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PrecisePepResearch Library

Research information only. PrecisePep is an educational library. It is not medical advice and is not intended to assist, encourage or enable self-administration. The compounds documented here are research chemicals — most are not approved for human use. Read the full disclaimer.

PrecisePep/Blends & Stacks/Ipamorelin + CJC-1295 (no DAC)

Growth Hormone Blend

Ipamorelin + CJC-1295 (no DAC)

Ipa/CJC · CJC-1295 without DAC · Mod GRF(1-29) + ipamorelin

Two pituitary receptors, one amplified pulse. The most pharmacologically defensible combination in circulation — and the one where the "no DAC" specification does all the work.

GHRH + GHRPPulsatileNo DACNightlyFastedHypothyroid interest

00 Overview

This combination has better pharmacological grounding than anything else on this site. GHRH analogues and ghrelin-receptor agonists act on two distinct pituitary receptors, and their combined effect on GH release is synergistic rather than additive — a principle established in endocrine pharmacology, not extrapolated from a forum.[3]

Ipamorelin supplies the GHS-R1a arm: it stimulates GH release and suppresses somatostatin, the brake. CJC-1295 without DAC — more accurately Mod GRF(1-29), a tetrasubstituted GHRH(1-29) fragment — supplies the GHRH arm. One releases the brake, the other presses the accelerator, and the result is a single amplified pulse that decays within an hour or two, leaving the axis to recover as it normally would.

What none of that establishes is a clinical outcome. There is no trial of this combination for body composition, recovery, sleep or anything else. Ipamorelin's clinical development was discontinued; CJC-1295 never had a completed development programme. Everything downstream of "it produces a bigger GH pulse" is inference.

DAC versus no DAC

If a vendor sells "CJC-1295" without specifying, assume nothing. The DAC version produces a sustained IGF-1 elevation over days — a completely different exposure profile with a completely different risk calculus. The pulsatile arguments made for this stack apply only to the no-DAC form.

// Mechanism of action

Two receptors, one somatotroph. Pituitary somatotrophs express both the GHRH receptor and GHS-R1a. GHRH signalling drives cAMP-mediated GH synthesis and release; ghrelin-receptor signalling acts through a separate pathway and additionally suppresses hypothalamic somatostatin release. Stimulating both simultaneously produces a GH response greater than the sum of each alone.

Why the short half-life matters. A pulse is not the same exposure as a plateau. GH receptor signalling is pulse-sensitive, and continuous elevation drives receptor desensitisation and sustained IGF-1 elevation. Mod GRF(1-29) has a half-life of roughly half an hour; ipamorelin around two hours. Together they produce a discrete pulse that ends.

Fasted, pre-sleep timing. Insulin and elevated glucose suppress GH release, so a fed state directly antagonises the mechanism. The largest physiological GH pulse occurs in early slow-wave sleep, so dosing before sleep reinforces an existing pulse rather than creating an out-of-phase one.

Ceiling effects. Somatotroph GH stores are finite. Above some dose the pulse cannot get larger and only the side-effect burden grows — the mechanistic argument against escalation, and the reason stacking a third secretagogue on top is not three times the effect.

// What is in it

A blend is not a compound. It is several compounds sharing a vial, and each one carries its own evidence base, dose-response curve and risk profile. Study them individually before studying them together.

ComponentShare of blendRole in the blendMonograph link
Ipamorelin
Selective GHS-R1a agonist
~5 mg of 10 (1:1) Ghrelin receptor agonism plus somatostatin suppression — releases the brake on GH secretion. Selective: no meaningful cortisol or prolactin rise. Monograph
CJC-1295 (no DAC)
Mod GRF(1-29), tetrasubstituted GRF(1-29)
~5 mg of 10 (1:1) GHRH receptor agonism — presses the accelerator. Four amino acid substitutions confer DPP-IV resistance while keeping the half-life short enough to produce a pulse rather than a plateau. Monograph
Blend arithmetic

The "no DAC" specification is not a detail — it is the entire design. CJC-1295 with DAC (drug affinity complex) binds albumin and persists for six to eight days, producing a sustained elevation of GH and IGF-1 rather than a pulse. That flattens the physiological pulse architecture that GHRH-analogue dosing is supposed to preserve, and it is why the pulsatile-preservation argument does not apply to the DAC version.

Because the two components have similar half-lives in the no-DAC form, they are conventionally dosed 1:1 and co-administered in a single injection. Pre-blended vials fix that ratio; separate vials do not.

01 Reported benefits

Effects that have been reported. A study-tier entry means a result was published — not that the effect is established, reproducible, or transferable from a rodent to a person.

Highest confidenceReported in peer-reviewed literature, registered clinical trials, or regulatory filings. Note the model: much peptide literature is in vitro or rodent work, not human trial data.

GHRH + ghrelin-mimetic co-stimulation produces a synergistic GH response [3]

Established endocrine pharmacology: combined stimulation of the GHRH receptor and GHS-R1a produces greater GH release than either alone. Among the blends here that have never been trialled as a combination, this is the strongest study-tier claim — though note that CagriSema outranks it outright, having been tested as a combination in humans through phase 3.

Clinical pharmacology

Component evidence: ipamorelin selectivity [1]

Characterised as the first selective GH secretagogue — high GH-releasing potency without meaningful ACTH, cortisol or prolactin elevation.

Animal + early humanIpamorelin monograph

Component evidence: CJC-1295 raises GH and IGF-1 [2]

Clinical pharmacology work on CJC-1295 demonstrated dose-dependent increases in GH and IGF-1. Most of this data concerns the DAC version, where sustained elevation is the point.

Human pharmacology

No clinical outcome trial exists for this combination

No study has assessed body composition, recovery, sleep or any clinical endpoint for ipamorelin + CJC-1295 in humans.

Evidence gapImportant

02 Adverse effects & risks

Adverse effects, contraindications and unknowns. The grey-market tier is where under-reporting is worst: uncontrolled use produces no systematic safety surveillance at all, so absence of a reported harm is not evidence of safety.

Highest confidenceReported in peer-reviewed literature, registered clinical trials, or regulatory filings. Note the model: much peptide literature is in vitro or rodent work, not human trial data.

Ipamorelin selectivity limits the classic GHRP liabilities [1]

No meaningful cortisol or prolactin elevation, unlike GHRP-6 and hexarelin.

Animal + early human

GH-axis effects apply as a class [4]

Sustained GH and IGF-1 elevation produces insulin resistance, fluid retention, arthralgia and carpal tunnel symptoms regardless of the upstream stimulus. These are documented for the axis, not novel to this stack.

Class / endocrine literature

No long-term human safety data for either component

Ipamorelin development was discontinued; CJC-1295 never completed a development programme. There is no chronic-use safety dataset for either, alone or combined.

Evidence gap

03 Dosing ranges

Figures below are documented, not recommended. Study ranges come from published protocols in the stated model; grey-market ranges are what the research community reports using and carry no safety validation of any kind.

Highest confidenceReported in peer-reviewed literature, registered clinical trials, or regulatory filings. Note the model: much peptide literature is in vitro or rodent work, not human trial data.

No established therapeutic dose for either component [1][2]

Neither compound reached an approved indication. Early pharmacology work measured GH response to defined doses; no clinical dose was ever defined.

Evidence gap
Reconstituting a 1:1 blend

Pre-blended vials state a combined milligram figure. A 10 mg blend vial at a 1:1 ratio delivers 5 mg of each component, so a "200 mcg total" dose is 100 mcg of each — which is what the "100/100" convention actually means. The blend calculator handles the split.

04 Synergy & interactions

Combination effects. Almost no peptide combination has been studied as a combination in humans; stack logic is overwhelmingly mechanistic inference and community practice. Each linked compound has its own page.

Highest confidenceReported in peer-reviewed literature, registered clinical trials, or regulatory filings. Note the model: much peptide literature is in vitro or rodent work, not human trial data.

Two-receptor co-stimulation is established pharmacology [3]

Genuine mechanistic evidence rather than inference — the strongest such case among the blends never tested as a combination. CagriSema is the only blend here with trial evidence for the combination itself.

Clinical pharmacology

05 Protocols

Whole schedules — dosing, titration, cycle length, and off-time — as documented in trials, as proposed from mechanism, and as circulated in the research community. Reproduced for study and comparison only.

Highest confidenceReported in peer-reviewed literature, registered clinical trials, or regulatory filings. Note the model: much peptide literature is in vitro or rodent work, not human trial data.

No clinical protocol exists

Neither component reached a completed development programme for GH indications.

Evidence gap

05b Condition-specific interest

One result organises this entire section. In cancer cachexia, the ghrelin agonist anamorelin was tested in two phase 3 trials against co-primary endpoints of lean body mass and handgrip strength. Lean mass rose significantly. Handgrip strength did not move. That is the yardstick for every claim below: growth hormone reliably changes what a scale and a DEXA report, and much less reliably changes what a person can do.

No approval, no trial

Neither component is approved, and the combination has never been studied as a combination. Adult growth hormone deficiency is a specific endocrine diagnosis made on a provocative test and treated with recombinant human GH under endocrinology supervision. Almost nobody using this stack has that diagnosis, and the vocabulary of the diagnosis is routinely borrowed to describe ordinary age-related decline.

Actionable distinction

Adult growth hormone deficiency — the real diagnosis

Pathophysiology
True adult GH deficiency follows pituitary disease, surgery, radiotherapy or trauma. It produces reduced lean mass, increased visceral fat, reduced bone density, impaired quality of life and an adverse lipid profile, and it is diagnosed on a provocative stimulation test — not on a symptom list and not on a single IGF-1 level.

Mechanistic rationale
A secretagogue works by stimulating a pituitary that still functions. In genuine GH deficiency the pituitary is the problem, so the compound is acting on the broken part. Recombinant GH replaces the hormone directly, which is why it is the treatment. This distinction is the single most useful thing on this page: the population with the real diagnosis is the population a secretagogue helps least.

Community reports
Community discussion frequently describes symptoms of "low GH" and treats them as equivalent to the diagnosis. Fatigue, poor sleep, central weight gain and low mood are common to a great many conditions, most of which are more common than pituitary disease and several of which are treatable.

Components carrying the argument: Neither — this is the case against the stack

Theorized — with a cautionary human precedent

Sarcopenia and lean mass — mass is not function

Pathophysiology
Age-related muscle loss involves reduced fibre number and size, motor unit remodelling, and anabolic resistance to protein and loading. Function — strength, gait speed, ability to rise from a chair — is what predicts falls, independence and mortality. Mass alone predicts them far less well.

Mechanistic rationale
GH increases lean body mass in trials, reliably and measurably. It increases strength much less convincingly, and part of the mass gain is fluid rather than contractile tissue. The ROMANA trials of a ghrelin agonist in cancer cachexia are the cleanest illustration: lean body mass rose significantly against placebo across two phase 3 trials, and handgrip strength did not differ in either. That is the same receptor family, tested properly, with the endpoints separated.

Community reports
Users report weight on the scale, fuller-looking muscle and better pumps. Those are the effects most consistent with increased water and glycogen, which is also what a GH-driven mass gain looks like early. Strength reports are notably less consistent.

Components carrying the argument: Ipamorelin (ghrelin) + CJC-1295 (GHRH) → IGF-1

Theorized — and the causality runs the wrong way

Sleep quality and architecture

Pathophysiology
The largest natural GH pulses occur during slow-wave sleep. That association is well established and is the basis of the sleep claim.

Mechanistic rationale
Deep sleep drives GH, not the reverse. A secretagogue given at night is attempting to amplify a pulse that depends on sleep architecture the compound does not create. If sleep is fragmented — by apnoea, alcohol, shift work or a phone — the upstream problem is the sleep. Ghrelin signalling does have some independent effects on sleep in animal work, so the claim is not empty; it is just far weaker than the direction people assume.

Community reports
Deeper sleep is the single most consistently reported subjective effect of GH secretagogues. It is also among the most placebo-susceptible endpoints in this library, and untreated obstructive sleep apnoea is common and routinely missed in exactly this demographic.

Components carrying the argument: Ipamorelin — ghrelin receptor

Theorized — and an approved peptide already owns this

Bone density

Pathophysiology
Osteoporosis is reduced bone mass with microarchitectural deterioration, and the endpoint that matters is fracture, not density.

Mechanistic rationale
GH raises IGF-1, and IGF-1 is genuinely involved in bone formation, so turnover markers move. Turnover markers are not fracture reduction, and no secretagogue has ever demonstrated the latter. Teriparatide — a 34-residue parathyroid hormone fragment — has randomised fracture data and has been approved since 2002. If bone is the goal, the peptide that treats it already exists.

Community reports
Bone is rarely the stated reason for use and appears mostly as a supporting argument for longevity framing.

Components carrying the argument: IGF-1 mediated; effect size unproven

Theorized here — approved elsewhere

Visceral fat and body composition

Pathophysiology
Visceral adipose tissue is metabolically active and independently associated with insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia and cardiovascular risk in a way subcutaneous fat is not.

Mechanistic rationale
GH is lipolytic and preferentially mobilises visceral fat, which is a real effect. Note where it has been demonstrated properly: tesamorelin, a stabilised GHRH analogue, is approved for reducing visceral adipose tissue in HIV-associated lipodystrophy on randomised trial data. Same axis, same mechanism, one indication where it was actually tested.

Community reports
Reduced waist measurement is commonly reported and is plausible. It is also what a modest calorie deficit produces, and people who start a peptide protocol rarely change nothing else.

Components carrying the argument: GH-driven lipolysis

Actionable warning

Insulin resistance — the effect that runs against the goal

Pathophysiology
Growth hormone is a counter-regulatory hormone. It antagonises insulin action in muscle and liver, raises hepatic glucose output, and increases free fatty acid flux.

Mechanistic rationale
GH is diabetogenic. This is not a rare adverse effect; it is a core property of the hormone, and it is why impaired glucose tolerance and frank diabetes are features of acromegaly. Sustained secretagogue use raises fasting glucose and HbA1c in some people, in a population frequently pursuing metabolic improvement. Fasting glucose and HbA1c are inexpensive tests and are almost never checked by people using these compounds.

Community reports
Rising fasting glucose is reported occasionally and usually attributed to diet. Carpal tunnel symptoms, joint aching and fluid retention are also commonly described — all classic GH effects, all dose-related.

Components carrying the argument: GH itself — unavoidable if the stack works

Actionable context

Acromegaly — what the far end of this direction looks like

Pathophysiology
Acromegaly is chronic GH excess from a pituitary adenoma. It causes cardiomyopathy, hypertension, sleep apnoea, insulin resistance, arthropathy, increased colorectal neoplasia, and it shortens life.

Mechanistic rationale
Nobody using a secretagogue stack is producing acromegaly — the doses and duration are not comparable, and that should be said plainly. But the direction of travel is the same one, and it is worth knowing that an entire drug class exists to reverse it. Octreotide is a somatostatin analogue prescribed to suppress the hormone this stack is designed to raise.

Community reports
Rarely raised. The features people do report at higher doses — fluid retention, carpal tunnel, joint aching, coarsening — are the mild end of the same spectrum.

Components carrying the argument: The axis itself

Actionable — affects the labs, not just the patient

The GH–thyroid interaction

Pathophysiology
Growth hormone alters deiodinase activity and peripheral conversion of T4 to T3, and can reduce thyroxine-binding globulin. In someone with limited thyroid reserve, GH can unmask hypothyroidism that was previously compensated.

Mechanistic rationale
Thyroid function tests can move on a GH secretagogue without any change in thyroid function, and a person on levothyroxine may need their dose reviewed. Both effects are well described in GH replacement literature and neither is widely known in the community using these compounds.

Community reports
Fatigue or cold intolerance appearing after starting a GH protocol is usually blamed on the protocol or on a "detox". In someone with marginal thyroid reserve it can be unmasked hypothyroidism, and the two are indistinguishable without a blood test.

Components carrying the argument: GH effect on deiodinases and binding proteins

Theorized — unresolved and unmonitored

Cancer — the standing caution

Pathophysiology
IGF-1 signalling promotes cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis. Epidemiological work associates higher circulating IGF-1 with incidence of several common cancers, though association is not causation and the effect sizes are modest.

Mechanistic rationale
The entire purpose of this stack is to raise IGF-1 systemically and keep it raised. No human study has shown that a secretagogue causes cancer, because none has looked. Anyone with a current or past malignancy should be discussing this with an oncologist rather than reading a website.

Community reports
Rarely raised before use. IGF-1 is a cheap blood test and is the one measurement that would tell a user whether the compound is doing anything at all — and it is seldom taken.

Components carrying the argument: IGF-1, systemically and continuously

ClaimDoes GH do it?EvidenceThe thing to know
Increase lean massYesHuman (GH)Part of it is fluid
Increase strength / functionWeakly at bestHumanROMANA: mass rose, handgrip did not
Improve deep sleepUnclearAssociation onlySleep drives GH, not the reverse
Reduce visceral fatYesHuman (tesamorelin)Proven in one indication, where it was tested
Improve boneMarkers onlyNone for fractureTeriparatide has the fracture data
Raise blood glucoseYesEstablishedGH is diabetogenic — check HbA1c
Move thyroid labsYesEstablishedWithout changing thyroid function
Raise IGF-1Yes — that is the pointEstablishedCheap test, seldom taken
What actually has evidence for these conditions

For diagnosed adult GH deficiency: recombinant human GH under endocrinology supervision, after a provocative test. Not on symptoms, and not on an IGF-1 level alone.

For age-related decline, which is what almost everyone here is actually treating: progressive resistance training and 1.2–1.6 g/kg/day of protein distributed across meals have the strongest evidence for preserving and rebuilding muscle in older adults, and they improve function rather than only mass. Nothing on this page substitutes for them.

For sleep: cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia is first-line and outperforms hypnotics at follow-up. Screening for obstructive sleep apnoea matters more than any compound here — it is common, routinely missed, treatable, and it independently wrecks both GH secretion and daytime function.

For bone: teriparatide or abaloparatide for anabolic effect, bisphosphonates or denosumab for antiresorptive, adequate vitamin D and calcium, and progressive loading.

06 Handling, reconstitution & storage

Physical-chemistry reference for laboratory handling of the lyophilised material. Reproduced so that stability and concentration mathematics can be studied — see the calculator for the arithmetic and the reconstitution guide for sterile technique.

Reconstitution

Available pre-blended (commonly 10 mg total, 5 mg of each) or as separate vials. Separate vials allow the ratio to be adjusted; blends do not. Reconstituted with bacteriostatic water; because doses are in the low hundreds of micrograms, dilution should be chosen so the dose lands on a readable syringe mark.

Storage

Lyophilised: −20 °C long-term. Reconstituted: 2–8 °C, protected from light.

Common vial sizes

Blend: commonly 10 mg total. Separate: ipamorelin 5–10 mg, CJC-1295 no DAC 2–5 mg.

Stability notes

Confirm the product is the no-DAC form. The distinction is not visible in the vial and is the single most important product characteristic for this stack.

07 Legal & regulatory status

Regulatory status changes and differs by country. This is a summary for orientation, not legal advice — check your own jurisdiction.

Not approved for human use. Neither ipamorelin nor CJC-1295 has marketing approval in any jurisdiction. Both are supplied as research chemicals.

Several peptide GH secretagogues were affected by the FDA's April 2026 restructuring of the Section 503A compounding categories. None was among the seven substances reviewed at the July 2026 advisory committee meeting, and no listing decision has been made for them.

Regulatory and trial claims re-checked against primary sources on 16 August 2026. Checked: component status: both ipamorelin and CJC-1295 rejected by PCAC in 2024. Approvals, trial readouts and compounding decisions move faster than anything else on this page — a date here means someone looked, not that nothing has changed since.

Anti-doping

GHRH analogues, GHRPs and ghrelin-receptor agonists are all explicitly named on the WADA Prohibited List under S2. This stack is prohibited at all times, in and out of competition.

§ Sources & further reading

Links resolve to PubMed records, trial registries, publisher pages or primary documents. Where a body of work rather than a single paper is cited, the link opens a PubMed query so the full result set — including newer papers than this page — can be reviewed. Verify every claim against the primary source before relying on it.

  1. Raun K, et al. Ipamorelin, the first selective growth hormone secretagogue. Eur J Endocrinol. 1998;139(5):552–561.Pre-clinical / animal study
  2. PubMed: CJC-1295 pharmacokinetics, GH and IGF-1 response (live query)Database or literature search
  3. PubMed: combined GHRH and GH secretagogue administration — synergistic GH release (live query)Database or literature search
  4. PubMed: growth hormone excess — insulin resistance, oedema, arthralgia, carpal tunnel (live query)Database or literature search
  5. WADA Prohibited List (current edition) — S2 peptide hormones and growth factorsRegulatory / official document
Reminder

For educational and research reference only. Nothing on this site is medical advice, a recommendation, or an instruction to administer any substance to a human being. Every figure on this page is a record of what has been reported, not a recommendation. Full disclaimer.