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Alpha amanitin produced by the deathcap mushroom. It's a peptide and it'll kill you. All peptide samples were found to be contaminated. There's often this huge mismatch between the confidence of what the internet is claiming and the actual evidence. Are peptides legit? I'm a biomedical scientist with a PhD in microbiology and immunology. From peptide therapy, healing peptides, anti-aging peptides, fat burning peptides, sex maxing to the Wolverine stack. Let's take a deep dive and set the record straight on peptides. Let's start with the big question on many people's mind being asked here by Aggressive Sands. Do peptides truly work or are we getting collectively scammed?
Well, I agree with Emotional Sage who says they work, bro, but not all of them and the source is important. That's an upvote from me. But which ones work? Well, insulin works. It's a peptide and it's been used for over a hundred years to help regulate blood sugar. Ompic also known as semaglutide is also a peptide. Your antibiotic ointment which contains basitracin and polymixin B also peptides. But the key thing about these peptides is they've been rigorously tested for approval for use by all of the medicine regulatory agencies around
the world. The peptides blowing up on Reddit are often completely different experimental compounds. and we'll get to those in a minute. But first, let's take a step back and bounce over to the explain like I'm five subreddit. What is a peptide and why are there so many posts on the site trying to buy them? Scientifically, a peptide is amino acids like glycine that are joined together by peptide bonds to form a chain. You can think of a peptide as a mini protein. As you can imagine, this is a huge bucket of chemicals and all very different from each other. But the wellness industry uses the word peptide as if it is a therapeutic class when really it's just a type of molecule. But also being a
peptide doesn't mean that it's automatically more natural or safer. Alphaamanitin, that's the chemical produced by the deathcap mushroom. It's a peptide and it'll kill you and cause liver failure. And then there's sarafotoxins which are peptides in the venom of the burrowing asp. Some of the most lethal snake venom toxins and yeah they happen to be peptides. The TLDDR is peptide is a chemistry term and it certainly is not a medical endorsement. How are people using peptides? Now apparently there's something peptide enthusiasts refer to as the Wolverine stack because of its supposed rapid healing of injuries. Jackie Bosch says, "Taken the Wolverine stack and it's amazing. Been taking Wolverine for two
months now and my shoulder injury heals." So BPC 157 and TB500 are referred to as the Wolverine stack after the super fast healing X-Men character played by Hugh Jackman because proponents claim injecting these two peptides will dramatically accelerate recovery from tendon injuries, ligament injuries, shoulder problems, knee pain, etc. In cells and animal models, researchers have reported effects involving angioenesis, which is growing vascule, so blood vessels, ligament repair, and muscle injury. But those studies are looking at cells growing on a piece of plastic or in mice. It's entertaining how many people are shooting themselves up with all sorts of peptides based on lowquality rat and dog studies. I would 100% upvote that. So,
scrolling into the comments and this exchange caught my eye. Fancy investigator 792 says, "I have seroriatic and rheumatoid arthritis. I've been in pain for the last 7 years. Took his first dose 4 days ago and within an hour and a half, 90% of the chronic pain was practically gone." But Giant Brown Balls responds and says, "That seems unbelievable." Well, cuz it is. I'm week eight of TV500 and day 32 of BPC Daily. Haven't seen much improvement. FDA scientists were just reviewing BPC 157 data in June and publicly stated that there is no human data to support its use or its safety when being used by people. And this is
something that we often see among the wellness sphere. There's often this huge mismatch between the confidence of what the internet is claiming about something and the actual evidence that we have. Now, it looks like Kaye Bop and Arya 3246 have a word of caution. As a warning, BPC gave me horrific anxiety. Went away after stopping, but it was bad. And Arya 3246 says, "Yep, same here. Plus crippling anhidonia." Now, these reports are interesting, but they don't tell us that BPC 157 caused the anxiety. But this raises another really important issue. When you buy an unapproved and unregulated supplement like these peptides online, you have no idea what you're taking. It could
contain the wrong amount of BP 157. It might have residual solvents from the actual extraction process. On top of that, these are meant to be injected. So, there are also serious concerns related to potential infection, sterility of those vials and potential contamination that can lead to really serious side effects. They're even talking about peptides over on the 30 plus skin care subreddit. Oh, should I be on that subreddit? How do we feel about topical peptides? Is it a gimmick? There are certain topical formulations that include peptides that do have a therapeutic use. And in fact, our topical antibiotics include peptides and they help cure skin infections. Bob says he uses topical peptides daily for
anti-aging together with his LED masks. A lot of this kind of anti-aging skin health ecosystem is based on misleading and exaggerated claims. With LED masks, there is a nugget of truth there where certain wavelengths of certain types of light can have limited therapeutic effects with certain medical indications. But the issue here is when they get exaggerated and extrapolated to then claim that all of these different compounds that have different structures and different functions have similar benefit to your health or your skin health. I'm also seeing people using peptides to get hornier from short garlics cake 61. Which peptide increased your libido? Reddit commenters aren't
inventing the libido connection here. The main peptides behind sex maxing are PT-41, also known as brelanitide. There were legitimate clinical trials for PT-41 that was FDA approved for a very narrow indication for sexual dysfunction. That product is called Vilei. The claim that PT-41 makes you horny is a wild oversimplification of what was actually demonstrated in the clinical trials for Philei. That particular product is manufactured and FDA approved and regulated and prescribed by doctors for women that fit that bucket. It's not for the general population who just want to amp up their sex drive or perform better in bed. Now, Kiss Pepin, also part of the sex maxing stack, is way more experimental. There were two very small studies in people,
only 32 people in each, using a different version of Kiss Pepin that maybe found some slight changes in brain function after administration. But none of that is suggesting that you're going to improve your sex performance, your libido, your erection, whatever the case happens to be. And then there's the final piece of the sex maxing homebrew melan 2. And here's the top comment on that. The BTY Project says, "I'm a relatively pale woman, so I started taking melanitan." Dude, I cannot even explain what happened. I was insatiable. Yeah, I'm going to downvote that one just right off the bat. Melanot 2 is a synthetic version of a hormone called alpha melanocyt stimulating hormone or
alpha mh. This normally exists in our body. It stimulates certain cells called melanocytes. These are pigment cells in your skin to produce melanin, which is the actual pigment molecule that darkens your skin when you're exposed to UV light. I have a very nice tan right now. This is all natural UV radiation. People, Milan Tan 2 was originally developed around the idea of stimulating pigmentation without as much UV exposure because we know that excessive UV exposure leads to skin cancer. In the very limited studies that were done in 1996, researchers found that yeah, it caused spontaneous erections, those studies were 30 years ago. So if there was potential for melanotan 2 to have
some sort of therapeutic effect, we would have heard about it. They would have continued to study it and they would have been utilizing it. But melanotan is not FDA approved. Whether we're talking about tanning without UV radiation or for sexual performance, as we know, cancers occur when we mess with certain cell types, right? when they stop behaving normally and if we're messing with these melanin producing cells that can increase the potential risk of cancers like melanoma which are the most aggressive types of skin cancers but I think we haven't gotten to the bigger question of are peptides really safe and that's a question in the biohacker subreddit so easy influence
2089 asks hi so I've been getting all these Tik Tok videos about peptides and how they're good for you but are they really there are actually two layers of risk one is this molecule safe and two is this vial safe? With an unapproved peptide that you could buy online, the answer to both might be no. So for compounds like BPC 157 and TB500, we don't know what the appropriate dose of either of those things are. We don't know what the potential drug interactions are. We don't know whether it's going to have cardiovascular effects or what's going to happen to you after long-term use. The next layer of risk is the vial itself. You're trusting that what it's saying on the label is what's actually inside. Here, one Reddit
user says they're safe. The ones I bought have a COA. Ca or certificate of analysis is produced by the company selling the product with no regulatory oversight. You can basically put whatever you want on a CFA. Now, think about if you buy a vial of one of these peptides. It's usually going to arrive at your house in powder. It's called liophalized. and you have to reconstitute it with usually water to get it to dissolve again before you inject it. Right? So, you're going to pull it up in your needle and you're going to inject it. Every time you take that needle and you puncture a vial, if you're not a professional, that is an opportunity to introduce harmful bacteria into the vial, increase your
risk of infection, and also now you have dosing error risks as well. One Redditor asks, "What does RUO mean on the label?" For research use only. And usually it comes with not for human consumption. These RUO substances are things that I would use in the lab if I'm going to conduct an experiment on cells that are growing on a piece of plastic. But I definitely wouldn't consider putting those same aruo substances into my body. Those are two wildly different levels of manufacturing quality and safety testing. What about the phrase gray market peptides that's been circulating lately? It's all over the peptide subreddit like CAB 348. I'm trying to figure out how much risk is involved
with gray market peptides versus research peptides from companies based here in the United States. Research use only peptides are the ones that are being sold on the gray market. They are not FDA approved for a medical indication. The gray market isn't some random guy selling mysterious vials out of the trunk of his car in a sketchy parking lot. These can be professionallook websites. They can have branding. They can have customer service. They can have certificates of analysis. They could legitimately be selling to an entire ecosystem of scientists who are using them legitimately for research use only. As a scientist, I would buy these sorts of substances to conduct experiments in the lab. But then there are consumers, people, non-scientists, non-ressearchers
who are buying this and having these products shipped to their home for human use, self-administration. And here we've got an even more concerning thread on the supplement subreddit where Saving Grace 0262 says, "Coach is pushing peptides labeled for research use only. Am I crazy for thinking that's not okay?" No, you're not crazy. That question alone gets you an up vote. She goes on, "My fitness coach, who also happens to be a bodybuilder, runs a peptide company. That's a red flag. And recently started telling clients to buy one of his products. He promotes it like it's safe and effective for recovery, but it's not FDA approved or tested. This is a big no. There are so many red flags. The coach is personally profiting, so
obviously there is motive there to drive people to buy these unapproved substances. It is straight up unethical and unsafe. Unique Television 944 posted a warning on the biohacker subreddit. Be careful with peptides. I'm a proponent of peptides. I think they have solid evidence base that will only develop in time. But I have seen studies circulating sounding the alarm about research grade peptides which they basically all are. In a Belgian study, all peptide samples were found to be contaminated. I think this is an up vote from me. The researchers in Belgium bought peptide products from suspected illegal onlineies and they found that the amount of peptides varied wildly depending on the vial that they received. Some contained large
quantities of peptide related impurities. So these are byproducts of the breakdown of these peptides. They also detected elemental contaminants such as arsenic and lead. And in some of those vials, the arsenic concentrations were more than 10 times higher than the international limit of arsenic on injectable drugs. Ironically, arsenic overdose or arsenic poisoning can cause anxiety. Just a little call back to that comment about BPC 157 use and causing anxiety. Let's sort these comments by controversial. I bet if you ran your drinking water through the same tests, you would probably get some of the same stuff. That's a down vote. Detection of something doesn't automatically mean
relevance. And yeah, arsenic is in the environment, so there are trace levels of it in our water. But we have chemistry tools that can detect teeny tiny amounts of substances down to the parts per trillion. So, an analogy there is 1 second of time in 31,700 years. Think about how small that is. We're talking about in these vials 10 times more arsenic than the international limit for safety for injectable substances. That's very different than the minuscule quantities that you might find in your water. Let's take a look at this thread asking about negative side effects in the peptide subreddit. Due to lack of long-term data slash user experiences, I would like to know about the various negative side effects that anyone has experienced as a
result of taking peptides. And then we have a couple of responses. Coconut Beck 11 says, "No matter how much back, this is bacterioatic water. I added I would get painful red lumps. They've lasted for over a month in one spot. This person is buying an unapproved peptide, reconstituting it themselves in bacterioatic water, which is intended to inhibit the growth of bacteria. But that doesn't automatically mean the substance is sterile. A persistent red painful lump in the skin could mean inflammation from an immune response of whatever is in the vial, an infection. If you are getting a painful red lump in your skin after injecting the substance, the smart thing to do is stop injecting that
substance into your arm. Now, over on the science biotechnology subreddit, they're discussing some recent developments as of this year. BPC 157, after the July 23rd FDA vote, is it FDA approved now? The FDA did not approve BP- 157, part of the Wolverine stack. That's not what happened here. Here's a bit of a spicy discussion in the comments about the approvals process. The path to FDA approval includes an IND and clinical trials. Good luck with that. not what this is about. They're considering adding these peptides to the very small 503A bulks list, which would allow compounding to dispense without full FDA approval. That's correct. On July 23rd, there was a meeting of the pharmacy compounding advisory committee,
which is an advisory committee within the FDA. And that committee, which unfortunately is staffed currently with friends of RFK Jr. and Marty Mccari, they voted to recommend putting BPC 157 and five other unapproved peptides on something called the 503A bulks list. The 503A bulks list deals with ingredients that compounding pharmacies may be legally permitted to use when preparing compounded medications. So compounding pharmacies are labs that basically create custom formulations of substances using an active ingredient that exists in an FDA approved medicine but manufacturing it under non FDA approved circumstances. And it also gives a path for these online wellness stores and med spas to sell formulations
that may now be technically legal because a compounding pharmacy is permitted to use it. The advisory committee basically overruled the scientists who said there's no human evidence to support their use and there's no human evidence that says they're safe and they just said well we're going to do it anyway. And then difficult fact closes with safer than that worthless COVID vaccine. Let me know when they make an mRNA vaccine that works. That's a definite down vvote. We know that the co vaccines were safe and effective. We had phase three clinical trials that included over 70,000 participants. We had multiple years that encompassed billions of doses globally that have an incredible safety profile
and it's estimated to have saved millions of lives since 2020. The claim that mRNA vaccines didn't work and they weren't tested. Both of those are a big fat note. So, in the end, do peptides work? Are they legit? Are they safe? Well, some are legit. Some absolutely work. those that have robust human data and have regulatory oversight like insulin and glucagon and oxytocin, but some have almost no meaningful human data. They have no safety data. They have no information about long-term side effects. Those ones maybe you want to be cautious about. Even a molecule that technically works, that technically has a therapeutic effect, is useless or potentially even dangerous if what's in
your vial isn't actually what you think it is. All right, I've had enough Reddit. I've had enough screen time. Thanks for watching.
