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Influencers are telling their audiences that injectable peptides are the “glow up potion” they need for everything from clearing up hormonal acne, thickening hair, relieving back pain and even treating chronic UTIs.

These peptides, intended for research purposes (as some influencers do point out) and not approved for human use, are being increasingly sold through unregulated online channels.

Despite experts warning against the potential dangers of these highly variable substances, claims of supposed benefits have been amplified by the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who recently said that he will approve the sale of “about 14” injectable peptide drugs to the public.

What should we make of all the hype?

Firstly, what are peptides?

Peptides are short combinations of amino acids that occur naturally but can also be manufactured. They either act as “something that our body uses” (like collagen peptides for example) or they’re cell signalling like hormones that “tell our body to do really important things,” Dr Michael Bonning from the Australian Medical Association says.

Many will be familiar with the effect of the very well researched glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1): “it’s what’s made Ozempic and Wegovy and Mounjaro so fundamentally different to other weight loss drugs,” says Bonning, who is the chair of public health for the association.

The GLP-1 peptide, which regulates the metabolism, is a natural hormone found in the body, as are many other peptides like insulin, growth hormone and immune response peptides, he says. These messenger peptides “have the ability to change the way your body works at some of its most fundamental levels” which is why they need to be treated with real caution, Bonning says.

Most therapeutic peptides are prescription only, with some on the list of prohibited medications, Bonning says. “They’re not just something that people should be – under any circumstance – buying off the internet because there’s no regulation there.”

Does injecting peptides actually work?

Claims of benefit are “seriously and significantly” overblown and can’t be supported by any evidence, because most of these peptides have not been clinically trialled, Bonning says. “Even if someone did have data – you can’t be sure what you are getting in your little vial is actually what they say it is, firstly, and secondly, that it’s made to a standard that is safe to put in your body.”

What are the risks of peptides?

Bonning stresses these research peptides are not approved for human use, and people could be getting “something that’s very dangerous” because they carry unknown toxicity profiles.

Bonning says injectable tanning peptides, which have also been spruiked online, carry “… a risk of it causing skin cancers, and there are also reports of significant kidney dysfunction and swelling of the brain after taking that kind of injectable”.

Dr Ian Musgrave, a molecular pharmacologist at the University of Adelaide, who buys peptides for research, explains “they’re perfectly good for putting on to cells in a test tube [… but] they’re not necessarily of the purity that we require for human medical treatment”.

“Even though you may generate a peptide of the right length at the right sequence, it may not necessarily fold up properly when it’s injected into people. And so instead of injecting a peptide hormone, you’re injecting a tangled mess, which may result in the body recognising it as foreign and lead to immune responses and potential anaphylactic responses to these peptides,” Musgrave says.

Even in the case of some new peptides like retatrutide, which has promising data from clinical trials, until these trials are finished, researchers can’t be sure about the appropriate concentrations to be using, how often you should be using it, and what the spectrum of side effects are, he says.

It’s especially concerning because without a prescription, people taking these substances are doing so without the supervision of a doctor so “things can get seriously bad very quickly,” Musgrave says.

What do experts recommend?

“There is no safe dosing or amount that someone can take, because we just don’t know what’s in there,” Bonning says.

The people spruiking peptides are “often the same people who are telling you to not trust the milk you drink or the bread you buy,” citing health and safety concerns, he says. “But then they have the audacity to also claim that unapproved peptide products that they are selling to you while making money … is something that you should be taking.”

Bonning says topical products that contain peptides such as skin creams and lip treatments for skin hydration generally differ from injectables which involve changes to cell signalling, that can cause harm.

• Natasha May is a health reporter for Guardian Australia

• Antiviral is a fortnightly column that interrogates the evidence behind the health headlines and factchecks popular wellness claims