After the third day of squirting an experimental drug up his nose, Dylan Meetze felt horrible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like I was underwater, like it took the most to do anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meetze stopped taking the drug but endured fatigue and anxiety for months afterward, and his eyes and muscles twitched, he said.<\/p>\n
He had taken BPC-157, a peptide drug popularized by podcasts about wellness, longevity, and what\u2019s called \u201cbody optimization.\u201d \u201cPeptide\u201d is a general term for substances that are smaller than proteins but composed of the same building blocks. Dozens of peptide drugs<\/a>, including insulin and GLP-1 weight loss medicines, have garnered approval by the Food and Drug Administration. But BPC-157 and many others have not because they haven\u2019t undergone clinical trials.<\/p>\n This fact hasn\u2019t stopped online influencers from promoting them as remedies for muscle injuries, gut issues, covid, and more. Use of BPC-157 is growing in the U.S., particularly among white males, according to a new analysis<\/a> of millions of de-identified electronic health records. Since 2020, the analysis, which hasn\u2019t yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, found that more than 1,000 people told doctors they had used the drug.<\/p>\n Meetze said he decided to take BPC-157 after listening to Andrew Huberman, a Stanford neuroscientist with more than 16 million followers on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, who talks up peptides frequently on his podcasts<\/a>. Studies in mice suggest that BPC-157 helps muscles heal and has \u201cvery high safety profiles,\u201d Huberman has said<\/a>, \u201cat least, with respect to the lethal dosing.\u201d His guest on one episode<\/a>, Craig Koniver, a doctor who sells peptides through his wellness clinic, called BPC-157 \u201csuper safe\u201d and recommended it for \u201canyone who\u2019s working out on a regular basis.\u201d Koniver did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Huberman didn\u2019t respond to multiple queries from KFF Health News, but an automatic reply linked to a disclaimer<\/a> on his Huberman Lab website that says the podcast doesn\u2019t constitute medical advice: \u201cAny reliance on information provided through the podcast is solely at the user\u2019s own risk.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoping BPC-157 might help him advance as a weightlifter, Meetze said he bought the drug last year from an online vendor, Researchem. A chemical supply company with that name sells experimental peptides through its website<\/a>, warning that the substances are \u201csolely for laboratory research\u201d and are \u201cnot intended for human consumption.\u201d (It lists an address in Hillsboro, Oregon, that corresponds to a shared office space. A receptionist at the space said Researchem wasn\u2019t registered there, and multiple queries from KFF Health News to the email address listed on the website went unanswered.)<\/p>\n Companies are required to warn that experimental peptides, which haven\u2019t been approved by the FDA, are for research use only. But many companies may soon be permitted to drop the warning because of a push by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lower barriers to their use. He and other leaders of the Make America Healthy Again movement have promoted peptides as a way to improve the country\u2019s health.<\/p>\n On the social media platform X, before he took the helm at the Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy vowed to end<\/a> the \u201caggressive suppression\u201d of \u201cpeptides, stem cells, raw milk\u201d and \u201canything else that advances human health and can\u2019t be patented by Pharma.\u201d (In fact, peptides are heavily patented.)<\/p>\n He has repeated the pledge since taking office. On Joe Rogan\u2019s podcast<\/a> early this year, Kennedy said he was a \u201cbig fan\u201d of peptides and wanted to make many of them \u201cmore accessible.\u201d On a podcast with the co-chair of the MAHA Action committee, Gary Brecka, Kennedy said<\/a> the FDA\u2019s role should be to assess science, \u201cbut not tell people and not tell physicians what they can and cannot prescribe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to take an experimental drug,\u201d he added, \u201cyou ought to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n This summer, Kennedy\u2019s health department appointed doctors<\/a> with financial stakes in the peptide industry to a panel that advises the FDA. At an FDA meeting<\/a> in July, the new appointees voted to ease restrictions on six experimental peptides, including the trendy compounds BPC-157, TB-500, and MOTS-c. Specifically, they advised adding these peptides to a list, called 503A, that would allow specialized pharmacies to make the drugs for human use, even though the FDA hasn\u2019t approved them.<\/p>\n In an email, HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard wrote that every committee member satisfies the FDA\u2019s ethics requirements. \u201cFDA \u2014 not podcasts or politics \u2014 determines which substances qualify for inclusion on the 503A Bulks List,\u201d she wrote. The FDA has yet to issue a final decision.<\/p>\n The vote went against FDA scientists who presented research<\/a> on the six peptides, concluding there wasn\u2019t enough evidence to show they improved any condition. Furthermore, the scientists highlighted a potential for liver damage, allergic reactions, or other serious consequences.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are saying this is about medical freedom \u2014 putting decisions back in the hands of patients,\u201d said Reshma Ramachandran, a regulatory science researcher at Yale School of Medicine. \u201cBut what we see in practice is that incentives aren\u2019t actually centered around patients. They\u2019re centered around selling products.\u201d<\/p>\n Scientists also warned that drugmakers would be reluctant to invest millions of dollars into clinical trials on peptides if they could be sold without FDA approval.<\/p>\n \u201cThe chances of clinical trials getting done now are diminished,\u201d said Eric Topol, executive vice president of Scripps Research, a biomedical science institute in San Diego. \u201cWe will have more people who are prey to predators that will sell, sell, sell.\u201d<\/p>\n A lack of data leaves consumers in the dark.<\/p>\n Meetze sought help on Reddit, where people post about pain, headaches, vision problems, and a lack of motivation after taking experimental peptides. Peptide enthusiasts often comment on these posts with skepticism, attributing a person\u2019s problems to contaminated products, preexisting conditions, or misuse of the drugs. The online vitriol in the Reddit conversations can be intense, so Meetze welcomed an invitation to join a private group on the social platform Discord in which people with BPC-157 side effects tried to figure out what happened to them and how to fix it.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are millions of success stories with these peptides,\u201d Meetze said, \u201cbut no one wants to believe that this wrecks some of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Experimental peptides are often sold at longevity, wellness, and \u201cperformance medicine\u201d clinics \u2014 even though they haven\u2019t been proved safe and effective in clinical trials. (Amy Maxmen\/KFF Health News)<\/p>\n Wolverines and Migraines<\/strong><\/p>\n One member of the private side-effects group, a 46-year-old software engineer named Dominik E., said he got an excruciating migraine within days of taking BPC-157 with TB-4, another unapproved peptide \u2014 a combination called the \u201cWolverine Stack\u201d because of its purported ability to heal wounds rapidly, like its namesake Marvel superhero.<\/p>\n \u201cMy left eye started throbbing really badly, and the left side of my face became numb,\u201d he told KFF Health News, which agreed to only partially identify him and others interviewed for this article who were concerned about divulging sensitive health information.<\/p>\n After two months of migraines, Dominik said, the pain eased, but his face felt inflamed. \u201cIt is a total nightmare,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m afraid how people will judge me,\u201d said Lois S., a woman who works at a Michigan elementary school. She hoped BPC-157 and another unapproved peptide, retatrutide, would help with weight loss, but she stopped taking the treatment when she felt pain.<\/p>\n \u201cI sought out this substance from a lab that clearly labeled it not for human use, purchased a syringe, and injected this in my kitchen,\u201d she said. \u201cThat belies all logic about what a normal person would do.\u201d<\/p>\n Peptide proponents argue that shoddy manufacturing \u2014 not the peptides \u2014 causes harm. Therefore, they say, the FDA must protect the public by allowing doctors to prescribe peptides made for human use by pharmacies that specialize in compounding medicines<\/a>. Typically, compounding pharmacies manufacture alternatives to FDA-approved drugs so a patient can, say, get a liquid version of a drug that the original manufacturer makes only as pills.<\/p>\n Adding unapproved peptides to the FDA\u2019s list of compoundable drugs would mark a departure from the list\u2019s purpose, said Peter Lurie, a former FDA official who now directs the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest. He noted that federal and state oversight for compounding pharmacies is often lax, and they\u2019ve been cited for contamination<\/a>.<\/p>\n Furthermore, he added, the move would mislead consumers into thinking they\u2019re buying drugs backed by clinical trials. People promoting peptides often point to promising laboratory research as evidence. Rats with spinal injuries regained tail mobility<\/a> after BPC-157 injections, for example, and old mice given the experimental peptide MOTS-c<\/a> could run longer. On average, however, fewer than 10% of substances that show promise in animal studies prove effective in clinical trials.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of this pseudoscience stuff sounds deeply impressive \u2014 inflammation this and telomere that \u2014 but at the end of the day, none of it really matters,\u201d Lurie said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to show clinical benefit in humans: Does it work?\u201d<\/p>\n Peptide promoters lean on anecdotes, often without verifiable numbers. In a podcast recorded<\/a> at the White House, the MAHA influencer Brecka said: \u201cTwenty million people have been prescribed these things without adverse events.\u201d His guest on the episode, Brigham Buhler \u2014 who is the co-author of The Peptide Revolution<\/em> and owner of a compounding pharmacy that sells peptides and a clinic, Ways2Well, that prescribes them \u2014 told Brecka that none of its 75,000-plus patients had reported adverse events from peptides.<\/p>\n Buhler cited even higher numbers in the movie MAHA Uncensored<\/em><\/a>, a documentary featuring Kennedy and other leaders of the MAHA movement and that bears the MAHA trademark. In the segment on peptides, Buhler said: \u201cHaving treated literally hundreds of thousands of people through our compounding pharmacy, we\u2019ve never had a major adverse event.\u201d<\/p>\n Topol asks why those boasting success haven\u2019t conducted clinical studies. \u201cIf influencers and companies really believe these peptides are helping people,\u201d Topol said, \u201cthen they should put their profits back into rigorous research.\u201d<\/p>\n Chris Woodward, a spokesperson for Brecka and his company, the Ultimate Human, said in an email that the health and wellness issues discussed on Brecka\u2019s podcast do not constitute medical advice. \u201cMr. Brecka consistently advises his audience to consult a licensed physician,\u201d Woodward wrote. Buhler did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Not all anecdotes are rosy. At an antiaging conference last summer in Las Vegas, two women were rushed to the hospital and intubated after being injected with experimental peptides and vitamins, according to citations that Nevada\u2019s state pharmacy board issued against the doctor running the booth and his colleagues for prescribing and administering drugs without a state medical license.<\/p>\n An FDA database<\/a> for adverse events contains concerning reports. Although the database can\u2019t prove that a drug, vaccine, or medical device caused harm \u2014 the reports are brief, unverified, and voluntary \u2014 it signals issues worth exploring. A 36-year-old woman was hospitalized in December after taking the experimental peptide BPC-157 for weight control and a skin disorder, for example, and a 48-year-old man was hospitalized with a \u201clife-threatening\u201d condition after taking the peptide.<\/p>\n FDA scientists presented some of these reports at the July meeting and flagged worrisome outcomes in animal experiments, such as a 2020 study<\/a> revealing signs of liver toxicity in rats and dogs injected with BPC-157.<\/p>\n Brian Lee, a liver disease specialist at the University of Southern California, was among the panel\u2019s minority who voted against easing restrictions. Without clinical studies, he said, afflictions that take time to develop, like liver damage and cancer, might not be spotted for years: \u201cI think this endorsement can be potentially harmful, and I cannot in good conscience vote \u2018yes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The panel\u2019s newcomers disagreed. \u201cI do not believe the FDA made a good case on issues with safety with BPC,\u201d said Kris Wusterhausen, founder of an antiaging company in Texas, the Resurge Clinic, which sells a BPC-157 product for $149.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you\u2019ve seen the effects of BPC,\u201d he said, \u201cyou can\u2019t unsee it.\u201d<\/p>\n Awaiting Trial<\/strong><\/p>\n Deepak Srivastava, president of the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, designed a clinical trial two decades ago to see if a peptide he studies, TB-4, could repair tissue after a heart attack. Before enrollment, people volunteering for the study would be screened for early signs of cancer because TB-4 triggers vessel growth and cell migration, which might exacerbate malignant growths. He worries about the FDA panel\u2019s vote to ease restrictions on a derivative of TB-4, before such trials have been completed, saying, \u201cYou need to have a healthy respect for the fact that drugs can be harmful.\u201d<\/p>\n Pinchas Cohen, a peptide researcher at the University of Southern California, was less cautious, saying the FDA buzz might drive investors to fund trials. He\u2019s seeking support to bring a peptide his lab identified, MOTS-c, to market. It\u2019s \u201cun-ideal\u201d for people to take unproven drugs, Cohen said, but that\u2019s what\u2019s happening: \u201cThe world is changing and people like me need to accept that this is the new reality and find ways to make it as safe as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, people like Meetze resort to podcasts and online forums for advice. His symptoms faded after a year, but he still had spells of feeling \u201czero emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n Peptide users describe this condition as anhedonia. It\u2019s come up on Huberman\u2019s podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Huberman occasionally mentions other potential peptide risks, like cancer, sprinkling them into advice on how to take them. Take a 2024 episode<\/a> with 1.2 million views: \u201cI do not think that BPC-157 is not without its quote-unquote \u2018side effects,\u2019\u201d Huberman says. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to go down this path of taking BPC-157, I would encourage you to take the minimal effective dose, to not simply do it every day, and certainly to not do it continuously, and of course to monitor your other health metrics for anything that could potentially resemble cancer or tumor growth, because obviously stimulating angiogenesis for wound repair sounds like a great thing, recovering and being able to do your workouts or play your sport, or move about more comfortably, of course, a wonderfully attractive thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIsn\u2019t that what we all want? But obviously not with the trade-off of growing a tumor,\u201d he said, before interrupting the discussion to advertise a supplement company sponsoring the show.<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on KFF Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After the third day of squirting an experimental drug up his nose, Dylan Meetze felt horrible. \u201cIt was like I was underwater, like it took the most to do anything,\u201d he said. Meetze stopped taking the drug but endured fatigue and anxiety for months afterward, and his eyes and muscles twitched, he said. He had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}