The Truth about BPC-157 – Debunking the Myths

Podcast Introduction and Purpose 0:00

Welcome to the Human Longevity Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Melissa Peterson, and this is a special edition today as we explore the science and solutions that truly can help you live better longer. And today we are going to really break down a recent podcast that Andrew Huberman did on peptides. And we're gonna call him out on a few things and we are gonna have some critical thinking. I'm joined by my special guest, a industry expert, and I am proud to call her my best, best friend, Dr. Stephanie Rimka.

Welcome. We're so glad you're here. Thank you so much. Dr. Melissa, I'm super excited to be here and everybody in your audience at the Human Longevity Institute. I am super-excited to do this, you guys. You can say you're welcome to me if you don't know me because I asked Dr Melissa to a lot of special things and I said, girl. We have to do the Huberman. Now in her genius, as always, we're not going to break down the entire hour and a half podcast. She's made a really smart decision and we are going pick one specific topic, BPC 157. So I'm super excited for us to get into this.

Today's conversation is so important because unfortunately what Andrew Hüberman did in his podcast, he did provide some great information, but he also provided some very misleading information that could create A shadow of doubt around this very important conversation around peptides. So first of all, what is a peptide? Well, it can seem really complex, but it's not. It's something that's naturally occurring in the body. it is made from amino acids. Now, amino acid are simply just proteins that are broken down.

And these are the building blocks for everything in your life. are short chains of amino acids and you can think of them like a lock and a key. So they are a very specific key that goes into the lock that signals and elicits very specifically supportive functions in the body. And they can be utilized in many ways from healing and repair to sexual health, to gut health and cognitive health to longevity, age reversal. There's so many uses for these incredible naturally occurring amino acid peptides.

But we're going to look at BPC 157 specifically. We're gonna break down what Huberman said. Dr. Kent Holtorf, he's a board certified physician that literally trains physicians around the globe on these peptides. He uses them in his own practice. They literally saved his life when traditional medicine could not.

What Peptides Are and Why BPC-157 Matters 2:25

He's the founder of the National Thyroid Association. He was even the endocrinologist for AOL. And we both have been trained by Dr. Kent in peptide therapy. You is one of many people we've studied under in the world. So that's a true industry world expert in Peptide Therapy. Andrew Huberman is not. And it is disheartening to me to see someone who knows very little on a subject matter reach epic status. Like that peptide podcast that he did was anticipated by many. He has one of the most listened to podcasts in the world.

I know he's in top five. His current ranking. So he is very popular, therefore very influential. So it is incredibly important when people have that much power that influence that what they're saying is as accurate as possible and to piggyback on what Dr Melissa said for me what overall the overall arching met the message in that podcast was. There was a lot of truth. Yes, there was some real stuff there, absolutely. But sprinkled within that were the seeds of, like to germinate seeds, of doubt within you.

It was like sprinkling a garden with a bunch of weeds at the same time. And I think to use your platform to basically let people like, well, here's a good thing, but be afraid, be, afraid be. afraid. and it's good, But be Afraid, Be Afaid, Just putting that level of doubt into people creates hesitation. And you can, via, which we will get into later, placebo versus nocebo effect, make something very powerful. You put a negative signal at the same time, and now suddenly something that would have worked, you've made not work.

The power of the mind, the power thought, suggestive thinking is very potent. So we're trying to show you somebody who is an expert, Dr. Ken Holtorf, way better than us. on peptide therapy, hands down, and then we're gonna break what he says down. We're going to break a little bit more down about what Huberman says. My goal for every single patient, every consumer, anybody who takes any courses with me, does anything with with is to empower you to your own health sovereignty. I do not want you be a slave to anyone or any system.

right? So the more you know, the better you can become a partner with whoever you're working with, whatever doctor or coach you are working. So that's what we're looking for to help you discern that here, because it's not fair for the average consumer to have any idea what Huberman is really saying and how he's cherry picking and being very selective to lead you down a path of thought. Let's go ahead and start breaking some of it down. Yeah, so we're going to go ahead first. We're gonna show the clip from Huberman.

Then we are going show a clip. I was having a conversation just the other night about this with Dr. Kent Holthorpe. So we gonna hear what he has to say and then you're hear back from Dr Rimka and I and we going really bring this to a place because again it's about empowering you, informing you and giving you more to the story that seemingly was intentionally or misleadingly left out. potentially cause those sprinkle those seeds of doubt. So let's go ahead and hear what Huberman had to say. Not often discussed, which is that if you have a tumor and tumors thrive on increased blood flow because they like to consume growth factors and increased.

Blood flow means increased growth not just sustain but actually grow the tumor, well then by taking BPC-157, you may be either maintaining or accelerating the growth of a tumor that would otherwise be removed or stay small. In other words, Bpc- 157 is a potential tumor growth risk. So if you have knowledge of given cancer or you're concerned about tumors at all, I would encourage you to be very cautious about the use of BPc 15 7. It's like that is needed to heal, and we don't have enough vascular genesis.

That's why diabetics, they can't heal. They can get enough blood flow. And okay, if that's a problem, okay. Then take vitamin D off the shelf. Take vitamin C, take flavonoids. I mean, it's absurd, right? And there's also angiogenesis versus vascogensis, And it only makes new vessels in damaged tissue. You can heal without that. So, I mean, it's one of those things, just grasping it. And he knows he's wrong and he was asking on that. So that, yeah.

Huberman's Tumor Risk Claim and Expert Pushback 7:00

Well, so I think the things that become really important to bring some greater clarity on is Huberman saying, hey, BPC can accelerate tumor growth by way of this VEGF pathway because of the angiogenesis process. Then you just heard Dr. Kent Holtorf say, okay, wait a minute. There are nuances here, right? Like this only signals, there's only going to be new growth in injured tissue. So cancerous tissue is not putting off the same type of signal as a Achilles tear, you know, an ACL tear. Like you've had an injury, a sprain, when this is signaled, it's not signaled in the same way that they're trying to make a correlation that the way tumor activity occurs utilizing the process of angiogenesis because of that pathway is the thing that is activated in that path way with BPC and it is completely not accurate.

That's the point that Dr. Kent was just making. It's absolutely not You know, Dr. Remka, I think it's really important for us, like right here. I want to help everybody to realize again, peptides and they break it down for them. Let's be really simple. You guys. Okay. Like this is the, we didn't say this yet. What is BPC one five seven. Right. So what does BBC stand for? Body protection compound. These scientists didn't get real creative. They found something in the body that's made inside your stomach.

I make it, you make, it we make. This is a natural substance. We make like insulin and growth hormone and dopamine and serotonin and melatonin. It's not here to hurt you. Your divine intelligence made this inside. And because it did so many things, What a bunch of PhDs and MDs in a lab with their white coats on when they figured out what this was? Wow. Sure likes like, you know what it does? It protects the whole body from all kinds of things. It repairs and regenerates. You know, what we should call it?

Body protection compound. Huh? Not stomach protection, compound, not gastrointestinal tract protection compounds, body protection. yes it goes and protects the whole body yes correct you make it like dopamine serotonin melatonin oxytocin right it's a good thing your body's not making something to hurt you okay in the right amount now sometimes things happen stress eat things injury aging not well and you're not making as much body protection compound in your stomach as you used to or should be. Does this happen sometimes, Dr.

Melissa? Do we not make enough of things or too much of thing sometimes based upon diet, lifestyle, sleep? No, not sleep, stress. Great. So why don't you tell them what BPC-157? Because that isn't actually the same as Bpc. Why don' you take that part a little bit? So really, okay, so let's break this down. When we're looking at creating these molecules that you can go ahead and get online, there's a variety of places through compounding pharmacies, through your physician, though integrative peptides like Dr.

Kent has, when you're look at these, BPC157 is a segment of Bpc. Okay, So Bbc, it's made naturally in the gastric juices of the stomach. And again, body protective compounds, multiple actions. The 157 is a very specific strand of it. And so the way I like to think of these molecules are like locks, like a key to a lock. So it's gonna carry out a specific component of that larger amino acid strand. In relation to this specifically, again, it is carrying out the activation of this signaling, this modulation response that when there's injury, is going to elicit a signal to help promote several different mechanisms of action to bring healing to an area.

And again, and he did speak to this a bit. Go ahead. Do you want to say something? Well, I mean, like I want you guys know, what is a signal molecule? What is she saying? And I'm holding out my hand to like, as if it's a telephone, old school, the way we used to do it back in the 1975 time when it was lovely, right? When you picked up the phone and had to press numbers and dial a rotary. So it's kind of like, so there's a problem. Uh, I hit my head and the body's like ring, ring. Hey, we have a.

And it calls a signal and a whole bunch of things happen. So he calls the nine one, one. That call center in the, body goes out to police, fire, ambulance. clean-up crew, the janitors, and road construction. It's a whole bunch of things that are going on. it's not like a line to one thing only. You know, BBC is doing a, it is like, oh, okay, what just happened over here? And the body is so complex and a signal molecule comes in as like I have to recruit a whole lot of things to happen all at the same time.

It doesn't just push something up and push Something down, which is what a drug typically does, right?

How BPC-157 Works as a Signaling Molecule 12:40

The hyper the hypo high blood pressure. Just push it down. We will use no intelligence. Were just going to keep pushing it Down and pushing down we could care less of a person passes out because we don't really we can't modulate. This is essential. Yeah, they're modulating the system. They're pushing up if it needs to go up, it's giving intelligence to your own internal systems. Hence why we make peptides. Do you want to know what the greatest research laboratory compound pharmacy in the world is?

It's called your brain, okay? Because you put a signal inside that brain and a single can be as simple as a thought. Yeah. Let's be clear. And in a thought or a smile, because body position creates a signal and creates certain peptide. Crying makes a peptides. Smiling makes the peptid. Laughing makes pepti. Sex makes different peptids. That's okay. Do we understand this? So you can take molecules via capsule in nasal spray, injection, the IVs that do this too. All right. So there are inputs to the system.

And so that signal molecule, I want to make sure they know what that is for the lay person. I swear a lot of doctors don't even know. What a signal. Well, well, that you said it this way, because again, this is not, let's be really clear. This isn't to diminish anybody's level of intelligence. Like I think in science, especially you hear a word like peptide, it is, It's positioned in such a way that we're like, what is that actually that? We almost think that it's more complicated complex than it is.

We, we feel disempowered by it. Like, oh, there's something I don't know. So I. How to just use some simple common sense to make some decisions because I really know enough about it, so this is just to say, wait, it actually not. It like it not as difficult as we've been led to believe. This is actually some real simple stuff that's naturally occurring in the body. The body is complex. And so here's the nuanced differences, Dr. Remka, that you were just alluding to. I really want our listeners to appreciate and understand for themselves.

We have all been raised and brought up in a pharmaceutical driven culture. pill for an ill. And what we do not understand and appreciate is that when we take a medication, a pharmaceutical drug is overriding the innate intelligence of your body. Most pharmaceutical drugs are literally pushing in action, turning it on or blocking in actions. So it's literally like yes or no. They're not signaling. The way the body innately works is again, It's, it's in the state of what is referred to as homeostasis.

So let's call this our neutral, our balance. Like this is our kind of like our ready weight state. And then an input comes in and the body says, okay, I've got to recognize that input. I gotta go respond to that. Input and we're going to handle it and not going come back to ready state and I'm going recover and then I'll be waiting until the next thing. Every time that we need to go recognize and respond. recognize what do I need to respond? And that's what Dr. Rimka was just saying, hey, a smile will evoke a certain peptide, uh-huh, sex, all these different, there's an input.

I recognize it. Now, what I do need go respond to it? Then it's this innate intelligence that in a millisecond coordinating between the brain, the body, hormones, peptides, signaling the DNA to make sure that what is needed is there in the moment. And so it working with what is needed in the moment, in body. A drug isn't working within the intelligence. It's overriding that intelligence, it's forcing a response. So he was making a comment and setting this up as if peptide is a drug, overwriting the system and going to keep that VEGF pathway active, keep it going, to potentially accelerate tumor growth.

And that's not what occurs. When it activates, brings in more of those nutrients so healing can occur, then it stops. So because the signal has now stopped, so it's controlled versus uncontrolled. BPC 157 signaling a controlled response versus in a tumor when that pathway, the research they've looked at with that pathways saying, hey, this is an uncontrollable response. And yes, if you were to take a medication that just keeps the gas pedal down and over rise the innate intelligence, you'd have to be fearful.

But this is not a medication that does that. So it's working with signaling with It's supporting those natural like, well, let's turn it off now. We don't need any more. Why did Dr. Melissa pick? We're going to talk about BBC 157. This is the most used, most kind of universal, Most recommended. The, this is, the entry to the peptide therapy for most people. BBC one 57 should be understood by every single practicing healthcare provider out there. I don' care what field you're in. I don't care if you're a primary care physician.

I Don't Care if You're an orthopedic surgeon. You should know what BPC 157 is. The fact that we didn't learn what that was in school is a mistake. So that one is so simple. It's capsule form. So many peptides, you guys, almost all of them are via needle. I know that can be why it's not so huge. Part of it is, oh, needles. Listen, they've gotten better and better. There's a lot of time and money that's gone into research of changing the delivery system so we can have oral and nasal sprays in many of these compounds.

Why Peptides Differ From Drugs 18:45

And BPC 157 is the one that gives people a whole lot of bang for their buck. So the return on investment is very high and it helps a wide number of people in every age range. I want to be clear, I've been clinically using this with small children and old ladies. And pets. And my pet and other people's pets, I have many vets that have taken my course and we're actually looking at how can we build a course for vests? Because they use pept, animals make these too. So how we can get some of the most potent regeneration, healing overall, best return on investment and safest compounds out there.

BPC-157 is referred to as the Wolverine peptide for a reason. Because everybody loves it because of how it regenerates. the gut, the joints, and the brain. So it is that safe. I want no shadow of doubt or fear in anyone's mind over what is most likely going to be your entryway into one of the most potent therapeutic fields, peptide therapy, where there are thousands of peptides used in clinical use for people. Again, many of these, you're going clinician to go with you for complex protocols. And that's the kind of stuff that is clinician training, the things that the Human Longevity Institute can offer.

Like, you want to know what the mold protocol is? You want know the line protocol? That's what we use these for. So the people who see like a can't hold Torf in us that recover from things they were told they couldn't recover this is how they've done it. Peptides are one of the powerful, you know, I love how you talk about small levers, do big, whatever that thing is. Swing big doors, yeah. Yeah, swing a big door, right? So that's what peptide therapy can be. And again, we help you go through how to do it right, because there's you got to have the right molecule at the time for the thing and you don't stay on these things forever.

But BPC 157 is kind of one of those ones that people do like to stay out because it's body protection compound. I had my own son on it all through high school flag football and basketball because just understanding what if he were to get a concussion how he would recover differently. And that's very clear in the literature. I have my mother on it. Why? Because recovery from stroke or heart attack or any concussion are totally different if you're on BPC 157. I take it every day. I think what's perfect to show right now, because, you know, Kent alluded, well, he was very clear, like, again, what are some other things that activate this vitamin D, vitamin C, flavonoids, lots of things do this.

So you're looking at a very linear left brain, healing the body is a straight pathway. which nothing is when you try to simplify body system so like well it's a pathway and we just do blah blah and I think Kent says something next that like please let's show this and then we can stand upon understanding Again, peptides are naturally occurring compounds and we live in a world where, thank goodness, some really good researchers figured out what these molecules were, how to isolate them, and how make them so we can use them in therapeutic way to enhance your own body's functions if you've been sick, injured, or under some type of stress that's taking your body down into a poor working state temporarily.

I mentioned a lecture down in Mexico and it's supposed to be 45 minutes and like an hour and a half into it. And someone goes, what is a peptide? And, oh, I kind of, you know, and yeah, mean I did this exercise and I showed that I can show that magnesium causes cancer, right? When you try to take a pathway, Um, and show, okay, this can cause this, doesn't cause. This is total BS science. And that is just. F'd up on his part. That's the truth of it, you guys. And sometimes, and this gets really tricky, reading research papers is not easy.

Anybody trying to tell you it is lying to you. People will send, hey, can you do this? It's taken me six to eight hours sometimes to get through some of the papers I've read. I mean, if you get into the ones from the biophysics guys with the deuterium and stuff, I'm like, Imma have to tap out and hire a Georgia Tech student to help me understand Can you break it down for me again? Okay, because I don't have eight hours to try to go through some of this. Now, some it is kind of simple once you know some words like, oh, that means in a Petri dish.

That means, in computer simulation model, half the studies you guys think are real were done by a computer. Did you know that? But see, they presented to you on the CNN and the ABC and FOX as if it was a real thing that happened in real life, not a computer simulation.

Clinical Uses, Safety, and the Gateway Peptide 24:15

Yeah. And that's a fact. It's in little term. You know, we have these terms, you know in situ in vivo and I forget the computer one it's like in something it doesn't say in computer. It has a little fancy word now I've already forgotten it. So once you somebody teaches you kind of how to do that you're like oh I can you can kind You know, whatever, these weren't people. These were in, this was just a review of literature. Oh, that was all questionnaires. This was questionaires, not the same. I mean, and this wasn't a computer.

Like the computer made up an example and we're just gonna pretend that that real life, okay? I don't know about you, but my patients have never acted like a, computer has told me they were going to act ever, ever. And that's just how it is. Okay. So, Please know that, like, what Kent did was beautifully show, yeah, I can bamboozle anybody if I take it that way, right? So, and we all know, his point was magnesium does not cause cancer, but I could show you in a paper, or I Could prove it to you that it does.

Well, in the same thing, vitamin D activates the VEGF pathway. And so we could be making that same, try to make that correlation, And that is not how these molecules work within the body. Again, so if we can impart anything to you all today, it's that when when something seems, oh, could it? OK, listen, like our tap water can cause cancer. eating a high processed f stress, not getting enoug so many things that can pr growth. Just about the mo I mean, well, there's a f of a known carcinogen, ri I'm not surprised you're g known carcinogenic food, artificial dyes that we know, neurotoxins that know.

There's all kinds of things. I think we do this. X-ray techs, radiologists, these are risky jobs. That's why you have to wear little monitors. And if they stack up a certain amount of exposure, they're done working for the year. It's radiation causes cancer. We know some things do what they think. But let's just talk about what is insulin? You know what makes things grow? Insulin. People don't want to talk about that very much. And you know what's controlling your insulin levels the most? What you put in your mouth?

And your stress. Yeah. I mean, food. sorry exactly yes and you know be like food first and foremost and then what people may not appreciate every time you're having that stress response and this is why and we could go down a tangent but this Is why everybody's going for the glp ones because the GLP ones help with the glucose control by way of cortisol and glucagon okay so it's modulating insulin how much is released so that it is slowing down how Much glucose is dumped from the liver every mental, emotional, chemical, environmental.

The brain is like, oh, there's something I got to go respond to. So I need gas in the tank, which is glucose, so I can go response to the thing. Remember that with everything that happens, we're going to recognize and respond. What do I to do the things? I mean, glucose. OK, then we sit and we do we don't actually take it because we are scrolling. We're getting stressed about something we see on our social media. And we just sitting on a couch eating chips and the body's like We don't need all this glucose, so let's create insulin to go store the glucose.

So these are the things. The last thing you should be worried about is BPC 157. That's the point. You should worry about sitting watching Netflix having your Doritos and your goldfish crackers, okay? So, but for those of you who just are like, I really don' know what she just said. Listen, you know what? We've got courses that go over all of this in such incredible depth and ease, it'll blow your mind. You're like, what does she mean GLP-1? What was that? Oh my gosh. She has courses on GLPs. I have courses.

So any health coaches out there, clinicians, if you want to understand peptides actually, From people who've studied peptide therapies, taking courses, have certifications, been trained by people like Kent Heltorf, Dan Sickler, and other real experts in the field. You could talk to us, you could take courses with us. have access to us, direct communication with us. We both offer them. Dr. Melissa kind of focuses much more on the health coach certifications and physicians and chiropractors. My courses do some of that too but I don't offer the same certification.

I'm a guest lecturer and you know in her institute. So you guys go to the description and look at what we both My goal I have focused on the consumer, I'm still seeing patients, you know, in private practice to empower you.

Lifestyle, Sovereignty, and Closing Takeaways 29:25

I don't want you feeling confused, lost and ever gaslit in a doctor's appointment again in your life. You don't have to become an expert in anything. You Don't know how have they use everything super well. But boy does it make a difference when you have some own inner knowing and own Inner Authority and the ability to say no when You want to Say no. Yes. When you want To say yes. I want as much health sovereignty for you and your family as possible. So I offer those courses with access of kind of like the biohacker to know how to do it themselves, how resource it, themselves take control themselves and how partner with your clinician of choice in the field of modality of, choice to work with them to get what you need.

So you don't love that. Yeah. Passively. Yes. And that's exactly so. Here's what's so important is we are all at the beginning and end of the day, we're all both the client. Even for my clinicians out there, We are also the patient and the Client, right? Because at some point we need to know how to be sovereign over our health, take accountability. We're the creators of our own expression of health and wellbeing. And the current model keeps us a victim versus a victor kind of thing, meaning like, hey, well, they told me to take a pill.

It takes any ownership off, and there's no judgment on that. But in our programs over at HLI, Human Longevity Institute, we teach our doctors, our coaches, or clinicians how to create a client-centered experience, how that actually partner with you and to support you in supporting yourself because no one can do it. Nobody's come to save any of us, right? So listening to conversations like this, you know, really stepping back and going, okay, well wait, but there's also, there are hundreds of thousands of people that have used this.

There are so many, and you go online and we're going to put a lot of links to incredible studies down here. This is, as Dr. Rimka has referred to it, BPC157 is the gateway peptide. It is got the highest safety profile. Even Huberman did acknowledge that in his interview. It so safe, it is so effective, It does so much good for the body. And so shouldn't we know the things that can help us and support us? And beyond molecules, molecules are a piece, but they're never going to outperform and out support or out heal or correct lifestyle.

Right? Lifestyle first. What does that mean? It is how we're thinking, how are eating, How we are moving, loving, relating, connecting. The choices that we make in our everyday world. That moves the needle 75 to 90 percent. No peptide, no drug, No molecule. So know yourself. Choose where and how you want to be supported. Know that there are resources out there. We're going to put all the links below, so be sure to check out everything that she offers. Be sure and check if you're more of a clinician and you want to really get some clinical training to know how to support your clients with these molecules and other processes.

Please check us out. You guys, we hope you got so much out of this today. be Sure to Check all of the link to learn more about our courses. How to continue to stay engaged in this conversation. We are going continue bring more and more. conversations like this out, kind of pulling back the curtain, giving critical thinking, just not accepting one size fits all, but we are in a time and a space of truly personalized, precision medicine, health, wellness, and we hope to empower you to go out and make your best choices that will support you, to live better longer starting today.

Thanks for being with us.