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Peptides are a rising favorite of wellness medical spas and longevity clinics, despite being largely unstudied and sold in the U.S. with research-use-only labels. Supposedly, the compounds are a way to sleep better, heal faster, fight aging, combat certain medical conditions, and in general boost health and vitality. In addition to the influencers who are often paid to promote them, peptides have a champion in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who uses them personally. Last week, a Food and Drug Administration panel narrowly voted—with Kennedy’s support—to recommend the loosening of regulations around six peptides. This was another remarkable moment for Kennedy’s war against mainstream medical science, given that the FDA’s own staff scientists, in a report, had urged the panel against such a decision. But for Kennedy’s MAHA movement, the ability to explore peptides without having to circumvent our federal regulatory system is a win for individual medical freedom.

It’s worth thinking through why peptides are accepted when so many mainstream medical treatments are rejected by Kennedy and his followers. Self-proclaimed MAHA moms advocate for the freedom to let their children’s bodies “naturally” fight illnesses that vaccines could have easily prevented. MAHA activists promote raw milk for drinking and beef tallow for cooking. They talk of the importance of exercise and unprocessed food to defeat chronic disease. And yet, they have been injecting themselves with pharmaceuticals they ordered from unregulated warehouses in China. Why?

“Olympic-level mental gymnastics are required to square this circle,” said Timothy Caulfield, a professor of law and public health at the University of Alberta. But as Caulfield noted, the wellness movement has undergone a major cultural change in the past half-decade that has made........

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