Influencers and athletes are among those claiming substances can help with injury repair, weight loss and angi-ageing.
What are peptides?
Peptides are short chains of amino acids.
Some peptides occur naturally in the body and have particular functions. For example, the hormones insulin, oxytocin and vasopressin are peptides involved in regulating blood sugar levels, social behaviours, and water retention and blood pressure, respectively.
Other naturally occurring peptides are formed when proteins are broken down in the body, for example, when food is digested.
Do they work?
Academics have noted that most experimental peptides have little scientific evidence to support the claims being made, and where studies do exist these are often in animals or cells.
For example, researchers in the US looking at peptides often marketed to patients with musculoskeletal injuries, BPC-157 “demonstrated potential benefits in tendon and muscle repair, but these findings are largely unvalidated in human trials”, with no randomised control trials in humans relating to such uses, and the only case series having serious flaws.