All posts tagged: Peptides

What happens in Vega$: steroids, swimmers, and a billion-dollar hustle

What happens in Vega$: steroids, swimmers, and a billion-dollar hustle

Published by skeptic

I am sitting in the sweltering Nevada heat watching a man struggle to lift a bar over his head. If the man manages to do it, he will win $250,000. The man is Boady Santavy — a two-time Olympic weight-lifting contestant from Canada — and he has muscles that look culled from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: massive, cartoonish arms that might as well belong to a superhero rather than a real human. Santavy is attempting to beat the world record for the men’s snatch — a lift of 183 kilograms, or approximately 403 pounds. After a tortured few seconds, Santavy drops the bar — an official “no lift” — and, with a look of animated dismay on his face, hobbles away, visibly cursing. Santavy is one of a small horde of 42 athletic contestants — weight lifters, swimmers, and track runners — that have gathered in Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend to compete in the Enhanced Games, a unique (and, by now, quite notorious) athletic competition in which almost all of the participating athletes are …

What happens in Vega$: steroids, swimmers, and a billion-dollar hustle

I went to the so-called ‘steroid Olympics,’ to understand why Silicon Valley is obsessed with peptides

Published by skeptic

I am sitting in the sweltering Nevada heat watching a man struggle to lift a bar over his head. If the man manages to do it, he will win $250,000. The man is Boady Santavy — a two-time Olympic weight-lifting contestant from Canada — and he has muscles that look culled from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: massive, cartoonish arms that might as well belong to a superhero rather than a real human. Santavy is attempting to beat the world record for the men’s snatch — a lift of 183 kilograms, or approximately 403 pounds. After a tortured few seconds, Santavy drops the bar — an official “no lift” — and, with a look of animated dismay on his face, hobbles away, visibly cursing. Santavy is one of a small horde of 42 athletic contestants — weight lifters, swimmers, and track runners — that have gathered in Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend to compete in the Enhanced Games, a unique (and, by now, quite notorious) athletic competition in which almost all of the participating athletes are …

Peptides, Supplements, and the Pentastack: The Unholy Guide to Looksmaxxing

Peptides, Supplements, and the Pentastack: The Unholy Guide to Looksmaxxing

Published by Sam Flores

So, how has Peters achieved his “high dimorphism” and “strong mandible”? In 2025, he told podcaster Jack Neel that he first started taking testosterone at age 14. “I just wanted to get to my goals as efficiently as possible,” he said. “I think everyone should be on testosterone.” Peters explained that he was actually pubertymaxxing, using supplements and hormones to maximize height and muscle growth before the body’s window closes. The problem with natural puberty, see, is that it’s inefficient. Surgery and bonesmashing—that is, hitting your face with a hammer—are also important tools in the looksmaxxer’s arsenal. But the movement has mostly become synonymous with the mysterious cocktails of supplements and grey-market drugs its proponents say they take. The list of substances Peters and his cohort ingest, inject, and smear on themselves is long and evergrowing, despite the very real risks that come along with them. Peters himself has been subject to some of them; on April 14, he was taken to the hospital after a suspected overdose caused him to lose consciousness. Some of …

Injectable peptides are touted online as a ‘glow up potion’. Here’s why experts warn against unapproved use | Natasha May

Injectable peptides are touted online as a ‘glow up potion’. Here’s why experts warn against unapproved use | Natasha May

Published by Sam Flores

Influencers are telling their audiences that injectable peptides are the “glow up potion” they need for everything from clearing up hormonal acne, thickening hair, relieving back pain and even treating chronic UTIs. These peptides, intended for research purposes (as some influencers do point out) and not approved for human use, are being increasingly sold through unregulated online channels. Despite experts warning against the potential dangers of these highly variable substances, claims of supposed benefits have been amplified by the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who recently said that he will approve the sale of “about 14” injectable peptide drugs to the public. What should we make of all the hype? Firstly, what are peptides? Peptides are short combinations of amino acids that occur naturally but can also be manufactured. They either act as “something that our body uses” (like collagen peptides for example) or they’re cell signalling like hormones that “tell our body to do really important things,” Dr Michael Bonning from the Australian Medical Association says. Many will be familiar with the …

Is It Safe to Inject Gray-Market Chinese Peptides?

Is It Safe to Inject Gray-Market Chinese Peptides?

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Peptides — those injectable, ingestible, spreadable, sprayable compounds that seem to be taking the health nuts of the world by storm — aren’t going away. Whether ordered from Temu or eBay, or haggled from a strip mall wellness clinic in the San Fernando Valley, it’s easier than ever to get your hands on a stack of the experimental substances. But once you have them, is it wise to put them in your body? As always, if you gotta ask, you probably already know the answer. First, it’s important to understand what a “peptide” actually is. Basically, they’re chains of two or more amino acids, the essential building blocks of proteins. Our bodies are full of peptides and a handful — like the popular class of weight-loss drugs known as GLP-1s — are available from legitimate pharmaceutical companies. On the whole, however, the “peptides” that have TikTok influencers, biohackers, and even the Trump administration buzzing are generally untested and …

eBay Is Selling a Cornucopia of Russian Peptides

eBay Is Selling a Cornucopia of Russian Peptides

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Chonluten respiratory regulators. Ovagen liver capsules. L Cartitine ampoules. Gotratix A-18 supplements. These might sound like back-alley drugs from the latest Star Wars spin-off, but they all have one thing in common: you can buy ’em right now on eBay. Take a quick search for “peptides” on eBay and you’ll be knees-deep in a veritable flood of sketchy substances marketed as amino acid products. There are legitimate medical uses for peptides — GLP-1 drugs, for instance — but the stuff getting hawked on eBay requires no prescription and seems to have no regulatory oversight whatsoever. Some appear to be pills, but the rabbit hole quickly gives way to a battery of injectable substances clearly trying to snare customers drawn in from the growing DIY peptide craze. Like its e-commerce peer Temu, eBay is awash in “peptide” products with murky provenance. For $55 dollars, for example, customers can purchase a box of “A-15 Zhenoluten Ovary peptide bioregulator” pills, purported …

The Download: Radioactive rhinos, and the rise and rise of peptides

The Download: Radioactive rhinos, and the rise and rise of peptides

Published by skeptic

Every year, poachers shoot hundreds of rhinos, fishing crews haul millions of sharks out of protected seas, and smugglers carry countless animals and plants across borders. This illegal activity is incredibly hard to disrupt, since it’s backed by sophisticated criminal networks and the perpetrators know that their chances of being caught are slim. With an annual value of $20 billion, according to Interpol, it’s the world’s fourth-most-lucrative criminal enterprise after trafficking in drugs, weapons, and people. The environmental guardians facing up to these nefarious networks—dispersed alliances of rangers, community groups, and law enforcement officers—have long been ill equipped and underfunded. Still, there is genuine hope that tech could help turn the tide—and prevent poaching at the source. Read the full story. —Matthew Ponsford This story is from the next print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is all about crime. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.  Peptides are everywhere. Here’s what you need to know. Want to lose weight? Get shredded? Stay mentally sharp? A wellness influencer …

Peptides are everywhere. Here’s what you need to know.

Peptides are everywhere. Here’s what you need to know.

Published by skeptic

Matt Kaeberlein, a longevity researcher, first started hearing about peptides a few years ago. “At that point it was mostly functional medicine doctors that were using peptides,” he says, referring to physicians who embrace alternative medicine and supplements. “In the last six months, it’s kind of gone crazy.” Peptides have gone mainstream. At the health-technology startup Superpower in Los Angeles, employees can get free peptide shots on Fridays. At a health food store in Phoenix, a sidewalk sign reads, “We have peptides!” At a tae kwon do center in South Carolina, a peptide wholesaler hosts an informational evening. On social media, they’re everywhere. And that popularity seems poised to grow; Department of Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised to end the FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of peptides. The benefits and risks of many of these compounds, however, are largely unknown. Some of the most popular peptides have never been tested in human trials. They are sold for research purposes, not human consumption. Some are illegal knockoffs of wildly successful weight-loss medicines. …

It Seems Bad That Temu Is Selling Peptides

It Seems Bad That Temu Is Selling Peptides

Published by José Betancourt

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images Silicon Valley’s biohacking obsession with poorly-studied chemical substances has reached its logical endpoint: they’re now buying peptides on Temu. To understand why that matters, it helps to know a little about peptides: short chains of amino acids that act as signalers, telling our cells what to do. Though many peptides occur naturally in our bodies, others do not. As consumables, they’re sold based on the makeup of the amino acid chain, variations of which are said to offer different boosts to cellular functions, like muscle growth, tissue repair, and mental cognition. (GLP-1s, the popular weight-loss medications sold under brand names like Wegovy and Zepbound, are a perfect example of synthetic peptides — albeit ones that have been rigorously studied in human patients.) The drugs have exploded in popularity in San Francisco over recent months, where tech bros take various DIY cocktails as pills, creams or injections to optimize their bodies — a type of biohacking in keeping with the optimization-obsessed startup ecosystem. From those bespoke circles …