Peptide half-life reference

A compound’s half-life is the time it takes for the amount in your body to fall by half. It is a property of the molecule, not a schedule. A shorter half-life means the compound is cleared quickly, while a longer one means it persists for days.

Half-lives are usually reported as ranges. Individual biology, formulation, and other factors shift the real number, so treat the values here as a rough ordering rather than exact figures.

When something is taken repeatedly, the amount in the body builds up until what goes in roughly matches what clears out, a balance point called steady state. As a rule of thumb it takes about five half-lives to approach steady state, and about five more for a compound to substantially clear once it is stopped. That is why short-half-life compounds settle and clear quickly, while long-half-life ones take far longer to do either.