The census of real-world peptide use.

BPC-157 is a 15-amino-acid peptide studied almost only in animals and cells; it is not approved by any health authority for human use and is banned in sport. In the conversations, its main use is recovery from tendon, ligament, joint and muscle injuries (elbow, shoulder, knee, ACL, hip, old injuries), sometimes together with TB-500, a combination that comes up often in the vendor groups. The most repeated dose is 500 mcg per day, but in those groups some argue for 250mcg per day and others use 1mg or more, and the most debated points are where to inject (near the injury or anywhere under the skin, on the idea that the effect is systemic) and how much to use. There are reports of improvement, including in old injuries and, in the vendor groups, of injuries that heal in days or weeks, but also from people who noticed no improvement, even after months of use, and from people who find the effect mild or unpredictable; members themselves point out that human studies practically don't exist. The most-cited cautions were severe intestinal cramping and nausea with the first dose, the risk that the injection masks a more serious injury, and a theoretical cancer risk from blood vessel formation, which no study has measured; isolated reports mention slightly numb skin and possible anhedonia.