The Peptide thread

[RottenWillow]

This is not a short intro, but it is by no stretch of the imagination comprehensive. Rather it is intended to be a working reference guide to those women interested in embarking on personal research into peptides.

Everything below is a vastly edited version of DatBtrue's encyclopedic thread on PM on the subject of peptides. DB is The Man when it comes to peptides. In the event anything you read below appears to contradict something you've read elsewhere on the subject, it's a safe bet what you read elsewhere is erroneous.

RW





What is a peptide?

A peptide is a molecule created by joining two or more amino acids. In general if the number of amino acids is less than fifty, these molecules are called peptides, while larger sequences are referred to as proteins.

So peptides can be thought of as tiny proteins. They are merely strings of amino acids.

The Amino Acid Structures of Peptides discussed in this thread


Growth Hormone Releasing peptides (GHRPs) (GH pulse initiators):

- GHRP-6

- GHRP-2

- Hexarelin

- Ipamorelin

Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone (GHRH) (amplifies the GHRP initiated pulse):

- Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone (GHRH) aka GRF(1-44)


- GRF(1-29) aka Sermorelin: half-life "less then 10
minutes", perhaps as low as 5 minutes.

- Longer-lasting analogs of GRF(1-29):

-modified GRF(1-29) or CJC-1295 w/o the DAC
Half-life at least 30 minutes or so

-CJC-1295: Half-life measured in days

 

[RottenWillow]

A Brief Summary of Dosing and Administration

Dosing GHRPs


The saturation dose in most studies on the GHRPs (GHRP-6, GHRP-2, Ipamorelin & Hexarelin) is defined as either 100mcg or 1mcg/kg.

What that means is that 100mcg will saturate the receptors fully, but if you add another 100mcg to that dose only 50% of that portion will be effective. If you add an additional 100mcg to that dose only about 25% will be effective. Perhaps a final 100mcg might add a little something to GH release but that is it.

So 100mcg is the saturation dose and you could add more up to 300 to 400mcg and get a little more effect.

A 500mcg dose will not be more effective then a 400mcg, perhaps not even more effective then 300mcg.

The additional problems are desensitization & cortisol/prolactin side-effects.

Ipamorelin is about as efficacious as GHRP-6 in causing GH release but even at higher dose (above 100mcg) it does not create prolactin or cortisol.

GHRP-6 at the saturation dose 100mcg does not really increase prolactin & cortisol but may do so slightly at higher doses. This rise is still within the normal range.

GHRP-2 is a little more efficacious then GHRP-6 at causing GH release but at the saturation dose or higher may produce a slight to moderate increase in prolactin & cortisol. This rise is still within the normal range although doses of 200 - 400mcg might make it the high end of the normal range.

Hexarelin is the most efficacious of all of the GHRPs at causing an increase in GH release. However it has the highest potential to also increase cortisol & prolactin. This rise will occur even at the 100mcg saturation dose. This rise will reach the higher levels of what is defined as normal.




Desensitization

GHRP-6 can be used at saturation dose (100mcg) three or four times a day without risk of desensitization.

GHRP-2 probably at saturation dose several times a day will not result in desensitization.

Hexarelin has been shown to bring about desensitization but in a long-term study the pituitary recovered its sensitivity so that there was not long-term loss of sensitivity at saturation dose. However dosing Hexarelin even at 100mcg three times a day will likely lead to some down regulation within 14 days.

If desensitization were to ever occur for any of these GHRPs simply stopping use for several days will remedy this effect.

Chronic use of GHRP-6 at 100mcg dosed several times a day every day will not cause pituitary problems, nor significant prolactin or cortisol problems, nor desensitize.

GHRH

Now Sermorelin, GHRH (1-44) and GRF(1-29) all are basically GHRH and have a short half-life in plasma because of quick cleavage between the 2nd & 3rd amino acid. This is no worry naturally because this hormone is secreted from the hypothalamus and travels a short distance to the underlying anterior pituitary and is not really subject to enzymatic cleavage. The release from the hypothalamus and binding to somatotrophs (pituitary cells) happens quickly.

However when injected into the body it must circulate before finding its way to the pituitary and so within 3 minutes it is already being degraded.

That is why GHRH in the above forms must be dosed high to get an effect.



Problem w/ Using any GHRH alone

The problem with using a GHRH even the stronger analogs is that they are only highly effective when somatostatin is low (the GH inhibiting hormone). So if you unluckily administer in a trough (or when a GH pulse is not naturally occurring) you will add very little GH release. If however you luckily administer during a rising wave or GH pulse (somatostatin will not be active at this point) you will add to GH release.


Solution is GHRP + GHRH analog

The solution is simple and highly effective. You administer a GHRH analog with a GHRP. The GHRP creates a pulse of GH. It does this through several mechanisms. One mechanism is the reduction of somatostatin release from the hypothalamus, another is a reduction of somatostatin influence at the pituitary, still another is increased release of GHRH from the brain and finally GHRPs act on the same pituitary cells (somatotrophs) as do GHRHs but use a different mechanism to increase cAMP formation which will further cause GH release from somatotroph stores.

GHRH also has a way of reciprocally reinforcing GHRPs action.

The result is a synergistic GH release.

The GH is not additive it is synergistic. By that I mean:

If GHRH by itself will cause a GH release valued at 2
and GHRP itself will cause a GH release valued at 5

Together the GH is not 7 (5+2) it turns out to say 16!



A solid protocol

A solid protocol would be to use a GHRP + a GHRH analog pre-bed (to support the nightime pulse) and once or twice throughout the day.

For anti-aging, deep restful restorative sleep, the once at night dosing is all you need. For an adult aged 40+ it is enough to restore GH to youthful levels.

However for bodybuilding or fatloss or injury repair multiple dosings can be effective.

The GHRH analog can be used at 100mcg and as high as you want without problems.

The GHRP-6 can always be used at 100mcg w/o problems but a dose of 200mcg will probably be fine as well.

Again desensitization is something to keep an eye on particularly with the highest doses of GHRP-2 and all doses of Hexarelin.

So 100 - 200mcg of GHRP-6 + 100 - 500mcg+ of a GHRH analog taken together will be effective.

This may be dosed several times a day to be highly effective.

A solid approach is a bit more conservative at 100mcg of GHRP-6 + 100mcg of a GHRH analog dosed either once, twice, three or four times a day.

When dosing multiple times a day at least 3 hours should separate the administrations.

The difference is once a day dosing pre-bed will give a youthful restorative amount of GH while multiple dosing and or higher levels will give higher GH & IGF-1 levels when coupled with diet & exercise will lead to muscle gain & fatloss.




Dose without food

Administration should ideally be done on either an empty stomach or with only protein in the stomach. Fats & carbs blunt GH release. So administer the peptides and wait about 20 minutes (no more then 30 but no less then 15 minutes) to eat. AT that point the GH pulse has about hit the peak and you can eat what you want.

 

[RottenWillow]

Q: Could women also use cjc1295 ?

Dat: Yes. Growth Hormone is a uni-sexual hormone. It is not specific to either sex and is present in both.

The primary difference appears to be the secretory release pattern. See the normal GH secretory pattern over 24 hours charted in my post #6 in this thread for both men & women.

Women have more pulses throughout the day and higher troughs. Men have a huge night-time pulse that results in most of their GH release for the day.



Q: would the dosage be the same
as for a man ?

Dat: Dosages for children and women should probably be determined by weight. So 1mcg/kg is the saturation dose for either GHRH (CJC-1295) and also the GHRPs (GHRP-6, etc)


Unit Conversion:
1kg = 2.2lbs
50kgs = 110lbs
70kgs = 154lbs.

Also with women we are not overly concerned with supporting the night-time pulse...although it is probably a good idea to use the same dosing pattern as I laid out.

 

[RottenWillow]

Ok it's your narrator RW again. All of the stuff you've read about thus far is legal. There are websites aplenty where you can order various peptides for your own personal research.

There are two peptides though that have become particularly popular, GHRP-6 and CJC-1295. Below are some excerpts where Dat focuses on those two in particular.


Long-lasting GHRH analog CJC-1295

While the studies have demonstrated repeatedly that administration of GHRH does increase GH secretion and amplifies the release pulse there does remain a significant drawback. GHRH has a very short half life, measured in minutes with a fairly short clearance rate measured in hours. (24) While this is a sufficient amount of time to exert a positive effect on GH secretion, particularly if GHRH is administered multiple times a day, the result is less than optimal. (25,26)

It is for this reason that longer-lasting analogs of GHRH were researched and developed. (28) The most effective of which is CJC-1295.

Exposure of native GHRH to blood plasma results in rapid degradation. CJC-1295, a synthetic human GHRH analog avoids rapid degradation by possessing the ability to selectively and covalently bind to endogenous albumin after subcutaneous administration. Albumin possesses a half-life of 19 days in humans and so modified GHRH bound to albumin greatly extends its half-life and duration of action. (27)

In a recent (2006) study CJC-1295 was found to result in "sustained, dose-dependent increases in GH and IGF-I levels in healthy adults and was safe and relatively well tolerated, particularly at doses of 30mcg/kg or 60 mcg/kg.



Growth Hormone Releasing Peptides - GHRP-6


In 1980 the first highly potent GH-Releasing peptide was developed and named GHRP-6. This peptide was found to illicit a strong GH release response and so became the first member of a class of growth hormone releasing peptides more broadly called GH secretagogues (GHS's). Structurally GHRP-6 is composed of the amino acids L-Histidine, D-Tryptophan, L-Alanine, L-Tryptophan, D-Phenylalanine and L-Lysine.


Why you need both GHRH analog (CJC-1295) and GHRP


GHS Down Regulation

A single dose of a GHS in vivo brings about an immediate down-regulation of responsiveness to subsequent administration. This desensitization appears to abate and sensitivity fully restored within a few hours.

However continual infusion of large amounts of GHS brings about a substantial initial release of GH, followed, after several hours, by long-term down-regulation of GH secretion.

The only published comparison of the results of differing modes of GHS delivery (twice daily injections vs. continuous infusion) in vivo demonstrated a dramatic dissipation of anabolism following infusions of high-dose GHS. However a pronounced anabolic effect was maintained with the same dose of GHS administered by intermittent injection.


CJC-1295 brings about persistent and chronically elevated levels of GH while GHRP-6 if injected a couple of times a day amplifies the very important GH pulses. The two compounds greatly compliment each other.

 

[OrbitNutrition.com]

Peptides are fun and can give some nice gains if run properly.

 

[RADAR]

I love peptides

 

[superqt4u2nv]

Awesome info RW thank you.