Looking to get swole (do people still say that)? Want to rewind the clock and smooth those bothersome wrinkles? Trying to lose weight rapidly and without a prescription? If you’ve spent any time on social media lately, chances are you’ve been inundated with ads, influencers, and podcast bros extolling the seemingly unlimited powers of peptides. With GLP-1s turning ‘peptide’ into a household word, the online “wellness” market has been flooded with the newest iteration of snake oil salesmen. According to them, these bespoke peptide combinations can reverse baldness, build muscle, and restore youth, all for the low, low price of… you get the idea. But what the heck even are peptides? How are they regulated? Is there any evidence to support these bold claims? What isn’t your peptide dealer telling you? Tune in to find out.
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| Wil Stone, NPR. What’s behind the push to make peptide therapies more readily available. https://www.npr.org/2026/07/08/nx-s1-5885073/fda-peptides-compounding-pharmacies |
| New York Times. ‘Chinese peptides’ are the latest biohacking trend in the tech world. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/business/chinese-peptides-silicon-valley.html |
| Anjeanette Damon. A Las Vegas festival promised ways to cheat death. Two attendees left fighting for their lives. https://www.propublica.org/article/peptide-injections-raadfest-rfk-jr |
| New York Times. At the grocery store, blinded by the light of the ‘health halo’. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/18/business/health-halo-food-marketing-labels.html |
| Zara Stone. The San Franciso Sandard. Everyone has a Chinese peptide dealer now. https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/14/everyone-has-chinese-peptide-dealer-now/ |
| Robert Bartholomew. Psychology today. What’s behind the peptide craze? https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/its-catching/202601/whats-behind-the-peptide-craze |
| Bethany Brookshire. Scientific American. Peptides promise longevity and healing – does the science hold up ? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-behind-the-peptide-craze/ |
| Jackie Flynn Mogensen. Scientific American. The Trump administration is looking to experts to weigh in on peptides. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-trump-administration-is-looking-to-experts-to-weigh-in-on-peptides/ |
| Ezra Marcus. New York Magazine. Life on peptides feels amazing says everyone who’s buying from looksmaxxers on instagram or AI bots in China and injecting them into their bloodstream. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/peptides-from-instagram-china-wellness-cure.html |
| FDA: July 23-24,2026 : Meeting of the pharmacy compounding advisory committee. https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees/advisory-committee-calendar/july-23-24-2026-meeting-pharmacy-compounding-advisory-committee-07232026 |
| Dhruv Khullar The New Yorker. Why are people injecting themselves with peptides? http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/why-are-people-injecting-themselves-with-peptides |
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One thought on “Episode 225 Peptides: What your peptide dealer doesn’t want you to know”
Amphibian skins have long been known to contain many peptides including those involved in the control of feeding behavior. Esper discovered bombesin in the skin of the frog bomba bombesis in the early 1970’s. I was a post-doc and later faculty at the Bourne Laboratory at Cornell Med School studying the control of food intake. We looked at many peptides including CCK, bombesin, glucagon, PYY, NPY and others -all had some effect but not like GLP-1 combined with GIP. – but we had pictures of frogs on the wall as a joke– so looking at Gila monsters would not have been out of the blue.
But back to the amphibians from Chen et al. “he skin of amphibians is a tissue with biological functions, such as defense, respiration, and excretion. In recent years, researchers have discovered a large number of peptides in the skin secretions of amphibians, including antimicrobial peptides, antioxidant peptides, bradykinins, insulin-releasing peptides, and other peptides. This review focuses on the origin, primary structure, secondary structure, length, and functions of peptides secreted from amphibians’ skin. We hope that this review will provide further information and promote the further study of amphibian skin secretions, in order to provide reference for expanding the research and application of amphibian bioactive peptides.” Chen X, Liu S, Fang J, Zheng S, Wang Z, Jiao Y, et al. Peptides Isolated from Amphibian Skin Secretions with Emphasis on Antimicrobial Peptides. Toxins (Basel). 2022;14(10). doi: 10.3390/toxins14100722 —