The Promise of Peptides

If you keep up with the fitness and culture world, you know that Ozempic (semaglutide) is HOT! From Oprah to Elon Musk, semaglutide has become the hottest peptide around. The explosion of this one-stop weight loss drug has made people start to wonder, what are these peptide things anyway? And what else can they do?

While peptides seem to be a new health trend, the first synthetic peptide was synthesized in the 1960s. The development of peptide synthesis techniques led to the invention of human injectable insulin, which is used to treat diabetes. Pretty important and powerful shit.

So, what are peptides exactly? Peptides are short-chain amino acids that are linked by peptide bonds. They are essential short-chain proteins. These short-chain amino acid connections allow for a specific bond between amino groups that enables a robust reaction in the body, which makes them so powerful. While the body produces many peptides on its own (growth hormone, insulin, etc), it does not always produce them sufficiently or at all. A potent exogenous form of these peptides for things like weight loss (GLP-1), recovery (MK-677), and gastro distress (BPC-157) have people’s eyes wide open (Semax for alertness).

I recently became interested in peptides due to a sustained hamstring tear. After months of PT, resting, and PRP with still some mild pain, I started exploring some other options.

MK-677

I first started with MK-677 (ibutamoren). MK-677 is a “long-acting, orally-active, selective... agonist of the ghrelin receptor and a growth hormone secretagogue, mimicking the growth hormone (GH)-stimulating action of the endogenous hormone ghrelin” (Wikipedia). Or, in plain English, it makes you hungry which triggers a hormone effect that allows you to maximize your growth hormone output. MK-677 is popular amongst the fitness community because it is the closest thing you can do to steroids without steroid-like side effects. It is orally available (can be consumed in pill form, no needles), and there is no exogenous hormone intake (it won’t make your balls smaller), but it will make you extremely hungry. People report increased recovery, deeper sleep, and increased muscle growth. This makes sense since MK-677 is often given to kids behind the growth curve and AIDs patients for muscle wasting.

I tried Mk-677 for 2 weeks. While it did notice an increase in my recovery/sleep, it made my piss burn pretty bad (which then led to a UTI), so I stopped taking it pretty quickly and don’t plan on returning to it.

BPC-157

Next, I explored BPC-157. BPC-157 “is a pentadecapeptide containing partial sequence of the body protection compound (BPC) isolated from the human gastric juice” (PubMed). BPC-157 has been shown to improve gastric health and has had promising results around healing soft connective tissue injustires (like torn hamstrings). People often stack this with TB-500 (another peptide that promotes healing) and call it the Wolverine Stack due to its healing properties. BPC-157 is available orally (better for gastric targeting) and subcutaneously (its believed injecting at the sight of injury shows the best results). Anicdotally people report cutting their recovery time in half, it is not without it potential consequences.

BPC-157 cause new fiber and blood vessel growth in the body, which is gives it unique healing properties. This becomes an issue when the body has undesirable growths like a tumor or cancer, further excelerating their growth.

I took BPC-157 orally for a few weeks. I can not say I saw any significant improvement in the recovery of my hamstring due to the BPC-157, but my stomach did feel really good. I don’t have any gastric issues, but my digestion was on point, I had no bloating, and I just felt really good.

My issue with Peptides

While I did not get the desired result from my peptide experimentation, I did see the potential benefit of them. This led me down the road of exploring what subcutaneous injections of peptides would look like. While I don’t like the idea of stabbing myself with needles to improve performance (is this a gateway to doing steroids?), when you are on month 11 of a hamstring tear, you start thinking differently…

Issue #1 - Compounding Pharmacies

Compounding Pharmacies are like your regular pharmacy, except there are no rules. Most of them import their peptides from China, “test” them, and then relabel them. This leads to the issue of you don’t really know what you are getting. Is it the real deal? Is it as potent as they say it is? Is there filler? Will it even ship in a timely manner? This is all stuff you really have to consider before injecting yourself with god knows what.

Issue #2 - Expense

Let’s use an example. A 5mg vial of BPC-157 will produce 20 doses of BPC (250mcg is recommended per day for 4-12 weeks). 1 vial of BPC-157 is about $60. There are 42 days in 6 weeks, so two vials at $120 is not horrible (this does not include needles, special water, and cleaning swabs). But if you don’t do your research, you will get ripped off. I have seen single vials of BPC go for $200 and more if you do it at a peptide clinic.

Issue #3 - Side Effects

Just like we are unsure about their benefits (most studies are done on rodents), we are also unsure of their side effects. Accelerated tumor growth and altering hormone secretion are no joke. These potential side effects increase since most are obtained through grey market compounding pharmacies. Until we see more human studies and longitudinal effects, we must continue to be human gym rates.

In conclusion, I am super bullish on peptides. I think they have the potential to be an alternative therapy for many human conditions. Much more research needs to be done, and guidelines around the production of peptides leave a lot to be desired here, but that’s how anything great starts.

Now the question is, do I start injecting myself with BPC-157/TB-500 or go to Thailand, where I can get pharmaceutical-grade HGH from a doctor? Oh, what a world we live in.