GLP-1 and Muscle Loss: How Much of the Weight Is Lean Mass
Lean mass is roughly a quarter to two-fifths of the weight lost on semaglutide and tirzepatide. Whether that figure is alarming depends entirely on what you compare it against.
Peptide Research & Evidence
25 articles · 6 topics
Long-form pieces on what the peptide literature actually shows — the trials, the regulatory record, and the gap between the two. We read the primary sources, say plainly where the evidence runs out, and publish no dosing protocols. We sell nothing and link to no supplier.
What Adverse Event Reports Can and Cannot Tell You
FAERS and the Yellow Card scheme count reports, not cases, and a count with no denominator is not a rate. Here is what a spontaneous report can establish, and what it cannot.
GLP-1 & Metabolic
6 articlesThe incretin drugs, what their trials actually showed, and the questions the headlines skip.
The GLP-1 Plateau: What the Trial Curves Actually Show
Semaglutide and tirzepatide weight curves flatten months before the trials end. That flattening is energy balance settling at a new equilibrium, not the drug wearing off.
Oral vs Injectable Semaglutide: The Absorption Problem
Oral and injectable semaglutide are the same peptide. Only about one percent of a swallowed dose is absorbed, and that single fact explains the tablet strengths, the fasting rule and the variability.
Retatrutide: What the Trials Show and What They Do Not
Retatrutide's phase 2 results are the largest average weight reductions yet reported for a drug. They also come from a 48-week mid-stage trial in a few hundred people, with no outcome data and no approval anywhere.
Semaglutide vs Tirzepatide: What the Head-to-Head Data Shows
Two randomised trials have compared these drugs directly, one in type 2 diabetes and one in obesity. Both favoured tirzepatide. Here is what each actually measured, and what it does not settle.
What Happens When You Stop a GLP-1
Stop a GLP-1 and the weight comes back. The STEP 1 extension, STEP 4 and SURMOUNT-4 measured how much returns, how fast, and what happens to blood pressure, lipids and glucose as it does.
Research Peptides
6 articlesCompounds sold for human use that have never been approved for it — and what evidence, if any, sits behind them.
BPC-157: What the Human Evidence Actually Is
BPC-157 has an enormous following and, after two decades of interest, no published randomised human efficacy trial. Here is the rodent work, the regulatory record, and what the gap means.
Ipamorelin and CJC-1295: What GH Secretagogues Actually Do
Ipamorelin, CJC-1295 and their relatives raise the body's own growth hormone rather than replacing it. That changes the ceiling, the side effects, and what the evidence can honestly support.
GHK-Cu: Good Topical Evidence, Weak Injectable Case
Topical GHK-Cu has controlled cosmetic and wound-healing data behind it. The injectable version sold online has none, and it adds a copper-loading question the cream never has to answer.
Melanotan II: The Tan and the Melanoma Question
Melanotan II is an unlicensed melanocortin agonist sold for tanning. Here is what the case literature on new and changing moles does and does not establish, and how afamelanotide differs.
MOTS-c and the Mitochondrial Peptides: The Translation Gap
Mitochondrial-derived peptides have real biology and almost no human efficacy data. Elamipretide's trial record, failures included, shows what an actual development path looks like.
TB-500 and Thymosin Beta-4: The Trial Programme and the Grey Market
Thymosin beta-4 has completed randomised human trials. Almost all of them used the full 43-amino-acid protein, dosed into the eye. The TB-500 sold for injection is not that molecule.
Safety & Side Effects
3 articlesAdverse effects as the trials recorded them, plus the risks that only appear outside a trial.
What Adverse Event Reports Can and Cannot Tell You
FAERS and the Yellow Card scheme count reports, not cases, and a count with no denominator is not a rate. Here is what a spontaneous report can establish, and what it cannot.
GLP-1 Side Effects: What the Trial Data Says About Timing
Nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea on semaglutide, tirzepatide and liraglutide cluster during dose escalation and then fade. The rare, serious signals follow a different curve and rest on very different evidence.
GLP-1s Before Surgery: Why Anaesthetists Changed Their Guidance
GLP-1 receptor agonists keep food in the stomach longer, so a patient who fasted exactly as instructed can still reach induction with a full stomach. Here is what the evidence behind the guidance actually shows.
Product Quality & Sourcing
4 articlesWhat a vial actually contains, what a certificate of analysis proves, and what it cannot.
Counterfeit and Underdosed Peptides: What Testing Finds
Regulator seizures and laboratory analysis of falsified and grey-market peptide vials keep finding the same three failures: the wrong drug, the wrong amount, and no evidence at all about sterility.
Purity vs Net Peptide Content: The Number Not on the Label
A 99 percent purity figure counts peptide against peptide. Counterion, water and salt sit outside that calculation entirely, and on a small peptide they can be two fifths of the mass.
How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis
A certificate of analysis reports identity and purity for one sample on one day. Here is what those numbers measure, what the document leaves out, and what it can never establish.
"Research Use Only": What That Label Actually Means
Research Use Only is a disclaimer written to protect the seller's position on intended use. It is not a quality grade, not a manufacturing standard, and not a permission granted to the buyer.
Regulation & Access
3 articlesApproved, compounded, unapproved: what each status permits, and how the lines have moved.
Approved, Cleared, Authorised: Why the Words Matter
Approved, cleared and authorised are three different regulatory states with three different evidence bars, and unapproved is a fourth. Here is what each one requires, and where peptides actually sit.
Compounded Semaglutide After the Shortage Ended
Compounding a copy of an approved drug is lawful only under narrow statutory conditions. The FDA shortage listing was the condition that made GLP-1 compounding widespread, and it can be switched off.
Which Peptides Are Banned in Sport, and Why
Growth hormone, its releasing factors, the secretagogues, IGF-1 analogues and TB-500 are prohibited at all times, not only on competition day. Here is how the categories actually work.
Reading the Evidence
3 articlesHow to tell a result that means something from one that does not.
Why Animal Healing Studies Rarely Translate
Rodent tendon and wound models use young healthy animals, surgical injuries and week-long readouts. Here is why an impressive animal healing result predicts so little about a human one.
How to Read a Peptide Study: Eight Questions
Most peptide claims fail on the first question. Here are eight, applied to semaglutide, thymosin beta-4 and BPC-157, so you can tell a finding from a press release in about ten minutes.
Why a "20% Reduction" Headline Usually Means Less Than It Sounds
A 20 percent relative reduction can be worth one event prevented in thirteen people or one in a thousand. The difference is the baseline risk, and headlines almost never print it.