Methodology
How we grade evidence (and why hype ≠ proof)
Our five-tier scale from Strong to Hype, what each tier means, and how a claim moves up or down it.
Source mapping and independent review are pending. This is public editorial research, not a reviewed medical or legal publication.
Every claim on Pepteca gets one of five grades. The point is to stop popularity from masquerading as proof — a peptide can be everywhere on TikTok and still have nothing but rodent data behind it.
The five tiers
- Strong — multiple human randomised controlled trials, or an approved medicine indication.
- Emerging — early or small human trials; promising but not settled.
- Preclinical — animal or in-vitro data only; humans untested.
- Anecdotal — community reports with no controlled data.
- Hype — a marketed claim with little or no evidence, or a leap beyond what the data shows.
How a claim moves
Grades aren't permanent. A claim moves up when better evidence arrives — a preclinical finding confirmed in a human trial becomes 'emerging', then 'strong' if it replicates. It moves down when a much-repeated claim turns out to rest on nothing, or when a study fails to replicate.
We show the last-reviewed date on every page so you can see how current a grade is.