Bone and joints
What is real for bone density and joints?
Thin bones (osteoporosis) have real approved drugs, tested by counting broken bones. Most joint and cartilage claims do not have that backing, and each page says so.
26 compounds studied for this · 14 with a completed trial of a hundred people or more · 1 with no study in people at all
What has actually been measured here
This page lists the compounds studied for bone and joints. These pages work the other way round. They take one goal at a time and list every compound by how many people it was measured in, most first. Each shows what the study found, and the trials that found nothing are counted.
Strong and Moderate 14
At least one finished trial that gave the compound to a hundred people or more. That tells you how much has been measured. It does not tell you whether it will work for you. The math sits under every band.
Vitamin D
Strong. At least two finished studies in people, and at least 1,000 people who took it. 2 completed trials, 25,871 people given it.4 reported5 citedThe most-tested supplement there is, and the big tests mostly came back empty. In a study of 25,871 adults, a daily vita...
SupplementLongevityZoledronic acid
Strong. At least two finished studies in people, and at least 1,000 people who took it. 4 completed trials, 7,176 people given it.4 citedAn approved once-a-year bone drip with an odd, unexplained link to fewer deaths. In a study of people after a broken hip...
Small moleculeLongevityTeriparatide
Moderate. At least one finished study in people, and at least 100 people who took it. 1 completed trial, 1,637 people given it.2 reported2 citedAn FDA-approved bone-building shot. It is a piece of parathyroid hormone, used for severe bone thinning.
PeptideHormoneCreatine
Moderate. At least one finished study in people, and at least 100 people who took it. 3 completed trials, 168 people given it.5 reported4 citedOne of the most studied supplements there is. It clearly boosts strength. Its effect on muscle size is smaller than the...
SupplementMuscle & PerformanceAbaloparatide
Moderate. At least one finished study in people, and at least 100 people who took it. 1 completed trial, 2,463 people given it.3 reported2 citedAn FDA-approved bone-building shot for women past menopause with bone thinning.
PeptideHormoneLorecivivint
Strong. At least two finished studies in people, and at least 1,000 people who took it. 2 completed trials, 1,011 people given it.2 reported3 citedA knee shot for arthritis that aims to slow cartilage loss. Both of its large published pain studies failed. The company...
Small moleculeHealing & RecoveryResveratrol
Moderate. At least one finished study in people, and at least 100 people who took it. 14 completed trials, 403 people given it.7 reported14 citedResveratrol is the grape and red wine compound behind the first big wave of anti-ageing research. It is one of the most...
SupplementLongevityUBX0101
Moderate. At least one finished study in people, and at least 100 people who took it. 1 completed trial, 183 people given it.3 reported4 citedThe first clean-up drug for worn-out cells tested in a proper study against a real symptom. In 183 people with knee arth...
Small moleculeLongevityCurcumin
Moderate. At least one finished study in people, and at least 100 people who took it. 3 completed trials, 195 people given it.5 reported3 citedAcross 103 studies and 42 health measures, only four had high-certainty evidence, including CRP, a blood marker of swell...
SupplementAntioxidantDHEA
Moderate. At least one finished study in people, and at least 100 people who took it. 3 completed trials, 267 people given it.5 reported3 citedIts levels drop with age, and that is the main reason people take it. It has been tested many times in people, and it mo...
HormoneHormoneMethotrexate
Strong. At least two finished studies in people, and at least 1,000 people who took it. 2 completed trials, 5,022 people given it.4 reported2 citedThe best test we have of whether calming long-term inflammation makes you live longer. In a big heart trial in people, i...
Small moleculeImmuneTestosterone
Moderate. At least one finished study in people, and at least 100 people who took it. 1 completed trial, 5,246 people given it.10 reported2 citedThe best-tested hormone on this site. A study of 5,246 men settled the heart safety question. A review that pooled 36 st...
HormoneHormoneMifepristone
Moderate. At least one finished study in people, and at least 100 people who took it. 2 completed trials, 320 people given it.4 reported2 citedIn people, mifepristone is approved for high blood sugar in Cushing's syndrome and for ending early pregnancy. Nobody ha...
Small moleculeHormoneRuxolitinib
Moderate. At least one finished study in people, and at least 100 people who took it. 1 completed trial, 309 people given it.2 citedAn approved drug that blocks two signalling enzymes, JAK1 and JAK2. In old mice it quieted the inflammatory signals from...
Small moleculeAnti-agingLimited and Preliminary 11
Someone has been given it and a result was published, but in fewer than a hundred people. Or the studies in people only watched and never gave anybody anything. The math on each card says exactly how thin.
BPC-157
Limited. People have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. 3 completed trials, 31 people given it.10 reported7 citedA lab-made piece of a stomach protein. It has lots of animal studies on tendon, muscle and gut healing. In people there...
PeptideHealing & RecoveryCollagen peptides
Limited. People have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. 2 completed trials, 69 people given it.4 reported3 citedA huge supplement market built on studies that almost never test collagen against the one thing that would settle it: th...
SupplementCosmeticNandrolone decanoate
Limited. People have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. 3 completed trials, none stating how many people.6 reported3 citedTested in people on dialysis, in burn patients, and in women with thin bones after menopause, in a review that pooled se...
HormoneMuscle & PerformanceCalcitonin
Preliminary. Studied in people, but no published study has had people take it. 1 human study where nobody was given it.2 reported1 citedA hormone that lowers blood calcium. The salmon form is FDA-approved for bone thinning, Paget's disease and high calcium...
PeptideHormoneGIP
Limited. People have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. 2 completed trials, 10 people given it.2 reported6 citedGIP is one of two gut hormones that tell your pancreas to release insulin after a meal. It is the G in tirzepatide and t...
PeptideMetabolicDanazol
Limited. People have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. 3 completed trials, 63 people given it.5 reported5 citedThe one drug here that made telomeres longer in people. Telomeres are the caps on the ends of your DNA that shorten with...
HormoneHormoneMK-677
Limited. People have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. 2 completed trials, 65 people given it.11 reported3 citedA daily pill that raises growth hormone and IGF-1. It is not a peptide. It was tested in people for years but was never...
Small moleculeGrowth HormoneGLOW capsules
Limited. People have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. 1 completed trial, 13 people given it.6 reported2 citedThe skin blend usually sold as a shot, sold here as a pill you swallow. A capsule usually has 2 mg GHK-Cu, 500 microgram...
BlendCosmeticOsteocalcin
Preliminary. Studied in people, but no published study has had people take it. 2 human studies where nobody was given it.2 citedThe bone hormone said to control muscle, blood sugar and testosterone in mice. Then in 2020, two separate labs made new...
PeptideHormoneVitamin K2
Preliminary. Studied in people, but no published study has had people take it. 2 human studies where nobody was given it.1 reported2 citedThe K2 half of Aaron's vitamin D3 plus K2 pairing. In the Rotterdam Study, people who ate more K2 in their food had less...
SupplementLongevityOxandrolone
Preliminary. Studied in people, but no published study has had people take it. 1 human study where nobody was given it.5 reported1 citedThe steroid with the best medical record, from a place you would not guess. Badly burned children took it for up to two...
HormoneMuscle & PerformanceAnimal or lab only, and nothing measured 1
Studied in animals or in cells in a dish, or studied in people for something else entirely. Listed, not hidden, because knowing a thing has not been tested in a person is the useful part.
Reading on this goal
Peptides for Joint Pain: BPC-157, TB-500, Lorecivivint, Pentosan and Collagen Peptides, Evidence Tiered
What studies in people say about joint pain treatments: hyaluronic acid shots (89 studies, tiny effect), lorecivivint (waiting on the FDA since January 2026 after two big studies failed on pain), collagen peptides (three small studies), pentosan polysulfate (a 538-person study reporting in 2027), and BPC-157 and TB-500, whose human records sit outside the joint entirely. Plain English.
Peptides for Gut Health: BPC-157, KPV and Larazotide Ranked by Human Evidence
Five peptides sold or studied for the gut, sorted by what has actually been tested in people: larazotide (a good mid-sized study, then a big study stopped in 2022 because it wasn't working), teduglutide (approved), BPC-157 (three small reports in people, none about the gut), KPV (never tested in people) and pentadeca arginate (no studies at all), plus what the July 2026 FDA panel votes did and did not decide. Plain English.
Peptide Side Effects by Class: What Is Documented, What Is Anecdotal
A group-by-group table that separates side effects counted in studies and on FDA labels (GLP-1 drugs, bremelanotide, MK-677, elamipretide) from the stories that fill forums about BPC-157, TB-500, copper peptides and brain peptides. Plain English.
How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis: HPLC Purity, Mass Spec Identity, Endotoxin, and Janoshik Verification
What each line on a peptide lab certificate means, what a purity number does and does not tell you, how to check a Janoshik report, and the warning signs the FDA's own 2026 review found in products on the market. Plain English. No seller recommendations.
What the number counts, exactly
The number on each card is how many sources on that compound’s page are studies in people. It is counted the same simple way for all 453 compounds. You can check any of it by opening the profile and reading the list of sources. That is the whole point of showing a number at all.
It counts what we cite. It does not claim how much research exists. A compound with three studies in people here may have thirty in print, and the honest thing to say is that we have read and listed three. It is also not a quality score. Three small, loose studies count the same as three careful ones. So the groups tell you how much was measured in people, and the profile page tells you how well.