Brendan Ruh, the founder of Santa Cruz Medicinals and host of the Santa Cruz podcast, sat down with the Full Send podcast crew for a conversation on health. When the topic of peptides came up, Ruh shared both his personal experience and some warnings for people looking to experiment with them.
The conversation first touched on peptides in the context of energy and cellular health. Ruh mentioned that new stuff is emerging in the space.
He said, “People are coming out with these mitochondrial peptides. I talked to an elite level jiu-jitsu athlete that started blasting this mitochondrial peptide, which, don’t do this guys, it’s still being researched. But he was like, ‘Yo, I’m taking this and that,’ and he was like, ‘Dude, I don’t get tired. Like, I don’t get tired.’ So that’s where like real energy comes from.”
Later, when asked directly about his opinion on peptides, Ruh gave a more detailed breakdown. “Peptides as a whole, it really depends which one,” he said. “I’m on BPC-157. Huge fan of it. Started that somewhat recently and, you know, in jiu-jitsu you get little injuries and stuff.”
He explained how he has used BPC-157 on a specific ankle injury: “I sprained my ankle. Then I went and trained with Michael Morales, that UFC athlete, and I was like, forget it, I’m just going to train with my ankle swollen. So it got worse. And then boom, I’m hitting it with BPC.”
He also noted he brought the peptide with him on a Tahoe trip so he would not miss snowboarding with his friends: “That, combined with the physical therapy, like movement of it, it’s pretty far. I’m a big fan of it.”
Beyond BPC-157, Ruh acknowledged other options in the peptide category, with varying levels of confidence. “Other peptides like GHK-Cu is very popular. That seems relatively safe.”
However, he was clear about where the risk begins. “There are ones that mess with your endocrine system. Like some of the ostarine and stuff can mess with your endocrine system. Retatrutide, you know, is like very popular. Again, like sure, if you’re really overweight, you could use it, but not everybody should be using that.”
