Audio long read: Is the peptide craze backed by science? The promise behind the hype

Cassandra Willyard is a journalist who covers health and science with a focus on infectious disease, public health and drug development. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic , Nature and the New York Times .

The market for unregulated peptides is huge. Has the hottest trend in wellness got ahead of the science?

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Peptides — short chains of amino acids — have become huge online. The popularity of these molecules has skyrocketed and they are now the latest cure-all trend on social media.

But what does the science say about their effectiveness? Animal research suggests that that some of these experimental peptides hold promise, but evidence they work in people is lacking.

This is an audio version of our Feature: Is the peptide craze backed by science? The promise behind the hype

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