Health expert Andrew Huberman breaks down the effects and risks of GLP-1 peptides, explaining how they cause weight loss by suppressing appetite through brain and gut mechanisms. He discusses the trend of microdosing to avoid side effects, addresses concerns about long-term safety, and debunks a widespread fear about blindness by clarifying it only affects a small subset of people with a specific structural eye abnormality, which he illustrates with a model. He concludes by reframing the debate, suggesting people should focus on the desired life effect rather than simply whether to take peptides.
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Are peptides actually safe? 🤷♂️
Health Optimisation Expert @hubermanlab explains why the conversation around peptides is more complicated than it looks.
Some people are now microdosing them to try to reduce side effects and cost, while certain peptides can dramatically change appetite, cravings and how full you feel.
He says peptides can be life-changing for some people, but the better question isn’t “Should I take peptides?” It’s “What effect am I actually trying to have on my life?”
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Transcript
People lost one third approximately of their body weight in about a year or so. Is that a good thing? No. So what's happening is the GLPs Which are the weight loss drugs? Microdosing has been now incorporated into GLPs, and people realized they could bypass a lot of the side effects and the cost by microdosing. It's mainly just increasing levels of of glucagon like peptide, which is this thing that suppresses hunger and appetite, but also seems to lower inflammation. Yes. There are concerns about vision loss in people who have certain structural abnormalities of the eye. Yes, there are concerns about apathy if people take too much of them. You know, it seems to reduce alcohol craving for people that like alcohol and sugar craving more generally. And it can reduce craving for everything if you take enough of it. Keep in mind these drugs are ramping up levels of GLP thousand fold or more. The body has never seen this level of of glucagon like peptide in the history of humans. Worse through two mechanisms, tells the brain mechanisms for satiety to ramp up their activity, and so your brain is telling you, I don't really want good. And it also makes people feel full, which is the basis of some of the side effects of nausea and other things. So people are trying to realize they can microdose stuff, but you won't see randomized controlled trials that are gonna push this kind of notion. You can tell it's terrible for business. One of the concerns around GLPs at the moment is that they've just not been around long enough for us to know the side effect profile. Is there any truth to that? You wanna be in the control group or you wanna be in the experimental group? Well, for somebody who has, like, serious obesity issues, the Tirzepatides and Monjaros and Ozempic and Retitrutide could potentially save their life. Vision loss is a serious consideration. David Sinclair recently went on Rogan and said Sudden blindness. It's called an ion, which is now twice as more prevalent because of the GLP one drugs. Which scared everybody. I bad that. But there's a structural abnormality in the eye of a subset of people for whom that's true. In some people who have a structural abnormality, a structural feature of the optic nerve head here where these these wires leave the eye, it does seem that the GLPs put them at greater risk for causing some cinching off of those cells, and and there have been cases of blindness. The thing that wasn't really cool, David, is this. GLPs are not making many people go blind. That's about as true as masturbation is making people go blind. I'm not saying you should do either one. That's your personal choice. But the point here is that he scared the daylights out of people, telling them that they can make you go blind. But everyone should get this area of their eye image. And it turns out it's very easy. You can go to your ophthalmologist or optometrist, ask for an eye pressure test. Usually insurance covers it, but definitely worth paying for. I don't think people should say, should I take peptides? You should rank, what effect in your life are you trying to achieve? It's somewhere between a drug and a supplement.
