David PerlmutterPresident,, Perlmutter Health Center · Board-Certified Neurologist | Functional Medicine Pioneer | #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author | International Speaker | Host of The Empowering Neurologist Podcast

Should You Use Peptides?

23 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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1:17

In this solo health talk, David Perlmutter examines the surge of peptide use in wellness and longevity clinics, zeroing in on the popular peptide BPC‑157. He outlines pre‑clinical animal research showing that BPC‑157 accelerates wound healing, promotes connective‑tissue growth, stimulates angiogenesis, supports nitric‑oxide production (beneficial for vascular dilation and insulin action), and may offer neuroprotective effects. Perlmutter stresses that all of these findings come from animal studies, not human trials, and therefore he refrains from recommending BPC‑157 until robust human data are available. He concludes with a consumer warning—caveat emptor—about the current unregulated promotion of the peptide.

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Peptides are everywhere in the health and wellness sphere now. In any wellness or longevity clinic, you're going to see signs saying we use peptides. Is that something we should be interested in? Well, we're talking about peptides beyond GLP-1, glucagon-like peptide, that is a peptide, and I want to just focus on one right now which is really very popular called BPC-157. Well, what does the data show? The data shows that yes, it accelerates wound healing, it's good for building connective tissue, it helps to grow new blood vessels and stabilize blood vessels. It plays a role in something called nitric oxide formation, which is a good thing. Nitric oxide is important for allowing blood vessels to dilate and even how insulin does its job. And there is even some suggestion that it is neuroprotective. In other words, protects the brain. But here's the issue. This is not human studies. These are not human trials. This is animal research. That doesn't say it is necessarily bad for humans or won't work in humans. But I, for one, I'm awaiting the human trials that indicate that BPC-157 is something I could be recommending, either given by injection or even orally. And yet we're seeing that happening quite a bit. So again, caveat emptor, the buyer should beware.