Epithalon protocol variations — 10 days on / months off vs the longer runs
38 posts
Canonical epithalon protocol is 10 consecutive days of 5–10mg sub-q, 1-2x per year. This traces back to the Khavinson work out of St. Petersburg. But I see variations now:
- 10mg daily for 20 days
- 5mg every other day for 30 days
- 2.5mg daily continuous for months
- 'Pulsed' — 5 days on, 5 days off, repeated 4 times
Is there any rational basis for the variations or are people just freelancing? The original protocol has a rationale (matching the observed telomerase induction window from the rodent work). Extending it longer with no dosing evidence is just hoping.
My plan is the canonical 10 days @ 10mg, once this year, with telomere length testing before and 6 months after. Anyone run similar and have actual data?
10 Replies
30 posts
I did the canonical 10-day protocol with TeloYears testing pre and 6 months post. My 'telomere age' dropped 3 years which is within the test's noise band. I can't claim the protocol worked, I can claim it didn't obviously fail. The test itself is the bigger confound.
68 posts
The longer protocols are freelancing. The Khavinson work specifically identified the pulse-and-pause cycle as part of the mechanism — telomerase doesn't want to be on continuously. Extending past 20 days might actively reduce the effect.
- Epithalon · 10 mg · 10d on / 80d off · sub-Q
- MOTS-c · 5 mg · 2x/wk · sub-Q
- 5-Amino-1MQ · 150 mg · daily · oral
35 posts
Running annual 10-day pulses for 3 years now. No measured telomere data but subjective sleep and recovery have been good. Not attributing either to epithalon specifically.
38 posts
@humanin_hope good point — that kills my one-shot data plan. Might skip the testing.
23 posts
Telomere length testing (FlowFISH, qPCR variants) has large intra-individual variability. Without repeat draws a single before/after comparison is nearly useless. You need 3 baseline draws over a year to even establish your noise floor.
68 posts
@stack_nerd half-life is short (~2-3 hours) so split dosing gives you more consistent tissue exposure. If it matters at all, AM/PM is better than one dose. If it doesn't matter, neither matters.
- Epithalon · 10 mg · 10d on / 80d off · sub-Q
- MOTS-c · 5 mg · 2x/wk · sub-Q
- 5-Amino-1MQ · 150 mg · daily · oral
16 posts
Dosing route question — some people do 5mg AM and PM split vs one big dose. Any reason to prefer one?
117 posts
If you're going to run an anti-aging peptide with the evidence level of epithalon, run the canonical protocol. Don't improvise — it makes your n=1 uninterpretable even to yourself.
43 posts
ran the 10 day canonical protocol last year, did one round in spring. honestly didn't notice anything obvious, no sides at least. didn't do the telomere testing though so can't speak to whether it actually did anything. the split dosing thing seems smart on paper given the half life but i doubt it matters much either way. going to try it again this year same protocol and maybe actually get the baseline work done this time around
- Tesamorelin · 1 mg · daily AM · sub-Q