BPC157 and TB-500 Summary

I’m covering these two in concert as they have some similar properties and are nearly always combined together due to their synergistic nature.  Key characteristics include:

• Both peptides include strong anti-inflammatory properties [11][12][10]

• Both repair damage to muscle, heart, skin, ligaments, and organs while BPC also works on Bone.[13][14][15][16]

• BPC-157 also increases vasodilatation (much like VasoBlitz) but also increases formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) [6][7][8][9][10][17][18][1]

• TB-500 also provides pain relief and also boosts immunity[20][21]

You can see how this mix of qualities can deliver impressive results for all types of healing and how its garnered the name ‘wolverine stack’.  Strong anti-inflammatory properties, direct tissue healing, and improved bloodflow is a power packed combo. 

Actin and Cell Migration

The protein Actin is what the movement of fibroblast which regulate extracellular matrix production rely heavy on.  This also includes the cell walls of the immune system.  Both BP7-157 and TB-500 work at the level of the gene in regulation of the of actin and increasing its production[1].

BP7-157 and TB-500 work together increasing actin and through that the migration of fibroblast and immune system cells to the injury sites.[2] 

Fibroblast Growth Hormone Receptors

Again BP7-157 and TB-500 work synergistically but in regards to increasing the growth hormone receptors on the fibroblasts.[3]

This is where the use of the IGF discussed early becomes important.  These cells now have a longer lifespan due to the increased growth hormone receptors along with plenty of actin for that longer lifespan. 

We now have the signaling setup.  What would be the last thing that we need to add?? We need to add:

Raw Materials

Now the supplementation of the Collagen Peptides comes into play and we have everything set in place for maximal tissue regeneration.

Deeper Dive into all things IGF and GH

IGF-1 LR3

With IGF its always a great move to up-regulate the receptors with some brief movement or loading of the area.

IGF LR3 is more effective if you have major trauma when administered post-surgery, but it requires a bit more handling and knowledge. LR3 needs to be reconstituted with .05% (NOT .5%) acetic acid solution versus Bacteriostatic Water that is more readily available. Because it is reconstituted in an acid, after drawing your dose into your needle for administration you should backload another 15+ units of Bacteriostatic Water into the syringe to reduce the PH.  The acetic acid is needed while in the vial so that it doesn’t degrade but adding water into the syringe right before administration will be better than injecting it as an acid. This will also help it disperse into the tissue further.

LR3 down-regulates the receptors very quick due to how powerful it is, thus the short periods of time running it. And even then, you most likely will no longer see an effect after a few cycles if the injury isn’t significantly acute trauma. That said, LR3 is powerful so you don’t usually need that many cycles. I do have a variety of other protocols depending on the severity of the injury as well as where it falls in the acute vs chronic spectrum based on experience with athletes and myself over last 15 years.  This is based soley on experience learning how heightened the trauma, and thus receptors, are and the frequency and duration of injections that will keep working. Some examples:

• 25mcg x 2 day Every Other Day EOD for 4-6 weeks

• 25mcg Every 3rd Day E3D for 12+ weeks

It should be noted that the 25mcg dose reduces spillover, which is not desirable as the greatest concentration of IGF receptors are in the gut.

Guidance/coaching on IGF or any of these protocols is available if needed.

Another way to elevate IGF levels is to increase Growth Hormone directly.

Growth Hormone

You might be surprised to find that I don’t have a direct recommendation for GH in this approach. I have not found any need for it with the above methods and the IGF delivers the fraction of GH responsible for the healing properties without the side effects. Personally, I have not found GH to be worth the money for what it delivers compared to GH releasing peptides that appear to have significantly less long-term side effects. 

Little bit of a tangent; GH blunts output of the pituitary among things like negatively impacting blood glucose levels while peptides increase natural release with very little side effects.   

If you are in fact using GH therapy I would recommend continuing to do so as you don’t want to reduce output during recovery.   A dosage of 1-2 IU a day 5 days a week would be adequate.

Growth Hormone Releasing Peptides

This is my preferred approach as it doesn’t have the side effects and legality issues of HGH, nor the complexity of IGF-1LR3

What GNRH peptides / GH Secretagogue do is cause the increase in release of your natural GH from your pituitary gland.  So no exogenous GH and there is required cycling on and off as they don’t reduce the output of the pituitary gland.  There are several different products that fall in this category but reviewing all of them and the numerous approaches would be an article in itself.  For this application let’s keep it simple and use a combination that’s typically available in a solution together, CJC-1295 (without DAC) also known as Mod GRF 129 along with Ipamorelin.  This can be administered 1-3x a day with higher frequencies allowing the total dose to be higher due to the short half-life.  I find twice a day to be adequate for recovery needs.

For those wanting a non-injectable to combine the Oral approach with BPC157 and TB500 bound to an arginate salt a highly effect oral GH boosting secretagogue is MK-677 to increasing IGF levels. There are a couple downfalls with MK-677 that make me not provide any dosage guidelines and add some hesitation.  First is the massive increase in appetite, which may not be of concern, the second being its negative impact on blood sugar levels.

It should also be noted that you can stimulate additional GH release via BFR training which we will dive into specifically later in this article.

GHK-Cu Summary

You have likely not heard about this one outside of cosmetic use such as topicals for skin and hair. I have had significant success with adding this to the protocols and it will ramp up the impact of the peptides preceding it in this list to another level. Beware of the post injection pain as it can be fairly intense in some areas, but usually tolerable in most. I’ll drop some more detail below on why this is so effective. If you have connective tissue-specific issues I would make this a much higher priority in your protocol design.

GHK-Cu is rarely if ever discussed or included in healing protocols which is unfortunate due to the profound impact it has.  I hope to change this by providing some exposure to this little-known compound outside the cosmetic arena.  This copper peptide provides the following key properties for wound healing:

• Suppresses chronic inflammation (different pathways than BPC and TB500)

• Increases collagen production

• Massive for the proteins in the protective skin barrier

• Provides the signaling for tissue remodeling!

• Increased bloodflow

• Pain reduction

Now I want to state that GHK-Cu can be quite fairly effective for pain, but can cause a fair bit of post injection pain in the 10-40min range.  In some areas this can be quite intense and others barely noticeable. In rat models, GHK-Cu had a dose-dependent effect on pain-induced behavior. The pain killing effect is from increased levels of the natural painkiller L-lysinel12 creating these analgesic affects [1].  Another analgesic Amino acid L-arginine is also increased[2].  This type of pain reduction is highly preferential to NSAIDs. I had noted increased volumization of tissue injected with GHK which makes since with the L-arginine improving vasodilation just like BPC-157 but also found research confirming the formation of new blood vessels as well [3].

The bullet point on improved signaling for remodeling is also quite interesting.  GHK draws fibroblasts, immune cells, and endothelial cells to the site of injury and appears to coordinate their activity in repairing the damage.  While stimulating the synthesis and breakdown of collagen, glycosaminoglycans, and other extracellular matrix components like proteoglycans and chondroitin sulfate [4]

It is probably worth noting that GHK-Cu may contain regenerative properties.  Since this only relates to open wounds or skin repair, I’ll skip detailing this out and dropping citations.  Although anecdotally I have seen one person inject it into an abscess in concert with antibiotics and it did appear to speed the recovery process.  But that’s hardly a data point to reference and I only share for entertainment. 

While its properties make it pretty potent for increasing healing of connective tissue, let it be understood that it works nearly as well for all soft tissue.  I have noted that it will bring some additional fluids to the area during its use but have not seen any research supporting the vasodilation effects noted with BPC.  And unlike BPC-157, it does NOT appear to have any affect on bone. 

GHK-Cu CNS and Brain Function

One area I find absolutely fascinating regarding GHK-Cu is the neurological component.  The neurological component of healing is often overlooked.  It actually shows it can improve angiogenesis within the nervous system!  Yes, that’s right, reducing inflammation within the CNS as well as increasing growth!  Evidence suggest that it can help create a state of health even in a dysfunctional system by resetting pathological gene expression[5]. 

Many degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s are poorly understood but it is found that GHK-Cu in the brain does decline with age.  So, the question becomes is the degenerative diseases of the brain a result of this decline or caused by it?  A number of scientists do believe that with lower GHK-Cu levels the nervous system tissue is less able to fight off issues and any resulting dysregulation may be what actually leads to neurodegeneration.  This is just theoretical at this point although some evidence does support it - some of which is from rat studies.  One study suggested GHK-Cu may help prevent normal cell death and protect the brain or even improving neurological deficits and swelling during brain bleeds or strokes[6].

I find these topics quite interesting and not unrelated to the discussion here.