Growth hormone peptides

Your body makes its own growth hormone. This family of peptides nudges it to make a bit more on its own schedule, rather than injecting growth hormone directly.

The system runs as a relay. Your hypothalamus (hy-po-THAL-uh-mus), a control center in the brain, sends a signal called GHRH to the pituitary, a small gland just below it. The pituitary answers by releasing a pulse of growth hormone into the blood. Growth hormone is not released steadily. It comes in bursts and the biggest one happens during deep sleep.

The peptides act at two points in that relay. GHRH compounds, like CJC-1295, sermorelin (ser-mo-REL-in), and tesamorelin (tess-uh-mo-REL-in), copy the brain's "release some" signal. GHRP compounds, like ipamorelin (ih-pam-oh-REL-in), copy a different hormone called ghrelin (GREL-in). Ghrelin is the one that spikes when your stomach is empty, the hunger hormone. It has a side job of poking the pituitary to release growth hormone too. GHRPs borrow that side job and skip the hunger.

This is why the two are usually stacked. A GHRH and a GHRP together push the same gland through two different doors at once, which produces a bigger, cleaner pulse than either alone. People use the combination for recovery, sleep, and body composition. The honest catch is that the benefits are usually subtle and slow. They show up most in people who were running low to begin with.