GHK-Cu alongside BPC for a slow-healing Achilles tendinopathy, redundant or smart?

Question

I've been dealing with insertional Achilles tendinopathy for about 8 months now. Eccentric loading, heavy slow resistance, the whole boring rehab grind. Progress is real but painfully slow, anecdotally feels like I'm only getting maybe 70% back to baseline before the tendon starts complaining again with any kind of sprint or hill work. I ran injectable BPC for 6 weeks earlier this year and it helped, I think, but I'm wondering if adding GHK-Cu subQ would be redundant or actually stack well. My thinking is BPC for the tendon repair signaling and GHK-Cu for collagen synthesis and inflammation, basically covering two different angles. For anyone who's layered them, did you notice a real difference vs BPC solo? Also curious about timing, would you run GHK-Cu daily and BPC around the same window, or separate them by a few hours? And how long before you'd reassess whether the combo is even doing anything.

tracker_jade · Accepted Answer

Yeah you're probably right about the third variable thing, that's been nagging at me too. I did get an ultrasound early on and it showed some thickening and neovascularization, which is partly why I tried BPC in the first place. How long would you run another BPC round before calling it, like 6 weeks again or longer?

raj_p · Answer

Tbh 8 months of insertional Achilles is the worst, I've been there. Your logic makes sense on paper. Different mechanisms, different angles. But for me, the bigger win came from finally getting an ultrasound with a proper sports doc and confirming I didn't have a partial tear driving the lingering pain. Cost me months of just grinding rehab blind. Re timing, I'd separate them by a few hours just to make tracking easier if something feels off. GHK-Cu daily, BPC around the loading sessions maybe. Honestly though, the sprint and hill work thing is the real bottleneck. How does the tendon feel 24h after a hard session? If it's still grumbling, you probably need more rehab time before stacking anything new.

tracker_jade · Answer

Yeah getting the ultrasound was on my list, I actually had one at month 3 and it showed thickening but no tear, so I kinda wrote it off after that. Maybe it's worth repeating since the picture could be different now. Separating them by a few hours makes sense, hadn't thought of it from a tracking angle but that's a if something goes sideways I want to know what to blame. On the sprint and hill piece, that's exactly the bottleneck. Tendon feels solid on the Alfredson protocol and slow resistance, even box jumps are fine. But anything plyometric or up a grade and it's like a switch flips, sharp pain right at the insertion that takes a day or two to calm down. Super frustrating because strength is clearly there.

frugal_vet · Answer

Honestly the imaging point is massive and I think a lot of people skip it. Rehab blind is basically guessing, and you can grind for months chasing the wrong thing. Glad you got it sorted in the end. On the stacking question, I'm not sold it's actually doing more than BPC alone here. The evidence for GHK-Cu on tendons specifically is pretty thin, mostly wound healing and skin stuff. If BPC already moved the needle for you, I'd want to see if another round plus smarter loading gets you the rest of the way before adding a third variable. Otherwise you'll never know which thing actually helped. What does your loading look like right now, and have you tried anything for the insertional bit specifically like isometrics or that Alfredson protocol done properly?

GHK-Cu alongside BPC for a slow-healing Achilles tendinopathy, redundant or smart?

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