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ME/CFS patient @hamsterman went into full remission from his ME/CFS after taking the protein GDF11 by injection for 2 months.
GDF11 (growth differentiation factor 11) is a protein which is naturally made in the body, and is considered by researchers to be an "elixir of youth" because of its ability to restore youthful characteristics in organs such as the muscle, brain and heart when injected into older animals. Ref: 1
For the first month on GDF11, Hamsterman noticed very little in terms of amelioration in ME/CFS symptoms, apart from some improvements in sleeping patterns, and feeling better in the mornings. But by the end of the second month, he found he was in full remission from ME/CFS.
While taking GDF11, Hamsterman discovered that when he tried to increase his GDF11 dose, he experienced bouts of fever and malaise. When he reduced the dose again, the bout of fever and malaise ended. But he noticed that after every bout of fever subsided, he felt better than before, ie, his ME/CFS had improved. So possibly this fever may be the immune system kicking into gear and fighting off the underlying infections.
Hamsterman has now been taking GDF11 for 3 months. It took 2 months to go into remission, and he has now been in remission for 1 month.
Hamsterman feels that if he were to stop taking GDF11 entirely, he might relapse, because he felt some symptoms start to come back when he reduced the dose.
It should be noted that Hamsterman also has Crohn's disease as well as ME/CFS. However, the GDF11 did not help his Crohn's, it only seemed to work for the ME/CFS. He has had ME/CFS for 15 years, and back in 2016 it his ME/CFS severe, leaving him in bedbound for most of the day; but just before he started GDF11 he was at the moderate level of ME/CFS, on the scale of mild, moderate and severe.
One possible confounding factor is that Hamsterman also started taking the supplement nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) about 2 months before he began the GDF11 (and then continued taking NMN with the GDF11). He found NMN helped a bit, but he doubts NMN is related to vast improvements he obtained during the second month of taking GDF11.
Hamsterman gave me permission to post his story.
UPDATE: Hamsterman told me he is not getting the same benefits as he originally obtained with GDF11, though has still improved — see this post.
GDF11 is not an FDA-approved drug, and has not been formally tested on humans. It it a protein which can only be bought for research purposes, and is sold on the understanding it is not for human use. But the body does make this substance itself, so it is naturally present in humans.
Some people on the Longecity.org forum have experimented with GDF11 in recent years, taking it for its assumed health and longevity effects.
The main GDF11 thread on Longecity is here, but there are other threads too.
And a GDF11 pioneer named Steve Perry has an info website here.
The dosage of GDF11 used is incredibly tiny. Drug doses are typically measured in milligram (mg) or micrograms (mcg). If we go 1000 times smaller than micrograms, we get to nanograms (ng). And at 1000 times smaller than nanograms, we have picograms (pg).
Well the doses of GDF11 used are measured in picograms. So very tiny doses. Steve Perry suggests the GDF11 starting dose range is 100 to 500 picograms per day. Then he says after 3 to 6 weeks, you should cut down to 10 to 20 picograms once a week. Ref: here
Hamsterman used a dose of 200 picograms (0.2 nanograms) subcutaneously injected once every two days, for two months. This is equivalent of 100 picograms a day, which is a dose at the bottom of the recommended range.
Since going into remission, Hamsterman has reduced his dose to 100 picograms every 3 days, and then later to 40 picograms twice a week as maintenance doses.
GDF11 can be obtained at buckylabs.com, which sells sells 10 micrograms for $80. (Perhaps 10 μg seems a small amount, but my calculation, that will last you for 274 years when using daily picogram doses!)
I was fascinated by Hamsterman's ME/CFS remission, so decided to try GDF11 myself. I bought some GDF11 from Buckylabs, and on 13 March 2020 injected my first 200 picogram dose. I then followed the same dosing protocol as Hamsterman, injecting 200 picograms subcutaneously every other day.
I continued this for 25 days, later increasing the dose to 400 picograms once every two days.
I have not noticed any improvements in ME/CFS symptoms yet, but Hamsterman did not notice anything in the first month either.
The only side effect I am getting is some mental agitation, anger and irritability, making it hard to relax mentally. My guess is that GDF11 may be increasing testosterone, as I always find testosterone-boosting supplements cause an angry and irritable mental state in me. So now I am taking a short break from GDF11, and will restart at a lower dose, to try to avoid this side effect.
Other than that, I've noticed no other effects yet, good or bad. But Hamsterman's experience suggests the improvements, if they manifest, will not appear until the second month.
So I have another month to go, at least, before I will be able to pass verdict on GDF11.
You may wonder how it's possible to measure out such tiny 200 picogram doses. When I bought the GDF11 from Bucklabs, it arrived in a little glass bottle containing a tiny speck of white powder about the size of a sugar grain, which was the 10 micrograms of lyophilized (freeze dried) GDF11 protein.
Those familiar with reconstituting lyophilized proteins and peptides will know how to inject bacteriostatic water into the little glass bottle to dissolve the protein into water, in the process of making it ready for injection.
The trick with picogram dosing is serial dilution the GDF11 using two or more bottles of bacteriostatic water.
You add the dissolved GDF11 into the first bottle of bacteriostatic water, mix, then take out a tiny but measured fraction of the water from that bottle using a hypodermic needle and a 1 ml insulin syringe, and inject that into a second bottle of bacteriostatic water. This greatly dilutes the GDF11. But you have to do this precisely, exactly calculating your dilution process.
If you get your dose dilution calculations wrong, you could end up injecting yourself with a GDF11 dose far higher than a picogram dose, which might be dangerous. Full details on how I measured out my tiny GDF11 doses given in this post.
What are the risks or side effects of using GDF11? Well, we are entering uncharted territory here, as there is very little research on GDF11. Regarding these dangers, Steve Perry on his website says:
So no guarantee of safety at all, except that hundreds of people have tried it so far, with no serious side effects as yet.
That said, startup company Elevian has been researching the beneficial effects of GDF11 in animal studies, and is planning GDF11 human clinical trial shortly:
Further Info
GDF11 (growth differentiation factor 11) is a protein which is naturally made in the body, and is considered by researchers to be an "elixir of youth" because of its ability to restore youthful characteristics in organs such as the muscle, brain and heart when injected into older animals. Ref: 1
For the first month on GDF11, Hamsterman noticed very little in terms of amelioration in ME/CFS symptoms, apart from some improvements in sleeping patterns, and feeling better in the mornings. But by the end of the second month, he found he was in full remission from ME/CFS.
While taking GDF11, Hamsterman discovered that when he tried to increase his GDF11 dose, he experienced bouts of fever and malaise. When he reduced the dose again, the bout of fever and malaise ended. But he noticed that after every bout of fever subsided, he felt better than before, ie, his ME/CFS had improved. So possibly this fever may be the immune system kicking into gear and fighting off the underlying infections.
Hamsterman has now been taking GDF11 for 3 months. It took 2 months to go into remission, and he has now been in remission for 1 month.
Hamsterman feels that if he were to stop taking GDF11 entirely, he might relapse, because he felt some symptoms start to come back when he reduced the dose.
It should be noted that Hamsterman also has Crohn's disease as well as ME/CFS. However, the GDF11 did not help his Crohn's, it only seemed to work for the ME/CFS. He has had ME/CFS for 15 years, and back in 2016 it his ME/CFS severe, leaving him in bedbound for most of the day; but just before he started GDF11 he was at the moderate level of ME/CFS, on the scale of mild, moderate and severe.
One possible confounding factor is that Hamsterman also started taking the supplement nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) about 2 months before he began the GDF11 (and then continued taking NMN with the GDF11). He found NMN helped a bit, but he doubts NMN is related to vast improvements he obtained during the second month of taking GDF11.
Hamsterman gave me permission to post his story.
UPDATE: Hamsterman told me he is not getting the same benefits as he originally obtained with GDF11, though has still improved — see this post.
GDF11 is not an FDA-approved drug, and has not been formally tested on humans. It it a protein which can only be bought for research purposes, and is sold on the understanding it is not for human use. But the body does make this substance itself, so it is naturally present in humans.
Some people on the Longecity.org forum have experimented with GDF11 in recent years, taking it for its assumed health and longevity effects.
The main GDF11 thread on Longecity is here, but there are other threads too.
And a GDF11 pioneer named Steve Perry has an info website here.
The dosage of GDF11 used is incredibly tiny. Drug doses are typically measured in milligram (mg) or micrograms (mcg). If we go 1000 times smaller than micrograms, we get to nanograms (ng). And at 1000 times smaller than nanograms, we have picograms (pg).
Well the doses of GDF11 used are measured in picograms. So very tiny doses. Steve Perry suggests the GDF11 starting dose range is 100 to 500 picograms per day. Then he says after 3 to 6 weeks, you should cut down to 10 to 20 picograms once a week. Ref: here
Hamsterman used a dose of 200 picograms (0.2 nanograms) subcutaneously injected once every two days, for two months. This is equivalent of 100 picograms a day, which is a dose at the bottom of the recommended range.
Since going into remission, Hamsterman has reduced his dose to 100 picograms every 3 days, and then later to 40 picograms twice a week as maintenance doses.
GDF11 can be obtained at buckylabs.com, which sells sells 10 micrograms for $80. (Perhaps 10 μg seems a small amount, but my calculation, that will last you for 274 years when using daily picogram doses!)
I was fascinated by Hamsterman's ME/CFS remission, so decided to try GDF11 myself. I bought some GDF11 from Buckylabs, and on 13 March 2020 injected my first 200 picogram dose. I then followed the same dosing protocol as Hamsterman, injecting 200 picograms subcutaneously every other day.
I continued this for 25 days, later increasing the dose to 400 picograms once every two days.
I have not noticed any improvements in ME/CFS symptoms yet, but Hamsterman did not notice anything in the first month either.
The only side effect I am getting is some mental agitation, anger and irritability, making it hard to relax mentally. My guess is that GDF11 may be increasing testosterone, as I always find testosterone-boosting supplements cause an angry and irritable mental state in me. So now I am taking a short break from GDF11, and will restart at a lower dose, to try to avoid this side effect.
Other than that, I've noticed no other effects yet, good or bad. But Hamsterman's experience suggests the improvements, if they manifest, will not appear until the second month.
So I have another month to go, at least, before I will be able to pass verdict on GDF11.
You may wonder how it's possible to measure out such tiny 200 picogram doses. When I bought the GDF11 from Bucklabs, it arrived in a little glass bottle containing a tiny speck of white powder about the size of a sugar grain, which was the 10 micrograms of lyophilized (freeze dried) GDF11 protein.
Those familiar with reconstituting lyophilized proteins and peptides will know how to inject bacteriostatic water into the little glass bottle to dissolve the protein into water, in the process of making it ready for injection.
The trick with picogram dosing is serial dilution the GDF11 using two or more bottles of bacteriostatic water.
You add the dissolved GDF11 into the first bottle of bacteriostatic water, mix, then take out a tiny but measured fraction of the water from that bottle using a hypodermic needle and a 1 ml insulin syringe, and inject that into a second bottle of bacteriostatic water. This greatly dilutes the GDF11. But you have to do this precisely, exactly calculating your dilution process.
If you get your dose dilution calculations wrong, you could end up injecting yourself with a GDF11 dose far higher than a picogram dose, which might be dangerous. Full details on how I measured out my tiny GDF11 doses given in this post.
What are the risks or side effects of using GDF11? Well, we are entering uncharted territory here, as there is very little research on GDF11. Regarding these dangers, Steve Perry on his website says:
Perry is not a medical scientist though. He's just the first person to ever try GDF11, and now has a business advising people who want to take GDF11.
So no guarantee of safety at all, except that hundreds of people have tried it so far, with no serious side effects as yet.
That said, startup company Elevian has been researching the beneficial effects of GDF11 in animal studies, and is planning GDF11 human clinical trial shortly:
Source: here
Further Info
- Wikipedia article on GDF11
- Startups Flock to Turn Young Blood Into an Elixir of Youth — WIRED
- An ingredient for the elixir of youth — Cell Research | Nature
- GDF11 stimulates adiponectin and induces a calorie restriction‐like phenotype in aged mice
- GDF11 leads to a 50% increase in the volume of blood vessels in old mice
- Steve Perry Website
- Steve Perry Video Presentation Sep 2019
- Results of my 5 years of injecting exogenous GDF11 — Steve Perry
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