What's the Deal With: Peptides?

So, the "peptide" craze.  Of course I had to do an article about this fucktardery so sit tight, lab rats, because my little nerdy, druggie brain is about to blow.  🧠💥

GLP-1 medications work wonders for those who need them and use them properly.   The problem is the ridiculously outrageous cost.  (American) health insurance doesn't cover the cost of drugs like Mounjaro (a brand spanking-new and still patented) drug unless you have Type II diabetes, and out-of-pocket cost runs between $1,112 to $1,519 per month on average.  What's a poor American to do?  Turn to the grey market, of course.  Enter:  peptides.  

GLP-1s are only ONE of the types of peptides sold on the internet today.  Others include weight loss aid Retatrutide, muscle loss/recovery options like TB-500, Sermorelin for anti-aging, Selank and Semax for cognitive function, "SARMs" (Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators) like testolone for bodybuilding and the list goes on.  There's practically a peptide for every problem.  But what ARE peptides anyway?

Via Google AI:

Peptides are short chains of amino acids (typically 2 to 50) linked by chemical bonds. Often referred to as the "building blocks" of proteins, they act as crucial biological messengers in the body, directing processes like healing, metabolism, and immune responses.  Exogenous peptides are absorbed from foods high in protein, such as meats, dairy, soy, and oats

Got it.  I think.  

The Known & Unknown Risks of Peptides

Bodybuilder Neil Currey, 34, died from a combo of grey-market SARMs and street drugs.

1.)  Adulteration and contamination.  Like illegal street drugs, peptides sold online & in sketchy health supplement shops can contain unknown adulterants or impurities.  It's incredibly easy for a manufacturer to fake an independent lab test or to claim a thing is "natural and pure" but much harder for consumers to afford/access real laboratory tests to check the quality of these drugs.  Thus, there's no telling what's actually IN them.  Even if the active ingredients are right, the sample may be contaminated with fungi, bacteria, heavy metals or other toxic byproducts of synthesis.  That's because they're not regulated by the FDA or any other health agency like the USP or Consumerlab.  More on that in point #5.

2.)  Risks of injection.  Even as a long-term drug user, I would never consider injecting ANYTHING because I know the added risks that come with it.  It's a hard line in the sand for me that I've never been tempted to breach, and it's served me well.  Injected substances enter the bloodstream immediately and are carried to the brain, heart, lungs & other organs very quickly.  There's no first-pass metabolism--no filtering by the GI tract, liver or kidneys--which means the substance is being 100% absorbed by the body, and very rapidly.  And the effects are generally irreversible.

As sick as food poisoning with something like E. coli or salmonella makes us, it would be infinitely deadlier if those bacteria were injected directly into the bloodstream.  We have natural defenses like vomiting, diarrhea, urination, sweating and other forms of elimination that ease the burden on our organs when we ingest something toxic, and every one of them works best when the offending material is swallowed or snorted vs. injected or smoked.  You can't vomit up something that was never in your stomach to begin with, nor will activated charcoal or stomach-pumping work in the event of an overdose or bad reaction.  

3.)  User error.  While the peptides may arrive at your door relatively clean, you can still end up with serious infection or even death by screwing up the preparation/injection process.  The risk is no lower than with a drug like IV heroin in that many of its risks are due to the act of injection itself rather than the drug.  These include abscess, cellulitis, sepsis, endocarditis, amputation of limbs and disease transmission with shared needles.  If you accidentally take too much, your risk of overdose and death is higher than with drugs taken by mouth too, as injection has a near 100% bioavailability.  

4.)  Unknown long-term risks in humans.  Best case scenario: your peptide sample contains the proper dose of the proper substance with no contaminants.  And you manage not to fuck up the injection.  You can STILL end up with serious unpredictable health issues down the road because these substances are largely untested in humans, particularly in the long term.  Pharma grade Ozempic?  Safe.  Grey market semaglutide with added B12?  Unknown safety.  The combination has never been studied in humans, plus there's the risk of injecting something made in a dirty compounding pharmacy or Chinese lab.  B12 was added to Ozempic by compounding pharmacies in an effort to skirt FDA rules on "copycat drugs" which tells you exactly where their priorities lie.  (With $$$ rather than health and safety).  The FBI has even gotten involved.  

Now imagine the potential long-term risks of something like "CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin."  Like the bath salt and Spice chemicals of yore, many of these peptides are so new they don't even have proper names yet, they're merely strings of letters and numbers, like "BPC-157".  Not a good sign when considering long-term health effects.  

5.)  Made in China.  90%+ of our goods are made in China.  This is generally not dangerous when it comes to things like clothes or home decor, but there's an added risk with anything you ingest or put on your body.  While China is a world leader in technology and manufacturing, they lack fundamental government oversight when it comes to consumer items like food, drugs and beauty products.  Chinese-made items sold in big box stores like Walmart or GNC undergo a certain amount of quality testing but can still contain contaminants like lead or unapproved drugs.  Now imagine how risky it is with Chinese products sold directly to the consumer online. 

Have I taken shady "research" substances from China?  Yes, but I took them by mouth, not injection.  And I had no illusions about them being good for my health.  Some of them were most certainly NOT what they claimed to be (i.e. had no effect or the wrong effect for the substance).  Even those w/ the expected effect had no uniform color, consistency or texture which means any or all of them could've contained impurities.  I won't know what, if any, negative effect they've had on my health until the day I die.  Many diseases come on slowly after cumulative exposures--Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's and certain cancers, for instance.  And because some exposures are unavoidable, it's best to minimize risk wherever possible.  Injecting Chinese-made peptides is certainly an avoidable risk.  Air pollution?  Not so much.

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The Hypocrisy of Peptide Users 

Americans: notoriously bad at risk evaluation

People who demonize IV drug users and shun vaccines have jumped on the peptide bandwagon en masse.  This is worrying because these unregulated substances are infinitely more dangerous than quality-controlled FDA approved vaccines and at least as risky as black market drugs like meth or heroin.  You cannot claim that you're doing this for your health when the substance and its ROA are this dangerous.  So what is driving the peptide trend?  Vanity?  The latest form of Body Dysmorphic Disorder?  Our unaffordable healthcare system?  America's faulty drug education?  Probably a bit of all.

These aren't theoretical risks--there have already been fatalities.  Bodybuilders have died left and right while using these concoctions, one of them from a "rare form of COVID" due to immunosuppression.  Others, like Kevin Notario Nunez, died from the horrific flesh-eating effects of dirty injections.  Some died of an overdose of combined substances like anabolic SARMs/steroids + cocaine while a few, like Bostin Loyd, died directly from the use of a totally novel peptide which led to end-stage kidney failure.  All were young and technically "fit", with the oldest of those listed above being 34.  This highlights the difference between "fit" and healthy, which seems to be as wide as the gulf between "thinness" and good health in people with anorexia and bulimia.

The largest outbreak of fungal meningitis in American history was caused by an injectable drug made in a compounding pharmacy.  This incident sickened 798 people across 20 states and left 64 dead.  Some survivors reported additional infections at the injection site!  That's all from ONE drug from ONE dirty compounding pharmacy--imagine the nightmares brewing in these totally unregulated Chinese labs.  ☣☠




Be Safe(r), Not Sorry

If you're going to run a modern day MKULTRA on yourself, at least employ basic harm reduction strategies.  Know your body (pre-existing conditions, genetic mutations & allergies) and know your source (ask the manufacturer questions directly, read online reviews of the vendor, do a Google search on them, etc).  Start with a microdose of each new batch, and never inject drugs into your body without medical supervision. 

Seek immediate medical help if you experience adverse effects and be honest with your doctor about all the drugs, supplements and "research" substances you take, especially if you're preparing for surgery or starting a new medication.  Use the substance in the lowest dose for the shortest time possible and do not combine untested peptides with each other or other drugs.  An isolated substance can have very different effects than when it's combined with various supplements, Rx medications, recreational drugs like alcohol & over-the-counter meds. 

Even with all that, there's still the very real risk of maiming or killing yourself due to the unknown long-and- short-term risks of peptides.  The law of averages tells us some of them are likely quite safe while others will prove to be toxic time bombs.  The most likely short term scenario is a wave of death like the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak followed by legislative pushback to ban these substances and a subsequently more dangerous new wave of peptides flooding the grey market is bound to happen.  This is why banning them outright will never work if the goal is protecting the public/saving lives. Instead, it's best to educate yourself about the risks, known and unknown, and stick to proven safe and effective treatments prescribed by a professional.  Of course it would also be great if we had affordable healthcare and healthy food options available to everyone, but that'll be a cold day in Hell.

Peptides or no, you still have to change the TYPE of food you eat or you'll gain all the weight back and then some when you quit taking them.  Like all other weight loss aids, they're merely a short-term tool to help you buy time while you change your eating habits--not just how much food you eat but what kind.  You must break the addiction to overly salty, sweet & fatty junk food or the rebound hunger will cause you to reach a new all-time high weight after going off the GLP-1s or peptides.  (Rebound hunger being more intense than your baseline level of hunger and cravings).  And Set-Point Theory tells us that's bad for long-term weight management.  Very bad.  This is another reason GLP-1s and peptides may prove to be a net negative in the long term for people trying to lose weight.  Only time will tell...

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