Learning Center
We publish what the research actually shows.
Including what it does not. This is the part of the industry that usually stays quiet, so we write it down: what is well established, what is promising, and what is being sold far ahead of its evidence.
How we grade evidence
Every article carries one of three labels. They are about the strength of the human evidence, not about how interesting the idea is.
Controlled human trials, replicated, with outcomes that matter.
Some human data, often small or short, and not yet settled.
Plausible biology, little or no human outcome evidence. Sold far ahead of what is known.
What a 503A compounding pharmacy actually is
The difference between a pharmacy that makes a medicine for you and a factory that makes it for everyone — and why that difference decides what is legal.
503A vs 503B, in one table you can remember
Who licenses them, what they may produce, who they may produce it for, and which one your prescription comes from.
“Research use only” is not a loophole — it is the warning
Why the phrase exists, what it means about the vial in front of you, and why buying it is the opposite of a clever workaround.
Cold chain: why the shipping box matters as much as the prescription
Peptides are proteins. Heat, light and time degrade them, and a degraded dose is not a smaller dose.
Why bloodwork comes before any protocol
The least photogenic part of this, and the part that decides whether the rest of it is medicine or guesswork.
“Normal range” and “optimal range” are answering different questions
One is built from the population that walked into a lab. The other is a clinical judgment. Knowing which you are being shown matters.
ApoB and Lp(a): the two lipid numbers most people have never been given
A standard cholesterol panel can look reassuring while the measure most closely tied to risk goes unmeasured.
hs-CRP: a real signal that is easy to misread
High-sensitivity C-reactive protein is genuinely informative and genuinely non-specific. Both halves matter.
How to read a peptide claim without being taken in
Six questions that separate a finding from a slogan. They work on us too — use them here.
Where the popular peptides actually sit
Grouped by the strength of human outcome evidence, not by how often they appear in an ad.
Subcutaneous injection, done properly
Most complications in this field are technique and hygiene, not pharmacology.
IGF-1: a useful dial, and a poor scoreboard
Why physicians watch it closely and why chasing a higher number is the wrong goal.
Testosterone: what to measure, when, and what the number cannot tell you
Total, free, SHBG and the timing of the draw — four things that decide whether your result means anything.
Perimenopause: why your labs look normal and you do not feel it
The transition is defined by variability, which is exactly what a single blood test cannot capture.
Estradiol in men is not the enemy
Crushing it is a common and avoidable mistake, and the symptoms of too little look a lot like the symptoms of too much.
Before you blame your hormones, rule out the boring explanations
Four common, treatable conditions produce the exact symptom list that sells hormone therapy.
GLP-1 medicines: what the trials actually show
The best-evidenced thing in this field, and the parts of it that get left out of the advertising.
Losing weight without losing the muscle you will need at seventy
Any large calorie deficit costs lean mass. Two interventions reliably reduce the bill.
HbA1c and C-peptide: two questions, not one
One tells you where glucose has been. The other tells you how hard your pancreas is working to keep it there.
Visceral fat is the number BMI hides
Where fat sits changes what it does. Two people at the same weight can be in different metabolic situations.
VO₂ max and grip strength: the two cheapest predictors you are not tracking
Both are strongly associated with all-cause mortality, both are modifiable, and neither is on a standard blood panel.
Sarcopenia starts decades before anyone names it
Age-related muscle loss is measurable from the thirties and is almost entirely a use-it-or-lose-it problem.
Sleep is the cheapest protocol on this website
It moves more of the markers we measure than anything you can inject, and nobody sells it.
Zone 2 and intervals: what the training talk gets right and wrong
The polarised model is well supported. The metabolic mysticism around it is not.
Hair loss: the short list that is actually evidenced
A handful of treatments have real randomised data. Most of what is sold alongside them does not.
Skin: four interventions with real evidence, and everything else
Dermatology has a genuinely short list of things that change skin over years. It is not the list on the shelf.
Collagen supplements: a fair reading of a noisy literature
Not nothing, not transformative, and almost never compared against the protein you were going to eat anyway.
Vitamin D, honestly: worth correcting, oversold as a cure
Deficiency is common and worth fixing. The large trials of supplementing people who are not deficient were mostly disappointing.
How people actually get hurt in this field
Not usually by an exotic pharmacological effect. Almost always by one of five ordinary failures.
The FDA lists that decide what can lawfully be compounded
Why several heavily marketed peptides have no lawful compounding route, and what that means for anyone offering them.
Nine questions to ask any provider, including us
Print this. A provider who answers all nine without hedging is operating properly.
Seven red flags in a telehealth longevity offer
Patterns that reliably indicate a seller rather than a clinic. We have tried to build the opposite of each one.
AZZA Medical is not a medical provider and does not practice medicine. Medical services are provided exclusively by independently licensed physicians of our partner physician network and their affiliated professional entities.
Compounded drugs are not FDA-approved and have not been evaluated by FDA for safety or effectiveness.
Start with your biology.
Reading is the right first step. A panel is the second.
AZZA Medical is for adults 21 and over.