Galanin dosage and evidence
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
The short answer
Galanin has been dripped into healthy volunteers since 1986, and every one of those studies measured a hormone or blood pressure.
Evidence grade for Galanin: Limited. The rule: people have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. The sum on this page: 4 completed trials, 21 people given it. A grade counts how much has been done to people, not whether it works.
- People given it
- 21
- Human studies
- 4
- Found nothing
- 3
Dose
No human dose established
Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose.
4 completed trials, 21 people given it
No first-hand reports gathered yet. That is a gap in what we have collected, not a finding that nothing has been reported.
Goal pages: Fat loss and metabolism, Hormones and growth hormone, Heart and circulation
In plain English
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.
Galanin is a peptide your body makes, in the brain and the gut. It has a name as a brain peptide for mood and cravings. In people, it has only been given as a drip in hormone studies. It is gone from the blood very fast.
What people take it for
- Fewer cravings and less addiction.
- Better mood and thinking.
- More growth hormone.
What studies in people showed
Healthy volunteers have had galanin drips since 1986. It strongly raises growth hormone. In one study, growth hormone rose from 2.8 to a peak of 48.5 mU/L. It did not change insulin or blood sugar in people. In 8 healthy men, a one-hour drip pushed resting heart rate from 70 to 99 beats a minute. Half of it is gone from the blood in about 3.7 minutes. No study has tested mood, cravings or thinking. The craving work is in rodents.
What people report
Reports, not study results
The good
- In the studies on this page, it raised growth hormone strongly.
The bad
- A one-hour drip raised resting heart rate from 70 to 99 beats a minute in healthy men.
- People in the first study noticed a passing bitter taste and a little extra saliva.
Where these come from: These come from the human drip studies on this page. We have not collected user reports on this one yet.
My bottom line
The human data is about hormones and heart rate, not your brain. A heart rate jump like that in healthy young men is not nothing. I would not take this.
An opinion, not a finding. I am a coach, not a doctor.
What it has been measured to do
Measured in people
Goals Galanin has been tested for in people, biggest studies first. We count only what the studies on this page say, so the real numbers may be higher.
- Growth hormone and IGF-113 people · 3 studies · 3 found nothing
- Blood sugar and insulin13 people · 2 studies · 2 found nothing
- Blood pressure8 people · 2 studies · 1 found nothing
- Thyroidno headcount stated · 1 study · 1 found nothing
Animal and lab work, not yet tested in people
Real results, but from animals or cells, not people. What works in a mouse often does not work the same way in a person. Nobody can patent this, so nobody would ever earn back the cost of a study in people. That is usually why there is none. The record on this one is set out below.
- Libido and sexual function1 animal or lab study
31 of the 36 indexed goals have no study of any kind behind Galanin
No study in people, animals or cells on this page reports a result for these. That does not prove Galanin does nothing for them. It does mean anything you have heard about Galanin and one of these did not come from a study cited here.
Show full evidence
What is Galanin?
Galanin has been dripped into healthy volunteers since 1986, and every one of those studies measured a hormone or blood pressure. In people it strongly raises growth hormone, and half of it is gone from the blood in about 3.7 minutes. In one drip study, resting heart rate rose from 70 to 99 beats a minute. Nobody has ever tested thinking with it.
Galanin is the peptide in this group with the longest record of being given to people. It also has the widest gap between that record and its name as a brain booster.
It is a 30-building-block nerve peptide. Human galanin differs from the pig version used in the earliest studies, which matters when you read older papers.
Drip studies in people start in 1986 with a report in The Lancet on healthy volunteers, and run through the mid-1990s. They agree with each other, and they are all about hormones. Galanin strongly raises growth hormone. In one study, growth hormone in the blood rose from 2.8 to an average peak of 48.5 mU/L at the high dose. Human galanin, dripped in while blood sugar was held high, raised growth hormone eightfold. It had no effect on insulin, glucagon or blood sugar at the levels reached. High-dose pig galanin had no effect on blood sugar or insulin during a sugar test. Those authors warned plainly against assuming galanin does in people what it does in animals.
One study is worth knowing before you think about this compound. Eight healthy men got a 60-minute drip of human galanin. Their resting noradrenaline, a stress chemical, fell. Its normal rise on standing up was blunted. Their resting heart rate went from 70 to 99 beats a minute, and their blood pressure response to standing was blunted too. That is a big effect on the body's automatic controls in healthy young men. It is measured and published, and almost never mentioned where galanin is sold.
The studies behind galanin's brain reputation, on addiction, eating, sleep and swelling, are animal studies. In that work the peptide was put straight into the brain or right next to the target. No shot or pill has been shown to get galanin to the brain.
How does Galanin work?
Shown in the body in people, only a guess for the brain. Galanin acts on three receptors: GALR1, GALR2 and GALR3. In people, a drip into a vein clearly raises growth hormone and boosts the growth hormone response to its own release signal. It also changes the stress side of the nervous system, lowering noradrenaline in the blood while raising heart rate. Its brain roles in addiction, eating and mood, which give it its reputation, were shown in rodents by putting it into the brain. There is no evidence that a dose in the body reaches those brain receptors.
What have studies in people found about Galanin?
A solid set of controlled studies going back to 1986, all about hormones and the heart: growth hormone, insulin, noradrenaline, heart rate, blood pressure. Not one measured thinking, mood, addiction or eating behaviour.
- Galanin strongly raises growth hormone in people. In healthy volunteers, it rose from 2.8 to an average peak of 48.5 mU/L at the high dose. Human galanin raised it eightfold while blood sugar was held high.
- A 60-minute drip in 8 healthy men raised resting heart rate from 70 to 99 beats a minute, dropped resting noradrenaline from 0.84 to 0.33 nmol/L, and blunted the blood pressure response to standing.
- No effect on insulin, glucagon or blood sugar handling in people at the levels reached, even though galanin clearly blocks insulin release in dogs and rodents.
- Half of human galanin is cleared from the blood in 3.7 minutes, give or take 0.4, measured during a drip.
- Other human studies measured growth hormone with and without galanin, plus prolactin, the hormone that controls water balance, sex hormones, cortisol and gut movement after meals.
- No galanin study in people has tested thinking, mood or addiction.
What this does not tell you: These are one-off, one-hour drip experiments in small groups of healthy volunteers, usually four to eight people, with a peptide that is half gone in under four minutes. They show what happens to hormones, heart rate and blood pressure during an hour of galanin in a vein. They show nothing about repeated doses, nothing about the brain, and nothing about behaviour. The earliest studies used pig galanin, which differs from the human peptide, so the older and newer results do not swap cleanly.
The state of the research
An earlier research review for this site said galanin had never been given to people in a study. That was wrong, and the fix is worth stating plainly. Galanin has been dripped into human volunteers in controlled studies since 1986, and there are dozens of these reports through the mid-1990s. Search only recent papers, or galanin plus a behaviour word, and you will miss them.
The fix changes less than it sounds. The human data are real, and they are all about hormones and the heart. In a person, galanin raises growth hormone, affects the automatic nervous system, and does nothing measurable to insulin or blood sugar. That is the whole picture the human record gives.
The reputation comes from somewhere else. Galanin's fame as a brain peptide comes from rodent work on addiction, eating, sleep and swelling, with the peptide put into the brain or right next to the target. The gap between that and anything a person could take is the whole problem. One human study names it. After finding that galanin did not affect insulin in people the way it does in dogs and rodents, the authors wrote that caution should be used before assuming animal results apply to people. That was published in 1989, and it is still the right summary.
The heart rate result deserves more attention than it gets. A resting rise from 70 to 99 beats a minute, in healthy young men, during a one-hour drip, is not a subtle signal.
A real test of thinking means a proper test of memory, attention, speed or planning. You take it before and after, and you are compared with a group who got a dummy and did not know it. None of the seven compounds in this group has ever been tested that way. Scores for tiredness, anxiety, hunger or a doctor's overall impression are not thinking tests. Neither is a hormone level. This matters because several of these compounds are sold for focus, clarity and mental energy, and the studies behind them measured none of those things.
The evidence, in charts
Fig. 1a · how many people
21people, across 3 studies in people cited here
| Study | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 1995 | 8 | 38% |
| Diabetes 1989 | 7 | 33% |
| Diabetologia 1993 | 6 | 29% |
Counts are the number of people each study on this page says it signed up. That includes studies that only watched people and gave nobody the compound. 1 more study in people gives no headcount and is not counted here. Studies still signing people up are left out, and only studies cited on this page are counted.
Fig. 1b · evidence mix
4 of 6 sources here are studies in people. The rest are not.
- Study in people · done in people467%
- Animal study · done in animals117%
- Review of studies · sums up other studies117%
Counted from the list of sources on this page. It counts only what we cite, so there may be more studies out there. A review counts once, however many studies it sums up.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
The studies cover 6 different years, 1986 to 2020, counted from the list of sources on this page. The newest source on file is from 2020, more than five years ago. Research on it 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 countries shown. This is what the law says, not a verdict on the science. See Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · how much does what
Nobody has tested different amounts in people
This chart would show how the effect changes as the amount goes up. For this compound, nobody has measured that in people. So we leave it empty. We will not borrow an animal chart and pretend it works the same in people.
Fig. 5 · what the molecule is
- Kind of compound
- Peptide
- Molecule weight
- A 30 residue peptide, roughly 3.2 kDa. Note that porcine galanin, used in the earliest human studies, is 29 residues.
- Half-life
- About 4 minutesUltra-short, minutes
- Chain length
- 30 amino acidscounted from the chain below
Half-life as stated on file: About 3.7 minutes in plasma, measured directly during intravenous infusion of human galanin in healthy volunteers, and similar to that of porcine galanin. This is a peptide cleared in single-digit minutes.
GWTLNSAGYLLGPHAVGNHRSFSDKNGLTS
- Water-shy 15
- Water-loving 10
- Acidic 1
- Basic 4
One square per amino acid, left to right from the start of the chain, coloured by type. The type is a fact about the amino acid, not a finding about this compound.
The studies we cite
- Study in people1986Growth hormone release in man induced by galanin, a new hypothalamic peptide
The first time galanin was given to people, it set off a surge of growth hormone. Ten healthy volunteers were infused for an hour at one of two rates. Growth hormone climbed many times over, further at the higher rate. The hormone behind milk production rose a little. Stress and thyroid hormones did not move, and neither did heart rate or blood pressure. The only complaints were a passing bitter taste and extra saliva. Sugar cleared from the blood more slowly, with insulin unchanged.
The first human study. Galanin infused for 60 minutes into healthy volunteers at 7.8 pmol/kg per minute (n=4) or 33.2 pmol/kg per minute (n=6). Plasma growth hormone rose from 2.8 to a mean peak of 48.5 mU/L at the high dose and from 2.5 to 23.5 mU/L at the low dose; prolactin rose from 176 to 274 mU/L. No change in cortisol, TSH, FSH or LH. No change in heart rate or blood pressure at these doses; the only symptoms were a transitory bitter taste and slight hypersalivation. Galanin reduced glucose clearance after an intravenous glucose bolus without significantly affecting plasma insulin.
- Study in people1993On the effects of human galanin in man
Human galanin drove growth hormone up eightfold and left the pancreas completely alone. Six healthy volunteers were infused for an hour while their blood sugar was deliberately held high. Insulin, glucagon and blood sugar behaved exactly as they had without it. The body cleared half the galanin in under four minutes, which is very fast indeed. So this is a powerful growth hormone signal and, at these levels, has nothing to do with blood sugar control.
Human galanin, not porcine, infused at 74 pmol/kg per minute for 60 minutes into six healthy volunteers during a hyperglycaemic clamp. Galanin concentrations plateaued around 1500 pmol/L against pre-infusion levels of 20 to 30 pmol/L. Growth hormone rose eightfold. Insulin, C-peptide, glucagon and glucose curves were indistinguishable from control. Galanin was eliminated from plasma with a half-life of 3.7 plus or minus 0.4 minutes. The authors conclude that human galanin powerfully stimulates growth hormone secretion in man but has no effect on pancreatic endocrine secretion or glucose metabolism at these concentrations.
- Study in people1995Human galanin reduces plasma norepinephrine levels in man
Galanin has a real effect on the body's automatic controls, and this is the study that shows it. Eight healthy young men were infused for an hour, or given salt water instead. On galanin, the stress chemical noradrenaline fell by more than half while they lay down, and barely rose when they stood up. Their resting heart rate went from about 70 beats a minute to about 99. Their blood pressure response to standing was blunted. That is a substantial change.
The safety-relevant human study, in eight healthy male volunteers given a 60-minute infusion of human galanin at 80 pmol/kg per minute or saline. Galanin lowered supine plasma noradrenaline from 0.84 to 0.33 nmol/L and blunted the noradrenaline response to standing from 1.68 to 0.44 nmol/L, while enhancing the adrenaline response to standing. It raised supine heart rate from 70 to 99 beats per minute and the standing heart rate from 82 to 107, and blunted the systolic and diastolic blood pressure responses to standing. A substantial autonomic effect in healthy young men.
- Study in people1989High-dose porcine galanin infusion and effect on intravenous glucose tolerance in humans
Galanin shuts down insulin in dogs and rodents, and in people it did nothing of the kind. Seven healthy men were given a sugar load on its own, and again with galanin at two high infusion rates. Blood sugar and insulin came out the same either way, though growth hormone still rose. The authors' own conclusion is the lesson of this entry. Be careful assuming that what a peptide does in an animal is what it will do in you.
Seven healthy male volunteers given an intravenous glucose tolerance test alone and with porcine galanin at 80 and 160 pmol/kg per minute. Galanin inhibits glucose-stimulated insulin release in dogs and rodents; in humans it had no effect on plasma glucose or serum insulin, though growth hormone still rose. The authors' explicit conclusion is that caution should be exercised in extrapolating a physiological role for galanin in humans from animal results, which is the central lesson of this entry.
- Review of studies2020Neuropeptide modulation of addiction: Focus on galanin
A review of galanin and addiction. It covers animal and lab work only. There are no human studies of galanin for addiction, mood or thinking to review.
The review behind galanin's reputation in addiction and reward. It reviews animal and cell work. No human interventional study of galanin for addiction, mood or cognition exists to review.
- Animal study2018Galanin Administration Partially Restores Erectile Function After Cavernous Nerve Injury and Mediates Endogenous Nitrergic Nerve Outgrowth In Vitro
In rats, plus nerve cells in a dish. Galanin partly restored erections after a nerve injury and helped nerves regrow in a dish. It is here because this rat result gets passed around without anyone saying it was rats.
Rats, with an in vitro component. Galanin administration partially restored erectile function after cavernous nerve injury and mediated nitrergic nerve outgrowth in culture. Included because this rat result circulates in consumer settings without its species attached.
Where to buy Galanin
No seller we track lists Galanin yet. We read sellers’ public product lists every week, and this section fills in as soon as one does. Every seller, graded
Common questions
Has Galanin been tested in people?
Yes. 21 people given it across 4 completed trials cited here, 3 of which found nothing. Galanin has been dripped into healthy volunteers since 1986, and every one of those studies measured a hormone or blood pressure.
What is the Galanin dosage?
No human dose established. Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose. 4 completed trials, 21 people given it
Is Galanin FDA-approved?
Galanin is a peptide the body makes. It is not a medicine. No galanin product, and no drug that switches on its receptors, is approved anywhere. We found no active work to develop it as a drug. The human studies are university experiments from the 1980s and 1990s on how the body works, not an effort to make a drug.
Has galanin ever been given to humans?
Yes, many times, starting with a report in The Lancet in 1986. Healthy volunteers got galanin into a vein in controlled studies through the 1990s. Every study measured hormones, heart rate or blood pressure. None measured thinking, mood or eating behaviour.
What does galanin actually do in a person?
It raises growth hormone, strongly and every time. In one study growth hormone went from 2.8 to a peak of 48.5 mU/L. In another it rose eightfold. It does nothing measurable to insulin, glucagon or blood sugar in people, even though it does in dogs and rodents. And it clearly affects the automatic nervous system: resting heart rate rose from 70 to 99 beats a minute during a one-hour drip in healthy men.
Does galanin help with addiction or cravings?
That idea comes from rodent work, with galanin put straight into the brain. No human study has ever tested galanin for addiction, craving, mood or any behaviour. Galanin given by shot has no proven way to reach the brain receptors that idea depends on.
Is galanin safe?
The short-term safety record in people is thin but not empty. In the earliest studies, people noticed a passing bitter taste and a little extra saliva, and heart rate and blood pressure did not change at those doses. At a higher dose in a later study, resting heart rate rose from 70 to 99 beats a minute and the blood pressure response to standing was blunted. There is no safety data at all for repeated doses in people. Half of it leaves the blood in under four minutes, so nothing is known about what longer exposure would do.
How long does galanin last?
Half of it is gone from the blood in about 3.7 minutes. That was measured directly in healthy volunteers during a drip of human galanin. It is a measured number, not an estimate.