Sean Ramos

Turns out the P in GLP-1 stands for peptide.

But what about BPC-157 or CJC-1295 or TB-500 or GHK-CU?

Sounds a little R2-D2-C3PO to me.

Hello.

Should we really be shooting these things into our bodies?

On Today Explained, we're going to hear from a guy who did, and he's still alive, so yay!

Today explains Sean Ramos from I've Never Shot Any Peptides Into My Already Perfect Body, but Ezra Marcus has.

I'm an investigative reporter for New York Magazine and other publications.

Ezra's latest opus for New York Magazine was called Life on Peptides Feels Amazing.

We asked him what made him want to live that peptide life.

I became curious about it.

When I just started hearing people I know bring up that they had started taking these injectable substances that I didn't really understand, and I felt like the term was just sort of popping up.

Like you'd hear somebody at a party say, oh yeah, I've started taking this or that peptide for, you know, joint pain or anti-aging or weight loss or what have you.

And it was just sort of, it felt like a buzzword that was increasingly everywhere, not just in, you know, real life, but online, influencers, celebrities, this and that.

So it just felt like something that was just sitting out there and was percolating, and I wanted to know more.

Before we get to how it went for you particularly, tell us about the influencers.

What are they saying about peptides and who are they?

There's a huge, endless constellation of influencers pushing health and wellness trends online.

Obviously there has been for years and that ecosystem is flourishing more than ever.

And they're always looking for what, you know, it feels like the hot new thing, the kind of like just around the corner invention that's going to change everything about anti-aging and weight loss and muscle growth and, you know, everything under the sun, especially when it comes to kind of, you know, vanity outcomes that typically move the needle for large numbers of people in America.