CJC-1295: DAC or No DAC, and Why It Matters

Most of the confusion in the GH-secretagogue world starts with one question nobody clarifies up front: which CJC-1295 are we talking about? They share a name, they're not the same compound, and mixing them up is how people end up running a DAC protocol with no-DAC dosing. This is the field guide to both — and honest about which one most of the community actually wants.

What it is, in one paragraph

CJC-1295 is a modified version of the first 29 amino acids of GHRH. Four amino acid substitutions make it more stable than Sermorelin (30 min half-life vs. 10–20 min). That's CJC-1295 no DAC, also called Modified GRF 1-29 or Mod GRF 1-29. If you then attach a maleimidopropionic acid group that covalently bonds to albumin after injection, the half-life jumps to 6–8 days. That's CJC-1295 DAC. Same core peptide. Completely different pharmacology.

The two versions at a glance

	No DAC (Mod GRF 1-29)	With DAC
Half-life	~30 minutes	6–8 days
GH pattern	Discrete pulse, 2–3 hours	Sustained "GH bleed" for days
Dosing frequency	1–3x daily	1–2x weekly
Pair with Ipamorelin?	Yes — the iconic stack	Not typically — mismatched timing
What most of the community actually uses	This one	This one is the niche choice

If someone says "CJC-1295" with no qualifier, 90% of the time they mean no DAC.

Dosing: what people actually do

CJC-1295 no DAC (Mod GRF 1-29)

• Per injection: 100 mcg (the saturation dose — more doesn't give more GH)
• Frequency: 1–3x daily, paired with Ipamorelin at 100–200 mcg
• Timing: AM fasted, pre-bed, optional pre-workout
• Cycle: 8–12 weeks, then 4–6 weeks off

CJC-1295 with DAC

• Per injection: 300–1,000 mcg (titrated up)
• Frequency: 2x per week, 3–4 days apart (e.g., Mon/Thu)
• Cycle: 8–12 weeks on

"I ran DAC twice a week for two months. Nothing felt like a pulse. Everything felt like a low hum. Some people love that, but the sleep changes from no-DAC are where the real story is." — forum user

What it pairs with

No DAC's partner is almost always Ipamorelin — the GHRH arm and GHRP arm of the classic CJC/Ipa stack. The no-DAC version matches Ipamorelin's timing (both act in ~hours) so you get clean, coordinated pulses.

With DAC is harder to pair. You can't really sync a weekly sustained elevation with a GHRP's 2-hour pulse, so most DAC protocols run DAC solo or add a daily GHRP on top understanding they're doing different things.

Other stack pairings:

• CJC/Ipa + TB-500 — recovery-focused
• CJC/Ipa + Tesamorelin — rare, heavy visceral-fat stack (and somewhat redundant)
• CJC/Ipa + MK-677 at bedtime — oral convenience, blunts some of the GH bleed issue

Red flags and side effects

• Flushing / warmth — the GHRH signal
• Water retention at higher doses — classic GH-axis response, more common with DAC
• Numbness / CTS symptoms — same story, reduces on dose-drop
• Blood glucose drift — can happen with sustained GH elevation, more of a DAC concern
• Tiredness the next day if dosed too close to a carb-heavy meal

DAC specifically: at least one Phase II trial had a subject death (attributed by investigators to an unrelated MI). The community takes that seriously even if the causal link was never established.

The honest limits

• The no-DAC "saturation dose" concept (100 mcg) is community lore more than a clean published finding. It's probably directionally right, but mega-dosing doesn't linearly scale GH either way
• DAC's sustained GH is pharmacologically different from your natural pulsatile pattern. Whether that matters long-term for IGF-1 dynamics, receptor sensitivity, and gene expression is genuinely unresolved
• Supply quality for both versions is inconsistent. DAC requires the MPA linker to actually be attached — if your product is just Mod GRF 1-29 mislabeled as DAC, weekly dosing won't do anything

Where to go next

• For the full no-DAC and DAC mechanism breakdown, amino acid substitutions, and trial data, see the Pepperpedia CJC-1295 entry
• CJC/Ipa protocol threads live in the Protocol Discussions forum
• Pair with the Ipamorelin guide for the GHRP arm, or Sermorelin guide if you want to compare GHRH analogs