GHRP-2 in Bodybuilding

Peptides in Bodybuilding – GHRP-2

GRHP-2 is one of the most popular peptides used in bodybuilding. It triggers the release of Growth Hormone (GH) from the pituitary gland. It works closely in coordination with other GHRPs (or growth hormone releasing peptides) such as GHRP-6 as well as with GHRHs (growth hormone releasing hormones) such as CJC-1295.

Benefits of GHRP-2 for Bodybuilding

GHRP-2 is similar to another GHRP, Ipamorelin, when it comes to its effects for bodybuilding.  GHRP-2 releases growth hormone, which has several benefits, such as causing an increase in muscle mass, greater physical strength, rapid fat burning and faster muscle recovery following a workout. Bodybuilders are known to transform their bodies entirely after a couple of months of taking GHRP-2, or for that matter, other GHRPs such as GHRP-6 and Ipamorelin. GHRPs are much more effective and healthier substitutes to taking synthetic Growth Hormone through subcutaneous injections. It is also safer and costs a lot less.

How does GHRP-2 work?

GHRP-2 consists of 6 amino acids, which together stimulate the secretion of Growth Hormone by the pituitary gland.  By using GHRP, you can increase the ability of the pituitary gland to release GH by 10 to 15 times. GHRP-2 also helps to increase your appetite by stimulating the ghrelin receptors. A study published by the Endocrinology and Metabolism Magazine in 1997 found that injected GHRP-2 into the body led to an increase in Growth Hormone secretion. Participants of all ages had participated in this study.

GHRP-2 triggers HGH production using a two-step process:

Ø First, it boosts GH through an amplification of the transduction pathway which triggers a hormone signal.

Ø Second, it suppresses somatostatin, which causes an increase in the endogenous GH levels.

How to Take GHRP-2?

GHRP-2 can be taken daily. It may be taken through a subcutaneous injection, orally in the form of supplements or as a spray through an intra-nasal route. For best effect it should be taken with GHRP-6 and GHRHs such as CJC-1295, which are similar to GHRP-2 with respect to their effect on bodybuilding.

GHRP-2 Alternatives: CJC-1295 and GHRP-6

GHRP-6 and CJC-1295 are powerful alternatives to GHRP-6. They may be used in conjunction with GHRP-6 or may even replace it completely. Both GHRP-6 and CJC 1295 help build greater muscle mass, shed fat and aid in faster muscle recovery. While GHRP-2 is less not as powerful as CJC-1295, it is certainly stronger than GHRP-6. You should have 100 mcg of CJC-1295 along with 100 mcg of a GHRP-2 around 3 times a day, half-an-hour before a meal for maximum effect. But be sure to consult with your doctor before starting on such a plan.

How Safe is GHRP-2?

Let’s put it this way – taking GHRP-2 is certainly much safer than injecting synthetic Growth Hormone into your body. GHRP-2 has been heavily tested by researchers around the world and it has been found to be completely safe, as long as you take it within a dosage recommended by your doctor. Be sure to consult with your doctor before getting started with GHRP-2. There are a few side effects related to taking GHRP-2 excessively such as water retention, fatigue, numbness and tingling in the extremities. Certainly, the side effects related to GHRP-2 are not as serious or as common as those associated with taking synthetic Growth Hormone.

Peptides for Bodybuilding: GHRP-6, GHRP-2, and CJC-1295

Peptides for Bodybuilding: Using GHRP-6, GHRP-2 and CJC-1295

Many athletes and bodybuilders who use growth hormone (GH) hate the fact that it costs them a small fortune to get quality growth hormone. GHRP or Growth Hormone ReleasingPeptides work as a better alternative, as they provide all the benefits of GH, at a fraction of the cost.

There are a plenty of studies that show how GHRPs such as GHRP-2 and GHRP-6 build lean muscle tissue and help shed body fat. Here, we take a closer look at GHRP, and in particular at GHRP-2 and GHRP-6 and their benefits for bodybuilding.

So, What Does GHRP Do, Exactly?

Quite simply, GHRP signals the pituitary gland to secrete growth hormone. While both GHRP-2 and GHRP-6 trigger the release of GH, there is a difference in how they function. GHRP-6 speeds up digestion, which results in more hunger, causing a greater consumption of food.

GHRP-2 is more intense and secretes growth hormones in greater quantity, the effects of which last much longer. GHRP-2 is more effective for bodybuilding as it helps build amazing muscle mass while not increasing appetite, and so helps to shed fat as well. GHRP-6 is useful to those who are looking to bulk up and increase weight. It ensures that much of the weight that gets added is pure muscle.

How to Take GHRP-2 and GHRP-6?

You only have to take a single dose of GHRP-2 or GHRP-6, an hour before your workout, on an empty stomach.  GHRPs have several benefits and they are not limited to bodybuilding. They help combat effects of aging, provide for better sleep and help with faster recovery from injury or tiredness after an intense workout.

For added effect, you may take multiple doses of GHRP-2 or GHRP-6, but be sure to consult with your doctor before you start doing so. After taking GHRPs, you shouldn’t eat for at least a couple of hours, to allow for the body to burn the fat stores as fuel. GHRP-2 and GHRP-6 help with both muscle development and fat burning.

Why Not Take Growth Hormone Directly?

The simple reason why you shouldn’t buy GH directly is because it is expensive. And much of the GH sold in the market is counterfeit, made by shady manufacturers based in China and elsewhere. You would be better off buying GHRPs from reputable companies.

Use CJC-1925 for Added Benefit

In addition to using GHRPs, you may want to consider having a GHRH (or growth hormone releasing hormone) such as CJC-1295 as your pre-workout diet as well. GHRH is a natural hormone that works closely with ghrelin to stimulate the release of growth hormone.

While GHRH cannot be used directly, it is available in the form of derivatives such as CJC-1295. CJC-1295 is long-lasting and quite effective for muscle building and weight loss. You may want to take100 mcg of CJC-1295 together with 100 mcg of a GHRP-2 or GHRP-6 two to three times a day, around half-an-hour before a meal for maximum effect.

Taking CJC-1295 and GHRPs (either GHRP-2 or GHRP-6) together is highly desirable because the combination produces more growth hormones than what you would get had you taken GHRP alone. So this is something you should consider if your body is able to tolerate high GH levels.

Melanotan II – The Tanning Peptide

Melanotan II - The Tanning Peptide

Why Buy Melanotan II?

Melanotan II is a synthetic drug replicates the performance of the alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone. It is explicitly used for tanning, but has other benefits as well. Melanotan II boosts the sex drive and is a cure for erectile dysfunction. Melanotan 2 can be had as a subcutaneous injection. It is available in as an inhaler too, but Melanotan’s effectiveness in any form other than as an injection is in doubt. Melanotan II should not be confused with Melanotan ii, which is a completely different compound.

How Does Melanotan II Work?

Melanotan II was originally developed to prevent skin cancer. Since then it has found quite a few uses, and is used widely by bodybuilders for tanning. Bodybuilders love the tans they get from taking Melanotan II, and none of the regulatory bodies have an issue with this.

Melanotan 2 works by copying the effects the body’s melanin cycle. Melanin is triggered naturally by the alpha-melanin stimulating hormone, which initiates the process of melanogenesis. After a lot of research scientists were able to create a peptide that had over hundred times the potency of the alpha-melanin stimulating hormone, which could create tanning naturally without having to spend hours in the sunlight getting exposed to UV radiation –which they named Melanotan II, popularly known as the “tanning peptide”.

Melanotan II - the Tanning Peptide

One great reason to buy Melanotan 2 is that it is a very flexible compound. You can take it at a pace you are comfortable with. You can start off slow, with just 0.25 mg of Melanotan and gradually build up the dosage with time, as you observe how well the tan develops.

It’s perfectly okay to increase the dosage up to 1 mg, and up to 2 mg, but never more than that. You can inject Melanotan 2 by a subcutaneous injection by applying it into a fleshy part of the body, such as the buttocks, shoulders, stomach or thighs.

You should not feel any pain from the injection, but if you do, you should stop immediately. Melanotan 2 gets you a tan very quickly. Of course, how long the tan takes to appear varies from person to person.

One big reason to buy Melanotan 2 is that you don’t really have to take it for too long. The tanning happens fast and you can quit taking the peptide regularly once it appears. You only have to take it once every 2 or 3 weeks to maintain the tan. The tanning peptide is so powerful that your tan remains even without much exposure to sunlight, even after you stop taking it. A natural tan, for example, would disappear within a month of staying away from sunlight.

Melanotan 2 and Erectile Dysfunction…

Melanotan 2 cures erectile dysfunction and boosts libido in men. For this to work, it should be taken 6 hours before the sexual intercourse. It helps with the erection of the penis when aroused. The effects of Melanotan linger on, for 6 to 12 hours after taking it. No more than 2 mg of Melanotan 2 should be injected into the body in preparation for the intercourse.

The Healthy Way to Tan - Melanotan 2

Why Should You Buy Melanotan II?

Melanotan 2 or the “tanning peptide” has become a global phenomenon because of how effective and safe it is for people looking to get tanned quickly. Melanotan II is popular for giving people a sunless tan as those who take it don’t have to stay out in the sun for too long and expose themselves to a UV radiation in order to get a tan. It lowers the risk of getting sun burns or skin cancer for this reason.

Melanotan and Melanotan 2

It was the University of Arizona that first developed a new way to tan, creating a peptide that worked in the same manner as the skin pigment, melanin did. The new drug was named Melanotan, and soon after a more powerful version of the drug was developed, which was called Melanotan 2. You may want to have a look at some of the before and after pictures online that show you just how powerful Melanotan II can be as a tanning substance.
Melanotan II is very popular in salons across the country, in the bodybuilding community and with the general public. Melanotan 2 is created in labs across the world, especially in China, Australia and the United States. A lot of people are seeing the benefits of taking this very useful drug. To understand why Melanotan 2 is so popular, let’s understand why people tan in the first place.

So, why do people tan?

People tan for various reasons – to feel sexier and more attractive to the opposite sex, to look good and to build confidence. Bodybuilders tan as this helps to accentuate their muscles in a bodybuilding contest. Tanning takes away the pale and sickly look and makes you feel young, healthy and strong.

How NOT to tan?

You shouldn’t tan by exposing yourself for hours to direct sunlight and UV radiation. UV radiation causes the skin to produce melanin. Melanin darkens the skin and protects it from further exposure to UV radiation. As the skin gets exposed further, it produces more melanin, which causes the skin to tan. The same method is used in tanning beds where the tanning is done even faster, with further damage inflicted. Prolonged exposure to the sunlight or overuse of tanning beds has been linked to skin diseases such as melanoma and skin cancers.

Why UV is not always bad

UV light is not always bad as long as the exposure is controlled. Many of the important vitamins and hormones the body produces are as a result of exposure to UV radiation. A certain amount of exposure to UV radiation is important and even healthy. Staying away from sunlight for too long would put you at the risk of vitamin D deficiency. That’s why when you take Melanotan 2, you are required to have at least some exposure to sunlight for the drug to work. But this exposure is really quite minimal. The point is, you need the sun, but not a sun burn!

Melanotan 2 – The Healthy Way to Tan

Melanotan II is the most effective way to tan. It has been described as the future of tanning. There are no serious side effects of taking this peptide, other than a slight darkening of existing freckles or nausea. It acts fast and produces the tan very quickly, with little effort. It is a painless way to tan and makes you look good in no time at all.

Thymosin Beta 4's Regenerative Powers

The Regenerative Power of Thymosin Beta 4

As the building blocks of proteins, peptides are crucial for all life. Organisms need peptides to synthesize proteins in their cells. Generally they achieve this by breaking down larger proteins in their food, and so thankfully peptide deficiencies rarely arise in subjects with a decent diet.

But scientists have discovered that pure peptides are not just raw material used by cells; peptides also modulate the activity of cells in a manner similar to hormones. Beta Thymosins are some of the most promising peptides to study because they were originally believed to hormones produced by the thyroid gland to modulate cell activity in a broad number of ways. While it turns out they aren’t true hormones, their influence on cells can be just as dramatic.

Thymosin-beta 4 in particular has garnered a lot of attention for its incredible ability to aid in tissue regeneration. Thymosin-beta 4 is a chain of just 43 little amino acids, but it has been found to have profound effects on cells’ proliferation, migration, and differentiation.

An analysis of genomic DNA from several organisms (Gomez-Marquez et. Al. 1989) found that Thymosin-beta 4 was highly conserved in mammals, but not in bacteria or other lower organisms. In rats, Thymosin-beta 4 was often found throughout all the tissues of the body, but with the highest concentrations in the lungs, spleen (esp. in lg- lymphocytes), and thymus (esp. in thymocytes). At this stage in the research, it was clear that Thymosin-beta 4 was NOT clearly related to cellular immunity and the differentiation of lymphoid cells, but what it DID do was still a mystery.

By 2010, Thymosin-beta 4’s had been identified as having several prime functions in mammal physiology, serving an important role in: blood vessel formation, stem cell differentiation, cell migration, and regulation of gene expression and major nuclear transcription factor (Crockford et. Al. 2010). This research indicates that the most promising applications of Thymosin-beta 4 are in the protection, regeneration, and repair of cardiac, dermal, or corneal tissues.

Rui et. Al. (2014) found that Thymosin-beta 4 treatement was particular effective at extending the time window for heart tissue regeneration in newborn mice. While 1-day-old mice are generally able to migrate cells and regenerate heart tissue after a partial surgical resection, 7-day-old mice lose this ability. Thymosin-beta 4 treatment allowed another group of 7-day-old mice to regenerate heart tissue just as effectively as 1-day-old mice, as if the tissues had not yet “forgotten” how to make new heart tissue.

Bollini et. Al. (2014) explain the process in more depth: Thymosin-beta 4 gains its regenerative potential from the way it reactivates epicardium-derived cells (EPDCs) in the heart after heart damage, causing these EPDCs to proliferate and differentiate into new heart tissue. This allows adult mice heart cells to regenerate like embryonic cells, without actually regressing the cellular life cycle.

It is not yet clear how long Thymosin-Beta 4 can keep windows of cellular regeneration “open” and which other tissues (if any) it might have the same effect on. The full regenerative potential of this peptide may still be untapped.

While human testing has not yet been approved, the vital importance of this peptide in facilitating the repair of mammalian heart and skin tissue makes it a very promising avenue for future study.

Works Cited:

Bollini S1, Vieira JM, Howard S, Dubè KN, Balmer GM, Smart N, Riley PR (Aug 2014). “Re-activated adult epicardial progenitor cells are a heterogeneous population molecularly distinct from their embryonic counterparts.” Stem Cells Dev. PMID 24702282.

Crockford D, Turjman N, Allan C, Angel J (April 2010). "Thymosin beta4: structure, function, and biological properties supporting current and future clinical applications". Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 1194: 179–89. Bibcode:2010NYASA1194..179C. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05492.x. PMID 20536467.

Gomez-Marquez J, Dosil M, Segade F, Bustelo XR, Pichel JG, Dominguez F, Freire M (Nov 1989). "Thymosin-beta 4 gene. Preliminary characterization and expression in tissues, thymic cells, and lymphocytes". J Immunol 143 (8): 2740–4. PMID 2677145.

Rui L1, Yu N, Hong L, Feng H, Chunyong H, Jian M, Zhe Z, Shengshou H (Oct 2014). “Extending the time window of mammalian heart regeneration by thymosin beta 4.”  J Cell Mol Med.  PMID 25284727.  

Melanotan II Can Do More Than Tan

Melanotan II Can Do More Than Tan

After the discovery of a naturally-occurring peptide that stimulates melatonin production (which was unimaginatively named "Alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone"), scientists swiftly became excited by the possibilities. Here was a chemical that could tan skin without the risks associated with tanning beds (i.e. Increased risks of skin cancer like Melanoma)!

Then when researchers at the University of Arizona were able to synthesize an artificial version of the peptide, in fact, it was introduced as a way to prevent the formation of skin cancer in susceptible individuals. Dubbed "Melanotan" (followed by the improved "Melanotan II"), this compound was found to be more stable than the natural peptide and 1,000 times more effective!

But early clinical trials swiftly demonstrated that, for better or worse, Melanotan does much more than tan!

Uckert, Bannowsky, Albrecht, and Kuczyk (2014) found that melanocortin receptor agonists like Melanotan II are highly effective at activating the central melanocortin system involved in both male and female sexual function. For this reason Melanotan II has been reported as having “aphrodisiac” effects. This effect was discovered accidentally when initial male subjects in sunless tanning trials reported spontaneous penile erections. Several follow-up studies have determined that Melanotan II seems to be an effective treatment for male erectile dysfunction (physical or psychological) as well as female arousal and orgasm disorders.

If such a versatile and effective aphrodisiac turns out to truly be safe for human use, it could well become the most commercially viable drug of all time! Throughout history, people have always gone nuts for aphrodisiacs, whether or not they were effective. Often substances marketed as "aphrodisiacs" were ineffective and marketed on superstition more than anything, but for Melanotan, "aphrodisiac" seems to be an understatement! Just think of all the rhinos and deer that would still have their horns, all the goats and tigers that would still have their penises if effective medicinal cures were discovered earlier! Melanotan’s aphrodisiacal properties have given even more cause for excitement than its original function as a sun-less tanning agent.

Preliminary studies on mice (Rinne et. Al. 2014) found that Melanotan II can even be an effective therapy for atherosclerosis. The Melanotan II peptide treatments not only limited plaque inflammation in mice, but also improved vascular endothelial function.

Another study (Xu et. Al. 2014) found that Melanotan II had profound effects on metabolism: when administered intraperitonally it swiftly decreased body temperature and energy expenditure. Again it shows potent medical applications (e.g. As a fever reducer), but it is obviously not a compound to be taken lightly!

It seems that the effects of Melanotan II vary based on where it is applied and the course of treatment. While it was originally synthesized to increase melanin production, it's full impact on health and vigor may be MUCH greater. While Melanotan II is still in an experimental stage, and scientists are still trying to determine its health effects, its multiple applications make it an unusually promising substance to research, and hence a substance that's value is likely to skyrocket if and when it becomes approved for human use.

Rinne P¹, Silvola JM², Hellberg S², Ståhle M², Liljenbäck H², Salomäki H², Koskinen E², Nuutinen S², Saukko P², Knuuti J², Saraste A², Roivainen A², Savontaus E² (Jul 2014). “Pharmacological activation of the melanocortin system limits plaque inflammation and ameliorates vascular dysfunction in atherosclerotic mice.” Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. PMID: 24790139.

Uckert S1, Bannowsky A, Albrecht K, Kuczyk MA (Nov. 2014). “Melanocortin receptor agonists in the treatment of male and female sexual dysfunctions: results from basic research and clinical studies.” Expert Opin Investig Drugs.  PMID: 25096243.

Xu Y., Kim ER., Fan S, Xia Y., Xu Y., Huang C., Tong Q (Aug 2014). "Profound and rapid reduction in body temperature induced by the melanocortin receptor agonists." Biochem Biophys Res Commun. PMID: 25065745.