disappeared. My hemoglobin A1C is like 4.9. My lipid panel looks spectacular,” said Mohammed, global chief medical officer of Gameday Men’s Health.
He then used a peptide called tesamorelin to lose visceral fat, which he worried was accumulating around his organs despite his use of the GLP-1. Both tirzepatide and tesamorelin have been approved by the FDA – tirzepatide to treat diabetes and weight management, and tesamorelin to help people with HIV lose excess abdominal fat – but his use of the latter was considered “off-label” since it was for another purpose.
What I did was use it for a few months, and I noticed that I dropped about a pound or two of total fat and visceral fat loss, and that improves your metabolic health,” Mohammed said.
Then, “I had major hand surgery last year. I used recovery peptides that didn’t necessarily have a ton of data behind them, but I saw them work in plenty of patients, and I decided to use it on myself. It’s a little bit anecdotal, but we did see healing there,” he said. “So, for sure, GLP-1s have been a gateway to this.”
GLP-1 medications are currently the “most public use of peptides,” Chelsea Hagopian, an assistant clinical professor at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, said in an email.
However, “there are similar peptides for growth hormone, testosterone, and other molecules, which you’d want to potentially have more of in the body to elicit a change that you’re looking for, such as for muscle regeneration, muscle growth, fat loss, energy, or mood,” said Hagopian, who is also a nurse practitioner at a private plastic surgery practice in Atlanta. “And then there are some investigational peptides that show a lot of promise for things like focus and cognition.”
Cassileth said she has prescribed the peptides BPC-157, GHK-Cu and TB500 to promote healing in patients who’ve had surgery.
“I do breast cancer reconstruction, and one of the problems when you do a mastectomy is, there’s low blood flow to the skin,” Cassileth said.
“When I inject BPC-157, it creates additional new blood flow,” she said, as well as cellular repair.
Those people who are healthy enough to be cleared for surgery are typically also healthy enough for the benefits of peptides to outweigh the risks, when used in the short term, she said. But she added that the peptide is used for only one week after surgery because there is no long-term data on its use in cancer survivors and the potential risks of the peptide stimulating the growth of cells.
“I don’t recommend long term BPC-157 if someone has active cancer,” Cassileth said. “Anything that stimulates cellular repair can also help support cell life. You want the normal body to recover, but you certainly don’t want to stimulate cancer growth. I think short courses are appropriate right after surgery, because the risks of surgery are so great.”
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