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BPC-157 oral vs injectable for a slow-healing Achilles, what actually moved the needle for you?

Posted by grinder265 in Healing & Recovery - 4 points, 4 comments.

Been fighting a cranky left Achilles for almost 6 months now. Tried injectable BPC-157 at 250 mcg twice a day for a solid 8 weeks and honestly the first month i felt real progress, less morning stiffness, could load it more on easy runs. Then it kinda stalled out, still niggly on hard days.

Im thinking about switching to the oral arginate salt version at 500 mcg twice a day mostly for convenience but also because my wallet could use a break from pins. Ngl im skeptical tho bc everything i read says injectable is more potent for tendon stuff specifically.

Curious if anyone here ran oral for a stubborn tendon and saw it do anything. Or is it really more of a gut/organ thing and im better off just sticking with subq around the insertion? Also if you went back and forth between the two, did one seem to "win" for actual tendon remodeling vs just pain quieting down.

Comments

  • runner_aaron: Tbh my biceps tendon was similar, injectable worked for the first month then kinda flatlined. Switched to oral arginate at 500 mcg twice a day and the first two weeks I genuinely wrote it off as useless, but by week 4 it started to feel less angry on warm up. Could be placebo, could be the cumulative effect, but for me it did seem to keep chipping away after the pin stalled. I never compared them head to head in a clean way tho, just ran them back to back. What does your loading look like on t
  • fasted_scientist: Yeah the cumulative effect thing is interesting actually (makes me wonder if injectable plateaus are just people stopping too early rather than the peptide stopping working). Could also be you finally crossed some healing threshold that the pin got you close to but didn't quite hit. For loading I kept it dead boring mate, walk-jog intervals on grass, maybe 2-3km total, nothing over 5k pace. Calf raises daily, single leg, slow. Hardest part was stopping when it felt fine and not testing it on a
  • grinder265: Yeah thats a fair point about plateaus just being me stopping early, i didnt really consider that. Loading was pretty similar for me, walk jogs on grass mostly, eccentric calf raises twice a day and i stayed out of anything fast for a good 6 weeks. With the oral i havent started yet, thats kinda why i was asking. Was thinking of running it solo first to actually see what it does on its own before adding anything else in. Did you stack it with anything or just use it by itself?
  • grinder265: Yeah that matches what i saw with the pins, first month great then flat. Good to hear the oral kept chipping after the stall tho, that gives me some hope its not just a gut thing. Loading is honestly pretty light rn, like 3-4 miles at Zone 2 with some calf eccentrics after, trying not to poke the bear. Im thinking ill run the oral 500 twice a day for 4-5 weeks and if nothing changes ill go back to subq around the actual insertion and just eat the cost. How long did you stay on the oral before

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