Is There Anything BPC-157 Can’t Cure?

Do you know what BPC‑157 is? This cryptically named peptide is, according to its proponents, a miracle cure for all sorts of illnesses and injuries. Tom Bartlett remains firmly in the skeptical camp as he investigates exactly what research backs up the BPC‑157 claims. Almost all the studies prove to have a link to Croatian pharmacologist Predrag Sikirić—who is all too happy to meet Bartlett and exalt BPC‑157. But once you know what this is, the question remains: Would you take it?

Amid the sellers of red-light panels and blue-light glasses at Beyond, I stumbled on a company marketing a drinkable version of BPC‑157. Its giveaway sticker read We Prefer Oral Peptides, with the word peptides in much smaller letters because haha sex. The representative behind the counter referred to BPC‑157 as “the soccer mom’s peptide” and nonchalantly squirted some from what was essentially a hand-soap dispenser into a tiny plastic cup, then held it out to me. I hesitated, and the peptide hung in the air, unclaimed. “Are you afraid of it?” he asked. The not-so-subtle subtext was that I shouldn’t be, that taking BPC‑157 was equivalent to trying the dissolvable herbal-tea strips a few tables down or giving the giant quartz bowl a whirl. For the record: We were in a hotel hallway and I was being encouraged—dared, really—to try a drug that isn’t FDA-approved, is prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency for athletes’ use, and allegedly works throughout the body via some mysterious mechanism that is not entirely predictable. I was being offered an unspecified dose, although I wouldn’t know what dose would be appropriate, because there are no agreed-upon dosing guidelines. I declined the peptide. The representative shrugged and drank it himself.