My Bad Experience With Growth Hormone Peptides - Need Advice How To Fix?

[CFSGangster]

Over the past 5 years I've tried a LOT of treatments to improve/cure my CFS and Growth Hormone peptides has been my most recent experiment.

I chose to based on the recommendation of 2 doctors whose opinions I trusted and inspired by this thread on Phoenix Rising. We decided to use Growth Hormone Peptide CJC 1295 / Ipamorelin. I was at the time moderate-severe in my ME/CFS progression.

I will go into detail below but the TL;DR of this post is I initially had some good results but ultimately I think this stuff smoked my boots and degenerates me to a currently very severe state.

My intention for this post is to:
A) Share my experience as a reference point for anyone considering GH peptides
B) Seek input on how to fix this mess I've got myself in. I chose this forum specifically since there are some biologically savvy folks such as @Hip , @thingsvarious , and I'm sure some others as well forgive me I'm not super in with all the ppl on here yet. Hoping someone might have some input on this.

Ok here's what happened...

Dosaging + Initial Results

I began with the normal dosaging of .2ml/cc of the CJC 1295/ipamorelin combo injected subcutaneously 30 min. Before bed on empty stomach. 5 nights per week with 2 days rest in between.

I committed to doing this regiment for the full 3 months as is standard for this peptide (albeit standard for anti-aging not ME/CFS).

I didn't see any noticeable benefit until week 5. At week 5 I noticed the following:

• Improved sleep (less sleep disruptions and insomnia)
• Improved energy (improved from moderate-severe to full moderate level of progression)
• Larger energy envelope (I could do much more without crashing)

So pretty good benefits, I'll take a full step up in my severity.

These Initial benefits lasted until week 10 where I had a big outing and crashed really hard. This put me in a severe state for about a week before popping back out and resuming the prior benefits.

At week 12 we reassessed. The fact I was not crashing as easy but crashing really hard when it did was a red flag and I probably should have stopped then... My doctor however was excited and prompted me to continue.

Not wanting to lose the benefits I was enjoying I decided to continue with treatment at a half dose of .1 ml/cc and dose 3-4 days a week instead of 5.

Fast Forward To Month 5

Over the next 2 months I experienced a lot of stress and pushed myself too hard causing several bad crashes in a row and from week 18 - 22 (around 5 month mark). This quickly degenerated me from moderate to a fully severe state of being fully bedbound.

I immediately stopped treatment at that point and felt confident with sufficient rest I'd be able to pop out of it back to my normal state...

Then 1 week later things took a turn for the worse...

Out of nowhere my body started aggressively adrenaline surging and entered a severe state of fight-or-flight which lasted about 9 days.

Once it wore off I had very severe CFS symptoms and was basically reduced to an invalid.

This cycle of adrenaline surging followed by severe symptoms has been going on and off for the past 2 months since.

My current cycle has been 25 days straight off adrenaline surging which I'm managing with beta blockers and sleep pills to sleep.

What next from here? Is there hope?

Clearly this was a pretty epic failure on my part here.

My theory is this GH peptide worked by dumping GH at night which helped sleep and then giving mini adrenaline surges thought the day where I had increased energy/stamina... However I think it was all smoke and mirrors and was secretly degenerating me... Now that I'm in this extreme state it's doubling down on what it was doing all along.

My recommendation is be very careful if you plan to try GH or GH Peptides. Sure the Peptide has a great safety profile but it's never been evaluated in ME/CFS patients.

----+----

As far as fixing this situation I really haven't a clue other than letting it run it's course and pray the outcome isn't unbearable

The peptide pharmacist suggested Low Dose Naltrexone as it may help rebalance things??

At this point I'm not even sure I want to stop the adrenaline surges as I'd probably just have ultra severe symptoms and be reduced to an invalid.

Idk kinda a tough situation lol... Maybe I just need to go take up hang gliding while the getting is good.

Anyway does anyone have any thoughts here on solutions to get a gameplan to maybe recover?

Please tag any member who you think might have good insight to weigh in...

Thanks and love you all,

 

[Hip]

Hard to guess how growth hormone stimulators you took, CJC-1295 and ipamorelin, have ended up creating adrenaline surges.

But of course growth hormone is secreted by the pituitary gland, and the pituitary is the first gland in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis), so it makes sense that adrenaline secretion might be affected if you are taking drugs which affect the pituitary.

The HPA axis is generally under active in ME/CFS (although hyperactive in fibromyalgia).

Maybe the growth hormone stimulators have somehow altered the balance of your HPA axis.

You might consider searching Google for some adaptogenic herbs that act on the HPA axis. Ginseng is one. That would be a gentle attempt at getting the HPA axis to try to return to normal.



There is also a risky HPA axis reset you can do with the drug mifepristone, but I would be wary of that. If you search my posts for mifepristone, you will see my own rather negative experiences with attempting a HPA reset.

The Cortene CT38 peptide is being researched for its ability to perform a HPA axis reset in ME/CFS patients; however, the results of clinical trials have been underwhelming so far.

 

[CFSGangster]

Hey @Hip appreciate your thoughts on this. Sorry it took awhile to get back here.

Hard to guess how growth hormone stimulators you took, CJC-1295 and ipamorelin, have ended up creating adrenaline surges.

But of course growth hormone is secreted by the pituitary gland, and the pituitary is the first gland in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis), so it makes sense that adrenaline secretion might be affected if you are taking drugs which affect the pituitary.

Yeah good to hear you don't think it was an overdosaging then. I also agree it's likely more an overly off track HPA axis response as well. I think the combo of doing the GH while also being under stress and overtaxing myself is likely what happened.

You might consider searching Google for some adaptogenic herbs that act on the HPA axis. Ginseng is one. That would be a gentle attempt at getting the HPA axis to try to return to normal

Yeah I've been using these already but I've never responded to adaptogens for some reason.

There is also a risky HPA axis reset you can do with the drug mifepristone, but I would be wary of that. If you search my posts for mifepristone, you will see my own rather negative experiences with attempting a HPA reset.

Huh interesting repurpose for an abortion drug, you're brave to try that out! Glad it sounds like you were able to bounce back from that experience.

The more I meditate on it the more my gut is telling me to wait it out and let things naturally rebalance.

My month long of adrenaline surges wore off on Sunday and the symptoms weren't near as severe as the time before + I'm sleeping without need of pharmaceuticals which I think is a good sign.

I still may try LDN out as a low risk option and see if that doesn't help solve the issue in a roundabout way. I've always had a lot of brain inflammation and my understanding is it can help modulate that.

I'll post an update if anything interesting comes of it or I find another solution.

Thanks for your input.