Droves of wellness enthusiasts, biohackers, social-media influencers, and celebrities are injecting experimental “anti-aging” peptides in the hopes of boosting energy, losing weight, sleeping better, healing injuries, enhancing libido, and even getting tanned.
… For most of these drugs, there is little clinical evidence of their effectiveness and safety, and many doctors warn of their potential risks. “There isn’t any meaningful data on these peptides,” says Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist, longevity expert, and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute.
Still, the popularity of these drugs is surging.
… Celebrities including Jennifer Aniston and Gwyneth Paltrow, and influential podcasters Joe Rogan, Andrew Huberman, and Dr. Mark Hyman, have waxed lyrical about their potential health-boosting benefits. Another fan is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. … who has vowed to end the FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of peptide therapies.
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Some peptide enthusiasts claim they are safe since they naturally occur in the body. But that assumption is dangerously inaccurate, says John Fetse, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Binghamton University in New York. “Peptides could potentially be very potent and very toxic,” he says. Toxins in many animal venoms, for example, are peptides.
