CJC-1295 guide & protocols

Before anything else on this page: two different compounds are sold as CJC-1295, and they are not interchangeable. One stays in the body for about a week and is injected weekly. The other clears in minutes and is injected daily, often more than once a day. The good news is that vendors label them clearly, so you will almost always know which you're buying. The catch is that a lot of writing about this compound doesn't say which one it means, and the two are dosed twenty times apart per injection. Every pattern below says plainly which version it belongs to.

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

CJC-1295 is a synthetic copy of growth hormone-releasing hormone, the signal the hypothalamus sends to tell the pituitary to release growth hormone. Natural growth hormone-releasing hormone survives only a few minutes in the blood, because an enzyme cuts it apart almost immediately. Everything interesting about CJC-1295 is what was done to get around that.

The DAC version carries an extra piece that latches reversibly onto albumin, the most common protein in blood. Riding along on albumin, it lasts roughly six to eight days instead of minutes. This is what "CJC-1295 with DAC" means, and it's what the name properly refers to.

The no-DAC version has no such attachment. It's the same core sequence with a small stabilising change, sold as "CJC-1295 no DAC" or under the name modified GRF (1-29), and it clears in about half an hour. It behaves like a short pulse rather than a sustained signal, which is why it's the one people pair with Ipamorelin.

Both ask the pituitary to make its own growth hormone rather than supplying any from outside, so the body's own feedback loop stays intact either way. Neither is approved for anything, anywhere.

What people use it for

The general growth hormone case, which in this audience mostly means sleep quality, recovery, how the body composition sits, and the sense that things stopped rebuilding themselves overnight the way they used to. Growth hormone output falls steadily from the twenties onward, and the appeal here is nudging that back up without injecting growth hormone itself.

The reason people choose CJC-1295 over the alternatives is usually schedule and price. The DAC version is the only compound in this category you can inject once a week, which for anyone who has looked at a daily peptide and quietly decided against it is the whole argument. The no-DAC version is chosen for the opposite reason: people who want the release to come in pulses close to the body's own rhythm, and who don't mind injecting daily to get it.

Formulations

Both versions ship as lyophilized powder for subcutaneous injection. Across the vendors we track, 5 mg vials dominate the listings sold as CJC-1295, with 2 mg and 10 mg both available from a handful.

Telling the two apart is easy, and the market deserves credit for that. Across the live listings we track, all but one state the version outright: "with DAC", "DAC", "No DAC", "W/O DAC", or "Mod GRF 1-29", which always means no-DAC. Roughly two thirds of what's on sale is the no-DAC version. So the shopping step is genuinely simple, and if you do meet a bare "CJC-1295" with nothing after it, that's the one listing worth a question before you buy.

Where the confusion actually bites is in what you read, not what you buy. Articles, forum posts and dosing charts routinely say "CJC-1295" without saying which, and since the two are dosed twenty times apart per injection, a number carried across from one to the other is meaningless. Check which version a source means before you use its figures, and if it doesn't say, don't guess.

For the two versions side by side rather than summarised here, see CJC-1295 with DAC vs. without DAC.

Dosing protocols

The two versions are separated in the table because mixing them up is the failure this page exists to prevent. Nothing here comes from an approved product, since there isn't one.

See the CJC-1295 research notes for the human research behind the timing.

All patterns above are subcutaneous injection.

The unit trap

Read the two versions' amounts against each other once more, because this is where people get hurt financially. The DAC patterns are in milligrams. The no-DAC pattern is in micrograms, and 100 mcg is a tenth of a milligram. Someone who buys a no-DAC vial and runs the 2 mg weekly figure is injecting twenty times the circulating amount for that version, and someone who buys a DAC vial and runs 100 mcg daily is injecting a small fraction of it, seven times a week, for no reason. The vial looks identical in both cases.

Amount total, for planning your vial purchase. On the DAC version at 2 mg weekly, a 5 mg vial is two and a half weeks and a twelve-week stretch runs 24 mg, so five of those vials. On the no-DAC version at 100 mcg once daily, a 5 mg vial holds fifty doses, and at three times daily it holds about sixteen days. Compare vendors against whichever of those totals applies to you, not against a vial price.

How much to reconstitute at once. A reconstituted vial keeps about 28 days refrigerated. On the DAC version that window takes 8 mg at 2 mg weekly, so a 5 mg vial fits comfortably inside it and a 10 mg vial does not, leaving roughly 2 mg unusable. On the no-DAC version at once daily, a 5 mg vial holds fifty days' worth and the window closes first, so about 2.2 mg goes to waste unless you're dosing more than once a day. Working example: 5 mg into 2 mL of bacteriostatic water gives 2,500 mcg per mL, so a 2 mg dose is 2,000 divided by 2,500, times 100, which is 80 units on a standard U-100 insulin syringe, and a 100 mcg dose from the same vial is 4 units. See how much to reconstitute at once for the general math.

Cycling guidelines

Twelve weeks on with four or more weeks off is the pattern described most often for both versions, and nothing published establishes either the length or the break. The reasoning offered is that the pituitary shouldn't be asked to work continuously without a rest.

That reasoning is weaker for this compound than it looks, and it's worth knowing why. The specific worry about a long-acting version of this signal was that holding the signal on continuously would flatten the natural pulses of growth hormone that come mostly during deep sleep. When that was actually measured, the pulses survived. So the strongest theoretical argument for cycling the DAC version was tested and didn't hold up. People still cycle, mostly on general principle and on cost, and that's a reasonable thing to do in the absence of long-run data, but it isn't the evidence-backed practice it's often presented as.

Signs a course is commonly stopped or reconsidered:

• Water retention, puffiness, or swelling in the hands and feet, which is the most consistently reported effect across this whole category
• Numbness or tingling in the hands, or carpal tunnel symptoms
• Joint aches or stiffness
• Blood sugar drifting upward, since raising growth hormone signalling nudges insulin resistance in that direction
• Persistent redness or lumps at injection sites, more likely on the daily no-DAC schedule

Stacking

Most commonly paired stack: the no-DAC version with Ipamorelin.

Rationale: the two knock on different doors at the pituitary. CJC-1295 works through the growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor; Ipamorelin works through the ghrelin receptor. The argument is that pushing both at once produces a larger release than either alone, rather than simply more of the same signal, and that the short no-DAC pulse matches Ipamorelin's own short action so the two arrive and clear together.

Protocol as run: both dosed together before sleep on an empty stomach, commonly 100 mcg of each, as one injection if bought premixed or two if bought separately. Some run a second or third dose across the day. The blend guide and protocols covers the combined schedule, and the ratio problem a premixed vial creates. The empty-stomach part is the load-bearing detail rather than a nicety, because food raises insulin and insulin blunts the release both compounds are trying to produce.

Why the DAC version is the odd one out here: pairing a compound that lasts a week with one that lasts twenty minutes gives you a week of one signal and a moment of the other, which isn't the coordinated pulse the stack is built around. That's the main practical reason the no-DAC version exists at all, and why nearly every premixed blend uses it.

Lighter stacks: Sermorelin and Tesamorelin both come up, and both are substitutes rather than additions, since all three work through the same receptor. Running CJC-1295 with either is doubling one signal, not combining two. BPC-157 appears as a general recovery pairing with no growth hormone rationale behind it.

Combinations to approach carefully: anything else that raises blood sugar, since growth hormone signalling already pushes that way on its own.

Expected results timeline

First week or two: sleep is what people report first and most consistently across this category, usually deeper rather than longer. Nothing visible is happening yet.

Months in: recovery and body composition changes are described over a couple of months rather than weeks, and they're self-reported. The human research measured what happens to growth hormone and IGF-1 in the blood, not what happens to how anybody looks or feels, and that gap is the honest state of this compound.

Extended, continued use: no data. The longest human research on this compound ran a matter of weeks.

What to expect realistically: what was actually demonstrated in people is that this compound reliably raises two numbers in a blood test, for about as long as advertised, without flattening the natural rhythm. That's genuinely more than most compounds on this site can claim. What was never demonstrated is that raising those numbers changes anything you would notice, in a healthy adult, over any length of time. Both halves of that are true at once, and vendor copy tends to quote only the first.

Administration technique

1. The lyophilized powder is reconstituted with bacteriostatic water, at a concentration set by the reconstitution calculator for the target amount and the version you have.
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 version, the date and the concentration, which matters unusually much here given how easily the two versions and their units get confused.
4. The calculated volume is drawn into an insulin syringe.
5. A subcutaneous site is chosen, commonly the abdomen, with sites rotated between injections.
6. The skin is pinched and the injection given at roughly a 45-degree angle, held for a few seconds before withdrawal.
7. The dose is commonly given before sleep on an empty stomach, and where a second daily dose is used it's placed well away from meals for the same reason.

Side effects and safety

Common: water retention and a puffy feeling, particularly in the hands and face, and injection site redness. Tiredness or a flushed feeling in the first hour after a dose is commonly described, more so on the DAC version where the amount per injection is larger.

Less common: numbness and tingling in the hands, joint aches, headaches, and a rise in blood sugar. That last one is the effect worth watching most closely, since it's the plausible route by which this could do real harm to someone already sliding toward insulin resistance.

What we don't know: most of it. The human research on this compound was designed to establish how long it lasts and what it does to two blood markers, in a small number of healthy adults, over weeks. Nobody has studied what a year of it does, in anybody. There is no approved product, so there's no prescribing information, no boxed warning and no post-market record to consult, and that's a real difference from tesamorelin rather than a technicality.

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

Drug interactions: anything affecting blood sugar control, including insulin and oral diabetes medications. Corticosteroids interact with growth hormone signalling and are worth knowing about.

CJC-1295 vs. Tesamorelin

Tesamorelin is the compound to weigh CJC-1295 against, because it's the same idea with a completely different evidence position: the only member of this family with an approved product and a published label behind it.

Choose CJC-1295 if: weekly dosing and a much lower running cost matter more than depth of evidence, and general growth hormone support rather than one specific measured outcome is what you're after.

Choose tesamorelin if: deep abdominal fat is the actual target and you want the one compound here with real published evidence and an approved product behind it.

See the Tesamorelin research notes and the tesamorelin guide and protocols for its own dosing.

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 useful on the no-DAC version where a vial outlasts its own reconstituted window. Take lot-specific stability from the vendor's certificate of analysis.

Reconstituted solution: refrigerate and use within about 28 days. 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
• Powder that has clumped or gone sticky, which usually means moisture reached it

FAQ

What's the difference between DAC and no-DAC? The DAC version attaches to albumin in the blood and lasts six to eight days. The no-DAC version clears in about half an hour. Same core molecule, completely different schedules.

How do I tell which I bought? The label almost always says. Every live listing we track but one specifies "with DAC" or "No DAC", and "Mod GRF 1-29" always means no-DAC. It's the writing about this compound, not the products, that leaves the version out.

How much do people run? 2 mg once weekly on the DAC version, or 100 mcg daily on the no-DAC version. Note that those differ by a factor of twenty per injection.

Why at night on an empty stomach? The convention lines the dose up with the body's own overnight release, and food raises insulin, which blunts that release. It's convention rather than something the research established.

Does the long-acting version flatten natural growth hormone pulses? That was the specific worry, it was measured in people, and the pulses persisted.

Do people cycle it? Commonly twelve weeks on and four or more off, on general principle. The theoretical case for cycling the DAC version is weaker than usual, because the pulse-flattening concern behind it didn't hold up.

Can I stack the DAC version with Ipamorelin? People do, but the pairing is built around the short no-DAC pulse matching Ipamorelin's own. A week-long signal alongside a twenty-minute one isn't the same thing.

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:

• Two compounds share this name and vendors label them clearly, but most writing about them doesn't. The DAC version runs 2 mg weekly; the no-DAC version runs 100 mcg daily, twenty times smaller per injection
• The weekly rhythm on the DAC version is the one part of this with real human research behind it, because the effect was measured lasting about six days per dose
• What was shown in people is that two blood markers go up and stay up. What was never shown is that anybody noticed

Best practices:

• Checking which version a dosing figure belongs to before using it, since most writing about this compound omits that and the two are twenty times apart
• Labelling the vial with the version as well as the date and concentration
• Buying a 5 mg vial rather than a 10 mg one on the weekly pattern, since the 28-day window can't reach the larger one

Works best for people who:

• Want general growth hormone support at a low running cost, and would rather inject once a week than daily
• Are pairing it with Ipamorelin, in which case the no-DAC version is the one the stack is built on
• Can hold that the pharmacology is well established and the benefit is not

CJC-1295 is sold for research, and the human work behind it measured blood markers over weeks rather than outcomes over years. You already know that. You're an adult making an informed call about your own body, and that's yours to make.