We’ve all become familiar with jabs that reduce fat and erase wrinkles. Now there’s a new wave of injectables — and these are said to have life-extending properties. Peptides is the latest buzzword among the well-heeled wellbeing set, who are increasingly adopting them as part of their anti-ageing armoury. Injecting peptides, they believe, will give you lean muscles, speed up healing and repair, promote a more youthful complexion, and potentially add years — even decades — to your life.
So what are peptides? They are short chains of amino acids that our bodies produce naturally. They act as messengers within the body, telling the cells what to do, and have many useful roles, from regulating hormones to influencing metabolism and playing a vital part in skin health.
They have been used to treat medical conditions for more than a century, and some will sound familiar. Insulin, for example, is a peptide that helps people with diabetes to manage their blood sugar levels and was the first to be reproduced in a laboratory, a century ago. But it is the fact that the “P” in GLP-1 weight-loss drugs stands for “peptide” that has propelled these injectables from a niche regimen for bodybuilders to a mainstream trend.
GLP-1s have exploded in popularity, but they’re not the only popular peptides
GETTY IMAGES
The success of GLP-1 jabs such as Ozempic and Wegovy has proved that peptides can bring impressive benefits — and it has helped to normalise the idea that self-injecting is a safe and acceptable part of a wellness regime. “Many of the anti-ageing and wellbeing peptides have been around for a long time,” says Adam Taylor, a professor in anatomy at Lancaster University. “But the association with GLP-1 drugs has triggered a greater interest in peptides and for people to assume that all peptides are beneficial.”
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Globally, the peptide-therapeutics market is expanding rapidly, and is projected to grow from £31 billion in 2023 to £51 billion by 2028. According to a Nature report last year, more than a hundred peptides are approved for medical use, although most of those you’ll see on social media are not approved.
The longevity expert Dr Sabine Donnai, founder of the Viavi clinic in London, believes that peptides are one of the most exciting areas of longevity medicine but that most of those being marketed for their “anti-ageing” properties are still short on human data. “Where peptides are approved, it’s usually for specific diseases, not for extending lifespan, and registered medical doctors cannot legally prescribe the vast majority of peptides,” Donnai says. “They are being overused and over-promised, and the product quality is a massive concern to medical professionals.”
Dr Sabine Donnai, founder of the Viavi clinic in London
KATIE WILSON FOR THE TIMES
That certainly hasn’t stalled interest in, or demand for, peptides. Those who’ve highlighted their benefits include Jennifer Aniston, who told the Wall Street Journal that her anti-ageing efforts include weekly peptide injections. Gwyneth Paltrow is apparently a fan, telling American Elle this year: “Injectable B12 is one of my biggest wellness tools; same with NAD+ [a co-enzyme that occurs naturally in human cells] and peptides. I think we’re going to continue to hear a lot around injectable peptides.”
Although not necessarily the world’s most trusted wellness guru, the US health and human services secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is a longtime advocate of peptide use (if not of vaccine use). In America, where their use is more widespread, longevity specialists such as Dr Amanda Kahn, dubbed New York’s “peptide princess” by US Elle, recommend peptide “stacks” (the term for a bespoke regimen) to their clients.
Dr Amanda Kahn, dubbed New York’s “peptide princess”
WILHELMINA STUDIO BY EMMA SKAKEL 2022
They’re slowly gaining popularity in the UK too. The British celebrity nutritionist and wellness expert Rose Ferguson recently posted on Instagram that her peptides of choice include GHK-Cu, a copper peptide for collagen synthesis and cellular regeneration, Ipamorelin to stimulate growth hormone release, and BPC-157 for tissue repair. Peep inside the fridges of other peptide proponents and you might find NR, which is said to have anti-ageing effects; TB-500, for regenerating damaged cells and tissues; tesamorelin, to boost natural production of lean-muscle mass, which withers with age; and epitalon, with claims it may extend lifespan.
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None of this comes cheap. Donnai estimates that popular anti-ageing peptide stacks would set you back about £450 a month. Then there are the potential risks. Many peptides that you’ll see being raved about by wellness influencers online remain unregulated and are not approved for human use. Evidence often stems from early trials conducted in laboratory cell cultures, not animal or human studies. Most can only be purchased online, from unregulated sources, in a grey market where a legal loophole permits them to be sold if labelled “for research only”. Social media is full of adverts and videos of influencers injecting themselves enthusiastically with peptides labelled in just that way.
“There is no way to assess stability, potency or ingredients of what is being injected,” Donnai says.
Dr Ahmed El Muntasar, GP and owner of the Aesthetics Doctor, says that anyone buying anti-ageing peptides online to inject at home is dicing with their health. “Most peptides are very poorly regulated, and there isn’t a lot of robust clinical evidence to show that they work,” El Muntasar says. “Additionally, they are not licensed in the UK for self-injection.”
They may not be illegal, Taylor says, but the lack of medical evidence means taking peptides is fraught with risk. “Even though early results from some trials on some peptides might sound positive and exciting, these are experimental compounds that can be dangerous in the wrong hands,” he says. “Making them often involves using chemicals called coupling agents, which can trigger serious allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis.”
One of the most popular peptides being used to keep bodies youthful is BPC-157, which has gained a reputation for its regenerative qualities. “There is a lot of animal data on BPC-157, particularly relating to tendon healing, but animal studies don’t always translate to humans,” Taylor says. “And just about every regulatory sports body has banned it, and many other peptides, as we don’t know that they are safe.”
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Taken together, BPC-157 and TB-500 are known in fitness circles as “the Wolverine stack” for their purported ability to accelerate healing and reduce the inflammation often associated with advancing years. “People believe they provide the equivalent regenerative capacity of Marvel’s Wolverine character,” Taylor says. “But these two compounds alone have never been shown to have any benefit to justify them being used therapeutically in humans.”
So far the jury is out on whether the pros of anti-ageing peptides outweigh the cons. Ferguson insists that “peptides are not a shortcut”, writing in her Instagram post that they “should always be used under proper medical supervision and personalised to the individual”.
Taylor says we don’t know what else is in the peptide preparations. “They might contain stabilising agents or other ingredients that could be potentially harmful,” he says. “One recent study showed that about 12 per cent of peptide vials contain bacterial endotoxins, which might be risky for people with compromised immunity.”
But if the popularity in peptides continues to grow, Donnai says, it could lead to further research — and more proof that some are safe and that they work. “As a clinician I am excited about the prospect for future use of peptides, but for now the interventions with the strongest longevity signal remain surprisingly unglamorous — improving your metabolic health, reducing cardiovascular risk, better sleep, stronger muscles and reducing inflammation through diet and exercise,” she says. “Peptides may enhance those systems one day, but they are not yet a proven shortcut to longer life.”
