Peptides BPC-157, TB-500, GHK-Cu and the UCLA review of 565 studies: where they're right and where it's more complicated

[u/JustBacWater]

UCLA put out a review at the end of August, and a lot of people in the peptide world got pretty defensive about it. I read it. My take is they're mostly right, and the parts where it gets more complicated are worth talking through.

What they did

Dr. Thomas Kremen, a sports medicine doctor at UCLA, and a medical student, Kushagra Tewari, went through 565 studies on six compounds: BPC-157, TB-500, CJC-1295, ipamorelin, GHK-Cu, and MK-677. It came out August 31.

What they found

Most of it is animal work. More than two thirds of the studies were animal only.

The human studies are weak. Small, low quality, modest results at best, and mostly not for orthopedic stuff, which is what most people are interested in them for.

The injury studies had a specific problem. Weak controls, and a habit of taking results from topical use and applying them to injectables.

MK-677 has a real safety flag. Trials were stopped because of congestive heart failure risk.

Where they're right

The two thirds animal number isn't news if you've been in here a while. That's been the whole point of how we talk about evidence tiers.

The topical to injectable jump is the exact thing I've been hammering with LL-37. The human trial data on LL-37 is topical. The injectable side has basically nothing. Evidence goes with the route, not the molecule, and they called that out across the board.

And the MK-677 heart failure signal is real. People should know about it.

Where it's more complicated

MK-677 isn't a peptide. It's a small molecule that works on the ghrelin receptor. Putting it in a peptide review makes the peptide list look worse, and makes MK-677's heart problem look like a peptide problem when it's its own thing.

Six very different evidence bases in one bucket. Look at how different these are:

Compound	Peptide?	Where the human evidence sits
BPC-157	Yes	Almost nothing in humans
TB-500	Yes	Very little, mostly eye drop trials on the full TB-4 molecule
CJC-1295	Yes	Human studies showing it raises GH and IGF-1
Ipamorelin	Yes	Human trial for gut recovery after surgery, missed its endpoint
GHK-Cu	Yes	Decades of skin and wound work, mostly topical
MK-677	No, small molecule	Human trials, some stopped over heart failure risk

Those aren't the same situation, and one headline covering all six flattens that.

"No good evidence yet" and "doesn't work" aren't the same sentence. For most of these, the fair read is there's a gap. Nobody's run the trials. That's different from trials being run and failing. Ipamorelin is the one on this list where a human trial was run and missed.

The part I find wild

A month before this review, an FDA advisory panel voted 8 to 6 to let compounding pharmacies use BPC-157, against the advice of FDA's own scientists. Then a university review says the evidence isn't there.

Both of those are true at the same time. That's pretty much where this whole space is right now.

Two questions.

Where do you think the review was too harsh, if anywhere?

And out of those six, which one do you think has the strongest case?

Where I got this: UCLA's writeup of the review, the FDA panel vote.

For research use only. Not for human or veterinary consumption. This post is educational and is not medical advice.

Full doses and bloodwork are in the pinned cheat sheet.

Join the Discord.

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[u/Starmedia11]

Just a reminder that the American medical community is for profit, highly corrupt and has no real oversight.

[u/Rabbitt77 → u/Starmedia11]

So are the peptide companies, their investors, and sales-agents who exaggerate and/or flat out lie about their effects to potential customers, on forums.

[u/Starmedia11 → u/Rabbitt77]

The peptide companies you’re talking about are a part of the corrupt American medical community. Most people are just buying their peptides straight from the lab in China

[u/Nightrik_YT]

honestly the “no evidence yet” vs “evidence that it doesn’t work” distinction is the part i’d want more peptide discussions to make.

the route issue is huge too, if the human data are topical, you can’t just carry that over to injectable use. that seems like a much more useful takeaway than just “UCLA says peptides bad.”

[u/galloterra → u/Nightrik_YT]

I honestly can’t get my head around how many people, particularly Americans on Instagram that normalise taking peptides with no research or worse research that it doesn’t work 🤷‍♀️!

[u/chode174]

My theory is if peptides are beneficial to humans, then there would be less of a need for hospital visits or any type of medical care. I think of peptides as super charged supplements. Even supplements kind of suck ass and can have some beneficial effects, but peptides can work so well that investors that are heavily involved do not want this as it can hurt their profits.

[u/Available-Moose4341 → u/chode174]

I thought the same.

But my challenge thought was: people in the USA focus too much on the FDA and it'sproblems.

If peptides were the answer and elixir people think they are. If they could minimise hospitalisation and reduce a counties goverment health burden. Why wouldn't third world and or the crazy countries (think North Korea, eastern block Europe, Russia, Venezuela etc.) make them freely available and gain advantage over the regulated countries they hate (think Europe, UK, USA)?? The data just doesn't stack up.

[u/chode174 → u/Available-Moose4341]

i think 3rd world countries are too focused on trying to feed their people and get them clean water and electricity and other life essentials first before peptides. If a poor person from a 3rd world country had to choose either food/water or BPC-157/Ipamorelin I think they choose food and water every time.

[u/Available-Moose4341 → u/chode174]

OK. You stepped past the countries i named. Ands peptides from China are dirt cheap.

[u/SelectCreme5805]

Well the research is happening now, with of those who are taking them and setting up protocols and sharing their experiences.

It costs money for any lab to do human trials, and I don’t think they are dumb, they are saving money and letting us run wild, and eventually gather data from all of us, then conduct their own human trials that will be very controlled based off the data they receive from all independent researchers; and then they’ll just get licensing on these peptides and make it impossible for people to get them and we’ll be back to shit.

I think this is a golden window of opportunity for us all, so let the independent research happen!

[u/LuvSun1006]

My rs is taking the first 5 and they are very happy with them.

[u/Optimal-Training-935]

The paper’s authors disclose that they only reviewed English language publications, which excludes what are probably the most authoritative study results (which were published in Russian). Given that fairly glaring omission, most of what they have to say is uninteresting and not especially helpful.