The rise of grey market peptides |
Would you inject yourself with an unapproved drug you could only buy off a sketchy website? Most people instinctively would say no. Yet, throw in a debilitating chronic condition or a crippling insecurity, and the promise of miraculous effects, and the question becomes a lot harder. Such is the quandary faced by those considering taking peptides, the hottest health trend in Silicon Valley, but a trend soon to leach into the mainstream.
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Peptides – mainly produced in China – are short chains of amino acids that carry out a range of biological processes, from modulating hormones to repairing tissue damage. You know one of them already – GLP–1 (Glucagon-like peptide-1), marketed as Ozempic or Mounjaro. Yet others are in the ascendant – all with names like something out of a William Gibson novel – like BPC-157, which can apparently accelerate joint healing, Pinealon for the deepest of sleeps, or Melanotan-II, which darkens your skin.
Such drugs are usually the preserve of horror films or science fiction. Nature isn’t known to provide miracle cures, and medically there tends to be no free lunch. Our culture is infused with the fear of the vial of mysterious bubbling liquid, from Jekyll and Hyde to 2024 body horror The Substance. For some, Ozempic summons up images of the occult. Sure, you end up skinny, but doesn’t the accompanying hollowness and gauntness bespeak........