Peptides Are Trending… But Could They Be Dangerous? (What Every Woman Needs to Know)

If you’re hearing about peptides everywhere, but still confused about what they actually do, this episode breaks it all down.

In this episode of Mojo & Co, we dive into the real truth about peptides, how they work in your body, and why they’ve become so popular for fat loss, sleep, recovery, and hormone support, especially for women in perimenopause and menopause.

But here’s the part no one talks about…

Not all peptides are safe.

And taking the wrong ones (or getting them from the wrong source) can seriously impact your health.

In this episode, we cover:

•  What peptides actually are (and how they act like “text messages” in your body) 
•  The most popular peptides for fat loss, sleep, and recovery 
•  The difference between peptides and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) 
•  The truth about GLP-1 medications and why people regain weight 
•  The hidden risks (including cancer concerns and unsafe sources) 
•  Why medical supervision is critical before starting peptides 
•  Who should NOT be taking peptides 

If you’re a woman who feels off in your body, low energy, struggling with weight, poor sleep, or hormone imbalance, this conversation will give you clarity, confidence, and direction.

🌐 Connect With Kattie:

Apply Here: https://www.mojofitco.com

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Learn more about coaching, hormone-aware fitness, and personalized strategies designed specifically for women who want their health to match their success.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

It can increase the risk of recurrence and it can increase new growth. Oh, uh and even I had melanoma in my 20s and I won't take it.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome to Mojo Co. The podcast for unapologetic midlife women who are done playing small, done guessing, and done fighting their body instead of understanding it. I'm your host, Kate Fleet, and this podcast is for women who are ready to get their mojo back, their confidence, their power, and the connection to their body back. We talk foremost of confidence, body image, relationships, and real life with zero filters and absolutely no BS. Nothing is off limits here. If you're ready to feel powerful in your body again and remember who the heck you are, you're exactly where you belong. Let's go. I have to sit facing this way because my right eye is twitching. So if you notice I don't twitch or my eye, don't be holding it. Why? I don't I got like zero hours of sleep last night. And then I was on my way home from the gym this morning and I was like, oh my gosh, my eye will be. And just that one side? Just this one side. Yeah. Our fan decided to make this really awesome noise in the middle of the night. And I just I couldn't sleep. It will, it was obviously bothering Dustin too, because he moved down on the couch. But I was too lazy to get up and actually move or something. I don't just stare. So I just rather just stare away and be awake the whole time. So, anyways, between beef jerky and and I twitch, it's gonna be a good episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Trust us with your lives.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Well, on that note, let's talk about peptides, shall we? Oh my gosh, there's really no uh good transition for that. No. But um, so we're just gonna go with it, you know? Okay, so peptides. Peptides are all the rage. I do feel like they're more and more people are learning about them and trying to understand them and utilizing them as opposed to even just a few years ago. But what exactly are peptides for those listening?

SPEAKER_01 2:20

What are they? Yeah, so um just kind of by definition, a peptide is a short chain of amino acids. Um, so back to high school biology class. So proteins are a big molecule that are made up of amino acids, and between those things are peptides.

SPEAKER_03 2:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

So anything that's a short chain can be called a peptide. The buzzwords right now are about ones um that are signaling things like body fat loss, better sleep, those sorts of things are the ones that are really popular right now. Yeah. But peptides of a class have been around forever. Yeah. Um, and and what they do is they're just signaling molecules. Um, so the way I learned at Interstene School was like it's like you send a little text message, like you send a little peptide, it delivers a message, tells the cell what to do, or even a whole organ system. Um, so it's just a little message that gets sent.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Got it. So so we have them in our body.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Yes, yeah. So naturally we have thousands, hundreds of thousands of peptides floating around, sending messages, telling cells what to do all the time.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yep. Okay, so why are they so like popular now? We're seeing kind of this, like I said, just more people are talking about them. Why are they so popular now, especially in perimenopausal, menopausal women?

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, so there's been a big shift, I think, just in the whole medical ethos lately of wanting to do things more naturally, as opposed to synthetic medications that have always been around. And if you can make peptides that are more a mimic of what we naturally have in our bodies, people tend to like that.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Um, so these peptides that are being offered typically through an injection can mimic what's going on in the body. And there's really good ones that can mimic what we start to lose as our hormones decline through perimenopause. Um, like as estrogen and even progesterone start to decline, sleep gets really, really tough for people. Yeah. We were just talking about sleeping last night, it was not great. That's why that's why my eye was switching.

unknown 4:08

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Um, so it can do things like sleep, it can do things like body composition, um, and start getting some of those signals, those text messages back out to the cells that we're starting to lose while we're aging. Got it.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

So these are things that the bodies all naturally produce anyway. Yes. Okay. We're just giving it a little boost. We're just giving it a little boost. A little 5G signal. Yeah. Oh, I like that. I look at you and your analogies. Oh my gosh, text messages and 5G, you're speaking my language. Um, okay, so I think this is where a lot of people get like peptides and hormone replacement therapy and all of it kind of blurred together because it's a lot of information, right? So are peptides a replacement for hormone therapy or are they something different?

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Something different. Okay. Um, so hormone therapy gives us the exact hormone molecule and it has specific jobs to do. Some of them can be helped by peptides, but they're different. Um, so if we give a woman estrogen, it's gonna do all of the estrogen functions in the body, where a peptide may just be one or two of those that are being signaled for individually. Um so one certainly doesn't replace the other, and they tend to work together really well. They both kind of improve the the results of the other.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Hormones and peptides together. Yes, yeah, I would agree. I would agree. Okay, let me ask you this. I I think I know what your answer is gonna be, but I don't know. I should probably ask just in case people don't know. Um, does it matter where you get your peptides?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

I'm so glad you asked. So not Amazon. Oh. Um, okay, so peptides. So these are things that are typically not FDA approved, and let's talk about what that means. Um, so FDA approval is done for a lot of commercial drugs that are made by pharmaceutical companies. Wonderful. I think that's a super important function of the FDA. Not everything goes through FDA approval. Aspirin is not FDA approved. I still take it. Um, the ingredients that go into aspirin are FDA approved, but the drug itself has not been through the process, so it does not have that stamp of approval. A lot of drugs that we take. Yeah, so these peptides are not FDA approved, but if you get them from a medical source through a specific type of pharmacy, 503A, 503B, through a medical provider, that guarantees that the ingredients that have been used to make it are safe, they're sterile. Um, those ingredients themselves are known to be safe for human consumption.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

If you get it from your gym bro, or like through some sketchy online website or something, it will likely say research grade. Um, the vials even come and say not for human use. Uh, literally put it on the vial and people are still injecting them. And that's because whatever ingredients they're using have not been shown to be safe.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Yeah. So that's a So don't get it from Amazon. Correct. Or don't call me for your complications when you do. Right, exactly. So that's a huge difference of where they come from because something can be labeled as tesamorlin is a popular, amazing peptide. Yeah. They may still both say tesamorlin. Yeah. But depending on what ingredients and where they come from can give you completely different results and safety profiles. Wow. Based on where you get them. So it matters where you get them from.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Yes, 100%. Okay. Um, yeah, so don't be getting them off to the club. So don't go, yeah. Don't meet anybody in the back alley.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Lock room with the gym.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Red flags. Yeah, hello. Um, although we laugh, but like it's really not that funny. But people do it all the time. All the time. You just said like before we even started recording that there's this dude that just hands them out like candy at the gym. It's like um, okay, so just kind of picking piggyback piggybacking off of that. Yes, why is it important to get them from a medical provider?

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Yeah. Um, so twofold. So kind of like we were just talking about to guarantee the safety of whatever you're putting in your body, um, that you know where those have come from. They've been through like this whole vetted process. Compounding pharmacies are regulated at the national level for safety, sterility, all of the things. Um, but then secondly, you need somebody, these are medications, these are like affecting pathways in the body, they're affecting other drugs you may be taking, prescription over the counter, and you need somebody to keep an eye on how your body is responding. Yep. And these things typically like all medications get broken down either in the kidney or the liver. So you need somebody keeping an eye on vital organs, yeah. Um, be doing blood work and making sure everything's okay. Yeah. So it's those two things quality and safety, and then also how it's affecting everything in your body.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

Yeah. So if you are on peptides and and maybe even like HRT or whatever, how often should you be getting your labs drawn?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

So I typically like to do my patients um before we start. Yeah. Three months, six months. Yeah. And then if everything looks good, then we can go to six months from there. Got it. I keep a little bit closer eye on it first just to see how you're adjusting. Sure. And then we can spread it out.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

All right, quick pause to talk about my company, MojoFitco. Because this deserves a moment. MojoFitCo was built for midlife women who feel off in their body and are just tired of being told to eat less, move more, and deal with it. All right. Women battling hormones, belly fat that comes out of nowhere, low energy, mood swings, and the constant feeling of why do I not feel like myself anymore? Now look, this is not a basic fitness program, and it is definitely not built by Jim Rose or 20-year-old influencers. MojoFitco was built for women by women, designed specifically for this phase of life. Inside, we don't guess, we don't punish your body, and we don't hand you another plan that you gotta figure out on your own. We look at the full picture. Hormones, metabolism, stress, lifestyle, everything that you need all under one roof. Because you are never too old to get your mojo back, I can assure you that. And you also need support from someone that actually understands the female body at this stage of life. So if you're ready to feel strong, sexy, clear-headed, and confident again in your body, and you're done with all of the free or cheap VS out there, and you want a forever solution, you can apply by clicking the link in the show notes. All right, now let's get back to it. What are peptides typically used for?

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yeah. Um, so again, a wide range of things, but typically in the kind of perimenopause world, we do a lot for body composition. So decreased fat, increased muscle, um, which is so good for so many things, right? Like we were just chatting about metabolic health, body composition, um, just all of the things that muscle helps with. Um, sleep is a big one, especially as sleep starts to decline through perimenopause. Peptides can help a ton with women's sleep, um, which is important for brain health and recovery and all the things. Eye twitches. Um eye twitches, for example, we need to help yourself. Um, it can also help a lot with um recovery. So post-gym recovery. You know, if you lift, if you just like smash your legs one day and you can't walk for three days, like maybe maybe we should shorten that recovery time a little bit. Um, so those signals, the peptide signals, will go to the muscles and be like, hey, we have a little damage here, which is what you want when you lift, right? It tears out the muscle. Right. But then it will get recovery more quickly. Right. Um, so any of those sorts of things, um, it helps with brain fog, just all sorts of cognitive processes. Like, if you're like, oh, what was that word? You know, you can't think of that word. Um all sorts of things like that.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. Who is not a candidate for peptides? Because not everybody is correct or should take them. So can you just give us some like insight into who these would not be good for?

SPEAKER_01 12:11

So, my first, like, it's a hard note, pregnant or breastfeeding, we're not touching those. Okay. Um, which typically aren't perimenopause, but you get pregnant with menopause. So, girl, I know a lady who got pregnant in her 50s. Yes. I tell my girls that all the time. Like, I'm like, ladies, listen. Whoa. Yeah? What? Okay, anyway, sorry. So she's not gonna get them. Yeah. Um, yeah, okay, got it. So that's a hard note for me. Okay. Um, and then once we look at labs, um, kidney disease, depending on kind of stages, um, liver disease, just depending on where peptides are broken down, those are the two biggest ones for me. Um then, if there's any sort of like weird tumor sort of things, adrenal issues, you know, they're kind of one-off cases, but for the most part, peptides are super safe for just about everyone. Yeah, um, there's a specific one NAD plus that's super popular right now. Um, and it's a hard no for anyone with a cancer history, and that's not talked about enough at all. Why is that? It can increase the risk of recurrence and it can increase new growth. Oh, oh my gosh. And even I had melanoma in my 20s, um, and I won't take it because even if it was like I'm not touching it, and it's it's such a popular product right now that it you can literally buy online and nobody's having that cancer conversation, it scares the shit out of me. Wow, yeah, wow, I didn't know that. Yeah, wow. So things like that is another reason why it's important to have a medical provider that understands the complications and potential risks, yeah. Instead of like, oh, NAD is gonna increase your energy, order it now for buy one, get one free shit.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

You know, it's like BOGO Black Friday sales. Um, okay, so can peptides replace good fitness and nutrition? Oh, I wish. But the answer's no.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

But unfortunately, amazing. Everybody will be on peptides. Yeah. So it is definitely just like a bonus boost, right? If you had to choose peptides or nutrition fitness, it's nutrition fitness all day. Yes. Um, our bodies aren't gonna hear these little text messages if your cell phone's turned off because your body is garbage, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Such a good analogy. I go are really flying with your laddie's kicking in.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

I love so it's not gonna do anything. It really is. And it's gonna be wasting your time, your money, you're poking yourself. Yeah. The others gotta be there with it. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Okay, speaking of pokes, yes, there's there's different, well, I'm assuming there's different kinds of peptides, like different ways to deliver them. So injecting, is there pill form?

SPEAKER_01 14:46

There can be, um, there's also a nasal spray, which is interesting. Really? Um, that can some can be absorbed like through the mucosa and your nose. Okay. Um, there's some that's called a troche. It's like kind of like a little waxy, and you put it like in your cheek, yeah, and it dissolves and goes straight in the blood system. Um, typically we avoid a pill because then that has to go through the liver to get filtered. So it goes through that like first pass metabolism, yeah. Where injection or nose spray doesn't have to go through the liver. So it tends to be a little safer.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

So you prefer those ways. Typically injection. Yeah, yeah. I've only seen actually, no, I have seen the tropees. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I've only done the injection.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

That's all I do, and that's usually where I start people, and people be great with them.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Yeah. Um, because I know a lot of ladies are gonna ask this, but which peptides typically work best for like if your goal is fat loss? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Is there particular ones that you would recommend? So there's two that really stand out to me. Um, the first one is everyone's current favorite, the GLP ones, are really good if you have an insulin resistance issue. Yeah. Um, because it will help with insulin sensitivity.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Um, as long as you don't get appetite suppressed enough that you're not getting your protein. Yeah. That's always a priority. I will yank a GLP one if people aren't getting their protein in. Yeah. Because that's gotta be the priority. Yeah. Um, and then there's a really good one called Tesamorlin. Any of the like morlins, um, some more or um any of those really are great. Yeah. Um Srimorlin, um, tesmorlin is my favorite. Ipamorlin's another one in that family. Yep. Um, and that one is phenomenal for fat loss. Yep. Um, you do it right before bedtime. You also get like a it triggers a release of growth hormone. Um, it's not a growth hormone, so it's you don't have those risks that come along with like injecting like human growth hormone. Right. Um, but you get it stimulates your body's own natural release, which helps you sleep better at night. Yeah, it helps with nighttime recovery of muscle and everything else, um, and then helps with fat fat loss.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Fat loss. Yep. Okay, let's pause really quick and talk about GLP ones. Yeah. Because they are all the range, everybody's talking about them. Some people, I mean, you're walking down the street and you can like tell, like, oh my gosh, we're like watching the Grammys, and you're like, okay, so let's talk about GLP ones. Um, you and I both are not against them. Heck, you prescribe them. Yes. Um, however, people abuse them. Yes. And so I want to stop there and just pause for a quick second. When doing a GLP one, what are some of the dangers to look out for and why so many people are experiencing like rapid weight gain once they come off of them or you know, just like honestly look like shit. Like they look like a melted candle on them. Yep. You know, because they're not using them correctly. So talk to me for a second about like what abusing them looks like.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Yeah, I think um big red flags that I would look out for is if you're not having a medical evaluation before you're getting it, um, we need to make sure everything else looks good. Um, and I keep track of my clients' body composition. So one of the big things that can happen, one of the like mechanisms of a GLP1 is it will decrease appetite, um, helps keep your gut full longer. Yeah. And that can be a huge benefit for people. Sure. But if your appetite is so decreased, so suppressed that you're eating 600 calories a day and you can't even eat like a piece of protein because you get nauseated, uh, it's just horrible. Yeah. Um, people start losing muscle mass, which when you break down muscle is hard on your kidneys because your kidneys are filtering out all that broken down protein. Which affects your metabolism. Which affects your metabolism and all the things. Um, and you also have to worry about bone strength. So, bone is a big one for women, especially as we lose estrogen. One in two women will have a hip fracture. Like you or me. Like one in two is wild. I really hope it's too. I know. It's like rock, paper, scissors. We're gonna see. Um but that's another thing that can happen with the GLP ones is that you've got to keep an eye on bone strength on just body composition overall. Um, so I think as long as it's done with those things being monitored by a medical professional, I think they can be amazing for people. And one of the things that a big conversation right now about if you should be getting them from the main the pharmaceutical manufacturers or compounding pharmacies, one thing I really like about compounding pharmacies is I can tailor the dose to my individual patient.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Um, I don't have to give them as much of the minimum dose as pharmaceutical companies. Yeah, I can give them even less just to help with that like metabolic, the insulin part of it, um, which makes a huge difference in inflammation throughout the whole body.

unknown 19:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

And all those sorts of things.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

So it's just like anything else. Like we you were just saying about, you know, just peptides in general, like it does not replace fitness and nutrition.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Correct. Ever. And that's another big part of it. You mentioned the rapid wake gain afterwards. So I think I think that's twofold. I think it's coming off the drug appropriately, so titrating it down with your provider, yeah. Right, not just like I'm cruising along and then I just cold turkey. Yeah, body's like, well, what are we gonna do now? Right. Then it's gonna grab onto everything and store it. Yep. Um, and it's also using it as a tool to develop habits, right? Yes. Um, if your struggle is I'm trying to to transition my like nutrition and fitness, but I'm in this just food obsession, yeah. This like food noise that we tend to get, yeah, it really helps quiet that food noise in the brain. Yeah. So if you can use it as a tool while you're making the lifestyle changes, then you don't worry about that at the end game, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Right. I mean, I think there's there's so many benefits to them. I really do. Um, but also on this on the flip side of that, we've seen it, we see it every day, people just abusing them and and just not using them correctly.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

We have, yeah, a good family friend that ended up in the ER with kidney issues um because she was prescribed it by her family practice. Good luck, go get them. Literally never followed up, never did labs, never had a conversation about protein, nothing. Yeah, and she's just not eating, muscles coming off, uh kidneys are struggling to process it, ended up in the ER hospitalized for a few days.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

It's gotta be monitored. It's crazy. It's so crazy. Yeah, it's like people are just handing them out to hand them out. Okay, with no plan. You gotta have a plan. Okay, so if somebody's listening to this and they're like maybe interested in starting peptides, what should they do?

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Yeah, I think you've gotta find somebody that is in the peptide world. I don't think it's go to your family doc and say, Hey, can I try this? Whether it's a GLP one or it's the you know, secret like the Tesamorlin sort of things. Yeah. Um, I think you need to find somebody that's specifically educated in peptides that understands the current research. Um, because there is so much good research, yeah, um, but it just doesn't get to everyone. Um, and to be fair, family doctors are so busy, they have so much to take care of. This is just not their chosen specialties. That's not their expectation. And that's fine. You've got to find somebody that's chosen this type of medicine. Um, and if they're not doing labs and doing a medical history at first, uh thank you for your time, but you're like, you're not for me. Yeah. So I think, yeah, you've got to find somebody that's willing to invest the time and energy in you before just prescribing something and come up with a plan. Yeah, if you call an office and you're like, hey, can I get this? and they send it to the pharmacy, I need someone to like take care of. Me, right, right. Somebody who's willing to do that.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Um, and it just so happens that um, you know, that's what we do here at Mojo Fitco. So if you're interested, just go to mojofitco.com and apply. We'll be there. You know, we'll be there. It's really that simple. Yes, yeah, amazing. Yeah, well, that was really insightful. Yes, good. You're so good with this kind of stuff. There is a lot, there is a lot to learn. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's what I would say to people is just find the right person that's gonna do it the right way. You're not block buying it off of you know some Joe Blo off Street Josie and there's medication interaction. Yeah, you don't know. Yeah, you gotta do you the right way. And obviously, this is that's also going to lead to the best results. 100%. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Instead of you trying to do it yourself or going on Amazon. Yeah. Amazing. All right, girl. Well, thanks for joining me again. All right, this is where all the cool kids hang. So we'll see you next week, right? Bye.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Let's do this. I was just eating beef jerky in the car. And I was like, it doesn't get so messy. Oops. It's like my favorite gas station to be right now.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

Clean myself up here. Everything's fine. Oh my gosh. You have to edit that a little bit. It's so funny. That'd be a good blooper. I was eating beef jerky in the car. It's all fine. Everything's fine. Beef crumbs. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

Alright, well.