When many people think of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), they think of steroids. However, there’s a boom of new “peptide therapies” that may have athletes, and other drug-tested individuals, unwittingly using PEDs. 

Most substances used in “peptide therapy” are  performance enhancing drugs. Marketers claim these substances can be used for everything from mental sharpness and injury healing to muscle growth and fat loss or metabolism enhancement. Despite being marketed by “antiaging” and “wellness” clinics, drugs such as GHRPs (growth hormone releasing hormones, like GHRP-2 and GHRP-6) have been banned along with growth hormone in every sport. This includes all drugs that trigger the body to release its own natural growth hormone, such as Ibutamoren Mesylate, Ipamorelin, CJC-1295 and Tesamorelin. Use of these drugs is considered doping because it represents an artificial elevation of the athlete’s growth hormone levels, the same way that injecting human growth hormone would. Even substances like AOD-9604 that are just a fragment of the growth hormone molecule, are banned for their potential to elevate growth hormone levels.

Increasing levels of growth hormone in the athlete’s body will also increase levels of two other hormones, namely IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor 1) and potentially MGF (Mechano Growth Factor), another form of IGF-1. Both IGF-1 and MGF are produced naturally and are part of the muscle-building response to exercise. Elevating these levels through exercise is natural and allowed. Elevating them through the use of peptides is banned. The most common form of these banned peptides are IGF1-Lr3 and PEG-MGF, each of which has been chemically modified to produce a longer active life when injected. 

Like banned growth hormone releasing peptides, Kisspeptin 10 is banned for use by athletes, because it increases the body’s output of testosterone, which although occurring naturally, may not be artificially added or increased. Even substances that supposedly increase healing, like BPC-157, have been banned for use in sport. Likewise, drugs that claim to increase metabolism such as MOTs-C, are categorically banned, as they provide an unfair and unnatural advantage to the athletes who use them. 

For athletes regardless of sport, peptide therapy is banned by every major governing body and are regularly found through doping control tests. In addition to facing potentially devastating consequences of a failed drug test, there are significant safety concerns that make the use of peptide therapy an unwise risk for any athlete.