Peptides as an alternative to cortisone shots

more and more dangers of cortisone shots are being recognized but they're still performed far too often for Orthopedic injuries are there better and safer treatment options in this video I discuss whether peptides could replace steroid injections my name is Dr David Guyer triple board certified orthopedic surgeon Sports Medicine specialist an anti-aging and regenerative medicine expert I help you feel look and perform your best regardless of age or injury real quickly cortisone shots and I've got a number of video about cortisone shots for a lot of different problems and why I'm not necessarily a big fans not to say there's never a role for them but for the most part there's a lot of concern one they've been shown to increase the breakdown of articular cartilage and speed the development of arthritis so it's really not a great treatment for early arthritis and early pain from arthritis despite the fact that so many doctors just you come in with knee arthritis cortisone shot come back when it flares back up cortisone shot I just don't feel like that that's a great option and Studies have shown that cortisone is detrimental for the cartilage also cortisone is really bad for healing of a tendon injected directly into the tendon it weakens the tendon increases the risk of rupture and so you look at all different types of injuries where it's a tendon problem patellar tendon uh killes tendon a variety of others that would be really problematic and there's thought that that may be true with rotator cuff problems people that get shoulder injections cortisone injections for rotator cuff problems so that's my quick two cents on cortisone I really don't feel like it speeds the recovery of any injury uh in terms of actually getting that tissue to heal so would something like peptides whether it's bpc 157 or thymus and beta 4 potentially be an alternative yes they potentially would and I'll explain why but first please understand almost all peptides are considered experimental by the FDA and by insurance companies they're not paid for by insurance companies they're not promoted as as a viable treatment by the FDA despite the fact that so many people are on them now they're probably getting them from places where I don't think is a good idea namely these online sites I have whole videos about that topic uh so if you want to check that out uh please do but I say this because I want to give you information about what this is really from an unbiased Source or hopefully as unbiased as possible I'm not promoting it I'm not saying this is something you should definitely do but because I get so many questions about peptides largely because of my certification in peptide therapy and my board certification in anti-aging and regenerative medicine people want to know from me as an orthopedic surgeon do I think they could potentially be helpful and so that's where this is not promoting it not telling you where to get it any of that I have other videos check out my modern medicine playlist on on this channnel why peptides might work is a little simple like I said cortisone trying it's basically a painkiller and an anti-inflammatory trying to get you just basically to feel better largely doesn't get the tissue to heal in the case of something like bpc 157 or thymus and beta 4 tb4 or tb500 the hope is it's getting those tendons and ligaments to heal to actually heal better than just rest and physical therapy and things like that and it may do that they the studies there really aren't that many human studies looking at some of these injuries looking at arthritis looking at Achilles tendons and rotator cuff tendons and things like that there are animal studies where they've basically severed rats Achilles tendons and then look to see if something like bpc would help it to heal and it did seem to do that so yes whether complete rupture that would be the way you'd want to go that might be a stretch but certainly for tennis elbow patellar tendonopathy Achilles tendonopathy uh could be helpful for a variety of things muscle strains and injuries hamstring strains calf strains maybe peptides delivered to that area might be beneficial I've got another video coming up soon uh that I'm going to record and share on the best ways to get peptides whether an oral version would be better or a subcutaneous injection won't get into that here but keep an eye out for that but peptides could be helpful there're again very few human studies and certainly not what the ideal studies the randomized placebo control double blinded studies but those studies are also very expensive to do and when you're talking about experimental treatments if the government's not paying for that study and the big academic centers aren't doing it it's really hard to get those kinds of studies done and that's why you see what is out there if anything or just a series of 20 people and that's where it gets to be sort of difficult is it anecdotal evidence just people saying oh I feel a little bit bit better but maybe they would have felt better had they not done it having said that there's countless studies of people that do feel a lot better using peptides after tendon injuries and in theory from a basic science and chemical standpoint it does at least make sense that peptides could potentially get some of these injuries to heal faster now I'd love to hear your experience whether that you had a cortisone shot or you had peptides to get over a particular injury and again I am not saying peptides are something that you should do but I'd love to hear it so leave those in the comments below this video if you leave a question in the comments asking for medical advice just know I can't give you medical advice but like I did here I might answer that question in a future video make sure to subscribe to my channel click the Bell to be notified when I release a new video and when I start a live stream like my monthly ask Dr Guy live shows I hope this was helpful thank you so much for watching and I look forward to helping you feel look and perform better than ever