418: Are Peptides Safe? Truth About The Side Effects of Peptides And The Risk Of Cancer (Yes, This Is A Legit Concern)

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Are peptides safe? There’s a reason so many people are talking about peptides right now. From men who are hoping to heal old injuries to push workouts harder in the gym, to women navigating perimenopause, stubborn weight gain, chronic inflammation, poor recovery, fatigue, or brain fog, peptides sound incredibly appealing.

And while peptides can be really helpful, using them safely can be tricky. Most conversations online completely skip over the safety concerns, the importance of testing, and the fact that these compounds may not be appropriate for everyone. Instead, people are often handed peptide recommendations from social media influencers, online forums, or even their gym friends without anyone looking at the bigger picture.

That’s a problem. Because your health history and labs matter. As does your level of inflammation. And according to today’s guest, Dr. Elena Zinkov, there are situations in which certain peptides could potentially do more harm than good if used incorrectly.

Dr. Elena Zinkov is redefining how women navigate their health journey with a science-backed, healthspan-forward approach. As a naturopathic medical doctor & entrepreneur, Dr. Elena has dedicated her career to empowering women to thrive at every stage of life. Her clinic is at the forefront of progressive therapies, offering personalized solutions for hormone optimization, longevity and regenerative medicine.

Her passion for transforming healthcare stems from her own experiences with the limitations of conventional medicine. Dr. Elena focuses on democratizing women’s health, ensuring that women worldwide have access to solutions that optimize longevity, vitality, and well-being.

If you’ve been considering peptides or growth hormone therapies (ie. HGH peptides), don’t miss this conversation. Let’s get into it.

In This Episode:

• Why peptides are becoming so popular
• The surprising connection between growth hormone decline and skin, hair, sleep, and muscle recovery
• The hidden risks of using peptides without proper lab testing
• Why IGF-1 levels matter before starting growth hormone HGH peptides
• How certain peptides could potentially fuel underlying cancer growth
• Differences between injectable, oral, sublingual, and topical peptides
• Why peptide “stacks” like GLOW Peptides and Wolverine Peptides may not be safe

Quotes

“There are some people who have never experienced a reduction in food noise until they've been on a GLP-1.”

“Peptides are a tool, but they need to be used individually, they need to be part of personalized medicine.”

Links

Find Dr. Zinkov online | Instagram

Healthy Skin Show ep. 384: Peptides For Skin Problems: Do GLP-1 + BPC-157 Peptides Really Stop Inflammation? w/ Nathalie Niddam

Healthy Skin Show ep. 392: Improving Hidradenitis Suppurativa HS Treatment With GLP1 Weight Loss Meds (NEW RESEARCH) w/ Dr. Steven Daveluy

 

418: Are Peptides Safe? Truth About The Side Effects of Peptides And The Risk Of Cancer (Yes, This Is A Legit Concern) {FULL TRANSCRIPT}

Jennifer Fugo (00:27.21)

Dr. Elena, I'm so excited to have you here to answer the question, “Are peptides safe?”. We're gonna talk about peptides, and I think, just based off of our little conversation beforehand, that this is gonna be something that maybe people haven't quite considered. Because there's some pros, and we hear a lot of pros about why peptides are so good and why they have so many uses that could be helpful for health, but I also think it's worthwhile talking about where we need to be careful. So thank you so much for being here so that we can dive into this topic.

Dr. Elena (00:57.72)

Thank you so much for having me, I'm excited.

Jennifer Fugo (01:00.456)

So I would love to know, just quickly, how did you get into doing peptides and utilizing them in your practice?

Dr. Elena (01:10.112)

So, peptides are a tool, and just like we use hormone replacement therapy and some of the other therapies that we have access to, I got to a point in my practice where I was just hitting a wall with my patients. And what I mean by that is, let's use GLPs as an example. I have a lot of patients who come to me, and we work on their hormones, we work on the foundations of health, they have a personal trainer, they're counting their macros. But they have the experience of a typical woman who's going through perimenopause or menopause, where the metabolism is not the same, it's hard to gain lean muscle mass, it's hard to lose fat. And this is where I started to use peptides, a while back, before they blew up and are everywhere now. But this is where I would use them very selectively to improve metabolism, to reduce inflammation, because we know GLP1s and the different varieties that we have of GLPs, they're not just for weight loss. We have cardiovascular benefits, cancer protective properties, as well as the improved metabolism that we see.

One of the things that is frequently ignored in women's health is actually growth hormone. So, frequently when a woman is going through perimenopause and the other hormonal transitions, we look at estrogen, progesterone, we're lucky if the testosterone actually gets addressed, but rarely does anyone actually talk about growth hormone.

Dr. Elena (02:46.75)

And when I started looking into my patient's growth hormone levels, because let's say they were not recovering well after a workout, yet they're on testosterone, they're eating well, their other hormones are balanced. When I started looking at their growth hormone levels, and it's hard to measure growth hormone directly, but we can use markers like IGF-1, as an example, to understand what are the potential growth hormone levels. I realized that in a lot of my patients, both men and women, that IGF-1 was low, and that potentially it's not just the other hormones that are struggling, but growth hormone is one of the first hormones that actually starts to decline, and potentially before even the sex hormones start to decline.

So I would use gentle growth hormone-releasing hormones and HGH peptides to stimulate our own ability to produce growth hormone. And then we see improvements in skin, in sleep, in hair, in recovery, in lean muscle mass. It is like turning on a switch, and everything becomes easier. It's become the missing piece. So for me, peptides, they are another tool that I use when the outcomes are plateauing, and I'm not seeing the results that I want to see in my patients.

Jennifer Fugo (04:06.87)

So I think this is a good question to ask, because I do think there is the question of are peptides safe, which I want to get to in a little bit. But, so that people understand where we are right now, are peptides actually legal? And I've heard things about the FDA kind of reclassifying them, that there's a whole reclassification process. So are peptides legal for us to buy and use?

Dr. Elena (04:34.838)

Right, and that's a really important question. At one point, there were a lot more peptides available for pharmacies to compound to them for health care providers to prescribe. And then the FDA reclassified peptides and said we need to understand the safety of these compounds, and pulled a lot of them off the shelf, including the ones that we used for a long time, like BPC-157 peptides, and Semax, and Selenk, and so forth. There's quite a few of them that got pulled. And now the FDA is reclassifying those peptides again based on their safety, meaning that a lot of them that I just mentioned that at one point their safety was questionable, now they're coming back. And some pharmacies they do, some of them have continued to compound them, and that becomes more of an issue. Sometimes, you know, you use what you have until the FDA tells you not to compound anymore.

But are peptides legal? There's a lot of peptides that are legal. Are they FDA approved? No. But it comes down to the similar issue that we have with supplements. There are many supplements that we use that are legal, that we have access to, and even oral peptides, they're legal, you can buy them online through reputable sources, but are they FDA approved? No, they're not.

Jennifer Fugo (06:09.215)

So interestingly, I'm curious about the combination of HRT with peptides. It sounds like, am I correct in what you had said before, that you actually do utilize peptides and HRT together? And is that something that is the same for men and women?

Dr. Elena (06:28.856)

Absolutely. So, for example, I mentioned growth hormone-releasing hormone and HGH peptides, and the classical ones are sermorelin and ipamorelin, as an example. When I put someone on HRT, let's say estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, just sort of the classic trio, right, of HRT. For men, it may be just testosterone, as an example. Most men don't need any more estrogen or progesterone, except in a few situations. But if I'm seeing that the patient is feeling great overall, but they're still having issues with sleep, or recovery post-workouts, or trouble losing weight, I will use, if warranted, will use growth hormone-releasing hormones and HGH peptides, like sermorelin and ipamorelin, to help them achieve the body composition goals, to help reset their circadian rhythm.

But I don't do it blindly. I test their IGF-1 levels, I test their inflammatory markers, I test their metabolic markers. This is not something that I just throw into the mix purely on subjective information. I need that objective data to validate and verify that this is the smart decision because you and I talked a little bit offline about this, and that, as peptides have become more popular, a lot of people are started on peptides without fully understanding their biochemistry and physiology. And everything is in balance when it comes to hormones and peptides.

Dr. Elena (08:21.141)

You know, in a lot of cancer cases, IGF-1 can rise. And some healthcare providers actually argue that IGF-1 rises as a protective mechanism, not necessarily that it is something that happens when you have cancer, but potentially as part of it, as to protect the body and the cells from cancer. Now the flip side to that is, okay, if IGF-1 rises with cancer and if we put someone on growth hormone and it increases that IGF-1 furthermore, are we adding more fuel to the fire? And it's scary to me to actually see a lot of online peptide companies and hormone telemedicine companies prescribing growth hormone HGH peptides without even testing IGF-1. And that's the scary thought to me, is are we doing more harm in some situations unknowingly, right, and unintentionally.

But the other way that I use peptides with HRT is, of course, because of weight loss. And a lot of women struggle with weight loss for a number of reasons, and men too, with androgen decline through different stages of life. It's not just macros, and it's not just exercise, and I know a lot of people want to debate this because calories in calories out, right? But it becomes a vicious cycle, where as our hormones decline and the lean muscle mass declines, we want to be able to build muscle. But if we have metabolic resistance that we cannot correct with just nutritional changes or with exercise, unless we become a personal trainer and a nutritionist and make it our full-time job to eat the protein and exercise two hours per day, it can be really hard for people, with the busy lives that they live, to be absolutely perfect and lose weight and build the muscle. And this is where the GLP-1s can be really effective.

Dr. Elena (10:15.409)

One thing that I think a lot of people who are against GLP-1s, one of the things that they don't understand, I feel like, is that everything declines, including our own GLP function, GLP receptor function. So, just like our hormone receptors decline in their function through time, so can GLP receptors that we have. So people will say, well you can just naturally stimulate them. Depends on the amount that you have, because that can also decline, and depends on their functionality. And so I love using GLPs in different ways, from using amounts that are well below the conventional milligram amounts, to support, to provide that anti-inflammatory effect, cardiovascular effect, brain protective benefits, along with improving metabolic outcomes.

Jennifer Fugo (16:08.97)

I wanted to ask, because I do think this is a valid question. There's topical, in terms of like delivery systems for peptides, there's topical, there's oral, so like a supplement or a pill, or there's injectables (peptides injections).

Dr. Elena (16:27.29)

Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Fugo (16:29.13)

How does, like, what's your thoughts on the three? Are there some general rules of thumb if someone is starting to dive into this area or consider this? I assume there's some peptides that you just cannot take orally, and you probably shouldn't go and buy a vial of peptides and just smear it on your skin. I'm just kind of wondering, like, is there a rule of thumb here that we can go by that'll help us understand better the reason why some may be topical, versus oral, versus peptides injections?

Dr. Elena (17:00.08)

Absolutely. It really depends on the end goal, and it really depends on where we're trying to move the needle. So I'll start with the easiest, and the easiest is you do not want to buy a peptide mix. And the famous one that is circulating now for some time is the GLOW Peptide mix and the Wolverine mix. Now, these two mixes combine TB-500 copper peptides, which gives them this purple look, as well as BPC-157 peptides and KPV. So, the problem with that is that individually those might be fine, but when you mix them together, and you mix it with a remixing solution, usually bacteriostatic water, you don't know what you're injecting anymore. Those peptides do not belong together in the same bio. So, to answer your question, don't buy those peptide mixes because you then don't know one, what you're injecting, but two, what's the reaction that you're going to get.

And these peptides, like the GLOW Peptide and the Wolverine Peptide stack, they've been marketed as a silver bullet. Like this is the thing that's gonna fix your collagen issues, get rid of your wrinkles, contribute to hair growth, you're going to lose weight, you're basically, you're going to be like a 25-year-old athlete. And unfortunately, as you know, there's so many other things that go into improving hair and skin, and longevity medicine, but a lot of people have been told that this is the miracle peptide mix. And unfortunately, from a safety perspective, I don't recommend using them.

Dr. Elena (19:01.005)

And I'm not the only one that says this, actually. A lot of my colleagues in the field and pharmacists who’ve spend a lot of time researching these topics and compounding peptides, they don't recommend this combination of peptides either. But let's talk about what we can use. Now, topical peptides, can you use copper peptides topically to improve, let's say hair growth, or to improve collagen production topically? Absolutely. And I think even using something like a topical estriol cream, which is a weaker estrogen, paired with copper peptides, is a fantastic option for people who are looking to improve collagen production, improve skin texture, firmness, whatever it is. Topically, that's totally fine and okay to do, to use. It's not going to cross the blood-brain barrier, as injectable peptides can. This is why safety is so important.

Jennifer Fugo (22:52.478)

Recently, maybe two weeks ago, as I was preparing for our conversation, I was scrolling through Facebook and happened to notice a video of someone being interviewed about a potential problem with peptides and side effects of peptides that I had never heard, any person that I follow who's praising peptides left and right all over social media, I have heard no one even broached this concern that they could potentially fuel cancer growth. So, the question is then, are these different peptides, some of which you've even described as like research grade, are they possibly dangerous?

Dr. Elena (23:58.832)

Yes. So one thing I want to mention is cancer is complicated. There's never one thing that can cause cancer, it's usually a perfect storm. And we know that in terms of cancer, metabolic health matters. We know that women who are obese, for example, have a 50 to 60% more likelihood of developing breast cancer, as an example. We know that hormones don't cause cancer, and that's been debunked many times. But having said that, we need to still screen people for cancer, and we need to make sure that whatever we're prescribing, whether it's hormone replacement, whether it's a GLP-1 or any other peptide, we need to understand the environment into which we're introducing these peptides.

So let's take something like IGF-1, and measuring IGF-1 before starting growth hormone HGH peptide therapy or growth hormone-releasing hormone therapy. If someone, let's say, is in early stages of cancer and does not know it, and we don't test their IGF-1 or their other panels, including their metabolic panel, or do any of the other screening tests, and we start them on a  growth hormone-releasing hormone, we're potentially doing something very dangerous, where yes, we could be fueling cancer.

Now, growth hormone HGH peptides and hormones do not cause cancer, but can they fuel cancer growth? Absolutely. And so this is where, even doing basic testing, if I am looking at a patient who is post-breast cancer, five years post-breast cancer, technically, we know it's safe to incorporate certain forms of hormone replacement, as an example. But I'm looking at their IGF-1, even though they've been cleared from cancer, they're up to date on their screening, their labs don't show any signs of cancer, their IGF-1 is still at a 300, as an example. Am I going to add growth hormone HGH peptide to that because they want to build more muscle and lose weight? Absolutely not. But if she goes and signs up for a telemed company appointment, who's prescribing peptides and hormones, and they don't check her IGF-1, and they want her to build muscle and lose weight, and they know that sermorelin as a growth hormone-releasing hormone is going to do the trick potentially, now they just did that woman a disservice by putting her on that peptide.

Jennifer Fugo (26:38.996)

Yeah.

Dr. Elena (26:54.644)

And there are so many ways for us to accomplish muscle growth, and weight loss, and everything else in much safer ways, and like I said, peptides are a tool, but they need to be used individually, they need to be part of personalized medicine. It's not for every person, and it's not for everyone. I work with my patients, and I use hormones, and I use peptides, and I use a variety of tools, but I've never created the same treatment plan. Not every single one of my patients is on growth hormone HGH peptide, not everyone needs it. And I make that clinical judgment of who I think could benefit from it or not.

So, the other thing is, when it comes to research peptides, we don't know, besides peptides and amino acids, what is in that bile. We don't.

Jennifer Fugo (27:31.657)

Really?

Dr. Elena (27:46.151)

Well, absolutely. If you think about it, they're putting together, a research peptide company can put a certificate, quality assurance analysis on its website, but it's not for human use. It's technically 99.9% pure. What is that other 0.1%? I have no idea.

Jennifer Fugo (27:56.458)

That is true.

Dr. Elena (28:10.258)

And they can say it's manufactured in the United States, but the original product could be from China, as an example.

Jennifer Fugo (28:12.394)

Oh boy.

Dr. Elena (28:14.598)

So again, it's 99.9% pure. Well, then I would like to know, what's the 0.1% that's impure, right? Is it heavy metals? Is it pesticides? Is it mold? Like, what are we dealing with here? Because that 0.1%, as an example, it doesn't take much. You're injecting these things into your body, and a lot of this can cross the blood-brain barrier. And there are some things that are just simply irreversible.

Jennifer Fugo (28:36.212)

So what I'm gathering from this conversation, because this has been my sort of hesitancy in, first of all, as a clinical nutritionist, a lot of this education is new. It's also, like, injectable things are outside of my scope of practice. These are things where, I even, when I think about my health, I think long and hard. I reach out to my network a lot of times, even when I was considering HRT, I considered it for two years before, and I can't even tell you how many people I spoke to about it before I decided to do it. And I don't regret making that decision because I think HRT for me has been wonderful. But peptides is where I feel like there's a lot of gray, and you really should work with someone who has a knowledge base about all of this when wondering are peptides safe, because that mention of we don't know what these peptides may be fueling. Because it's not, you could say, but I have a shoulder injury. How do you know that it's just going to the shoulder injury? You don't.

Dr. Elena (29:44.528)

Right. Yes.

Jennifer Fugo (29:48.363)

So when you, it sounds like you do a lot of testing, you do a lot of analysis of the patients that you get to see before making a decision of what the actual action plan is. Do you feel like that is one of the most crucial pieces right now that's sort of being overlooked in the industry?

Dr. Elena (30:07.858)

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think people are getting the peptides without actually understanding if they need them or not, and which peptides, because peptides has become more of a conversation, like, oh, you should try this peptide, instead of actually working with someone to understand is that the best peptide? Is that the best form? Is injectable form better, or can you actually get away with an oral form?

And I'll give you an example. One of my most favorite peptides is actually the thymosin family of peptides. Now, these peptides we technically make on our own, the thymus gland is a very important gland that regulates the immune system. And what can happen, just like with everything else, is that that gland function can decline with time, or you can be in a more pro-inflammatory situation for whatever reason, hormone decline or hormonal changes can put you in a more pro-inflammatory state. And we know that women are two times more likely to develop autoimmune conditions, that's what I see in my practice. I developed two autoimmune conditions. actually, postpartum in my thirties, and it was a rough ride trying to figure out my own hormones and what works and what doesn't work. But I do utilize quite a bit of thymosin peptides, and specifically thymosin alpha-1 or thymosin beta-4 and its fragment TB-500.

Dr. Elena (31:36.039)

But I don't necessarily lead with that because when I look at a patient, and I sit down with a patient, and I see that there's a lot of nutrient deficiencies, and their thyroid is off, and clearly, yes, inflammation markers are through the roof, and their progesterone is low, and progesterone is very anti-inflammatory. We correct their nutrient imbalances, we'll work on their gut health, we correct the hormonal imbalance, and then re-evaluate in six to eight weeks. Did we move the needle? Because if they're feeling better and they're on their way, and all of a sudden they don't need to take Tylenol and ibuprofen daily along with their immunosuppressant medications, we're moving in the right direction, right?

Now, if I take a similar patient and I see them in four weeks, four to six weeks and they say, Elena, I feel about the same, maybe I'm feeling 10% better, but the joint pain is still pretty aggravated and I'm still relying on the Tylenol daily, plus all the other medications I'm on. Then I'll say, okay, let's introduce this peptide in. But I have the data. I have both subjective and objective data to validate that this is the right direction that I'm moving in. I have a cancer patient right now, he was actually recommended by one of our colleagues to start on thymosin alpha-1 as part of his chemo and radiation treatment. And I've used thymosin alpha-1 in both autoimmune conditions, I've used it as part of cancer protective treatments in both men and women who now are on the other side of cancer and want to be able to regulate the immune system. And I've also used it now with patients who are in the thick of it, undergoing chemo and radiation, to one, actually protect the healthy cells, because as you know, chemo and radiation doesn't care what kind of cell you are, it's going to kill everything in its sight like a bulldozer.

Dr. Elena (33:40.155)

But with thymosin alpha-1, it protects the cells that are healthy, and it can help the immune system by influencing the Treg cells, the regulatory cells of our immune system, to get rid of the pro-inflammatory cells and the cells that are not functioning properly, while at the same time supporting a healthy immune response. It's like, we need the fighters, but we also don't want everything to be destroyed in sight. So that's an example of being able to utilize peptides in a really smart way, versus, well, my girlfriend is using the GLOW Peptide, I should do it too. Or, my personal trainer thinks I should be injecting CJC growth hormone peptide three times per day, and they’ve never even seen your lab work.

Jennifer Fugo (36:15.977)

I really appreciate your approach because, like I said, I'm very cautious. Especially, I feel like I've been around in integrative and functional medicine long enough, since like 2009, that what happens is we get these trends where everybody's like, oh my gosh, let's do this, or let's talk about this, and everyone rushes to do it. And then four or five years later, it's like, oh, you know, probably shouldn't have done it that way.

Dr. Elena (36:36.615)

Exactly, yes.

Jennifer Fugo (36:40.787)

And so I've learned this enough to be like, hold on, we need to look at the pros and cons, and then your personal landscape, your personal environment, and decide from there, is this the right decision for you, knowing the potential risks involved? Because that's really what's most important. And it sounds to me like you're actually going a step even further than a lot of people even consider, because they’re just going on the internet and researching this, and they're like, it was in a forum. I have a client who said, I was in a forum and I researched this, and this is the dosing that they suggested for this peptide. And I was like, did you talk to somebody about that? Because I don't know if that's appropriate. And he just said, well, everybody in the forum, this is what they recommend. I'm like, okay.

Dr. Elena (37:24.711)

Right. And this is my take on research studies. I use research studies for guidance, but unless my patient was the N of whatever number of people they used, and unless I know that that's what my patient responded to, I'm still going to listen to my patients and look at their unique physiology. Because even in research studies, they cannot take into consideration all the possible variables, you cannot do a research study like that and have thousands of people enrolled in the study. And so to your point, someone can be in a forum and they say, you know, inject 500 micrograms of BPC-157 peptides or whatever the number is, but are you that person that needs that? And do you even need that BPC-157?

And I hear people, I totally, I want people to make sure, I know how challenging the healthcare system is. And I know that compounded peptides are expensive. I know, my peptides are also compounded. I pay the same amount and the same fee for these peptides, and for hormone replacement and everything else. And I know that people are desperate for answers. And there are many success stories of people even potentially using research peptides and having incredible results. But there are also cases where it backfired on people. And not only was it a waste of time and a waste of money, but it backfired in a way that had some major consequences, whether it's an infection because of how these peptides were stored or sourced or whatever else, or like you said, potentially cancer-fueling properties that someone was not aware of. And so I can empathize with people who are desperately in need of relief, but there are ways that you can invest into your health to at least know what's safe and what's not, and what to watch out for.

Jennifer Fugo (39:36.2)

Yeah. Dr. Elena, I want to make sure, too, that people can find you because this has just been such a fascinating, I feel like you and I could have three more hours talking about this. I have so many questions, but I also want to be respectful of your time. So everybody can visit you at your website, drelenazinkov.com. You have a newsletter, and you also have a guide for people to download if they sign up?

Dr. Elena (40:02.804)

Yeah, I'm always updating those guides. So, depending on when they hear our conversation, they'll either get our hormone guide, the six hormone guide that basically explains, goes into detail about the six key hormones. There's a lot of hormones, but there's six key power players. And we're also working on a testosterone guide for women at the moment.

Jennifer Fugo (40:25.609)

Awesome. And do you also see patients? Or do you have a clinic that you work with patients directly?

Dr. Elena (40:32.22)

Yeah, so my clinic is Proactive Health ND, and it is concierge practice for both men and women. I do accept a limited number of patients every year just because each and every one of my patients, I take a lot of time. As I mentioned, there's a lot of in-depth analysis that goes into understanding unique physiology and metabolism, and so just a limited number of patients every year that I take on board.

Jennifer Fugo (41:01.001)

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for having this conversation today. I love that you are just as concerned with the nuance, the pros and cons, and helping a singular person decide what is best for them because I think that is the conversation that is most important. Because, like you said, there's some bridges we can't uncross, some bells we can't unring, and those are the situations where it's like, well, it's just 1%, or it's this tiny percentage of people that end up with bad outcomes. It doesn't feel like that if it happens to you. And I think this is an incredible opportunity for people to learn more about the work that you do and get connected with you, and learn from the things that you're helping to create kind of a wisdom around, so that as we move forward into this new landscape, we do so safely and informed.

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Peptides

Are peptides safe to use?

Peptides can be helpful when prescribed appropriately, but safety depends on the individual, their health history, lab work, and the specific peptide being used. Currently most are considered to be research peptides. Certain peptides may not be appropriate for people with elevated IGF-1 levels, cancer risk factors, or underlying inflammatory issues.

What is the difference between injectable, oral, and topical peptides?

Different delivery methods serve different purposes. Injectable peptides are often used for systemic effects like growth hormone support, topical peptides may target skin and collagen health, and some oral or sublingual peptides are designed for cognitive or gut health support, depending on how they are formulated.

What’s the best peptide stack to support longevity and help with inflammation?

Popular peptide stacks that you might come across on the internet are GLOW peptides or Wolverine peptides. While these are marketed as a “silver bullet”, you can have a reaction to something in the stack. Medical professionals as well as pharmacists have concerns about their safety profile and caution people to stick with single peptides instead.

How can I be sure of what’s in the peptides bought online?

Yes, it’s possible for vials of peptides to be contaminated with various things including heavy metals.