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Is Melanotan 1 just a tanning shortcut — or is there more going on? In this episode, we unpack the science behind this alpha-MSH analog, how it affects pigment production, what clinical research shows, and how it compares to Melanotan 2. We discuss potential benefits beyond tanning, side effects, dosing culture, cycling myths, and my own real-world experience — including appetite changes and tolerability. If you’ve heard about this peptide and want the truth backed by biology, this episode is for you.

All right, everyone, welcome back.

Today's episode kind of came to me because my husband and I recently went on a trip to the beach.

We went to Mexico and had the best time.

It was so relaxing and so beautiful, and we were far away from all the cartel stuff that was happening, so we felt very safe, and it was a much needed vacation.

But anyway, in preparing for that vacation, I started taking Melanitan one specifically.

And a couple of things were unique to this experience that I have with Melanitan, which prompted me to want to do this episode.

And before we dive too far into this, it was a big reminder to me that just because you try a peptide one time and maybe you didn't get the result that you wanted or you didn't have the best experience with it, that doesn't mean to give up on it.

Now, if you're having, like, some sort of strong histamine reaction, like more of an allergic reaction to something, then I would say, yeah, don't take that one.

But sometimes you just take something and you're like, I'm not seeing the benefits.

And like, for example, the first time I ever took mot c was very much like that for me.

I just didn't really feel a whole lot from it.

But then subsequent times that I've taken it, it's been amazing.

And it's one of my favorite peptides now.

Same thing with NAD it's.

It made me feel really bad the first time I took it, so I was actually scared to take it again.

But looking back, my mitochondria weren't in the best position to really handle it at that time.

And so taking it again when I cycled it the next time, it was a wildly different experience, and I loved it.

And this is the same thing that happened to me with Melanitan, because in the research peptide world, we talk about Melanitan as the tanning peptide, and we're going to go into a lot of other things that it can do.

But my first experience with Melanitan one, and we're going to also go into the differences between Melanitan 1 and Melanitan 2 and why I prefer Melanitan 1 over Melanitan 2.

But my first experience with Melanitan 1 is I didn't really get much tanning from it.

And what I did notice was, like, darkening as my brown spots on my face and legs and moles getting a little darker under my eyes, feeling a little darker.

All the places you don't want to have more pigment is what it brought up for Me, my husband had a wildly different experience with it and it was very positive.

And so I just for a couple of years decided not to take it again.

And then last summer I did start taking it again and had a very different experience where I had beautiful even brown skin tone and that sort of thing.

So, and I say this, I'm.

I fall in the pasty white category as far as the pigmentation of my skin.

So I'm not one of these people that has a lot of natural melanin to begin with.

So it's something that has worked really well for me.

That being said, if you've tried melanitan, any peptide for that matter, and maybe you didn't get the experience that you were really wanting out of it, don't give up on it.

Sometimes you have to play around with dosing or the environment that you're being exposed to while you're taking the peptide tie.

So that's just a little tidbit there to encourage you, maybe if you've had a similar first experience with melanitan like I did.

So let's just dive into melanitan.

Okay.

What is Melanitan 1?

It is a synthetic version of a naturally occurring hormone called alpha melanocyte stimulating hormone, or msh, which is much easier to say.

And its job biologically is to promote melanin production in your skin.

And when a MSH binds to MC1R receptors on melanocytes, these are your pigment producing cells, it increases melanin, especially that dark, that darker eumelanin type.

That particular type of melanin is what gives your skin a deeper tan.

So Melanitan was originally developed as a drug and today is an implant form.

Nice.

I think is how you say that.

And it is approved in the US and Europe for very specific medical use.

So used primarily in preventing painful phototoxic reactions in people with.

I'm really going to butcher this, so bear with me.

Erythropoietic protoporphoria.

I'm saying that so bad.

Otherwise known as epp.

So let's just refer it to.

Refer to it as epp.

So anyway, forgive me, that is a mouthful, but one of the cool things that I wanted to talk about is what it does beyond just helping our skin develop a beautiful tan.

So yes, the tanning is the headline, but the science shows there are other actions tied to the melanocortin system.

So melanitan boosts again that melanin, that darker pigment that absorbs UV and helps protect the skin from UV damage.

That's why in these EPP patients, it increases sunlight tolerance and quality of life.

These are people cannot have any sun exposure at all or immediately causes severe burns.

Okay.

So in controlled studies, combining melanitan 1 with UV light resulted in fewer sunburn cells, deeper pigmentation compared to just sunlight alone.

And there's also evidence that when the MC1R is active, activated melanin pathways may help enhance DNA repair and antioxidant capacity in skin cells.

And this is part of how pigment protects deeper skin structures.

So that means that it may help skin recover from UV stress more efficiently.

So it's not a rejuvenating skin peptide, say like ghkcu, but it falls more in this protective category, and that's definitely something that I experienced with it.

It also has potential anti inflammatory and tissue effects.

So there's some preclinical research suggesting that a msh analog like melanitam1 may have broader effects, including regulating inflammation in tissues, interacting with immune cells, potential modulations of oxidative stress pathways.

And this is derived from the biology of a MSH and its family of receptors.

Being involved in multiple is beyond just pigment.

So these signals are early and foundational.

They're not clinical prescriptions yet, but they're part of why the scientific community is interested in the melanocortin peptides beyond just skin color.

So what's some of the broader biology out there?

And this gets technical in a good way because an MSH and a melanocortin peptides don't only bind to the MC1R.

The broader melanocortin receptor family is involved in things like appetite, energy balance and even sexual function.

So this means that peptides derived from this system, depending on structure and receptor profile, can influence multiple physiological pathways.

And for Melanitan 1 specifically, that the strongest signal in research is on that pigmentation and photoprotection.

But the receptor network taps into and overlaps with appetite and metabolic regulation.

And I'm going to talk more about this with my own experience again in just a little bit.

So one of the questions I get all the time is Melanitan one versus Melanitan two.

So let's dive into that for a second.

They often get lumped together, but they're actually very different.

So melanitan one structurally is closer to a MSH.

It's it has stronger MC1R pigmentation bias, its more muted impact on central pathways like appetite or sexual function.

In research, it's used primarily focused on skin pigmentation only.

Okay.

Melanitan 2 binds with MCR1 and central receptors like MC3R.

I'm sorry, MC1R and central receptors like MC3R and MC4R more strongly.

That's why in animal research, Melanitan 2 has been shown to transiently reduce food intake and even affect activity levels.

So Melanitan II is also known anecdotally for stronger nausea as a side effect and sexual side effects.

That's not surprising given the broader receptor engagement.

So sometimes you'll HEAR People say Melanitan 1 feels cleaner than Melanitan 2 and biology partially explains why.

So you need to think of it as Melanitan 1 is more pigment focused, where Melanitan 2 hits a wider network of melanochordin receptors.

But what you'll often hear in the research community is that the pigment you do get from Melanitan 2 versus Melanitan 1 is often more orangey.

So it's less of that deep, really pretty brown we're looking for.

Could also cause things, particularly in men with sexual side effects, like spontaneous erections, which is, I'm sure most of you men listening out there is something you don't really want to happen just randomly in the middle of no nowhere for no reason, because that's something that's not controllable in that situation.

So that is a side effect often noted in that.

And then that nausea side effect is described as being a lot more intense with Melanitan 2 versus Melanitan 1.

So for me personally, I take Melanitan 1 just to get that more of that skin pigmentation, even though it has some of these broader reaching implications on what it can do.

But just for the reasons I mentioned, that's the reason why when we were deciding on peptides for the Peptique, we kept it to Melanitan one and not we did not include Melanitan two into our catalog of peptides.

All right, because I get that question a lot.

What does the research actually show?

Because a lot of the stuff we're talking about is anecdotal in the research community.

So human studies show that subcutaneous melanitan 1 can produce significant tanning at effective doses and is associated with minimal adverse effects like mild GI discomfort or flushing in these people that have the EPP a genetic light sensitivity.

Melanitan 1 increased the amount of time they could spend in sunlight and reduce painful skin reactions like these deep, severe sunburns.

Also, There are phase 2 and 3 clinical investigations exploring Melanitan for conditions like polymorphic light eruption, photosensitivity disorders and even acne.

Because melanin and The AMSH pathways intersect with this inflammatory signaling like we already talked about.

Okay, so let's talk about some of the side effects that people report.

Nausea is a big one.

Headache, decreased appetite.

That's more Melanitan two than Melanitan one.

Fatigue, flushing, injection site reaction, which you're going to hear with every peptide that you inject, changes in moles or dark spots.

So if you're someone that has a history of skin cancer, this is not a peptide that I would recommend or if you wanted to take it, I would definitely talk to your practitioner before you did that is familiar with your history.

Also, if you have like really bad melasma, this may be one that you want to stay away from.

There is some reports of some rare neurological or systemic symptoms reported in a very small case series of unregulated use.

Okay.

Probably people that aren't dosing it correctly.

And so these are some of the side effects that you might encounter with Melanitan 1 or Melanitan 2.

What I will tell you is that these things are nuanced and we pay attention.

When you are starting any peptide and if you, if you're starting a peptide for the first time, I always say take it alone by itself without introducing anything else new.

Oftentimes I meet with people with consultations and Melanitan's one that often comes up.

But people want to start all these peptides at the same time.

And that's when you start having issues because you really wouldn't know what's causing what side effect.

So if you've never tried melanitan and like I say, always start low and slow.

Okay, so let's discuss my recent experience with Melanitan.

That was a little bit surprising because you want to do a loading phase of this.

And I will talk more about that in just a minute.

But what I didn't notice is I was taking it and I didn't really clue in right away.

It took about a week.

Then I realized as soon as I take this, I'm not very hungry.

And I think you heard me mention earlier in the episode that they that people reported transient appetite suppression.

So looking back, I was shocked because that wasn't what I was expecting.

I just realized I just put two and two together after taking it for about a week or so that within 15 minutes or so of injecting it, I just wasn't hungry at all.

And that lasted for several hours afterwards where I just didn't want to eat anything at all.

And that's obviously not why I was taking it.

The other thing that I noticed is that I would become extremely thirsty.

And there's not a lot of data to support exactly why that happened.

But that is again, one of those side effects that happened for me.

Who knows how it was impacting a certain receptor within my own biology that maybe created that side effect.

I did also experience some mild nausea.

It dissipated after doing a loading phase of it that went away.

So that wasn't something I experienced through the entire cycle that I did it.

I also experienced some light flushing in the beginning too.

And so those are all the things that are very consistent with the literature that you read regarding melanitan.

One the great things that I noticed is that I did get a beautiful, even tan.

And again, I did a loading phase and we're going to go into dosing in just a minute.

And then I did a maintenance phase once I achieved the desired pigmentation that I wanted.

And the thing too that is amazing about it is that the tan holds so much longer.

I've been back from my trip for about two weeks now.

I don't feel like my pigments changed much at all since I got home.

I'm normally in the past, my tan would go away super fast.

One of the reasons why I feel like this round was successful even more than the last time.

So I'll tell you three different ways that I've done this.

I've done it where I just did it with no sun exposure and that's when I didn't like the result that I got.

So my overall pigmentation wasn't changing and getting darker, but the spots, like the aging spots on my face and certain moles and that under my eyes, like I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, those all got darker and so that wasn't really the look I was going for.

So I didn't really like it.

The second time I used it, I just used it.

I didn't do any loading, I didn't do any pre sun exposure.

I just used it when I knew that I was going to be out in the sun.

And I got really good benefits from that.

I did that last year when my family went to Florida and I did come home with a nicer, deeper tan that did last longer, but it wasn't like a significant change, but enough change that I noticed it and I like the result this time.

What I did differently is I did a loading phase and I made sure to get sun exposure within 30 minutes of injecting.

And it's been very warm here in Austin, Texas this winter.

So I was really able just to go sit outside in one of the loungers by my pool and get 10 or 15 minutes of sun, which is really good for you anyway.

And to get that natural vitamin D. And I noticed that I, after doing that for about 10 days to two weeks, 10 to 14 days, I don't remember exactly how long I did it, that I was set up with this really beautiful tan going into my vacation.

And I don't know about you, and I would assume that most of the women that I'm that are listening have experienced this, especially if you're fair.

I live in the world of spray on tans in the spring and the summer when I want to be in shorts or we want to be out the lake or go on vacation.

And the thing that's so annoying about that is that it's great in the beginning, but the second you get in the water or you shower or anything like that, or you spend time in a pool, it starts to fade immediately.

And for me, it always fades uneven.

So then I've got this blotchy skin thing going on that's not super great.

And I didn't have to do that.

I didn't have to get a spray tan this time.

And I loved that because I was able to get for me again, I'm very fair, this really nice, even tan skin tone.

And I didn't have to worry about reapplying self tanner or anything like that the entire trip.

And so that was huge for me.

This is a peptide that I would recommend if you're taking a trip to the beach that you, you bring with you.

I don't like to travel with all my peptides all the time.

I did bring this one for me and my husband and I did not get sunburned at all.

And what was crazy about it is, and mine is taking a pretty long walk on the beach every morning, which we'd walk maybe two to three miles on the beach every morning.

We sat under an umbrella the entire time and I got to read a book for pleasure, which I never get to do.

And we stayed out there a big chunk of the day.

And I was amazed, just even getting the UV exposure under the umbrella, how much my tan developed while I was there without getting direct sun exposure for any great length of time.

I did not get burned.

I didn't even wear that much sunscreen.

I always put sunscreen on my face, but normally I would put it everywhere else, even under an umbrella, and I didn't have to do that at all.

So overall, I think the Best practice is to do a loading phase.

So let's go.

This is a good segue into dosing.

You want to do a loading phase of probably about two weeks, I would say.

Would you inject it five to seven days a week?

You're really going to get the best outcome of it if you can get sun exposure during that time.

I have heard of people going to tanning beds afterwards like to get two or three minutes or four minutes in a tanning bed.

I am not recommending that you do that, although I have heard of a lot of people doing that.

The best thing to do is get out in a natural sunlight and get that really good sun exposure to get that, that base tan, that base pigmentation going in your skin.

Then after that you should have a really good baseline and then you go into a maintenance phase of two to three times a week.

I cycle these things eight to 12 weeks.

I may do it a little longer because I started earlier this year to keep things going through the summer.

There's not a ton of research, and I could be wrong here that I have found that suggest at that lower maintenance dose where it's just a couple of times a week that you need to cycle it.

So it's not something I would say do 24, 7 by any stretch that you do year round, but March through August, something like that.

I don't think if you're on that lower dose just to maintain some pigmentation through that time frame, that would be a problem.

I'm currently not taking any right now, but probably will start again because I have a girls trip coming up in the next week.

But I also haven't felt the need to because tan has just stayed so much better without any sun exposure at all.

I've also heard, and I didn't mention this earlier, but I've also heard, particularly in my school group, the Women's Peptide Collective, somebody's talking about mood enhancement, both positive and negative.

And so I think that that's just another indication that this peptide is far more reaching than just skin pigmentation alone.

And so I heard some people say it gave them this really calm, happy effect.

And then other people saying it made them super irritable.

So you never know how you're going to individually react to it.

Which just like I said earlier, you want to try it on its own.

But I skipped over the rest of the dosing.

I apologize, I'm a little all over the map today.

So the dosing, you want to do 250mcgs per dose.

If you have a 10 milligram vial and you put 2mls of bag.

That's 5 units.

It's a teeny tiny amount.

One of the things that I will say is I was taking 10 units.

I just, I don't know how to brain fart or something.

And I wasn't thinking.

And I realized that's when I experienced that extreme thirst and the loss of appetite when I was taking it.

At that 500mcg dose, I didn't have any other negative side effects outside of that.

And this is Melanitan 1.

You hear more of this with Melanitan 2.

So I think maybe at that higher dose, that has something to do with it.

Let me also say this.

My husband, I told him to take five units and I found out later he took 50.

And I was like, did you feel like, so nauseous and sick?

And he was like, no.

So I don't know.

Do not take 50 units of this.

Take the five units.

That's all you need.

He didn't seem to like, have spontaneous darker skin either.

But it, again, it's just how variable it is because at that 500mcg dose, or half a milligram, however you want to put it, I did experience a little more nausea, a little more flushing, a light headache.

So the side effects are definitely greater for me at that dose.

But that is where the thirst and the loss of appetite kicked in as well.

So that kind of wraps up melanitan1.

I think the timing is good for this because we're heading into spring and spring break and summer and all the things, so I wanted to get this one out there.

Plus, I just had this personal experience with it and things to catch you up on.

A couple things.

When you email information at the Pepti, you're not reaching me directly.

I.

My, my team comes to me and says everyone thinks they're talking to you directly.

That is not my direct email.

If you want to reach out to me directly, it is in the show Notes.

That is my customer service email.

That is just for the Pepti for order questions mainly is what we get and things like that.

Also note if you are emailing the Peptique, whether it's my email address at the Peptique or info at the Peptique, the customer service email, we cannot discuss or send you any dosing protocols whatsoever.

So just know that we're just not allowed to do that.

And if you are just turning in and you haven't listened to many of my podcasts before, if you're a woman, go join the woman's Peptide Collective.

It's a free group where all of us ladies get on and we talk about all of our experiences.

I bring a lot of those experiences to you here on the podcast.

Shout out to all of you guys.

I love you.

I so appreciate each and every one of you.

And I have updated the Peptide Guide and it is far more superior than what I had put out there before.

So if you have an older version of that, email me and I will send you the updated version.

We're coming out with new educational tools all the time through West Wellness, not through the Peptique, but through West Wellness.

So if you have questions about certain things, feel free to email me.

I love getting your emails.

I really, honestly do try to respond and I wanna wrap it up here.

I feel like I've been too chatty.

I know how you guys like to keep things short and sweet and I really try to honor that.

Before I leave, I just wanna again just tell you guys how thankful and appreciative I am of each and every one of you.

I would not be here today without you.

I feel completely blessed that I get to do what I do every day.

And I know I sound like a broken record, but I just feel like it's important to continue to to express my gratitude towards each of you.

So until next time, everyone have a blessed day.