Serious IGF-1 Side Effects, Help

Hi,

I recently began an IGF-1 & pegylated MGF cycle. I am in about my third week at this point. It is my first run with peptides.

I have been shooting 50mcg bi-laterally post workout and in the last week switched to 12.5mcg x 4 times per day. I have been shooting delts, lats and bi’s.

I am very concerned, however, at what I expoerienced today. I shot my left bicep earlier today with 12.5mcg and my right one several hours later with 12.5mcg.

While I was working out later in the evening, my left bicep was quite sore. My T-shirt sleeve was quite tight and this felt a little uncomfortable. I rubbed my left bicep a little as I thought it might be a minor muscle strain. It didnt really get in the way of training so I continued training as normal. In the dressing room post workout my left bicep was still a little sore.

I took off my T-shirt and I was pretty freaked out. The sleeve of my T-shirt had left a huge indentation all around my upper arm and part of my bicep seems to have “caved in”…it was VERY visible and there is a large split in my bicep where there had not been one before. The caved in area had been the sore area which feels slightly bruised and is a slightly bruised color.

The rest of my bicep is normal, but this one section is caved in. I felt my right arm and the same is occurring there at the same spot, although it is much less pronounced at this point. The caved in part of the arm are much softer than the surrounding areas. Although it is less pronounced/visible now since my arms are no longer pumped, the problem is still there…and I can still feel the soft caved in area with my hand.

I have switched immediatley to sub-Q shots.

What the f*ck is happening to my arms!!! I am very concerned about this.

There are a number of theories I am playing with

1:
The acetic acid in the IGF has caused tissue necrosis, causing that section of my bicep to cave in and feel slightly bruised. I get a LOT of pain from the acetic acid (diluted with bac water) so tissue necrosis is a likely suspect. However, the problem is that the caved in section is not at the point where I usually inject the IGF…it is a different area of the bicep.

Also, this theory does not explain why I have not experienced any problems with the other muscle groups which I am injecting.

2:
The IGF-1 has caused localized muscle hyperplasia causing part of bicep to grow thus making the rest of the bicep appear as if it has caved in. THe problem with this theory, however, is that I can’t understand why hyperplasia in one part of the bicep would cause pain and bruising in another part of the bicep (thge caved in areas).

Also, I do not feel that my arms look much bigger. Certainly not big enough to make a lagging area appear “caved in”.

3:
Some sort of unknown pathogen entered my arm and is causing tissue necrosis in a specific area of the bicep. I dont really consider this theory to be very likely.

So, anyone with ANY idea of what this is please give me some info…I would REALLY REALLY appreciate it. It is REALLY concerning me!! If it does not improve in the next few days I am gonna go to the hospital and get whatever scans I need done to find out what the hell is happening to my body…

Thanks,

i cannot answer your question but try

Scary stuff. Would it be possible to post a pic, so that we can better understand the problem? Just seeing the words " my biceps are caving in " makes me want to suggest a trip to the Dr. I’m not big on Dr. visits, but the vision I have in my mind is forcing me to suggest it.

Have you ever injected in your biceps before? Do you think it’s possible that it’s a swelling type of reaction to the injections, and not the IGF?

How are yo reconstituting the IGF? Are you using any NaCl?

[quote]Couture Labs Rep wrote:
Scary stuff. Would it be possible to post a pic, so that we can better understand the problem? Just seeing the words " my biceps are caving in " makes me want to suggest a trip to the Dr. I’m not big on Dr. visits, but the vision I have in my mind is forcing me to suggest it.

Have you ever injected in your biceps before? Do you think it’s possible that it’s a swelling type of reaction to the injections, and not the IGF? [/quote]

I could try post a pic but I’m not very good with technical shit so I dunno…

the caving in is not as noticeable now since my arms are not pumped.

By “caving in”, I mean that there is a pretty large indentation in my bicep. Visuallt noticeable when pumped. The muscle around it is hard, but then there is this soft indentation which kind of caves inward. Seriously, my arms were NOT like this before I started.

Also, this morning I checked my arms in the mirror and again my biceps seem to be changing shape,…and not in a good way…the lower portion of my bicep appears to be swelled up, but the upper portion of my biceps remains the same. Looks like I got stung in the lower bicep or something…kinda like a synthol injection but obviously not as pronounced.

It’s really goddamn strange. I really hope it’s just localized swelling. The strange thing is, this has only happened in the past couple of days, whereas I have been injecting the biceps for the past few weeks and nothing bad happened. Swelling wouldnt really explain though why a portion of my bicep appears “caved in” or dented.

I am gonna call an end to this IGF run…I probably wont touch the stuff again…I got very minimal results from it…almost no results.

I diluted the IGF in AA and then reconstitute with bac water (at least 5/1 ratio,) prior to injection. I find the AA to be EXTREMELY painful when injecting. There have been several occasions when I have been curled up in pain on the ground for 10-15 seconds post injection. And this 4 times a day?? Just not worth it for me…

I’ve shot some pretty painful shit in my time but nothing compared to the pain of this. Maybe I’m just extremely sensitive to AA?

Anyways, I’m finished with this fucking worhtless shit…all it has done for me is give me extreme injection pain and deformed bicep which I’m praying will return to normal.

Well it’s probably not the best idea in the world to be constantly taking injections intramuscularly, especially with acidic solutions. I ocassionally take some IGF-1, usually subq. in my legs though, where I frequently take my insulin (I am diabetic) shots.

Normally I will take both at the same time. I use phosphate-buffered saline solution for the IGF-1, however. I prefer this much over acetic acid as it is buffered to your body’s pH, and will not sting like acetic acid solutions (they sting because of the pH imbalance). You should look into this if you plan on continuing frequent use of injectable protein compounds.

If you can obtain some of that and a sterile filter, then you can dissolve say 1 mg IGF-1 in 1 mL PBS and run that through the filter. Then take this and divvy it into smaller portions and freeze them.

That way you can take out say 100 or 50 uL portions one at a time and just use it all at once. Of course you can always make larger stockpiles (10 mg/10 mL for ex.) and just divvy it into 100 vials (assuming you can get all this). I suppose I am spoiled as I have easy access to all of the above materials, but it really is the best way to go.

Once again - how are you reconstituting the IGF?

You may not think it is an issue, but I have heard hundreds of stories like this, and it comes down to how they reconstitute, what they reconstitute with, and how they inject.

If you are using anything but .6% Acetic Acid solution, and you are not cutting that with NaCl immediately prior to injection, you are setting yourself up for trouble.

But what do I know -

Brother, if it doesn’t go away, and doesn’t seem to be localized swelling, please see a dr. The last thing you want is life long disfigurement of your biceps. Or worse, some sort of nerve damage.

I’ve thought about trying IFG, but decided it was simply too new to be screwing around with. I need to see more real world results, both good and bad. I can’t see using it within the next 5 years or so. Anyway, best of luck to you my friend!

IGF-1 is not a “new” entity. It has been known about for a long time in the scientific world.

The “new” part about it is that analogues with enhanced pharmacokinetic properties are emerging in the mass-market thanks to new technologies that allows for the mass production of them.

I don’t know why using .6% acetic acid and NaCl spikes would even matter? The acetic acid is to prevent bacterial contamination AFAIK, and NaCl I have no idea!

For example, insulin formulations are generally in a buffered saline with small amounts of antibacterial/antiprotease-type compounds (exs. phenol or sodium azide). IGF-1 and insulin are close cousins in terms of molecular structure and identity (hence the name insulin-like), so why using acetic acid and NaCl would be advantageous for anything besides anti-contamination is highly unlikely.

If there were some sort of special advantage, such as faster tissue absorption with acidic solutions, there would be much research/publication in this field. One of the main focuses on insulin therapy is in making compounds/formulations which get into the bloodstream faster (ie, fast acting insulin).

So far this has only been achieved by making analogues that decrease the tendency that insulin has to form hexamers in tissue (novolog and humalog), thereby making it absorb faster because it is less cluttered post-injection (see wikipedia for more info, they have a great insulin page!). IGF-1 would probably share a similar problem due to its clsoe indentity to insulin, thus I still do not know why acetic acid is truly necessary - and I suggest to anyone to use a buffered saline solution and sterilization filter over anything else as it will cause no pain.

[quote]Rusty Barbell wrote:
IGF-1 is not a “new” entity. It has been known about for a long time in the scientific world.

The “new” part about it is that analogues with enhanced pharmacokinetic properties are emerging in the mass-market thanks to new technologies that allows for the mass production of them.

I don’t know why using .6% acetic acid and NaCl spikes would even matter? The acetic acid is to prevent bacterial contamination AFAIK, and NaCl I have no idea!

For example, insulin formulations are generally in a buffered saline with small amounts of antibacterial/antiprotease-type compounds (exs. phenol or sodium azide). IGF-1 and insulin are close cousins in terms of molecular structure and identity (hence the name insulin-like), so why using acetic acid and NaCl would be advantageous for anything besides anti-contamination is highly unlikely.

If there were some sort of special advantage, such as faster tissue absorption with acidic solutions, there would be much research/publication in this field. One of the main focuses on insulin therapy is in making compounds/formulations which get into the bloodstream faster (ie, fast acting insulin).

So far this has only been achieved by making analogues that decrease the tendency that insulin has to form hexamers in tissue (novolog and humalog), thereby making it absorb faster because it is less cluttered post-injection (see wikipedia for more info, they have a great insulin page!). IGF-1 would probably share a similar problem due to its clsoe indentity to insulin, thus I still do not know why acetic acid is truly necessary - and I suggest to anyone to use a buffered saline solution and sterilization filter over anything else as it will cause no pain.

[/quote]

Long r3-IGF-1 is an extremely brittle peptide. .6% AA keeps it stable.

The BA content in the bac water can damage the peptide, not to mention cause irritation to the skin. Only NaCl - or other buffered injectable water without the BA - should be used to cut the necrotic tendencies of the Acetic Acid.