Seeing this referenced everywhere the past few weeks. No idea what is about? Is it a new social media trend or something?

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[–] 57 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

Peptides are basically protein precursors. A bunch of workout gym bro types have been taking concentrated supplemented peptides for "building muscle" and other purported health benefits, which idk if it really helps or not.
But they are a grey market "supplement" that is not regulated and often imported from overseas pharmacies, pushed heavily by tiktok/Instagram influencers because there's money to be made in shipping them.

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  • [–] 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Adding onto this, they’ve been big in bodybuilding circles for about two decades, but have been gained popularity in recent years due to Joe Rogan types and the MAHA crowd boosting them.

    The safety profile is marginally better than other grey-market compounds due to them being protein “fragments”, but there are overall major risks around contamination, QC, and secondary effects, generally speaking.

    The big names are the GHRPs (growth hormone releasing peptides), used as anabolics, and the healing accelerators BCP-157 and TB-500.

    I was legally prescribed BCP-157 by my doctor (PO as a GERD treatment) around 2022, and can speak to it pretty well if anyone has questions.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Sure I have a question for you: What does a peptide look llke? In my head I'm imaging them as colorful pebble-shaped tablets, mostly thanks to the name. Is it a tablet? A capsule? A liquid? Do you swallow/drink/inject it?

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  • [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago

    It’s a nondescript off-white powder, in the raw. Mine was packaged into capsules by the pharmacy, but I did pop one open to inspect because I had exactly the same curiosity lol.

    I don’t have personal experience on this front, but I imagine for injected administration, which is the more common route, it would be made into solution or suspension and kept in a refrigerated multiuse vial, e.g.:

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