How peptides became longevity medicine’s hottest frontier

{"text":[[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":6.5,"text":"Amanda Kahn did not set out to become the “Peptide Princess of Park Avenue”. The name came from a hand-embroidered cashmere sweater by New York brand Lingua Franca that was made for her for a speaking event held at their store. "}],[{"start":19.8,"text":"The nickname then followed her: Kahn has become the doctor that a certain kind of health-obsessed New Yorker runs to — the person who fields calls from hedge fund managers, jewellery designers and glossy-page staples who have started to suspect that conventional medicine is not asking the right questions. A board-certified internist, Kahn is a face of a fast-growing movement reshaping how extremely wealthy patients think about ageing and medicine. That movement runs on peptides."}],[{"start":48.35,"text":"Peptides are short chains of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) that act as signalling molecules in the body, instructing cells to repair, regenerate, reduce inflammation or produce hormones. Your body makes them naturally. "}],[{"start":63.650000000000006,"text":"The pharmaceutical industry has been working with them since the 1920s; insulin, the first peptide hormone to be discovered and then chemically synthesised, has been used as a mainstream diabetes treatment since 1923. The most famous today is probably Ozempic, the GLP-1 receptor agonist that has become a cultural phenomenon for weight loss."}],[{"start":85.95,"text":"But the world Kahn operates in goes considerably further. As interest in peptides has grown, so has the practice of “stacking”: combining multiple peptides rather than relying on a single compound, with each intended to target a different biological process. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":102.7,"text":"They are most commonly administered by subcutaneous injections, though some are delivered intravenously, through nasal sprays or in topical creams and serums. The best known is probably the “Wolverine” stack, which combines peptides BPC-157 and TB-500 and is sought after for its purported ability to accelerate soft tissue and ligament repair. Bespoke cocktails can allegedly address anything from gut health, cognitive function and inflammation management to collagen production, anti-ageing and fat loss. Their popularity is proving meteoric — even without much regulatory oversight. "}],[{"start":142.2,"text":"Jennifer Fisher, a New York-based jewellery designer and founder of the Maedyn lifestyle platform, came to Kahn carrying the Alzheimer’s gene and wanted to get ahead of it before menopause. Fisher also has Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which has caused hair thinning for most of her adult life."}],[{"start":159.7,"text":"“I’m a little late to the game compared to a lot of people that I know here in the city who had started on peptides much earlier,” Fisher says. After a year and a half on a peptide regimen devised for her by Kahn, her hair is now, she says, “the longest and fullest it has ever been in my entire life”. "}],[{"start":178.39999999999998,"text":"Iván Pol, a celebrity facialist favoured by Salma Hayek and Kim Kardashian, came to peptides through his clients. He started noticing something in people sitting in his chair. “I saw clients that were looking amazing. I’d be like, ‘Wait, what are you doing? You’re looking younger.’ The answer was always ‘Well, I take peptides.’” "}],[{"start":199.45,"text":"A schedule that includes constant 12- to 14-hour days (and 21 facials for this year’s Met Gala) had left him depleted, gaining weight and not recognising himself in the mirror. So he found a Beverly Hills concierge doctor and started a personalised daily stack: BPC-157 alongside TB4 (tissue repair), GHK-Cu (collagen production), AOD (fat metabolism) and NAD+ (cellular energy)."}],[{"start":228.6,"text":"Now, Pol says, “I am back to a body that I had in my twenties. In a healthy way. If I want to stay like a Ferrari, I have to keep up the maintenance. No shade to Toyota. But I do not want to be a Toyota.”"}],[{"start":241.9,"text":"Kahn, who opened her own concierge practice focusing on longevity medicine in 2023, says her patients on the Upper East Side don’t just ask to look thinner or better. They want to know their Alzheimer’s risk. They want their inflammation markers tracked. They want to feel, at 45, 55 or 65, the way they felt at 30. "}],[{"start":263.05,"text":"Aesthetics might get them in the door but longevity is keeping them there. For many patients, Kahn becomes their primary care physician: the one doctor who sees the whole picture and connects the dots. Her annual fee runs at about $50,000 — not including the peptides or the imaging. "}],[{"start":281.95,"text":"“A lot of my patients have insurance,” Kahn says, “but they pay such high premiums and nothing gets covered anyway. They’re like, ‘What’s the point? I’d rather just pay for the care that I want.’”"}],[{"start":293.75,"text":"While peptides sit at the centre of her practice, not all of them occupy the same legal footing. Some peptide drugs have been FDA-approved for decades, while others, including the increasingly popular BPC-157, are not approved for human use in the US, though that does not necessarily make the compounds themselves illegal. Rather, the rules generally govern how they may be marketed, prescribed, compounded or sold."}],[{"start":320.25,"text":"“The FDA regulates the sale of products, not the practice of medicine,” says Aaron S Kesselheim, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who also leads Programme on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law, an independent academic centre examining the intersection of prescription drugs, intellectual property law and regulatory policies. "}],[{"start":340.9,"text":"Regulatory frameworks differ by country. In the UK, some unlicensed peptide medicines may, in certain circumstances, be prescribed to individual patients despite lacking general regulatory approval. Across the European Union, authorised medicines may be approved centrally, but access to unlicensed peptide medicines and prescribing practices can vary between member states. "}],[{"start":364.04999999999995,"text":"Marisa and Chris Coulson, Americans living in Mallorca, source their GHK-Cu — a peptide associated with skin and tissue repair — from the Netherlands on the recommendation of their Spanish doctor, who is a peptide enthusiast. "}],[{"start":377.9,"text":"Chris prepares Marisa’s injection each morning. “It’s very romantic,” she jokes. Her skin has never looked better. In their social world, peptides are not yet run-of-the-mill. “People are definitely starting to do it. I have a few friends on them. But no, I wouldn’t say it’s common.”"}],[{"start":395.34999999999997,"text":"In the US, the FDA stepped up enforcement against clinics and pharmacies marketing unapproved peptides in 2024. Kahn says her approach is straightforward: patient safety comes first. She says her clinic prescribes peptide therapies only when they are medically appropriate, after a thorough informed consent discussion, and she works with pharmacies that meet applicable regulatory requirements. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":419.04999999999995,"text":"Patients undergo ongoing clinical assessments and biomarker monitoring, she says, while the practice continually reviews changes in the regulatory landscape with experienced healthcare regulatory counsel."}],[{"start":430.65,"text":"Today, Kahn’s patient base is 60 per cent women and 40 per cent men, though the men tend to arrive after their wives have already been transformed — sometimes physically, sometimes in energy, often both. She has parents bringing in their 24-year-old daughters, as well as stay-at-home mothers of three who haven’t slept properly in years and former athletes with destroyed joints. "}],[{"start":452.4,"text":"Kahn is currently taking new patients by referral. She belongs to a WhatsApp group of some thousand doctors worldwide who compare notes on peptide protocols in real time. Peptide usage, she feels, has only just begun. The global peptide therapeutics market was estimated at $140.86bn in 2025 and is projected to reach $163.98bn this year, according to Grand View Research."}],[{"start":479.5,"text":"But not everyone can afford a concierge doctor. According to an update from the Partnership for Safe Medicines in May, online sites are selling substances claiming to be semaglutide, tirzepatide and other peptides, often sourced from foreign factories not registered with the FDA. A growing number of customers are also buying directly from Chinese manufacturers via social media. "}],[{"start":501.9,"text":"Telehealth platforms offering remote medical treatment have proliferated, making peptide protocols accessible at lower price points, but the quality of oversight, depending on where you go, can vary considerably. There are also potentially significant sociological implications: some scientists believe that the impact of specific peptides on brain function and structure is reshaping the psychology and behaviours of this hyper-wealthy tranche of society intent on biohacking in the name of their aesthetic and wellness goals. "}],[{"start":532.4499999999999,"text":"The Peptide Princess of Park Avenue says the space is still, in many ways, a mess. She sees patients who have tried the DIY route before they come to her. “I’m happy that they end up in the right place,” she says. “No judgment. I want to hear what you tried, what worked or what didn’t work."}],[{"start":549.4,"text":"“But it’s not just what the peptide is. It’s where it comes from, what dose, how long on, how long off, what blood work goes in tandem with it, what endpoints we’re looking at. People will still go that route until there are more providers who care to learn about peptides and care to use them safely.”"}],[{"start":566.3,"text":"Follow us on Instagram and sign up for Fashion Matters, your weekly newsletter about the fashion industry"}],[{"start":580.15,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1784549973_4040.mp3"}