Supplies for subcutaneous injection
- Insulin syringes with needles — 29–30 gauge, 1 mL (100-unit) barrel, roughly ½ inch needle length is a common combination.
- Alcohol wipes — sanitize vial seals and injection-site skin before every injection.
- Bacteriostatic water — the standard diluent for reconstituting freeze-dried peptide powder. Never use tap water or plain store-bought distilled water, which lack the antimicrobial preservative and are not sterile for injection.
Reconstitution math, worked example
Goal: dissolve a known weight of peptide (e.g. 5 mg) in a volume of bacteriostatic water (e.g. 2 mL), then draw the correct syringe-unit volume to deliver your intended dose.
Conversions: 100 units = 1 mL · 1 unit = 0.01 mL · 1 mg = 1,000 mcg
Worked example: a 5 mg vial, reconstituted with 2 mL of bacteriostatic water, gives a concentration of 2,500 mcg/mL, i.e. 25 mcg per syringe unit. To deliver a 250 mcg dose, draw 10 units.
| Units drawn | Dose delivered (5 mg / 2 mL) |
|---|---|
| 2 | 50 mcg |
| 4 | 100 mcg |
| 6 | 150 mcg |
| 8 | 200 mcg |
| 10 | 250 mcg |
For a blend of two peptides in one vial (e.g. Ipamorelin + Mod-GRF), calculate reconstitution volume based on one peptide's target dose — the other is delivered at the same proportional dose per unit, since both were weighed in equally.
Storage
- Keep lyophilized (powder) peptides in the freezer until ready to reconstitute.
- Reconstitute only what you plan to use over the following weeks — not the entire stock at once.
- Keep reconstituted peptides refrigerated (not frozen) and shielded from light; most tolerate a few weeks refrigerated, though stability varies by compound.
- Avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles of reconstituted (liquid) peptide.
- Swab vial seals with alcohol before every draw to reduce contamination risk across a multi-use vial.
General safety framing
- Sourcing matters. Most peptides discussed in this wiki are sold as research chemicals, "not for human consumption," outside any regulatory quality-control framework. Purity, dosing accuracy and even correct identity of the compound in the vial are not guaranteed.
- Evidence quality varies enormously peptide-to-peptide. Some compounds in this wiki (semaglutide, tirzepatide, tesamorelin, Thymosin Alpha-1) are FDA-approved drugs or have gone through real placebo-controlled human trials. Others (MOTS-c, Humanin, IGF-1 LR3) have essentially no human trial data at all. Check each peptide's own status pill and research-summary section.
- Talk to a physician, ideally one familiar with peptide therapy, especially before combining multiple compounds, if you have any chronic condition, are on other medications, or have a personal/family history of cancer.