Treatments that aren't a substance
Five procedures that compete with this site's vials and add up to 69,593 articles on PubMed and 5,349 registered studies
Experimental material. Read before using anything from here.
Nothing on this page is a medical recommendation, prescription or treatment plan. It is an organized translation of protocols circulating in research communities and, where it exists, of what published trials tested. The two are marked differently — and they are not equivalent.
Most of the compounds here have no FDA approval for human use. Several are sold labeled "research use only", which means they have not gone through purity, sterility or dosage controls for human consumption. A community-reported dose is not a validated dose: it is what someone reported having done.
Talk to a licensed health professional before considering any of these compounds. If you already use one and feel anything unexpected, seek care — do not wait for the next routine test.
Summary
Not everything competing for the same goal as this site's compounds fits in a bottle. Bariatric surgery is the honest comparator for any GLP-1; fecal microbiota transplant, transcranial stimulation, photobiomodulation, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy show up in the same conversations about metabolism, cognition, and longevity. Combined, the five have 69,593 articles on PubMed and 5,349 registered studies on ClinicalTrials.gov. Volume doesn't make them good: it makes the comparison mandatory. Anyone discussing a peptide for weight loss without mentioning bariatric surgery is comparing against nothing.
Why a peptide site needs this page
Because the comparator changes the conclusion. A compound that takes off five kilos looks like a lot next to nothing and looks like little next to a surgery with decades of follow-up. This site spends the whole time measuring the distance between promise and evidence; without the procedures, the ruler falls short on one side.
Two method caveats. The search for hyperbaric oxygen therapy is crossed with aging on purpose: without that, the number would be for the established clinical indication, which is a different matter. And photobiomodulation was searched by its plain name — the number includes dentistry, pain, and wound healing, and is a ceiling for the cognitive use that shows up in forums.
The first three lines were searched by the procedure's name, without cross-referencing, because the name already delimits the topic.
No number on this page came from the site's secondary source.
How much evidence exists, compound by compound
The numbers below were compiled by me on September 12, 2026, on PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov. Each row's query is written out in full, next to the number, so anyone can repeat it and contradict me — and so the script that rechecks this site's counts can run all of them.
The condition column is not a claim about mechanism: it's the Condition field copied from the phase 3 records that the search itself returned. When there is no phase 3 record, the cell says so.
| Compound | Condition in phase 3 registrations | Query | Articles in PubMed | Studies on ClinicalTrials.gov |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bariatric surgery | Obesity; Overweight; Severe Obesity; BMI Greater Than 30 | "bariatric surgery" | 36.916 | 2.039 |
| Fecal microbiota transplant | Irritable Bowel Syndrome; Covid19; Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae Infection | "fecal microbiota transplantation" | 9.104 | 644 |
| tDCS | Chronic Migraine Headache; Chronic Migraine; Headache; Healthy Volunteers | "transcranial direct current stimulation" | 11.183 | 2.080 |
| Photobiomodulation | Mild Cognitive Impairment; Dementia; Mild; Chronic Knee Pain | photobiomodulation | 12.222 | 584 |
| Hyperbaric oxygen therapy | Aging | "hyperbaric oxygen" AND aging | 168 | 2 |
What exists in phase 3, and who it belongs to
Article count measures academic attention, not outcome evidence. The table below separates what has a registered phase 3 trial — and shows the largest registration the search returned in each row, with the declared number of participants and the sponsor.
A registration is not a result. A recruiting phase 3 trial is declared intent with money behind it, and nothing more than that.
| Compound | Query | Registered phase 3 trials | The largest registration I opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bariatric surgery | ("bariatric surgery") AND AREA[Phase]PHASE3 | 76 | NCT02154763 · n = 120 · Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Bariatric Surgery Candidate |
| Fecal microbiota transplant | ("fecal microbiota transplantation") AND AREA[Phase]PHASE3 | 61 | NCT04824222 · n = 366 · Medical University of Warsaw Covid19 |
| tDCS | ("transcranial direct current stimulation") AND AREA[Phase]PHASE3 | 52 | NCT02315807 · n = 60 · Federal University of Paraíba Stroke, Cognitive Impairment, Cerebral Infarction |
| Photobiomodulation | (photobiomodulation) AND AREA[Phase]PHASE3 | 6 | NCT05894954 · n = 73 · Alzheimer's Prevention and Reversal Project, Inc. Mild Cognitive Impairment, Dementia, Mild |
| Hyperbaric oxygen therapy | ("hyperbaric oxygen" AND aging) AND AREA[Phase]PHASE3 | 1 | NCT05297019 · n = 30 · TruDiagnostic Aging |
Where the numbers don't add up
- Bariatric surgery alone has 36,916 articles and 2,039 registered studies. It's the comparison baseline that almost never shows up next to the bottles.
- Microbiota transplant has 644 registered studies and 61 in phase 3. The indication with consolidated evidence is recurrent intestinal infection; the records I opened include irritable bowel syndrome and COVID-19. Large field, target still scattered.
- Hyperbaric oxygen crossed with aging has 168 articles and 2 registered studies. The only phase 3 trial the search returns has 30 participants and measures epigenetic age. That's the real size of the evidence behind a promise sold as established.
- tDCS and photobiomodulation have volume and dispersion. 2,080 and 584 registered studies, spread across dozens of indications. A lot of small studies don't add up to one big study.
References
- Public ClinicalTrials.gov API, version 2 — the source for all the study and phase 3 counts on this page.
- PubMed E-utilities (esearch) — the basis for all article counts on this page.
- Registration NCT05297019 on ClinicalTrials.gov — the only phase 3 trial that the search for hyperbaric oxygen therapy crossed with aging returns, 30 participants, sponsored by TruDiagnostic.
- Registration NCT06433180 on ClinicalTrials.gov — fecal microbiota transplant in severe irritable bowel syndrome, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris.