Why Everyone Is Talking About Peptides
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Tell Congress, stop the Durbin Marshall money grab for corporate megastores. Paid for by the Electronic Payments Coalition. Hey, What's News listeners. It's Sunday, May 31st. I'm Alex Ocele for The Wall Street Journal. This is What's News Sunday, the show where we tackle the big questions about the biggest stories in the news. On the show this week, we're talking about peptides, the drugs that have taken social media by storm for people who say they help them look and feel better.
It's the sort of promise that people always want, like you want to not get the sun exposure, but you want to look tan and glowing.
But taking the drugs comes with more risks than some users may have bargained for. Peptides are having a moment. If you spent time online, you've probably seen posts from users who say the drugs can do everything from improve their skin to helping them get better sleep to simply just feeling good in their bodies.
Hey, so I take peptides and I have since November and I have four kids. I have never been this confident, felt this good, looked this good. Not since I was at least 19 years old. Let's go over GHKCU, otherwise known as the pretty boy peptide. This is known to give you the glass skin effect that everybody's been talking about. For the top five peptides, I'd recommend to get jacked and shredded before summer and flex on your ex respectfully.
But it's not just influencers who are into peptides. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also touted their use and vowed to make them more accessible. Here he is on Joe Rogan's podcast earlier this year.
Yeah, I mean, I'm a big fan of peptides. I've used them myself and used them with really good effect, you know, on a couple of injuries.
Even the DJ and record producer Diplo was talking about them on stage at the WSJ's Future of Everything Festival earlier this month.
I think I met 40 people yesterday that was talking about peptides at the Met Ball after parties.
But here's the thing. Many of the uses that people say peptides are great for are not scientifically proven and may come with side effects or dangers we don't know about. What's more, users are increasingly finding the drugs on the gray market, which presents its own set of risks. I discussed all this with Sarah O'Brien, who covers the business and culture of wellness for the journal. Sarah, I want to start with the kind of like bare bones definition of what a peptide is. Like if I were in high school biology class, what would I learn about what a peptide is?
Peptides are short chains of amino acids. They act as signaling messengers that help your body regulate different functions. They might work in one part of the body and they signal things to other parts of the body as well. Insulin is a peptide. So insulin helps your body turn food into energy and manages your blood sugar levels.
What are peptides and why are they trending?
Now, if the body doesn't make insulin, that's where a synthetic insulin injection would come into play. GLP-1 is the next sort of obvious one. Now, GLP-1 is a peptide that exists in their body. It's also the basis for pharmaceutical drugs like Ozempic. And what it does, it sort of triggers the feelings in your body of being full, and it shuts down your hunger signals. A synthetic GLP-1 drug like Ozempic is engineered to basically last a lot longer than the natural GLP-1 does that exists in people's bodies today. So that's why people tend to eat less and they tend to stay full for longer when they are taking Ozempic or one of the GLP-1 drugs.
So when someone on social media is talking about all their peptides and their peptide stack, do they mean something different?
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