CJC-1295 no-DAC + Ipamorelin guide & protocols

This is the pairing most people in the growth hormone family end up running, and it's the one where the gap between what circulates and what you can actually buy is widest. The dosing convention everyone repeats calls for two or three times as much ipamorelin as CJC-1295. Every premixed vial we can find holds equal amounts of each. Those two facts are rarely printed on the same page, and the section that works through them is the reason this guide exists.

Vial size isn't part of what follows, since the amount of bacteriostatic water you add sets your concentration either way. Our reconstitution calculator handles that math for whatever vial and target amount you're working with.

What it is

Two compounds, run together, that ask the pituitary for growth hormone through two different doors.

CJC-1295 no-DAC, also sold as modified GRF (1-29), copies the signal the hypothalamus sends. It clears in about half an hour, so it acts as a short pulse rather than a sustained level. This is the short-acting version; the long-acting one, sold as CJC-1295 with DAC, lasts about a week and is not what this pairing uses.

Ipamorelin copies the signal the stomach sends, working on the ghrelin receptor, and it's the selective member of that family: it raises growth hormone without dragging cortisol, prolactin or appetite along with it.

Because those are separate receptor systems, the case for running both is that the release should add up rather than overlap. Both clear quickly, which is what lets them be timed to arrive and leave together as a single pulse. That timing match is the whole reason this pairing uses the short version of CJC-1295, and it's why pairing the week-long version with ipamorelin doesn't make the same sense.

What people use it for

Sleep first, and it's the most consistent report attached to this pairing. Then recovery, and then the slower body composition question that brings most people to this category at all. It's the same set of reasons people run ipamorelin alone; the argument for the pairing is that the combined pulse is larger, not that it does something different.

Worth naming plainly: the reason this specific combination dominates is partly that it works on paper and partly that it's what gets sold. It's the default premixed product in every shop, so it's the default protocol, and those two facts reinforce each other independently of whether the pairing beats either compound alone in a person. Nobody has tested that.

Formulations

Sold two ways: as a premixed blend in one vial, or as two separate vials you draw from and inject together. Across the vendors we track, premixed vials are the common purchase, and every premixed product we can see holds equal amounts of the two compounds.

The labelling problem, and it is a real one. Vendors do not measure these vials the same way. Some list a blend holding 5 mg of each compound as a "5 mg" product, describing the per-compound amount. Others list the same physical thing as "10 mg", describing the total. Both conventions are in active use right now, sometimes with nearly identical product names, and the two are a factor of two apart.

That means a per-milligram comparison across blend listings is not automatically comparing like with like, and this is one of the few places on this site where we'd tell you our own price-per-milligram figure needs a second look before you trust it. Read the product name for a per-compound breakdown, and where it only gives one number, ask the vendor which it is. A vendor who can't say is telling you something.

Dosing protocols

There's no approved product and nothing establishing an amount for this pairing, so everything below is convention. The ratio row is the one that matters most and it's the one nothing in the market delivers.

See the blend research notes for the mechanism behind these figures, and the ipamorelin guide and CJC-1295 guide for each compound on its own.

All patterns above are subcutaneous injection, given on an empty stomach at least two hours clear of food.

The ratio problem, worked through

A premixed vial holds the two compounds in fixed proportion, and once they're in the same solution you cannot draw more of one than the other. Whatever the ratio in the vial is, that's the ratio you inject, every time, forever.

So on a 1:1 blend you get one of two outcomes, and there is no third. Draw enough for 200 mcg of ipamorelin, which is its own convention, and you take 200 mcg of CJC-1295 alongside it, double the 100 mcg that circulates for it. Or draw for 100 mcg of CJC-1295 and you get 100 mcg of ipamorelin, which is below its usual figure. Neither reproduces the 1:2 pattern the separate-vial convention describes.

Whether that matters is genuinely unknown, and it would be dishonest to tell you otherwise. Nobody has compared ratios in a person. What can be said is that the widely repeated 1:2 convention and the universally sold 1:1 product cannot both be right, and almost nobody selling either one mentions the other exists. If the ratio matters to you, separate vials are the only way to control it.

Worked example. A blend vial holding 5 mg of each compound is 10 mg total, which is 10,000 mcg, half of it each. Reconstituted with 2 mL of bacteriostatic water that gives 5,000 mcg per mL of combined material, or 2,500 mcg per mL of each compound. A draw of 8 units on a standard U-100 insulin syringe is 0.08 mL, which delivers 400 mcg total: 200 mcg of each. A 4-unit draw delivers 100 mcg of each. The ratio is 1:1 at every draw size, which is the point.

Amount total, for planning your purchase. At 200 mcg of each nightly, that 10 mg blend vial holds 25 nights. A twelve-week stretch runs about 33.6 mg of combined material (400 mcg times 84 nights), so between three and four of those vials. Compare vendors against that total, and against the labelling problem above, rather than against a vial price.

How much to reconstitute at once. A reconstituted vial keeps about 28 days refrigerated. At 200 mcg of each nightly a 10 mg blend vial lands at 25 nights, which fits neatly inside that window, and this is the one place the market's default sizing actually works out. At the lighter 100 mcg draw the same vial holds 50 nights and the window closes first, leaving roughly 4.4 mg unusable. See how much to reconstitute at once for the general math.

Cycling guidelines

Twelve weeks on with four off is the pattern described most often, and eight-on-four-off also circulates. Neither has anything published behind it for this pairing.

The reasoning is worth separating by compound, because it isn't equally strong for both halves. For ipamorelin, receptor desensitisation with continuous stimulation is a real feature of the receptor family, so a break has a plausible mechanism behind it. For CJC-1295, the specific worry that a sustained signal would flatten natural growth hormone pulses was measured in people and didn't hold up, so the case there is weaker. The convention treats them as one schedule anyway, which is reasonable enough for a pairing that's injected as one thing.

Signs a course is commonly stopped or reconsidered:

• Water retention or puffiness in the hands and face
• Numbness or tingling in the hands
• A head rush or flushing after the dose that doesn't settle over the first week or two
• Vivid dreams or disrupted sleep, which is the opposite of what most people came for
• Blood sugar drifting upward

Stacking

This is already a stack, so the question here is what gets added to it, and the honest answer for most people is nothing.

What's actually being combined: the two doors to the pituitary, hypothalamic and stomach-side. Adding a third compound that works on either of those doors doesn't add a pathway, it doubles one that's already covered.

Additions that come up: BPC-157 for general recovery, on a rationale unrelated to growth hormone, which is the cleanest addition here because it isn't competing for anything. Tesamorelin comes up too and is a substitute for the CJC-1295 half rather than an addition, since it works through the same receptor.

Combinations to approach carefully: the older compounds in ipamorelin's class, GHRP-2 and GHRP-6, work on the same receptor ipamorelin does. Adding one puts back the cortisol, prolactin and appetite effects ipamorelin was selected to avoid, which makes it a strange thing to pay extra for. And adding CJC-1295 with DAC on top of the no-DAC version in the blend is doubling the same signal on two different clocks.

Expected results timeline

First week or two: sleep, described as deeper and as waking less. This is the most consistent early report attached to this pairing and it's what most people notice first, if they notice anything.

Months in: recovery over a month or two, and body composition changes described across a full twelve-week stretch. All self-reported.

Extended, continued use: no data. The pairing has never been studied in people over any length of time.

What to expect realistically: each half of this has real pharmacology behind it, and the combination has none. What was shown separately is that one compound raises growth hormone markers for about as long as advertised, and the other does so without raising cortisol. What has never been shown is that running them together produces more than either compound by itself in a person, still less that any of it changes how someone sleeps, recovers or looks. The additive argument is mechanically sensible and wholly untested, and the confidence with which it gets stated in vendor copy is not earned.

Administration technique

1. The lyophilized powder is reconstituted with bacteriostatic water, at a concentration set by the reconstitution calculator. For a blend, run the calculation on the total material in the vial and remember the draw splits evenly between the two compounds.
2. The solution is swirled gently to dissolve rather than shaken, since agitation can degrade the peptide.
3. The vial is commonly labelled with the date, the concentration, and whether the figure is per compound or total, which is the labelling confusion described above landing in your own fridge.
4. The calculated volume is drawn into an insulin syringe.
5. Where two separate vials are used, each is drawn into its own syringe and given as two injections at the same sitting, rather than mixed in one barrel.
6. A subcutaneous site is chosen, commonly the abdomen, with sites rotated night to night.
7. The skin is pinched and the injection given at roughly a 45-degree angle.
8. The dose is given at least two hours after eating and shortly before sleep, since food raises insulin and insulin blunts the release both compounds are working toward. This is the part of the protocol with an actual mechanism behind it.

Side effects and safety

Common: a head rush, flushing or brief light-headedness in the minutes after the injection, which comes from the ipamorelin half and usually settles within the first week. Water retention and mild puffiness in the hands and face follow, from both halves.

Less common: numbness or tingling in the hands, joint aches, headaches, vivid dreams, and a rise in blood sugar. That last one is the effect worth watching most closely, since raising growth hormone signalling nudges insulin resistance and this pairing is pushing from two directions at once.

What we don't know: what the combination does, at all, in a person. Both compounds have been studied alone, briefly, in small numbers of people, for purposes mostly unrelated to why anyone runs this. There's no approved product, so no prescribing information and no post-market record. Whether running two growth hormone signals together carries more risk than one is an open question that nobody has looked at.

Contraindications: active cancer is the caution carried across this category, on the reasoning that raising growth hormone and IGF-1 signalling could in principle accelerate cell growth. Not shown, not ruled out. Pregnancy, breastfeeding and use in minors have no data. Diabetes and prediabetes are where the blood sugar effect stops being theoretical.

Drug interactions: anything affecting blood sugar control. Corticosteroids interact with growth hormone signalling in both directions.

The blend vs. two separate vials

This is the real decision, and it isn't the one most vendor pages frame for you. The compounds are the same either way; what differs is control, price comparability and effort.

Choose the blend if: one injection and one calculation matter more than ratio control, and you're comfortable running both compounds at the same amount.

Choose separate vials if: you want the ratio the convention actually describes, or you want to be able to compare prices honestly across vendors, or you expect to adjust one compound without the other.

See the ipamorelin guide and protocols and the CJC-1295 guide and protocols for each compound on its own, and the comparison against sermorelin if you're weighing this pairing against the alternative one.

Storage and handling

Lyophilized powder: refrigerate at 2 to 8°C and protect from light. Kept frozen, the unreconstituted powder is commonly described as stable considerably longer, which is the practical answer to a larger vial than 28 days can use. Take lot-specific stability from the vendor's certificate of analysis.

Reconstituted solution: refrigerate and use within about 28 days. A blend has two peptides in one solution and there is no reason to assume they degrade at the same rate, so the shorter of the two compounds' windows is the sensible planning figure rather than the longer. Avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles.

Signs of degradation:

• Cloudiness or visible particles in a solution that was previously clear
• Discoloration of the powder or the reconstituted liquid
• The head-rush effect that reliably showed up and then stops, which points at the ipamorelin half specifically, though it's a soft signal

FAQ

Which CJC-1295 does this use? The no-DAC version, also sold as modified GRF (1-29), which clears in about half an hour. The week-long DAC version doesn't match ipamorelin's timing and isn't what the pairing is built on.

What ratio do people run? The convention describes 100 mcg of CJC-1295 with 200 to 300 mcg of ipamorelin. Every premixed vial we can find is 1:1, so buying premixed means running 1:1 whatever the convention says.

Does the ratio actually matter? Nobody has compared ratios in a person, so we can't tell you. We can tell you the market and the convention disagree, and that separate vials are the only way to control it.

Why do blend prices look so different between vendors? Partly real price differences and partly that some vendors call a 5-plus-5 vial "5 mg" and others call the same thing "10 mg". Check the per-compound breakdown before comparing.

Blend or separate vials? Blend for convenience, separate for ratio control and honest price comparison.

Why on an empty stomach? Food raises insulin and insulin blunts growth hormone release. This is the one protocol rule here with a real mechanism behind it.

Has the combination been studied? Each compound alone, briefly. The pairing itself, never, in people, at any ratio.

How is it stored? Refrigerated and out of the light, frozen if unreconstituted and being kept a while, used within about 28 days once mixed.

Bottom line

Key dosing takeaways:

• The circulating convention is 100 mcg of CJC-1295 with 200 to 300 mcg of ipamorelin, nightly, on an empty stomach
• Every premixed blend we can find is 1:1, so it cannot deliver that ratio; you get 200 of each or 100 of each
• The combination has never been studied in people at any ratio, so the additive case is reasoning rather than evidence

Best practices:

• Checking whether a blend's advertised milligrams are per compound or total before comparing prices, because both conventions are in use right now
• Drawing for 200 mcg of each on a 10 mg blend vial, which lands at 25 nights and fits the 28-day window
• Buying separate vials if the ratio matters to you, since a premixed vial takes that decision away permanently

Works best for people who:

• Want the most commonly run growth hormone protocol and would rather inject once than twice
• Are primarily after sleep and recovery rather than a measurable outcome
• Can hold that each half is well characterised and the pairing itself is untested

Both compounds here are sold for research, and the combination has never been tested in people. You already know that. You're an adult making an informed call about your own body, and that's yours to make.