What is GHS peptides?

Parts one and two: what the letters mean and how the class acts

What are GHS peptides is a definition question that lands in the collagen aisle because the word peptides does, and the honest page answers it as a definition in four parts, plainly and without a dose, because a reader deserves to know what the forum acronym means and this site will not go further than that. Part one, the letters. GHS stands for growth hormone secretagogue, and a secretagogue is any compound that causes a gland to secrete something, so a growth hormone secretagogue is a compound that causes the pituitary gland at the base of the brain to release growth hormone, the hormone that drives growth in childhood and in adults regulates body composition, metabolism and tissue repair through its downstream messenger IGF-1. GHS peptides are the peptide members of that class, short chains of amino acids designed or discovered to trigger that release, as distinct from growth hormone itself, which is a much larger protein and a prescription medicine in its own right, and as distinct from collagen peptides, which are fragments of a structural protein with no hormonal action at all and which share nothing with GHS peptides but the word. Part two, how the class acts, described at the level a pharmacology textbook would. The pituitary releases growth hormone in pulses under two main controls from the hypothalamus and the gut: growth hormone releasing hormone, GHRH, which stimulates it, and ghrelin, the hunger hormone made in the stomach, which also stimulates it through its own receptor. GHS peptides act on one or the other. The ghrelin receptor agonists, the family of growth hormone releasing peptides known by their numbers and ipamorelin among them, mimic ghrelin at its receptor and trigger a growth hormone pulse, with the ghrelin-like effects that come with that receptor, appetite above all. The GHRH analogues mimic the hypothalamic hormone and lengthen or strengthen the natural pulses. One oral non-peptide, ibutamoren, works at the ghrelin receptor by mouth and is often grouped with the peptides in forum usage despite not being one. All of them raise pulsatile growth hormone and, over days to weeks, IGF-1, and the pharmacology literature documents the effects that follow: increased appetite, water retention with swelling of the hands and feet, raised blood glucose and reduced insulin sensitivity, tingling in the hands, lethargy, and in the trials of the oral compound in older adults an increase in heart failure signals that stopped a trial. That is the mechanism, and it is described here so that a reader understands what the acronym refers to and what the class does to the body, which is a definition and not a recommendation.

Parts three and four: the status of the class, and what this site will and will not say

Part three, status, which is where the definition meets the law and the sport. A single growth hormone secretagogue is licensed anywhere as a medicine, and it is licensed as a diagnostic test, a single oral dose used to check whether an adult's pituitary can release growth hormone when asked, in the investigation of growth hormone deficiency, and not as a treatment for anything. No member of the class is licensed for muscle growth, fat loss, recovery, anti-ageing or any other use in the UK or elsewhere, so every GHS peptide sold for those purposes is an unlicensed product, and the vials sold online, labelled not for human consumption or for research use only, are unlicensed medicines when supplied for human use, an offence for the seller under medicines law, the borderline guidance treating a product presented as acting on the body as a medicine whatever it calls itself, and unprotected for the buyer, since independent analyses of such vials have repeatedly found the wrong compound, the wrong dose, bacterial contamination in products meant to be injected, and nothing active at all. The class is also prohibited at all times under the anti-doping code, growth hormone secretagogues and releasing peptides being listed by name, so a tested athlete or a lifter at a drug-tested amateur meet fails under strict liability whatever the label said. Part four, what this site will and will not say. It says the definition above, because a reader who searches the acronym deserves to know what it means and what it does, and because the honest alternative to a page that explains is a forum that sells. It does not say a dose, a timing, a cycle length, a stacking combination, a source or a before-and-after, and it will not on this page or any other, since each of those would be advice on using an unlicensed, untested and prohibited compound, and this site has nothing lawful to advise. A reader with a real medical question about growth hormone, low levels, symptoms, a test, has a doctor for it, and an endocrinologist is where growth hormone deficiency is diagnosed and, when it exists, treated with licensed growth hormone on prescription. The peptide this aisle lawfully sells is stated plainly and on its own terms: collagen peptides, hydrolysed collagen, a food protein with no hormonal action, no muscle-building effect, no claim, and a place as connective tissue research and as the carrier of vitamin C's collagen formation sentence, the worked example being two capsules, 1200mg hydrolysed type 1 marine collagen with 12mg vitamin C plus zinc, 120 for £16.99 at 28p a day, lab tested and UK made, a food supplement that shares one word with the acronym and nothing else. What are GHS peptides: growth hormone secretagogues, compounds that make the pituitary release growth hormone, unlicensed for any use but a diagnostic test, sold as research chemicals, prohibited in sport, and defined here so that the word is understood and not so that it is used.

What to check on the label