TB-500 is proving itself to be a MUST-HAVE therapeutic peptide for any aging biohacker… or bodybuilder, for that matter.
There are so many practical health benefits claimed by the people who have used it on themselves, such as:
- Faster recovery from painful wounds
- Quicker healing of crippling injuries
- Dramatic reduction of chronic inflammation
- Strengthened immune system
It really appears to be the best peptide for older men and women who want to keep their health fully optimized for years to come.
But what does the clinical evidence show in human experiments, let alone the nonclinical evidence in animal studies?
Is it even safe to regularly take TB-500, let alone legal?
And what other hidden health benefits of TB-500 exist?
It’s time to give the TB-500 peptide a”Jay Campbell” treatment and answer all of these questions!
Table of Contents
ToggleWhat is TB-500, And How Does It Work?
Before I can explain exactly what TB-500 is, I need to first explain what Thymosin Beta-4 is (I’m getting somewhere, I promise).
Because a lot of people get confused and ask “Is Thymosin Beta-4 the same as TB-500” after reading conflicting information on the Internet.
Thymosin Beta-4 (Tβ4) is a naturally occurring peptide in your body that is 43 amino acids long and encoded by the TMSB4x gene.
Although it is located in nearly every single tissue in the human body – except for red blood cells – Thymosin Beta-4 was initially believed to be secreted by the thymus gland when it was first isolated almost 40 years ago.
And whenever your body gets injured, the natural healing response is for your thymus gland to start secreting Thymosin Beta-4.
But your body can only produce a limited amount of this peptide, and the speed of production isn’t so fast either… which means you can only recovery from wounds and injuries as fast as your body will allow.
So what’s the workaround to this problem? How do we get our bodies to “produce” more Thymosin Beta-4 for accelerated healing and recovery?
The answer lies in TB-500, the synthetic version of Thymosin Beta-4 that is produced in a laboratory.
Yet injecting this man-made peptide, whether through the skin (subcutaneously) or directly into the muscle (intramuscularly), only solves half of the problem.
TB-500 itself is only the ACTIVE part of Thymosin Beta-4, and not the entire peptide.
This is better explained with an excerpt from The Testosterone Optimization Therapy Bible:
“Thymosin beta-4 is a very large molecule. In fact, it is so large that it cannot fit entirely into its receptor. Due to its large size, different sections of the molecule have different activities.
…TB-500 is the part of the thymosin beta-4 hormone which promotes many positive health effects. These include (but are not limited to) overall healing, wound repair, new blood cell and muscle cell formation. For medical applications, it is more practical to use TB-500 alone instead of the entire Thymosin Beta-4 protein.”
TB-500’s low molecular weight and structure give it the mobility needed to circulate throughout the entire body and travel through tissues, taking corrective action on injured areas.
Now we have to ask the main question: What exactly happens for the TB-500 peptide to exert its exceptional healing properties?
TB-500 Mechanism of Action
There are two parts behind this peptide’s regenerative properties, as seen in numerous soft tissue injuries…
The first part of TB-500’s mechanism of action involves upregulating a cell-building protein known as “actin.”
Actin allows for the restoration and maintenance of a cell’s structure, thereby speeding up the rate at which tissue injuries heal and wounds repair themselves.
Ben Greenfield explains it best in an article describing his experience with TB-500:
“The main functionality of TB500 hinges on the ability to upregulate cell building proteins such as actin, which is a protein that forms (together with myosin) the contractile filaments of muscle cells, and is also involved in motion and metabolism in many other types of cells.
Upregulation of actin allows TB500 to promote healing, cell growth, cell migration and cell proliferation. This not only helps build new blood vessel pathways but also upregulates the type of “good” inflammation that is directly correlated with faster wound healing.”
In other words, actin is a major part of maximum muscular contraction and it explains why bodybuilders using TB-500 “feel” stronger without having actually gained any muscle size or strength.
The second part of TB-500’s mechanism of action involves the formation of new blood vessels (i.e. angiogenesis).
It does so by promoting the expression of biomolecules such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) that stimulate blood cell development.
This consequently leads to increased blood flow, arguably the most CRITICAL part of healing any damaged tissue:
“Angiogenesis is deemed as the most important mechanism for Tβ4-induced cutaneous wound healing and cardioprotection…It is vital for tissue repair as cell survival and regeneration depends on a sufficient supply of nutrients and oxygen.”
Both parts work together synergistically in providing the TB-500 peptide with its therapeutic benefits, many of which will be discussed in the next section.
TB-500 Benefits
All of the healing applications for TB-500 only exist because of all the clinical and nonclinical research done on Thymosin Beta-4.
You hardly find anything when you search “TB-500” on PubMed, yet the search query “Thymosin Beta-4” gives you nearly 900 studies published over 40 years.
(FYI: This is because TB-500 is not actually marketed for human consumption and is explicitly sold as a laboratory chemical for research purposes only)
There are lots of cell culture studies, a significant number of animal studies, and only a small handful of clinical trials in humans that examine Thymosin Beta-4’s health benefits.
When you look at all of them, you realize that injury healing and wound repair are just the tip of the iceberg for what the TB-500 peptide is capable of…
Anti-Inflammatory Properties
One of TB-500’s main routes for fast injury repair comes from lowering the production of pro-inflammatory molecules:
“…administration of 100 micrograms of Tbeta(4) immediately following and at 2 and 4 h after an LD(50) dose of [endotoxin] (60 mg/kg) in mice significantly reduced mortality rates (p< or =0.024) and lowered blood levels of a number of inflammatory cytokines, eicosanoids, and other molecules that are highly elevated following endotoxin administration”
For those of you who are long-time readers, you already know that chronic inflammation is the #1 reason why injuries persist and get worse in terms of sharper pain and reduced flexibility.
But in addition to this, TB-500 also increases the production of anti-inflammatory compounds:
“TB-4 not only down-regulates inflammatory mediators but also up-regulates preinflammatory cytokine suppressors, such as interleukin-10, and reduces the infiltration and adhesion of inflammatory cells.
Recently, increasing evidence has shown that TB-4 has a strong effect on preventing apoptosis and promoting tissue regeneration”
Some scientists even believe that multiple mechanisms are at play with respect to TB-500’s anti-inflammatory properties.
It’s no wonder why TB-500 has also demonstrated anti-inflammatory effects in alcohol-induced liver injury and in rheumatoid arthritis.
Helps Repair the Heart
This was a MAJOR focus point in The Testosterone Optimization Therapy Bible, as TB-500 has been known to protect heart tissue during myocardial infarctions and heart attacks for the past few years:
“In recent reports, due to its activation of resident epicardial progenitor cells and modulation of inflammatory-caused injuries, Tβ4 has been suggested as a promoter of the survival of cardiomyocytes.
Furthermore, Tβ4 may in skeletal muscle and different organs act in association/synergism with numerous other tissue repair stimulating factors, including melatonin and C-fiber-derived peptides”
I’ll even quote the exact paragraph from my book that summarizes the research so well:
“Research has shown that if the thymosin beta-4 peptide is used after a heart attack, it can reactivate cardiac progenitor cells and repair damaged heart tissue.
In fact, some studies correlate TB-500 with healing of the heart, and in select cases it repairs ventricular hypertrophy (i.e. benign enlargement of the heart).
In mice, administration of thymosin β4 has been shown to stimulate the formation of new heart muscle cells from otherwise inactive precursor cells present in the outer lining of adult hearts
…The tissue-regenerating properties of thymosin β4 may ultimately contribute to the repair of human heart muscles that have been damaged by heart diseases and heart attacks.”
Put another way, TB-500 can prevent existing heart cells from dying while stimulating the growth of new heart cells.
One pilot study ran by Regenerx Biopharmaceuticals had patients who suffered from a heart attack receive TB-500, and the results agree with the current body of scientific research…
Heart function improved, no unwanted complications took place, and the damaged heart tissue was successfully repaired and regenerated!
Injury Healing
Here’s what you’ve been dying to see: All the evidence in favor of TB-500’s ability to heal wounds faster and more effectively while reducing tissue scarring and lowering pain at the site of injury.
Fortunately for us, TB-500’s potential for regenerating damaged cells was identified as early as 1999 when a dermal study done on rats found that the peptide was able to “accelerate wound closure, increase angiogenesis, and accelerate collagen deposition”.
Have at it!
Organs: In addition to successfully regenerating heart tissue, TB-500 has shown promise in treating liver fibrosis (i.e. excess scarring makes the liver dysfunctional), acute ischemia-caused kidney injury (i.e. insufficient blood flow to the kidney), and acute ischemia-induced lung injury.
Skin wounds: Diabetic mice had their burn wounds healed using TB-500 in one study, while another mouse study found TB-500 could promote “full-thickness cutaneous wound healing” for extremely deep cuts… all with minimal scarring.
Ligaments: A rat study where the test subjects had a transected ligament were able to recover biochemical function and evenly regrow the collagen fibers was possible with a single treatment of TB-500.
Tissue: In two separate Phase II clinical trials involving the use of TB-500 to treat pressure and stasis ulcers, healing was faster by 30 days while also lowering inflammation and preventing re-infection.
Pain relief: A study of electroacupuncture tolerance in rats found that administering TB-500 led to reduced perceptions of pain.
And if you’re interested in anecdotal testimonials, this Reddit thread is full of them:
“I started taking it a few ago for arthritic knee pain. It definitely seems to be helping that, but I’m really noticing gains in my strength and fat loss. A few weeks ago, I could maybe deadlift 495. Got 545 yesterday like it was nothing (even at a lower BW), after being stalled on DL for years.
It’s the only thing I’ve changed. Diet is the same, routine is the same. BW is actually lower. Only thing that has changed is taking TB-500.”
So if you have an injury that’s taking forever to heal, or not even healing to begin with, a healthy dosing protocol of the TB-500 peptide may be worth looking into!
Immunity Boosting
Some of TB-500’s contributions towards a stronger immune system include “assisting in the development of B cells to plasma cells to produce antibodies…implicated in lymphocyte maturation and differentiation…and regulating immunity”
There are peptide physicians who even recommend using TB-500 in combination with an immunity booster such as the peptide Thymosin Alpha-1 for better results.
American researchers at the Oak Ridge National Lab even hypothesized that higher Thymosin Beta-4 concentrations in coronavirus-infected women (2-fold more than men) explain why their symptoms are less severe!
One possible explanation for this effect has to do with where Thymosin Beta-4 is produced:
“The thymus gland is critical in developing a healthy immune system in childhood.
It stimulates the production of white blood cells into T cells and develops crucial defenses against autoimmunity (when the immune system attacks the body).
TB4 is vital for the development and production of lymphocytes into T cells and is a crucial part of the immune and endocrine systems.”
This one tends to be a little more experimental in nature… some practitioners claim TB-500 has been used for diseases such as HIV, influenza, and the common cold, but I have yet to see an officially published study investigate this.
Treatment of Neurological Disorders
Could TB-500 go as far as to fix any damage done to the brain?
It’s technically possible, considering that the brain is its very own organ… one RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals patent floating around in existence claims TB-500 can treat symptoms of peripheral neuropathy by addressing the root cause of nerve cell damage.
One application of TB-500 could be towards traumatic brain injury (TBI), which is now becoming a serious therapeutic candidate after some very promising results in a breakthrough rat study where recovery started as early as 6-hours post-treatment.
Other studies in mice find that TB-500 can lead to functional improvements in behavioral outcomes, lead to new blood vessel growth in damaged areas of the brain, and possibly restore sensory-motor skills!
Repairing Eye Damage
Dry eye disorder used to be a long-standing problem until TB-500 came along:
“Thymosin β4 (Tβ4), a small, naturally occurring protein, promotes complete and faster corneal healing than saline alone or prescription agents (doxycycline and cyclosporine) in various animal models of eye injury.
In human trials, it improves both the signs and symptoms of moderate to severe dry eye with effects lasting beyond the treatment period.”
One such human trial was a Phase II clinical trial that confirmed the use of TB-500 was both safe and effective in greatly reducing discomfort associated with severe dry eye, even when 4 weeks had passed by since the last dose!
All of TB-500’s amazing properties – healing wounds, migrating cells, preventing cell death, and anti-inflammatory activity – manifest equally well in the cornea of your eye!
TB-500 Safety and Side Effects
In many of the clinical trials performed, healthy and sick adult volunteers successfully take TB-500 without any toxicity events or unwanted side effects.
And despite a lack of published experiments using humans as test subjects, anecdotal evidence would dictate that any side effects are minor in severity and tend to go away pretty quickly after a few doses.
The most commonly reported side effects of the TB-500 peptide include:
- Head rush
- Lethargy/Fatigue
- Nausea
- Headache
- Skin irritation (a common inconvenience of peptide injections in general)
- Possible energy crash following a workout (despite an “increase” in energy while working out)
I suspect these TB-500 side effects are the body’s gradual adaptation to elevated levels of Thymosin Beta-4, although I have not personally experienced them myself.
So long as you are doing everything correctly in using TB-500 (i.e. using proper injection techniques, appropriately storing and reconstituting the peptide, calculating the right dose, sourcing pharmaceutical-grade TB-500 only, etc.), it’s extremely unlikely you’ll run across these problems.
But it is indeed possible – remember, the absence of serious side effects in the few clinical studies published to date does not automatically mean they won’t exist when you use TB-500.
It all comes down to biochemical individuality ( i.e. N of 1): Everybody is different.
The TB-500 dosing protocol (amount, frequency, etc.) that works for me may not necessarily work for you, and vice versa.
TB-500 and Cancer
Just a quick note on this before I move on to the next section…
You may see one paper that claims Thymosin Beta-4 can suppress the invasion of non-small cell lung cancer cells, and another state that Thymosin Beta-4 overexpression was associated with malignant progress of colon cancer cells.
But as Ben Greenfield points out, higher levels of Thymosin Beta-4 DO NOT mean the peptide itself is actually causing cancer:
“After more research was conducted, it was discovered that the main action of Thymosin Beta 4 was to produce new white blood cells – so its presence in the body in the areas affected by cancer was likely not a cause of the cancer, but instead, a matter of “showing up” in the body where cancer lived to help the body mount an immune system response.”
Yet none of this proves the opposite argument, which is that Thymosin Beta-4 is the cancer-fighting peptide that will save the world.
I’m just adding this here to show you that no definitive answer for the link between Thymosin Beta-4 and cancer, if any, exists as of this writing.
Is TB-500 Legal For Athletes?
Having been around the bodybuilding world for two decades and counting, I can tell you one thing for sure…
If something is BANNED by sports organizations, it’s because that thing WORKS!
Take a look at TB-500 and all of the things it can potentially do for you.
Faster wound healing than what the body can naturally do, rapid pain relief from an injury, greater endurance for more intense bouts of activity, restored flexibility and range of motion after an injury… all things which would make an athlete many times more competitive.
So even though scientists in the medical community can’t reach a consensus on TB-500’s recovery-accelerating abilities, international sports judges have a much different opinion.
Here are just some of the organizations which list TB-500 (a.k.a. Thymosin Beta-4) as a prohibited substance:
There are stories of professional team members getting arrested and fined, some possibly getting suspended.
It’s quite funny to think about it when you consider that TB-500 used to be a doping drug for racing horses before being used in human beings!
In short: If you’re a competitive athlete at a high-enough level, stay away from TB-500.
Don’t try to be smart and try to “beat” the drug detection system… it’s MUCH better than you could possibly prepare yourself for.
TB-500 Dosage
The best TB-500 dosage is 100% dependent on the nature of your injury and how long your body will need to resolve it.
Some people will experience effects taking place much sooner, while others might need to give the TB-500 more time for its effects to kick in (assuming the dose and the injury are the same).
So let’s dive into the specifics of a typical TB-500 protocol and see how you can customize it for your healing needs.
How To Take TB-500
Unlike other therapeutic peptides on the market, there isn’t a universal dosing protocol for TB-500… so here’s what I recommend:
A) For treating an injury, inject 2.0-2.5 mg of TB-500 twice a week in evenly spaced doses (i.e. Monday, Thursday of a given week) for a total of 4-6 weeks, taking 2 weeks “off” before resuming another “on” cycle of 4-6 weeks.
You can have your injections be intramuscular or subcutaneous, but they DO NOT have to be precisely at the site of injury as TB-500 is distributed systemically.
(You can inject at the area of acute injury, but it is not mandatory for you to do so)
TB-500 Dosage for Bodybuilding
There are three other ways to create a TB-500 protocol, each of which are focused on bodybuilding and staying injury-free year-round instead of treating a specific problem.
B) If you want a smaller dose delivered daily, go with 750 mcg once a day over a period of 3 months, cycling 3 months “on” and one month “off”
C) Same as B) but taking 3 mg of TB-500 every other day (EOD), which works due to TB-500’s half-life of ~2-4 days
D) If you just want to maintain and keep a strained area of the body supple, inject 2.0-2.5 mg of TB-500 subcutaneously once every two weeks (i.e. twice a month).
For what it’s worth, I’ve seen people manage to take some really high doses and tolerate them well for two straight weeks without any observable side effects (i.e. ~1.2 GRAMS of TB-500 over two weeks).
However, you will do just fine with the dosing protocols I’ve outlined here – pick one and stick with it.
Some people insist on a “loading phase” for TB-500 where you take a higher dose twice per week for 4-6 weeks before dropping down to a maintenance dose, but I have never had to use it.
Beginners should go with the lowest end of the dosing range, experienced people should stay in the middle, and those looking for the maximum healing effect should stick at the top of the range.
If you want to answer the question of “How much TB-500 should I take” (or any other peptide), do what works best for you!
BPC-157 and TB-500 Blend Dosage
BPC-157 and TB-500 can both be used to accelerate your recovery from injuries and speed up the healing process.
But while they serve very similar purposes, both BPC-157 and TB-500 are distinct peptides…
BPC-157 is a synthetic 15-amino-acid long peptide derived from “Body protecting compound” (BPC), a gastrointestinal protein that was first isolated from gastric juices in the early 1990s.
Just like TB-500, BPC-157 gives you the same end result via a slightly different approach:
- BP-157 speeds up the rate at which your body naturally heals itself
- Has an anti-inflammatory effect
- Angiogenesis is part of both peptides’ healing mechanism
- Promotes various growth factors that lead to new blood vessel formation
The key difference that makes BPC-157 distinguished is the positive effects it has on gastrointestinal health, ulcers, and intestinal health, already showing success in clinical trials for treating inflammatory bowel disease.
On the other hand, TB-500 is superior when it comes to treating muscle injuries.
But don’t worry – both of these compounds work synergistically with one another and they both work systemically in the body (i.e. no “local” injections necessary).
Both BPC-157 and TB-500 can be combined to accelerate the rate of healing even further than either one alone – a MUST HAVE for aging athletes with injured ligaments and tendons from acute traumas, tears, sprains and strains!
I’m certainly not the first to have thought of this combination, as it’s one of the very first peptide protocols followed by any newbie in the therapeutic peptides space.
My experience dictates that the following protocol is the best way to combine these healing peptides:
- BPC-157: 200-750 mcg injected intramuscularly or subcutaneously twice a day, once in the morning and once at night (+500 mcg injected twice a day is acceptable for severely acute injuries)
- TB-500: 3 mg injected intramuscularly or subcutaneously every other day
Run this protocol until the injury is 100% healed – a maximum of 12 weeks as your “on” cycle before taking a 4-week break as your “off” cycle before resuming it a second tie.
It is my honest opinion that aging men and women who are living fully optimized lives should have both peptides fully stocked in their home at all times so they can be ready when (or if) an injury strikes.
I published a YouTube video recently on how to use both BPC-157 and Tb-500 together, which you can view below:
Where to Buy TB-500
If you’re going to get your hands on TB-500 for enhancing your recovery and healing multiple injuries, anything less than the ultra-pure stuff won’t cut it.
Which is why I ONLY recommend you source peptides like TB-500 from Limitless Life Nootropics.
Use code JAY15 to get 15% off your order
I have interviewed him myself and thoroughly vetted him to make sure he can deliver the quality of products I know you expect from me.
As always…
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