“Doc, what do you think about peptides?”

“Doc, what do you think about peptides?”

I get asked this question almost every day.

BPC-157. TB-500. CJC-1295. Ipamorelin. MOTS-c. Semax. Selank. GLP-1s. The list keeps growing—and social media is moving much faster than the science.

Some peptides have transformed modern medicine.

Others are being injected into people with surprisingly little meaningful human data.

Those are not the same thing.

Over the next several weeks, I’m launching a 5-part series on peptides on BHInstitute.com that will take a hard, scientific look at what we actually know.

We’ll start with something that social media almost never explains:

How does medical research actually work?

• What does a mouse study really tell us?• What is the difference between a Phase 1 trial and a Phase 3 trial?• What does FDA approval actually mean?

And perhaps most importantly:

When someone says, “There is no evidence that this peptide is dangerous,” does that actually mean it is safe?

The answer may surprise you.

Then we’ll go peptide by peptide—separating established medicine from legitimate emerging science, experimental therapies, internet hype, and products that may simply be getting dangerously ahead of the evidence.

My position is simple:

I am not anti-peptide. I am anti-bad science.

Some of these compounds may ultimately become important therapies.

But your body is not a laboratory.

A million views do not equal one well-designed human clinical trial.

And “promising” should never be confused with “proven.”

As physicians, our responsibility is not to chase every trend. It is to understand the science, evaluate the evidence, protect our patients, and still remain open to where medicine is going next.

The future of peptide medicine may be incredibly exciting.

But we should never have to sacrifice patient safety just to get there first.

Coming soon:

PART 1: Before You Inject the Hype—How Medical Research Actually Works

Follow along here and on BHInstitute.com.

Alex Foxman, MD, FACP, ABOM

Double Board-Certified in Internal Medicine & Obesity Medicine