Frontline Health
Troy Duell with Centurion is providing you with health information and guests to elevate your health and help make your life better. Centurion is a pharmaceutical company that chooses to put people over profits and allow science to dictate what products we bring to market. Our goal is to provide products that you can both afford and are beneficial to your health. It doesn't matter how good a product is if you can't afford it. This podcast will provide you with the best health information possible through sharing studies and current data. We will also interview the leading health experts across the country. We will share sides of the story you may not have heard. Our promise to you is to source all of the information we share with you and speak the truth. We hope this truth is used by you and your loved ones to elevate your health and life.
Frontline Health
#108 - TB4: The Healing Peptide
The tiny but mighty peptide thymocene beta-4 (TB4) takes center stage in this fascinating exploration of healing at the cellular level. Despite being studied since the 1960s, TB4 is only now emerging as a revolutionary approach to tissue repair and recovery.
Troy Duell breaks down the science behind this 43-amino acid peptide that works as a cellular "helper," enabling actin (a structural protein) to rebuild tissues after injury. Unlike conventional treatments that simply reduce inflammation, TB4 orchestrates a comprehensive healing response—promoting new blood vessel formation, directing proper cell migration to injury sites, and limiting excessive scar tissue that can restrict movement.
Why did it take decades for peptides like TB4 to reach their potential? The challenges were numerous: poor stability, delivery obstacles, manufacturing limitations, and regulatory uncertainty. Most critically, early oral peptides had abysmal absorption rates below 5%. The game-changer came with the addition of arginine salt, boosting bioavailability to an impressive 90-95% and eliminating the need for injections.
The applications for TB4 span multiple areas: topical treatment for diabetic ulcers, eye drops for corneal injuries and dry eye disease, potential cardiovascular protection following heart attacks, and accelerated healing of ligaments and tendons. Perhaps most exciting is the synergistic effect when "stacking" TB4 with other peptides like BPC-157, creating exponential rather than merely additive benefits.
For anyone struggling with injuries that won't heal, chronic inflammation, or seeking to maintain mobility as they age, TB4 represents a glimpse into the future of functional medicine—working with the body's natural processes to optimize healing at the cellular level. Ready to explore how peptides might support your recovery journey? Visit centurionpeptides.health for high-quality, USA-made peptide products.
Thanks for listening to this edition of Frontline Health by Centurion. Remember, you are your best health advocate.
Shop safe, effective, and affordable health and wellness products at www.centurion.health.
Subscribe to our newsletter.
Follow us on social media:
TikTok - @frontlinehealthpodcast
Youtube - Centurion Health
Facebook - Centurion Health
Instagram - @frontlinehealthpodcast
X - @TheCenturionWay
Today on the Frontline Health Podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we'll touch on the arginine first.
Speaker 2:So the arginine really is there as the salt component that allows it to get absorbed into the body. What they found was a lot of issues they were having with the earlier forms of BPC-157 in particular, is they would take it orally and you would have 5% or less of it actually get absorbed in your body Once they added this arginine salt. There are studies that suggest that it's getting upwards of 90 to 95% of that being absorbed in your body. So we've increased the bioavailability of it, which means you're going to have more of that going towards the parts of your body that you need it to go to and it's actually going to start working.
Speaker 2:So, with BPC-157 and TB4 in particular, there have been some studies where they're calling it stacking, where you're putting these peptides on top of one another. They both seem to work very, very well at creating new red blood cells and new blood vessels. It also reduces that inflammation. We talked about what TB4 does. Well, bpc-157 is doing the same thing and you've got two of them working on two different areas of your body but creating the same results.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to another episode of the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion, where we share health news, tips and insights to help you take ownership of your health. I'm Evan Patrick. Troy Duhl, our founder and CEO, is here with me. Today we're doing an ingredient spotlight on a small but fascinating peptide called TB4, short for thymocene beta-4. Am I saying that right, troy?
Speaker 2:It is as close as a Southerner can get when you're talking big words like that. So, thank you, did a great job. But yeah, that TB4 is really starting to garner some more headlines and highlights, especially within the sports world, and it seems to be coming of age and really wanted to do this podcast to talk a little bit more about what it is, where it came from and kind of what does the science actually say about it. And you know, as always, this is an informational podcast. It's not medical advice. So, as you hear some of these things, it may be something that will work for you, for your health, but always consult a physician or a health practitioner before you jump on anything and do your own research and diligence over that.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, we hope that this episode is educational for you. Let's jump right into it. So to get things started, why don't you tell us what is TB4?
Speaker 2:Well, we've talked about peptides earlier and TB4 is just like all the other peptides.
Speaker 2:It's a short protein which is kind of found in a lot of the tissues of the body.
Speaker 2:It's encoded by this is going to be a long word and a little bit crazy but it's TMSB4X, which is a gene, and it's really best known for interacting with actin, which is another protein that helps our body develop that scaffolding of our cells and helps them move, and it also helps them heal. So TB4 can really be thought more about as a helper to let actin do its job and build itself up as it goes through, so it can remodel itself after an injury or something else that's happened. So we know that scientists really started studying this as far as as long ago as the 1960s to 1980s and they had what was called thymacine fraction 5, which they pulled out of baby cows, and they identified several peptides in there. One of them happened to be TB4, which is a 43 amino acid peptide, which means it's really long and it's got a lot of chains in there, and that really started the path for TB4 to get some of this recognition, especially when you're talking about tissue repair and cell migration.
Speaker 1:So this is not the first time we've heard of a peptide that came out of research done in the 60s. Why has it taken so long for peptides to gain traction?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there are a lot of answers to that, or a lot of pieces to it. So the first is stability. We know that early on most of these things didn't. They were not very stable and they weren't shelf stable, so it's taken a little bit of time to get them more stable. We also didn't have a way to bring it to market, so it wasn't deliverable. You couldn't put it inside of capsules. You couldn't do a lot of the injections because they would break down over time. So we've been able to improve the way that we deliver things and put them inside capsules and make them in a way that the body won't break them down.
Speaker 2:And then I think you also have issues with developing large quantities of these peptides that we couldn't do in times past. So it's taken us a while to figure out how do we get this thing to where we can scale it up, develop a lot of it and then get it out to everybody and making sure that everything is pure while we do it. So there are those purity requirements that we want to make sure everything we're putting in our body is pure, and I think that was a big piece. And then also the fact that it just costs a lot and you have some issues with the regulatory side of things. The FDA is not real sure where to put these peptides. Do you call it a biosimilar? Do you call it a biologic? Is it a small molecule? They don't really know where to put it and therefore it's kind of in this gray zone because the FDA hasn't come out and said exactly where this should land within the regulatory realm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's super helpful, troy. I think a lot of people are scared to touch peptides. We talk about all these benefits that they have, but you kind of breakingening us on kind of how that works and why it's taken some time. But we're really excited because there is so much potential in these peptides and really a lot of people think of them as kind of the future of functional medicine. So thank you for breaking that down. So, moving back to TB4 in particular, how does TB4 work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, in most of the lab and animal studies it really seems to be made more for healing. Because what it's doing is a lot of the same things that we talked about with BPC-157 in some previous podcast is that it seems to promote new blood vessel growth, it helps reduce inflammation and it encourages cells to kind of move into that injury site, but it's not flooding it. It's taking the bad ones away, putting in the good cells that we want to have in there to help rebuild things, and then it limits that scar formation. So if you have an injury, oftentimes you get scarring. That happens, say, you roll your ankle, you get a lot of swelling down there.
Speaker 2:What this is going to do is bring down the right amount of inflammation, but it's not going to overdo it to where you have scar tissue and you limit your mobility. So that seems to be the biggest selling point of TB4 and what seems to be happening in there. Selling point of TB4 and what seems to be happening in there and, as we mentioned earlier, because it's a big part of that actin, which is the protein that our body uses to help kind of lay that structure for healing, then that's what we see is going on with TB4. It comes in, helps actin work and then it helps to kind of rebuild those areas and then, it helps to kind of rebuild those areas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds like there really are a lot of potential applications for TB4. So let's break it down by area. Could you tell us a little bit about the evidence we've seen for the benefit of TB4 in different areas?
Speaker 2:Yeah, interestingly, there's a lot of use. When it comes to a topical standpoint, They've used it for wound healing, specifically with diabetes and some ulcers diabetic ulcers They've also found and probably the most promising within the FDA is for eye drops and it helps with corneal issues. It also helps with dry eye disease. So there are several things that seem to be getting some research there. It also seems to help protect the heart after a heart attack. Now, this is still just within animal studies, so not a lot of solid evidence there, but it has very, very promising effects. When you're talking about getting greater protection for your cardiovascular health after having a heart attack and then kind of the others is, it seems to be showing more potential, which is what we've touched on earlier with the healing of your ligaments and tendons, and I think that's why we're seeing it so often within the tissue repair discussion specifically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know if we want to go here at this point or not, but one of the things that we've been working on is using TB4 in combination with a couple of other ingredients BPC-157, which is another peptide that we have covered on the show, that we have as a product in our store, and then also arginine, which helps with the absorption. Could you kind of talk for just a little bit about how BPC-157, arginine and TB4 can kind of work together to really accelerate that healing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we'll touch on the arginine first. So the arginine really is there as the salt component that allows it to get absorbed into the body. What they found was a lot of issues they were having with the earlier forms of BPC-157 in particular, is they would take it orally and you would have 5% or less of it actually get absorbed in your body Once they added this arginine salt. There are studies that suggest that it's getting upwards of 90 to 95% of that being absorbed in your body. So we've increased the bioavailability of it, which means you're going to have more of that going towards the parts of your body that you need it to go to and it's actually going to start working.
Speaker 2:So, with BPC-157 and TB4 in particular, there've been some studies where they're calling it stacking, where you're putting these peptides on top of one another. They both seem to work very, very well at creating new red blood cells and new blood vessels. It also reduces that inflammation. We talked about what TB4 does. Well, bpc-157 is doing the same thing and you've got two of them working on two different areas of your body but creating the same result. So you get this kind of an exponential effect because you've got these two products that you're taking at the same time.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's super helpful. I think that's something that a lot of people just don't know. You hear people sometimes when they're talking about using BPC-157,. They think only taking the injectable form is going to be something where it is effective, and they would be right if not. For the arginine which you just explained, increasing the absorption from 5% to somewhere around 95% is pretty remarkable when you really think about it, and then stacking this TB4 on top of it, it sounds like there's really a lot of potential there.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think you know as you take it or as individuals start to take it, and we see more studies and more evidence showing this wound healing seems to be helping in a well. Ligament and tendon healing seems to be really growing and having a great impact. So I'm excited to see what more of these studies suggest as we go through the next couple of years with peptides, because I think we're just on the beginning stages of something that could be really really instrumental in healing and longevity and making sure that we have a strong quality of life, because most of us have some type of injury that we're dealing with, from whether that's playing sports when you're younger or car accidents or any of those things you're younger or car accidents or any of those things and if there was something out there that would help, I think we're all looking for that particular option.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, and we've covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. What are some key takeaways for our listeners when it comes to TB4?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the big thing is TB4 is a human peptide, so we know that it's going to be involved in the cell movement, cell repair, and it's been around since the 60s and 80s that they've been looking at it. Remember that it's been used to help with eyes, particularly dry eyes, and any corneal damage that may happen. We know that it's helped with topical on wounds and specifically diabetic ulcers. But then the other pieces that seem to come into play are also the ligament and tendon repair and also some cardiovascular benefit as well further down the road. So it's an exciting opportunity because I think we're just getting to the starting gates of some of the benefits that we're going to see with TB4.
Speaker 1:That's really great, Troy. Is there anything else that you want to add on to that before we wrap up this episode?
Speaker 2:I think we're good. I'm super excited about seeing this whole peptide realm continue to grow over the years to come, and I think we all need to just keep our eyes open and watch for this, because this could be a great step in each of us helping to take ownership of our health in new ways.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and you know, as we've mentioned, there are a lot of fakes out there, so people have to be really careful about where they're getting their peptides from. We would definitely encourage you, guys, if you're looking for peptides that are authentic, that are high quality and that have still been made affordable to you, be sure to check out the peptide products that we have at centurionpeptideshealth. That's our spotlight for t4. You got an ingredient you want us to cover? Next, send us a message. Be happy to talk about it until next time. We encourage you to go out and take ownership of your health, because you are your best health advocate. If you enjoyed what you heard today on the podcast, please consider leaving us a review. We would love to hear your feedback and connect with you further. You can also follow us on Instagram X, tiktok and YouTube, and, for safe, effective and affordable health and wellness products made in the USA, visit wwwcenturionhealth. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.