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Goal

Peptides for longevity

Sellers offer six peptides on this site for longevity. No study on any of these sources measured how long a person lived.

Source: Based on 6 compound guides · checked 2026-08-13

That is the honest ceiling on this whole category, and it is not a criticism of the compounds. Measuring human lifespan takes decades and nobody has funded it for any of these. What exists instead is short studies of markers, and one famous result that belongs to a substance nobody is selling.

Each row states what people take it for, then what was actually measured and for how long.

At a glance

Compounds covered

6

With published human dosing

4 of 6

Approved or being tested for this

0

No human evidence for this goal

4

Start with the outcome

What kind of anti-aging result are you looking for?

The category becomes clearer when one broad promise is split into outcomes a study could actually measure. These four questions do not share one answer.

No human lifespan trial

Living longer

No peptide record on this page measured how long people lived. The lifespan result often attached to Epitalon came from a different substance.

See the Epitalon–Epithalamin boundary

No aging-function outcome

Staying capable longer

The short human studies measured hormones, blood markers or tissue signals. They did not test whether people stayed stronger, sharper or independent for longer.

Animals, observations, short infusions

Metabolic aging

MOTS-c has mouse experiments and human correlations, not a treatment trial. NAD+ infusion studies are short and have not established a clinical outcome.

Read what the MOTS-c research shows

Topical evidence is a separate class

Skin aging

Creams, serums, microneedle patches and injected research powders are not interchangeable. The controlled skin studies answer only the topical question.

Compare the controlled skincare studies

Six compounds, and how long each study ran

Read the right column for duration and for the endpoint. The longest study here ran 21 days, and none of them measured aging.

◆ 6 compounds coveredsources shown in each row
Compounds people take for this purpose, why they use them, what human research has measured, and where the evidence comes from.
CompoundWhat people take it forWhat research showsEvidence
EpitalonSold for longevity — longer telomeres, better sleep and slower aging.Measured in a human studyTwo human studies of the peptide exist. One gave 5 mcg per eye on ten days to 162 patients with retinitis pigmentosa. The other gave 0.5 mg a day for twenty days to 75 women and measured a melatonin marker and three clock genes. Both came from the institute that made it.limited human dataDose from a human trial · no FDA label
NAD+Sold by drip clinics for energy, brain fog and recovery, on the fact that tissue levels fall with age.Measured in a human studyEvery registered human study puts it into a vein. A 12-participant phase 1 ran 10, 20 and 50 mg daily for 21 days; another gave 100 mg daily for a week; a third compared a single 500 mg infusion against nicotinamide riboside. None established that raising it changes a clinical outcome.limited human dataDose from a human trial · no FDA label
MOTS-cSold for metabolic aging and exercise capacity, on the observation that blood levels fall with age.Reported use onlyNo trial has reported giving it to a person. The metabolic results are mouse experiments, injected into the abdomen. Human data here is observational — natural levels tracked against age and fitness — which describes a correlation and tests nothing.no human dose shown to workNo human dose published
TesamorelinEgrifta SV, Egrifta WRBought off-label for general anti-aging, on the strength of being a real approved medicine.Reported use onlyIt is approved for excess abdominal fat in adults with HIV-related lipodystrophy, and for nothing else. Its label states the drug is not approved for weight loss and describes the effect on body weight as neutral. No aging endpoint appears anywhere on its record.FDA labelDose from the FDA-approved label
SermorelinSold by anti-aging clinics for energy and body composition, as a way to restore youthful hormone levels.Reported use onlyIt was once an approved American medicine, used to test pituitary function and for growth failure in children. That product was withdrawn, and the withdrawal was not a safety action. The one adult study ran 14 days and measured hormone levels, not how anyone looked or felt.limited human dataDose from a human trial · no FDA label
GHK-CuSold for skin aging, on the finding that its natural plasma level falls sharply between youth and old age.Reported use onlyThe falling-level observation is genuine and it is where the whole category’s reasoning starts. Almost all published work is a cream on the skin, and where that work was blinded and measured objectively it did no better than its control.indirect evidenceNo human dose published

2 rest on a human study that measured something in this goal. 4 rest on reported use alone, with no study behind them.

The lifespan result people quote is a different substance

Epitalon anchors this whole category, and the striking numbers attached to it did not come from it. They came from Epithalamin, a bovine pineal gland extract that the same two Russian institutes tested. Epitalon is a four-amino-acid sequence made from that extract’s amino acids. They are not the same thing.

One monkey experiment tested both side by side and used five hundred times more extract than peptide. The peptide’s human evidence is limited to an eye study and a twenty-day marker study. Both came from the institute that developed it, and neither has been independently repeated.

This is the cleanest example on the site of a real finding migrating to the wrong molecule. Nothing about it requires the original work to be wrong. It requires only that the substance tested and the substance sold are different, which they are.

Markers are not outcomes

The longest study on this page ran 21 days. The rest ran twenty days, fourteen days, ten days or a single infusion. What they measured was telomere length, a urine marker, clock genes, growth hormone or blood counts.

Researchers picked every one of those markers because they read quickly. Nobody has shown that moving one of them with these compounds predicts how long a person lives. That step — from a marker moving to an outcome changing — is the step nobody on this page has taken.

Where to go next

Where reported use ends and evidence starts

Reported use is what groups a page in this section. It is never what a row claims.

What MOTS-c is, how it is used, and what has been studied

MOTS-c is a mitochondrial-derived peptide (research compound).

What epitalon is, how it is used, and what has been studied

Epitalon is a pineal tetrapeptide (research compound).

Every compound sold for testosterone

4 compounds are sold or prescribed for testosterone; the comparison shows what has actually been studied.

What is established for skin

For skin, 1 of 3 compounds have human evidence and 2 rely on reported use alone.

How strong the evidence is for NAD+

The strongest source for NAD+ is a foreign approval or thin human data.

Sermorelin — class, half-life and regulatory standing

No approved brand name is listed for sermorelin.

GHK-Cu without an approved label: what exists instead

No published half-life figure was found for GHK-Cu.

Every purpose covered this way is listed on the index of goals people buy peptides for.

19primary sources, each with the day we read it — open the documents used on this page