Peptides, Tendons, and the Seduction of Shortcuts
- Gary Moller
- 12 minutes ago
- 7 min read
The new doc told her to stop all her meds. She looked at him like he had lost his mind. Instead, he handed her a bottle of BPC-157 and told her to take it for one night. The next morning, she called him and said, “I don’t know what you gave me, but I slept straight through for the first time in months. And I woke up without that stabbing tendon pain.”
Why Real Healing Still Begins With Food, Not Hype
Every so often, a product comes along that promises to do what we all want: heal faster, recover better, and bypass the slow grind of disciplined living.
Recently, I was pointed toward an online comparison article promoting a synthetic peptide, with glowing claims of "remarkable tendon healing", "accelerated recovery", "gut repair", and even improved mood and sleep. It can be found here: https://compare.lifestylecrave.com/
The language is confident, persuasive, and clearly designed to appeal to athletes, ageing bodies, and anyone frustrated by slow recovery.
And I understand the appeal. Tendons heal slowly. Joints complain. Muscles take longer to recover with age. If a capsule could solve that, who wouldn’t be interested?
Peptides also appear to be very much the rage at present. I’ve seen many things come and go over many decades in health, fitness and sport. They rise fast on waves of promise, often before science has properly caught up. And they nearly always fade when people realise that no compound, however clever, can replace the foundations of a healthy diet and sensible lifestyle practices.
But I want to remind people of something I’ve written before in my article Beware of Long-Winded Health Sales Pitches. The best marketing thrives on drama, repetition, and emotional hooks, not on clarity or biological truth. Long, polished sales pages often exist to wear down scepticism rather than earn trust.https://www.garymoller.com/post/beware-of-long-winded-health-sales-pitches
So before we even look at mechanisms, ingredients, or testimonials, I encourage people to pause and ask a simple but vital question:
Are you truly enriching your own health and long-term wellbeing by investing in this product, or are you mainly enriching somebody else's bank account through a very polished, very persuasive sales pitch?
It’s an uncomfortable question, but an essential one. Real health investments tend to be quietly effective, biologically sound, and sustainable over time. Clever marketing, on the other hand, is often loud, repetitive, emotionally charged, and heavy on promises but light on fundamentals.
If a product truly worked as advertised, it would need far less convincing.
What These Peptide Products Claim to Do
Stripped of marketing gloss, products like oral BPC-157 claim to support:
• Tendon, ligament, and connective tissue repair
• Collagen synthesis and tissue regeneration
• Improved blood flow to injured areas
• Gut lining repair
• Reduced inflammation
• Enhanced recovery and resilience
These are understandable goals. They are the same goals I work toward every day in the clinic, and in my own life.
The difference lies not in the destination, but in the route taken to get there.
The Reality Behind the Claims
BPC-157 is a synthetic peptide derived from a fragment of a gastric protein. Most of the research supporting it comes from animal studies. Human clinical evidence remains limited. Oral bioavailability claims are largely unproven. Regulatory bodies have not approved it as a therapeutic agent.
In short, it is still experimental.
That does not mean it does nothing. It does mean that the confidence of the marketing far exceeds the confidence of the evidence.
More importantly, the reason people chase such products is because the body's own healing mechanisms are impeded by metabolic stress.
What the Body Needs to Heal Tendons and Tissue
Tendon and connective tissue repair is not mysterious. It is slow because it is structurally demanding and metabolically expensive.
For tissue to heal properly, the body requires:
• Specific amino acids for collagen synthesis
• Adequate energy without insulin overload
• Low systemic inflammation
• Good blood flow and mitochondrial function
• Intact gut absorption
• Proper hormonal signalling, especially growth hormone
No peptide can bypass these basics. It can only attempt to signal around them.
This brings us to a powerful and natural approach many people overlook: gentle ketosis combined with time-restricted feeding.
Reducing Systemic Inflammation at Its Source
A key reason my approach works so well is its impact on systemic inflammation, which is the single greatest barrier to healing in modern life. Not to mention nutrient depletion, imbalances, and toxins.
Many of the ingredients in my Super Smoothie, along with the nutritious whole foods it is designed to be combined with, are naturally rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds. These help neutralise excess oxidative stress, stabilise cell membranes, and protect tissues from ongoing inflammatory damage.
By reducing oxidative load and calming chronic inflammation, the body is no longer forced into a constant defensive state. Energy can then be redirected toward repair, regeneration, and recovery. This is a foundational principle of healing physiology, not a pharmacological trick.
In other words, when inflammation is lowered naturally, healing becomes the default rather than the exception.
Why Gentle Ketosis Matters
When the body shifts toward burning fat as its primary fuel, metabolic signals change dramatically. Insulin levels fall. Fatty acids and ketones rise. This metabolic state does more than burn fat. It alters the hormonal and cellular environment in a way that substantially supports healing and regeneration.
I’ve written extensively about this elsewhere on the site, and readers can explore those articles here:https://www.garymoller.com/blog/search/keto
Growth Hormone and Ketosis
Growth hormone is one of the body’s key anabolic hormones. It:
• Stimulates tissue growth and repair
• Mobilises fat for fuel• Supports protein synthesis
• Enhances nitrogen retention in muscle
Growth hormone secretion is suppressed by high insulin and constant feeding. When insulin remains elevated throughout the day, as it does with frequent snacking, growth hormone pulses are blunted.
Gentle ketosis lowers insulin by promoting fat burning and extending the interval between glucose spikes. The result is a natural, sustained rise in growth hormone:
• Fasting increases growth hormone secretion
• Low insulin allows for larger growth hormone pulses
• Ketones signal the body to maintain lean tissue
This is not speculation. Measured increases in growth hormone during fasting and ketosis are well-documented.
Stem Cell Activation and Ketosis
Stem cells are the body’s reserve force. They sit dormant until called into action for repair and regeneration.
The metabolic shift toward ketosis, especially when combined with periods of fasting and low insulin, influences stem cell behaviour in several ways:
• Reduced inflammation, which otherwise suppresses stem cell activity
• Enhanced cellular stress resistance via ketone signalling
• Improved mitochondrial function to support regeneration
• Activation of autophagy, clearing damaged cells and making space for renewal
Under these conditions, the body naturally encourages stem cells to awaken, migrate to sites of damage, and contribute to repair.
This alignment of hormonal and cellular signals is precisely what synthetic therapies claim to trigger, but it happens naturally when the internal environment is right.
Where My Super Smoothie Fits In
This is where my specially formulated Super Smoothie, combined with real food and sensible lifestyle habits, quietly does what peptide marketing claims to do.
For readers unfamiliar with it, the product details are here:https://precisionhealthtesting.com/products/garys-super-smoothie
The smoothie provides:
• Hydrolysed collagen for tendon and connective tissue building blocks
• Whey protein for complete amino acid support
• Glycine and glutamine for tissue repair, gut lining integrity, and nervous system calming
• Citrulline for nitric oxide production and blood flow
• Taurine, carnitine, and creatine for mitochondrial and cellular energy
On its own, that is already powerful.But it is not designed to be taken in isolation.
The Missing Piece: Fats, Ketosis, and Fasting
When the smoothie is combined with:
• Full-cream milk or cream
• Coconut oil or other healthy fats
• Additional omega-3s and high-quality fish oil (Separate in capsules)
• A no-snacking, gentle ketosis approach
• A daily fasting window of several hours
Something important happens:
Insulin falls. Inflammation quietens.
Growth hormone pulses rise naturally.
Autophagy and stem cell activity are stimulated.
Mitochondria recover.
Tissue repair pathways switch on.
This is not speculative. It is well-established in human physiology.
Ironically, many of the effects attributed to peptides are already achieved more reliably through fasting and fat-based metabolism.
Signalling Versus Terrain
Here is the key distinction. Peptides attempt to send a signal to heal.
Nutrition and lifestyle decide whether the body can respond to that signal.
In a high-sugar, high-insulin, inflamed system, signals fail. That is why people chase stronger and stronger interventions.
When the terrain is right, healing becomes inevitable.
A More Honest Path to Recovery
I am not opposed to innovation. I am opposed to shortcuts that distract from the basics.
My experience, both personally and clinically, is that people who:
• Eat collagen-rich, nutrient-dense foods
• Support fat-based metabolism
• Avoid constant snacking
• Respect gentle fasting as a healing tool
• Supplement wisely with omega-3s and key nutrients
These things will achieve the same outcomes promised by peptide products, without the uncertainty, regulatory grey zones, or dependency.
It may not be flashy. It may not promise miracles in weeks. But it works, and it keeps working.
Recommended Products
Ensure you add all kinds of healthy ingredients like full cream A-2 milk, homemade yoghurt, avocado, banana etc. and the occasional fresh, raw egg.
Add a dessertspoon of each of these to the smoothie:
Plus
Have the following as well:
Final Thoughts
The desire to heal faster is human. The temptation to outsource that responsibility to a capsule is understandable. But real, durable health and performance are built from the ground up. Food remains the original medicine. Lifestyle remains the master signal. Supplements should support, not replace, physiology. If you repair the terrain, the body does the rest.
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