CJC-1295 with GHRP-2
CJC-1295 (no DAC) with GHRP-2
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
Also known as: CJC/GHRP-2, Mod GRF 1-29 with GHRP-2
In plain English, from Aaron
This is how I would explain it to a friend. The evidence, with the numbers, is further down the page.
Two growth hormone peptides in one 10 mg vial, 5 mg of each. One raises the size of a growth hormone pulse. The other sets a pulse off. They hit two different switches, which is the real reason people pair them. Nobody has tested this vial.
What people take it for
- Better sleep.
- Losing fat and holding muscle.
- Healing faster.
- Feeling younger.
What the trials actually showed
The two drug types have been tested together in people, and it worked. In healthy older adults, running a GHRP with GHRH for 24 hours pushed growth hormone higher than GHRH alone. The boost was three times bigger in young volunteers than older ones, and 2.3 times bigger in older women than older men. Thirty days of the GHRP alone kept growth hormone more than 1.8 times higher at day 14 and day 30. That study used drips in a clinic. It is not this vial. Now the part that trips people up. Here are the famous numbers for CJC-1295. A 2 to 10 times growth hormone rise, for six days or more. A half life of 5.8 to 8.1 days. Those belong to the long acting version. Most vials labelled no DAC hold a different molecule that is gone in minutes. If you quote the six day number for a no DAC vial you are out by a mile. The math: mix 10 mg with 2 mL and every unit mark carries 25 micrograms of each. A 4 unit draw is 100 micrograms of each.
What people report
Reports, not trial results
The good
- Deeper sleep in the first two weeks. This is the most common report in the whole category.
- Vivid dreams.
- Feeling better recovered from training after a month or two.
The bad
- Strong hunger. That is not a rumour. A controlled study showed this peptide raises food intake in healthy men.
- Water retention, puffy hands and tingling fingers.
- A hot flushed face for a few minutes after the shot.
- Nothing on the scale or in the mirror after a full cycle, which is common.
- You cannot turn the hunger down without turning the other half down too.
Where these come from: Peptide and gym forums, clinic write-ups and seller pages. The hunger is the one thing here that also shows up in a controlled human study, which is listed on this page.
My bottom line
The two switch idea is real and has been shown to work in a clinic. Your vial is not that study, and the molecule in it may not even be the one on the label.
An opinion, not a finding. I am a coach, not a doctor.
Overview
A 10 mg vial split evenly between a GHRH analogue and a ghrelin-receptor agonist. The pairing of those two drug classes has genuine human data, including a study in which combining them drove more growth hormone than either alone, but that work used different agents, given intravenously or by pump, in a clinic. No study has tested this vial.
This is the oldest rationale in the growth hormone corner of the peptide market: hit the pituitary from two directions at once. A GHRH analogue raises the size of a pulse, a ghrelin-receptor agonist triggers one and blunts somatostatin, and the two together do more than either. That rationale is not invented by sellers. It has been tested, and it held.
What was tested was not this product. In a study of healthy older adults, a 24 hour subcutaneous infusion of GHRP-2 combined with GHRH drove growth hormone secretion more than GHRH alone, and acute two-peptide synergy was three-fold greater in young volunteers than in older ones and 2.3-fold higher in elderly women than men. Thirty days of continuous GHRP-2 infusion stimulated pulsatile growth hormone more than three-fold on day one and more than 1.8-fold at days 14 and 30, with IGF-1 sitting at a stable plateau. That is a clinic study with pumps and intravenous work, using GHRH rather than a long-acting analogue. It supports the class rationale. It does not describe a nightly injection from a 5 plus 5 vial.
The arithmetic. Ten milligrams, 5 mg of each, reconstituted with 2 mL gives 5 mg/mL of total powder and 2.5 mg/mL of each component. One unit on a 100 unit insulin syringe is 25 micrograms of each. A 4 unit draw is 100 micrograms of each, which is the amount people describe running when they use either alone.
The first real problem is identity. Most material sold as CJC-1295 without DAC is mod GRF 1-29, a different molecule from the CJC-1295 that carries the published human pharmacokinetics. That published study found single injections raised growth hormone two to ten-fold for six days or more, raised IGF-1 for nine to eleven days, and estimated a half-life of 5.8 to 8.1 days. Those numbers belong to the drug affinity complex version, which lasts days. The no-DAC material in these vials lasts minutes. Citing the long half-life for a vial that does not contain the long-acting molecule is the most common error in this category.
The second problem is the choice of GHRP. GHRP-2 raises appetite: in healthy men it increased food intake the way ghrelin does. That is a feature for someone underweight and a problem for someone in a fat loss phase, and a fixed blend gives no way to back off the GHRP while keeping the GHRH half.
Mechanism of action
Two receptors, one axis. The GHRH analogue binds the GHRH receptor on pituitary somatotrophs and increases the amplitude of a growth hormone pulse. GHRP-2 binds the growth hormone secretagogue receptor, the ghrelin receptor, triggering a pulse and opposing somatostatin tone. Because both outputs converge on growth hormone and then IGF-1, any change in blood IGF-1 belongs to the pair and cannot be assigned to either half.
Human evidence
The drug classes have been combined in humans and the combination worked. This specific product has not been studied and differs from that work in molecule, route and setting.
- This vial: no published study, no registered trial.
- The class combination: a 24 hour GHRP-2 plus GHRH infusion raised growth hormone above either agent alone in healthy older adults, with synergy larger in the young and in women.
- CJC-1295 with drug affinity complex: single injections raised growth hormone two to ten-fold for six days or more and IGF-1 for nine to eleven days, half-life 5.8 to 8.1 days.
- GHRP-2 alone: 30 days of continuous infusion sustained a raised growth hormone axis with IGF-1 on a plateau, and safety screening tests stayed normal.
- GHRP-2 raises food intake in healthy men.
What this does not tell you: Every one of those results is a surrogate endpoint. Growth hormone and IGF-1 went up. No trial of either component has measured what people buy these for: body composition over a year, injury recovery, or how anyone ages. And the combination result used infusions of GHRH, not a long-acting analogue from a vial.
What it has been measured to do
Measured in people
Goals CJC-1295 with GHRP-2 has been measured for in a human being, most people first. Counts come from the study lines on this page and deliberately undercount.
- Growth hormone and IGF-1no headcount stated · 1 study
- Feeling less hungryno headcount stated · 1 study
What people using it report
Uncontrolled and self-selected, so it cannot show that anything works. It is still the best guide on this page to what people actually do with CJC-1295 with GHRP-2, what they expect, and what goes wrong. The full account, including the negative reports, is below.
34 of the 36 indexed goals have no study of any kind behind CJC-1295 with GHRP-2
No trial, no animal work, no cell work on this page reports a result for these. That is an absence of evidence rather than evidence of absence, but it does mean anything you have been told about CJC-1295 with GHRP-2 and one of these did not come from a study cited here.
Reading the research record
The identity question deserves more weight than it usually gets. CJC-1295 properly refers to a GHRH analogue bound to a drug affinity complex, which is what gives it a half-life measured in days. Most vials labelled CJC-1295 no DAC contain mod GRF 1-29, whose action is measured in minutes. The published pharmacokinetics people quote in forums belong to the first molecule. A buyer reading a six-day growth hormone elevation onto a vial of the second molecule has misread the literature by a factor of hundreds.
The second thing worth saying plainly: raising IGF-1 is not itself a result. It is the measurement that stands in for the results people want. The class has never been shown in a trial to do the things it is sold for, and the surrogate going up is compatible with the outcome not moving at all.
The evidence, charted
Fig. 1a · evidence scale
3human studies cited, participant count not stated
participants not stated
No participant total is drawn, because none of the human citations on this page gives one. Read the citations below for what each study measured.
Participant counts are read from the citation lines on this page. Where a line states no number, nothing is counted for it rather than estimated.
Fig. 1b · evidence mix
3 of 4 citations here are human work, the rest is not.
- Human · given to people375%
- Review · summarises other work125%
Counted from the citation list on this page, typed as this page types it. It understates any literature larger than the sources we cite, and a review counts once however many studies it covers.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
Evidence spans 4 distinct years, 2004 to 2018, counted from the citation list on this page. The newest citation on file is from 2018, more than five years ago; the published record may have gone quiet.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Not approved
AU
Not approved
CA
Not approved
Not approved in any of the four jurisdictions shown. A jurisdiction's classification is a regulatory fact, not a verdict on the science; see Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · dose response
No human dose response curve exists
We draw this figure where the data supports it. For this compound in humans it does not, so the panel stays empty rather than borrowing an animal curve and implying it transfers.
Fig. 5 · molecular identity
- Modality
- Blend
- Molecular weight
- Not on file
- Half-life
- Stated in words, not a number
- Sequence length
- None on file
see the exact wording below
Half-life as stated on file: Not defined for the blend, and the two halves do not match. No pharmacokinetic study of the mixture exists.
No amino acid sequence is on file for CJC-1295 with GHRP-2, which is expected: a blend is not built from residues.
Fig. 6 · what is in the vial
50%of a 10 mg CJC-1295 with GHRP-2 vial is CJC-1295 (no DAC)
- CJC-1295 (no DAC)5 mg50%
- GHRP-25 mg50%
Label mass from a standard vial, not a dose, and not an assay. The ratio is fixed by the seller, so a draw that hits the amount you want of one component sets the amount of every other component with it. No study has tested this combination in any species.
Key studies & citations
- Human2006
Prolonged stimulation of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor I secretion by CJC-1295, a long-acting analog of GH-releasing hormone, in healthy adults
Two randomised placebo-controlled ascending dose trials in healthy adults aged 21 to 61. A single subcutaneous injection produced dose-dependent rises in mean plasma growth hormone of two to ten-fold for six days or more and in IGF-1 of 1.5 to three-fold for nine to eleven days, with an estimated half-life of 5.8 to 8.1 days. This is the drug affinity complex version of CJC-1295, not the short-acting material usually sold as CJC-1295 without DAC.
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism - Human2004
Sustained elevation of pulsatile growth hormone (GH) secretion and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), and IGFBP-5 concentrations during 30-day continuous subcutaneous infusion of GH-releasing peptide-2 in older men and women
In healthy older adults, a 24 hour infusion of GHRP-2 combined with GHRH drove growth hormone secretion more than GHRH alone, and more than GHRP-2 alone. Acute two-peptide synergy was three-fold greater in young than older volunteers and 2.3-fold higher in elderly women than men. Thirty days of continuous GHRP-2 stimulated pulsatile growth hormone more than three-fold on day 1 and more than 1.8-fold at days 14 and 30, with IGF-1 on a stable plateau. This is the real combination evidence for the drug classes, using infusions in a research setting rather than a vendor vial.
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism - Human2005
Growth hormone releasing peptide-2 (GHRP-2), like ghrelin, increases food intake in healthy men
GHRP-2 increased food intake in healthy men in the way ghrelin does. The appetite effect is a direct pharmacological property of this half of the blend, and it is the reason the choice of GHRP changes the experience of the product.
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism - Review2018
The Safety and Efficacy of Growth Hormone Secretagogues
A review of the secretagogue class covering GHRH analogues and ghrelin-receptor agonists, their effects on the growth hormone axis, and the gap between their measured endocrine effects and the outcome claims made for them.
Sexual Medicine Reviews
What users report
Self-reported experiences, not evidence. Nothing below was measured under controlled conditions, and reports like these cannot separate a real effect from placebo, from the training or diet change that accompanied it, or from what the product actually contained. They are here because knowing what people describe, including what goes wrong, is worth reading alongside the studies.
- Deeper sleep in the first two weeks, the most consistent report in this whole category.
- Vivid dreams alongside the sleep change.
- Marked hunger, which is specific to GHRP-2 and is the usual reason people switch to ipamorelin.
- Water retention, tingling hands and occasional joint aches, the classic growth hormone excess pattern.
- Flushing and a warm face for a few minutes after injecting.
- Nothing measurable on the scale or in the mirror after a full cycle, which is common.
Sources: Peptide and bodybuilding forums including r/peptides, clinic write-ups and vendor pages. The appetite effect is also documented in the controlled study cited above, which is the rare case where a forum report and a trial finding agree.
Frequently asked questions
Has this blend been tested?
The vial has not. The drug classes have: a 24 hour infusion of GHRP-2 with GHRH raised growth hormone more than GHRH alone in healthy older adults. That study used infusions of GHRH in a research setting, not a nightly injection from a 5 plus 5 vial.
Is the CJC-1295 in my vial the same as in the study?
Probably not. The published pharmacokinetics with the six day growth hormone elevation and the 5.8 to 8.1 day half-life describe CJC-1295 bound to a drug affinity complex. Most no-DAC vials contain mod GRF 1-29, which acts for minutes.
What does one unit deliver?
On a 10 mg vial split evenly and reconstituted with 2 mL, each unit mark carries 25 micrograms of each component, so a 4 unit draw is 100 micrograms of each.
GHRP-2 or ipamorelin?
GHRP-2 raises appetite measurably in healthy men, which is why people in a fat loss phase usually move to ipamorelin. Neither choice has an outcome trial behind it, so the honest basis for choosing is side effect profile, not efficacy.
Will my IGF-1 tell me it is working?
It will tell you the axis responded. It will not tell you which half did it, because both converge on the same output, and it will not tell you whether anything you care about changed, because no trial of either component measured that.