What's the deal with peptides?

What’s the deal with peptides?

You might’ve been seeing a lot about peptides in the news lately, with stories of kids as young as 12yo ordering and injecting them without their parents knowing. But while some peptides have got legitimate medical uses, others are being brought in from overseas without any regulation, and concerns are being raised about their impacts on young bodies. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we’ll get you across:

• What peptides are

• How they’re used

• And why they’re at the centre of a health debate… 

🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Larissa Huntington

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Squiz the Shortcut

Back it up… What’s a peptide?
It's a short chain of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. We have them in our bodies already but they decline as we age. You might recognise some of them - insulin and oxytocin are examples of naturally occurring peptides. 

What do they do?
They act a bit like chemical messengers, telling cells in the body to do things. Think of them as text messages - they instruct cells to regulate metabolism and to grow, and they're involved in tissue repair and our immune systems. That messenger role is why they have legitimate medical uses.

Tell me a bit more about that…
Insulin, for instance, is used to manage diabetes, and they’re also in GLP-1 drugs used for diabetes and weight loss - so, Ozempic and those types of medicines. Basically, they’re a huge category, but in Australia, most of the injectable ones are prescription-only.

So what’s the controversy about?
It’s about a particular group of synthetic - aka man-made - peptides that are being marketed online and imported under the radar for what’s called ‘optimisation’. That’s essentially trying to make a healthy person leaner, more muscular and better-performing, so really pushing their body physically to the limit.

What are the synthetic ones called?
They’re not as recognisable by name - they’re generally a bunch of different letters and numbers like BPC-157 or TB-500… Proponents say they help with building muscle and speeding up recovery time from injuries for sports people. 

I’ve noticed they’re in my moisturiser… Is it the same thing?
You might’ve also seen them listed as ingredients in skincare - doctors aren’t so concerned about that. When they’re put on skin, through serums or moisturisers, they sink into the outer layers and do their cellular messenger thing. 

Go on…
How they work is by tricking your skin into thinking it has suffered a minor injury, which triggers skin cells to produce fresh collagen and elastin to ‘repair’ the area. This gradual increase in structural protein increases skin density, which smooths out fine lines and builds a firmer, naturally plumper complexion. 

What about the injectable ones?
They’re the sort that have got some doctors concerned. And social media has played a big part in marketing them… There’s been a boom in peptide content being pushed by fitness and wellness influencers who are followed by millions of people - many of them young men - and they’re spruiking peptides as a tool for getting bigger and recovering faster. 

How does that work?
The most common fitness-focused peptides - the bulking ones - send messages to the pituitary gland to release large pulses of natural human growth hormone. And then there’s a practice called 'stacking'…

What’s stacking?
It’s where 2 or more peptides are used at the same time, for example, the 2 we mentioned (BPC-157 and TB-500) get combined into what's known as the 'Wolverine' stack, because it's believed to make people heal faster… Others target fat burning and muscle repair, so the body aggressively repairs and expands muscle fibres after training.

So who’s actually using them?
That's part of the problem - it's not monitored, so we don't really know. But Dr Tim Jones, the chair of child and young person's health at the Royal Australian College of GPs, doctors are seeing kids as young as 12 who've ordered injectable peptides online without their parents knowing.

What does he say about it?
He says more and more young patients are coming forward with side effects “and because these are untested products, we have no idea whether those side effects are going to go away if people stop using them or whether they could potentially be stuck with them long term”.

So they’re taking a big risk?
Yep… Dr Jones says if people don’t know exactly what’s in the vial they’ve ordered, it could react badly with any existing meds they’re on. And what youngsters mightn't realise is that healthy young boys and adolescent males already produce an abundance of natural peptides and growth hormones, so adding synthetic versions is completely unnecessary and highly disruptive to their development.

Have these products been tested?
Many of the peptides in circulation haven’t been properly tested in humans or assessed by Australia’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, or TGA. And of the peptides the TGA has seized and destroyed at the border, many are poorly or completely unlabelled. 

What does that mean if you’re buying them online?
In short, you could be buying something online that says it’s a particular peptide and you don’t necessarily know what’s actually in it. You can't be certain of the dose, or whether the vial it comes in is sterile, or how it was manufactured. So all up, experts say it’s not a good combo to be injecting yourself with… 

What can go wrong?
The TGA has reported some serious adverse reactions linked to unapproved peptides - things like liver damage, severe allergic reactions and inflammation. And there are also the standard risks that come with any needle situation, like infections. 

And what about longer term?
Research on the after-effects of peptides on bodies, particularly young bodies, is thin on the ground… What we do know though, is that artificially forcing the body to grow tissue while rapidly altering fat metabolism can strain the cardiovascular system, raise blood sugar risks, and, as we mentioned, it can disrupt your natural hormone production cycles. 

So what measures, if any, are being taken?
In response to calls from the medical industry and recent seizures of illegal peptides (one haul, with steroids and other drugs, had a street value of more than $2 million), the TGA has made unapproved peptides a priority compliance area. In other words, it’s homing in on people involved in importing them, advertising them and selling them illegally… 

In what ways?
Last month, it put promoters and suppliers of those products on notice to say it was working with social media and platforms like Facebook Marketplace to crack down on illegal advertising and online sales, as well as carrying out raids on some chemists… It’s not a new set of rules though, prescription medicines aren’t allowed to be advertised to the public. But it’s definitely stepping things up.

What are the fines involved?
People caught illegally importing unapproved peptides have been fined in the past by the TGA more than $3,700, and it recently hit one NSW person with 27 infringement notices worth more than $100,000 over the alleged supply of a tanning peptide. When it comes to companies, they can face fines running from upwards of $25,000 for minor offences to millions of dollars for illegally advertising peptide products.

So what’s the bottom line?
Not all peptides are dangerous, so the challenge for health professionals (and parents of adolescents…) is getting people to understand that having a prescription for a medication or using a skin cream containing peptides is very different to ordering a vial of a peptide or a concoction of them over the internet. But with the growing number of fitness influencers online, we’re likely to be hearing more about the issue…

Onto our Recommendations

Reading: This article from news.com.au quotes Dr Tim Jones - it’s an eye-opener about tweens ordering peptides online…

Reading: This article from Vanity Fair about the looksmaxxing movement that’s driving the demand for peptides and performance enhancers in young men…

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