CJC-1295 without DAC: a name that describes a different molecule
A growth-hormone-releasing hormone analogue with a half-life the app models at thirty minutes, sold under a name that belongs to a molecule with a half-life of about a week. The naming is the first thing to understand, because it determines the dosing.
Regulatory status. Research compound — no FDA approval. Not for human use label. That is the app’s own field, reproduced here rather than summarised. It means no regulator has reviewed a manufacturer’s evidence for identity, purity, potency or safety in people for this compound, so nothing below is a marketing claim about a product you can buy.
Purity, identity and concentration are therefore unverified by anyone but whoever made the vial. The storage rule in the fact box below is general practice for this formulation rather than a specification for a particular product: General handling practice for this formulation. Your supplier’s own insert or COA overrides anything here.
This page names no vendor, no clinic and no testing service, and there is no discount code anywhere on this site — the moment a page like this recommends where to buy, it stops being information.
- Also known as
- Mod GRF 1-29 (without DAC)
- Class
- Peptide
- Regulatory status
- Research compound — no FDA approval. Not for human use label.
- Modelled half-life
- 30 min
- Time to peak
- 12 min
- Formulation
- Aqueous (reconstituted powder)
- Before mixing
- Sealed powder tolerates room temperature in transit, but keep it refrigerated at 2–8 °C (36–46 °F) for anything beyond a few weeks, or frozen for months. Keep it dark — the carton it shipped in is doing a job.
- After mixing
- Once reconstituted with bacteriostatic water: refrigerate at 2–8 °C and use within about 28 days. The benzyl alcohol in bacteriostatic water is what buys that window — plain sterile water has no preservative, so a vial mixed with it should be treated as one sitting only. Kits are usually ten vials: only the one you mixed is on that 28-day clock — the sealed ones keep their own, much longer shelf life, so store them as powder, not as solution.
- What ruins it
- Do not freeze a reconstituted vial. Repeated freeze–thaw is one of the more reliable ways to degrade a peptide.
- Handling caveat
- General handling practice for this formulation. Your supplier’s own insert or COA overrides anything here.
What the DAC was, and what removing it removes
Native GHRH is a 44-amino-acid hypothalamic peptide; its first 29 residues carry the activity, and that fragment — GRF(1-29) — is the starting point for this whole family. It is degraded within minutes. Modified GRF(1-29) adds four amino-acid substitutions that resist that degradation and extend the half-life to roughly half an hour.
Established clinical use CJC-1295 proper is that modified peptide with one further addition: a drug affinity complex, a reactive linker that forms a covalent bond with circulating albumin. Bound to albumin, the peptide is protected from clearance and its half-life extends to about a week. The DAC is not a detail. It is the entire innovation the name CJC-1295 refers to.
So "CJC-1295 without DAC" describes modified GRF(1-29) — a thirty-minute peptide — under the name of a week-long one. The app records the two separately, and this page covers the short-acting version. The distinction matters practically: a thirty-minute peptide produces a discrete pulse and is dosed accordingly, while the DAC version produces a sustained elevation, which is a pharmacologically different intervention with different implications for the feedback loops involved.
Why the pulse is the design goal
Growth hormone is normally released in bursts, largely during slow-wave sleep, against a background of somatostatin tone that suppresses release between bursts. Established clinical use A GHRH analogue amplifies a pulse when the pituitary is ready to release one; it does not override somatostatin. That is the mechanistic argument for preferring a short-acting analogue: it works within the existing rhythm rather than flattening it, and the pituitary's own feedback remains in place.
Off-label or community practice It is also the argument for pairing a GHRH analogue with a ghrelin receptor agonist such as ipamorelin. The two act at different receptors — one raising the release signal, the other suppressing somatostatin tone — and the combined effect on a GH pulse is reported as larger than either alone. This is a well-founded piece of physiology and a near-universal community practice; it is not a combination that has been through trials in this population.
The fasting requirement follows from the same physiology. Insulin and elevated glucose blunt GH release, which is why administration is described in the fasted state and typically before sleep, when the natural pulse is largest. The app's dosing rows carry that framing.
What is not established
Animal-only or theoretical There is no approved product and no controlled trial of this peptide for the uses it is put to. The GH-releasing effect of GHRH analogues is well characterised; what is not characterised is whether producing larger GH pulses in a person with a normal axis changes body composition, recovery or anything else people are hoping for, over what timescale, or at what cost. IGF-1 is the marker that tells you whether the axis moved — see the IGF-1 page — and it is a marker of exposure, not of benefit.
The adverse effects reported are those of raising GH: fluid retention, transient bloating, occasional numbness or tingling suggesting carpal tunnel involvement at higher amounts, and reduced insulin sensitivity. The app records fasting glucose alongside IGF-1 for that reason. Sourcing carries the usual research-compound problem: identity, purity and concentration are unverified outside a regulated supply chain, and no vendor or testing service appears anywhere on this site.
Anyone experiencing the effects described here should raise them with a clinician who knows their history, and a rising fasting glucose is a reason to have that conversation sooner rather than at the next scheduled panel.
The curve, the accumulation ratio and the peak-to-trough figures have a page of their own: CJC-1295 half-life and steady state.
The dosing rows the app records
Off-label or community practice Reproduced from the app’s reference so you can see what it holds, not as a recommendation. Which row applies to a particular person, if any, is a clinical decision this page does not make — and rows describing supraphysiological or post-cycle use are filtered out before this table is built, so what you see here is a subset.
| Label | Amount | Route and frequency | Duration recorded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting | 100mcg CJC + 100mcg Ipa | Once daily before bed SubQ fasted | 3 months on / 1 month off |
| Optimized | 200mcg CJC + 200mcg Ipa | Twice daily fasted (AM + pre-bed) | 3-6 months |
What the app monitors alongside it
The panel below is the app’s own monitoring note for CJC-1295, verbatim. The analytes in it that have a page here are linked; those pages cover what each one measures, which assay produced it and how to read a trend.
- Monitoring panel
- IGF-1 every 3 months. Fasting glucose.
Drawbacks and risks the app records
From the app's own entry. These are the effects of raising growth hormone rather than effects unique to this peptide, which is worth knowing when comparing it against others in the class.
- Water retention possible at higher doses
- Temporary bloating
- Carpal tunnel at very high doses (rare)
- Requires refrigeration
- IGF-1 monitoring recommended
- Fasted state required
Interaction rules that name CJC-1295
From the app’s interaction data, filtered so no rule naming a compound this site does not publish appears. Not exhaustive, and not a safety clearance: a combination that is not listed is one nobody has documented here, which is not the same as one that is fine. The combination checker has the rest.
Gold Standard GH Secretagogue Pairing
CJC-1295 (GHRH analogue) and Ipamorelin (selective GHRP) are the gold standard GH secretagogue combination. CJC-1295 primes pituitary somatotrophs while Ipamorelin triggers GH release with minimal cortisol or prolactin elevation. Always pair these — neither is as effective alone.
What to watch: IGF-1 every 3 months. Fasting glucose. No prolactin monitoring needed with Ipamorelin.
Metformin + GH Secretagogues — Monitor Glucose
GH secretagogues can reduce insulin sensitivity while metformin improves it. The two may partially offset each other's metabolic effects. Metformin can act as a useful safety net for glucose management when using GH peptides long-term.
What to watch: Fasting glucose, HbA1c, IGF-1. The combination is reasonable — just monitor metabolic markers.
Never Combine CJC-1295 and CJC-1295 DAC
These are two forms of the same compound. Combining them dramatically elevates IGF-1 and GH beyond safe physiological ranges. Use one or the other — not both.
What to watch: IGF-1, fasting glucose. If accidentally combined, stop both and recheck IGF-1 in 2 weeks.
Questions people actually ask
Which one am I actually buying?
If it is labelled "CJC-1295 no DAC" or "Mod GRF 1-29", it is the thirty-minute peptide this page describes. If it is labelled CJC-1295 with DAC, it is the long-acting version, which the app records as a separate compound. The two are dosed differently because they behave differently, and the labelling in this market is not reliable.
Why pair it with ipamorelin?
Because they act at two different receptors in the same pathway and the combined effect on a growth hormone pulse is larger than either alone. It is a mechanistically sound pairing and a community standard. It has not been tested as a combination in a controlled trial in people using it this way.
How long does one dose last?
The app models thirty minutes, so the peptide itself is gone within a couple of hours. The GH pulse it triggers and the IGF-1 elevation that follows last considerably longer, which is why a short half-life does not mean a short effect. The half-life page has the curve.
Does it work if taken after a meal?
Less well. Insulin and glucose suppress growth hormone release, so administration in the fasted state is described throughout the literature and in the app's own rows. That is a property of the axis rather than of this peptide.
Where the load-bearing numbers come from
Named rather than linked. Publisher URLs move, and a citation that resolves to a 404 two years from now is worse than one you can search for by name — every entry below is findable from the title and year alone.
- GRF(1-29) as the active fragment of GHRH
- Standard endocrinology references on growth hormone releasing hormone
- The drug affinity complex and albumin binding
- The published pharmacology of CJC-1295, which is where the name originates
- GHRH and ghrelin-receptor synergy on GH pulses
- Human physiology studies of combined GHRH and GH-secretagogue administration
- Modelled half-life
- app.html’s TL_PK entry for the non-DAC peptide
Two peptides, one syringe, a fasted window before sleep — that is a schedule worth writing down. TherapyLog records the pairing and the time.
Save this dose to your log