Also: modified GRF(1-29) · CJC-1295 no DAC · CJC-1295 with DAC
ExcludedSleepRecoveryMetabolicInjection
Long-acting GHRH analogue stacked with ipamorelin; GH axis, vasodilatory reactions.
YADAIFTQSYRKVLAQLSARKLLQDILSRmodified GRF(1-29): D-Ala2, Gln8, Ala15, Leu27, C-amide; DAC form adds C-terminal Lys(maleimidopropionyl) for albumin binding; 'no-DAC' = mod GRF 1-29
#59 of 61 research peptides · updated
Access
Grey market
Cost / month
≈ €14–27
at 100–200 mcg/day · XL Peptides · €4.54/mg · no trust-4 shop lists it
InjectionFelt in 1–5 min
15 min1 h6 h1 day1 week
Builds over days or weeks of regular use rather than with each dose.
You will feel like shit for around 2-4 weeks. I started this stack and it took me 4 weeks to get through the loading phase. Felt sluggish and hardly any energy in my cardio runs or out of breath on my ski/row. After I started week 5 it was a drastic change.
Then suddenly I had a scary reaction after 2 days off. More than a flush: —my heart rate spiked from 66 to 126 extremely quickly. —my arms and hands turned bright red and were itchy. —I had pulsing tinnitus ringing in both ears.
Bad reactionMetabolic · 200 mcg CJC + 200 mcg ipamorelin + 200 mcg GHRP-2, 4 nights/week · Injection · ~10 weeks
doctor-supervised; escalating reaction came after 2 days off
Strict case
GH/IGF-1 axis elevation plus FDA-noted tachycardia/vasodilatory reactions and anaphylaxis.
Users report
Same profile as ipamorelin since they're used together: sleep and recovery praised, body-composition change slow and modest. Users split over whether HGH is simply better. The DAC version is disliked for constant GH elevation. Reports include sleep disruption, raised heart rate, injection-site welts, and one passed-out-and-seizure account.
Best effects
Sleep · recovery · IGF-1 increase
Downsides
Flushing, head rush · sleep disruption / tachycardia at night · injection-site lumps · sluggish 2-4 week 'loading' feeling
Watch
GH/IGF-1 elevation, fasting glucose and insulin resistance · FDA: serious AEs incl. increased heart rate and systemic vasodilatory reaction · Anaphylaxis (Norton death; user reports)
Evidence
Small human studies — Phase 2 discontinued, ~2006
Typical use
No-DAC 100-200 mcg with ipamorelin at bedtime; DAC 1-2 mg/week. Users report 110–200 mcg/day (median 180 mcg, n=9).
Getting it
Never approved; the 2006 phase 2 programme was dropped, and it is on the FDA's Category 2 list. Sold as research vials, mostly the short no-DAC form premixed with ipamorelin; some clinics still prescribe the blend.
Stacked with
Ipamorelin: Almost always paired, often premixed in one vial. Users usually blame the CJC half for the flush, racing heart and hives, and some tolerate ipamorelin alone. · Retatrutide or tirzepatide: Added for sleep, recovery and muscle retention during a GLP-1 cut; most of the high-upvote progress posts are this combination. · GHRP-6 or GHRP-2: The older pre-2020 pairing, especially with the DAC form; GHRP-6 adds more hunger. · HGH: A common endpoint: many users eventually drop CJC/ipa for 1-2 IU of HGH, which raises IGF-1 far more.
You will feel like shit for around 2-4 weeks. I started this stack and it took me 4 weeks to get through the loading phase. Felt sluggish and hardly any energy in my cardio runs or out of breath on my ski/row. After I started week 5 it was a drastic change.
I did it for six months 5 days on 2 off and absolutly noticed a difference in muscle recovery and muscle mass. I was on a cut and able to gain muscle in a way that would have been hard to do with the limited calories.
I started cjc-1295 ipamorelin and was worried about the spike as diabetes was the main reason I started reta and peptides but I only saw a spike the first two doses
PositiveMetabolic · 2+ months
diabetic, also on retatrutide (which likely drove the HbA1c drop); fasts 4 h before the shot
Zero sides for me, hot flushes for 5mins and great sleep👌I do take it with Ipamorelin tho.. seen some lean muscle gain and contractions/pump was noticeably better - think this was a placebo ordeal tho! Overall 6/10, don’t be expecting miracles!
I haven't tried the no dac but the dac works great for me. I feel better for longer and i get good results so i'm happy with it. I notice decent muscle increase within a few weeks working out 2-3 times a week. I haven't noticed any adverse effects from it.
PositiveMetabolic · 150 mcg DAC every morning · Injection
Sleep improvement is noticeable. I have an Apple Watch Ultra 2 and my sleep score has been in the mid 90's/100 most nights. Feel much more rested on waking. There has been some water retention.
I do experience the flushing and pressure in my neck after injection and my sleep has been amazing but my cardio sessions have gotten progressively worse. My recovery is shit and I feel absolutely exhausted after a short time.
MixedRecovery · 100-200 mcg CJC + 200-400 mcg ipamorelin, 5 on / 2 off · Injection · ~3.5 weeks
CJC + Ipamorelin isn't going to help you gain muscle. It's going, to help you recover a little better and some people will sleep better using it. It honestly didn't do much for me.
I tried the DAC version for a while because the less frequent dosing fit my schedule better. Never saw any crazy results but the convenience was worth it
NothingMetabolic
CJC-1295 with DAC, chosen for less frequent dosing while travelling
I’m on week 5 of this stack. I haven’t really noticed to much of a change. I might be a little bit leaner while staying in a caloric surplus, but sleep and recovery seem to be about the same.
On day three on cjc-1295 no DAC. I do 2 units (100 mcg) every morning and night injected to my upper glute. I’ve been getting these itchy rashes all over vody but it is tolerable.
Took two shots a week apart and I am completely exhausted. I should have started at a much lower dose and titrated up, that was my first mistake. I also regret going with the DAC.
It caused me to turn red and gave me migraine headaches when I was prescribed it. I did it for 8 weeks to "allow my body to adjust" then told my NP to never recommend that garbage again after my IGF-1 number didn't even budge.
NegativeMetabolic · 8 weeks
prescribed CJC/ipa by a nurse practitioner after six months of sermorelin; also had no IGF-1 response to MK-677
Then suddenly I had a scary reaction after 2 days off. More than a flush: —my heart rate spiked from 66 to 126 extremely quickly. —my arms and hands turned bright red and were itchy. —I had pulsing tinnitus ringing in both ears.
Bad reactionMetabolic · 200 mcg CJC + 200 mcg ipamorelin + 200 mcg GHRP-2, 4 nights/week · Injection · ~10 weeks
doctor-supervised; escalating reaction came after 2 days off
I had a bad reaction to CJC about 7 days into taking it. Without warning, and the very moment the the needle pierced my skin my HR ROCKETED to redline and my entire face/eyes went red - had to call an ambulance.
Active cancer or a history of cancer · Heart disease or a history of anaphylaxis · Asthma · Diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance · Pregnancy or breastfeeding (no human reproductive data)
Each bead is one amino acid in the peptide's chain, coloured by its side chain: grey for non-polar, cyan for polar, blue for positively charged and fuchsia for negatively charged. Length and mix tell related peptides apart at a glance, from a two-residue dipeptide like carnosine to a 43-residue protein like thymosin beta-4. The colours describe chemistry only and predict neither effect nor safety.
non-polarpolarpositivenegative
Report grades
Every first-hand Reddit or X report is graded on its own, from glowing through positive, mixed, nothing and negative to bad reaction, and the bar shows how those grades split. Posts that look vendor-adjacent stay on the peptide's page but are left out of the counts.
GlowingPositiveMixedNothingNegativeBad reaction
% positive
The share of a peptide's graded Reddit and X reports that are glowing or positive, vendor-adjacent posts left out. A peptide with few reports is pulled toward the average of all reports, as if it had eight average ones besides its own, so two glowing posts cannot top the list. Kept peptides rank by the same reports' mean grade, shrunk the same way, and excluded ones follow in that order.
Researcher estimate
No first-hand report of this peptide has been graded yet, so the figure is the researchers' own rating out of 10 from what they read about it. It ranks alongside the computed scores until reports arrive.
Safety tier
Each peptide is tiered clean, caution or excluded from its five risk axes under the chosen safety bar. An excluded peptide has a plausible route to serious harm, so it stays listed with the reason but ranks behind every other entry, however good its reviews.
Safety bar
The safety bar sets how much risk it takes to exclude a peptide. Strict: out on any serious mechanism with little human data, or any documented serious harm. Balanced: out on documented serious harm (unless it is obvious, reversible and from a regulated product), or a serious mechanism whose harm would be silent with no human data at all. Evidence only: out only on documented serious harm in humans that is lasting, delayed or from grey-market product.
Seen harm
Documented serious adverse events in humans, from 0 for none despite real exposure to 3 for deaths or several well-documented serious harms. Serious means a hospital or emergency visit or harm lasting weeks, so a headache or a bad night does not count.
Mechanism
A plausible biological route to serious harm at the doses people use, such as growth-factor signalling, hormone-axis suppression, heart or blood-pressure effects or immune activation. It runs from 0 when none is known to 3 when a dangerous pathway has been shown in living animals.
Data gap
How little human safety data exists for the molecule actually sold, from 0 for an approved drug with large trials and years of use to 3 for no human safety data at all. A modified analogue does not inherit its parent's trials.
Silent harm
Whether the feared harm would show quickly or stay hidden, from 0 when it is obvious and goes on stopping to 3 when it is silent and delayed, like tumour promotion or slow organ damage. User reports cannot reveal a harm that takes years to appear, so a high score here limits what good reviews can tell you.
Product
The risk of what people actually buy, from 0 for a regulated pharmacy or supplement product taken by mouth or on the skin to 3 for a grey-market injectable. In one dataset of 6,441 grey-market samples, 42–71% failed basic quality criteria and 15% carried endotoxin.
Evidence
The strongest kind of study behind the peptide's effects, from an approved drug through human controlled trials and small human studies to animal work or nothing of its own. Animal results often fail to carry over to people.
Access
How people get it: as an approved drug, a compounded prescription, an over-the-counter supplement or from the grey market, where nobody checks the vial. The channel decides both the legal position and the risk of a bad batch.
Price per month
Thirty days of the typical dose, from its low end to its high end, priced at the listing a careful buyer would choose: in stock, from a shop scoring 4 of 5 on trust (third-party tested where no score is set), failing that 3, a pure pack before a blend, a European shop first, then the cheapest per mg. The range is the dose's, not the shops'. A per-dose amount counts once a day unless the dose says otherwise. Prices are in euros at ECB rates of 2026-10-29, before shipping; the shop table keeps each listing's price per mg, per gram for bulk supplements. Where no listing can be priced the researchers' own estimate stands in, and says so.
Dose users report
The middle half of the daily doses stated in at least five first-hand reports, vendor posts left out. Where its middle sits more than twice above or below the declared dose, the month is priced at it as well, since what people take is what they pay for.
Testing
Whether the shop publishes lab results: third-party tested means an independent lab checks each batch, own COA means the shop's own certificate of analysis, and no public tests means neither. A certificate shows purity, not safety.
Added peptide
Some packs sold under one peptide's name hold a second one, such as 5 mg GHK-Cu in a nasal kit, stated only in the description. Sprayed in the nose or injected it reaches the blood like an injection, so it carries the risk of that route and is tiered as the injectable form, whatever its tier on the skin. A pack whose page gives no contents list may hold more than its name.