Humanin

What it is

Humanin is for the person who has read the mitochondria-and-aging literature and wants to run the thing the papers are about. It is a tiny peptide your mitochondria produce to keep stressed cells alive, your levels fall with age, and nobody has yet given it to a human in a trial. Expect to feel little; the bet is on biology, not on sensation.

Who runs it: longevity-minded people in their forties and up who already do the basics and want a mitochondrial layer, usually alongside NAD+ or SS-31. Some people with a family history of Alzheimer's or diabetes run it because those are the two areas the animal research centers on. It is not for anyone who needs to feel a result to keep going, and it is not for anyone with a cancer history, for a reason explained below.

What you will notice: honestly, probably nothing you can point to. The reports that exist are soft, such as steadier energy through the afternoon or slightly better sleep after a few weeks, and they cannot be separated from the other things those people are doing. Good at the end of a 12-week run looks like 'nothing bad happened and I feel marginally more even'. It will not make you sharper this week, and there is no blood test that confirms it did anything.

How people run it: 500 mcg subQ, two or three times a week, for 8 to 12 weeks, then a few weeks off. Nobody knows whether steady use is a problem or whether the effect fades, so that break is caution, not a reset. It is a signaling peptide, not something you keep saturated, which is why dosing is spaced rather than daily. A 5 mg vial mixed in 1 mL gives 10 doses at 500 mcg, so about four weeks; a full 12-week run is three vials. The mistake is running 1 mg daily because the vial allows it: there is no evidence that more does more, and it burns through a vial in five days.

The evidence, once: humanin was found in 2001 in a surviving patch of an Alzheimer's brain and has since produced a serious body of cell and rodent research in neuroprotection, insulin sensitivity, heart fibrosis and lifespan. In people there are only observational findings, such as levels dropping with age and tracking with some health markers. Much of the lab work also used a potent modified version, HNG, which is not what is in a plain humanin vial. Zero human trials. Scientifically promising, clinically untested.

When it is not worth it: if you want a mitochondrial peptide you can actually notice and that has human trials, SS-31 is that; if you want the cheapest well-tolerated energy support, NAD+. If you have ever had cancer, skip this one until an oncologist says otherwise, because a peptide whose whole job is stopping stressed cells from dying is the wrong thing to have around a tumor. If you want the stronger lab version, HNG is listed separately.

What people use it for

Safety, in brief

The full picture — stop signs and who should talk to a doctor first — is on the dosing guide.

Sources

The labels and studies behind this page. Each link opens the original on PubMed, DailyMed or ClinicalTrials.gov.

1. A rescue factor abolishing neuronal cell death by a wide spectrum of familial Alzheimer's disease genes and AbetaHashimoto et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2001 · Study
2. Humanin: a novel central regulator of peripheral insulin actionMuzumdar et al., PLoS One 2009 · Study
3. The mitochondrial derived peptide humanin is a regulator of lifespan and healthspanYen et al., Aging (Albany NY) 2020 · Study