#620: BPC-157 and Peptide Medications: What Do We Know? – Jordan Feigenbaum, MD

Danny Lennon (0:00)

Hello, and welcome to Sigma Nutrition Radio. This is episode 620 of the podcast. My name is Danny Lennon, and you are very welcome to the show.

Today we're gonna be taking a look at a topic that has generated a lot of interest, a lot of discussion, a lot of anecdote, and therefore a lot of questions, and hopefully trying to clarify what exactly we know and how people can make best decisions related to this. And of course, we're talking about nominally what people colloquially refer to as peptides in much of these conversations. Now to be clear, of course, peptides are simply these short chains of amino acids that are found in a whole range of different things, but the online colloquial phrase when people are talking about the use of peptides now is usually referring to this group of peptide medications. And even within that, we can split them into some of the peptide medications that have been used for a long period of time with a lot of evidence, for example, insulin or GLP-1 receptor agonists that have those clear indications, dosing, et cetera, a bunch of evidence. What we're really focusing in on is a different category that relates to a number of these compounds that have been suggested for a variety of outcomes from injury recovery to tissue healing, to even longevity or general health benefits that people have now been taking without those medications and actually being at the level of full approval. And so we're going to be talking about the implications of that, what exactly it means, and some of the things we can try and glean about what's going on with their use. Probably one of the most discussed is BPC 157, and so we'll be mentioning that maybe specifically. But there is a group of several of these that are in a similar boat where people are taking them for a variety of reasons that we'll talk about in the episode and report many positive anecdotes. And so to go through this particular topic, I'm going to be talking to Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum, who is the founder of Barbell Medicine, who has been previously on the podcast a couple of times, and given his expertise in walking this line between being a medical doctor, as well as interests in health and performance, and the work that they do through Barbell Medicine, I think he's perfectly positioned to walk us through some of the things we know about peptides, some of the things that people are reporting, and then more importantly, what goes into potential decision making, both at a broad level for people who maybe are seen to be recommending these, and then maybe at an individual level for people who do want to have some type of control and informed consent, what they actually should be aware of before making any decisions in either way. So hopefully this ends up being useful. Hopefully, this clarifies a number of the outstanding questions you may have or adds a bit of nuance to some of the conversation that can sometimes see one-sided or leaving out some important caveats.

So if you are a Sigma Nutrition Premium subscriber, you will also get a set of detailed study notes to accompany this episode, which will go back through everything we discuss in the episode, clarify terminology, use diagrams and graphs to explain certain concepts, and then to add in any of the details we mentioned about any studies, etc. So that will be found in the description box where you're currently listening.

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And so your support is directly what keeps this podcast going. So thank you for anyone who is a premium member and for those of you who are considering that. So with all that said, you can check out further information about our guest and anything we mentioned in the episode page, which will be linked in the description here. And for now, let's dive into this conversation between myself and Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum.

Welcome back to the podcast, Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum. Thanks so much for doing this.