NA Semax Amidate vs plain Semax, the longer half-life actually matters

Posted by sleep_coastal in Cognitive & Nootropic - 8 points, 4 comments.

I ran plain Semax for a few weeks last year at around 300 mcg intranasal, twice a day. Focus was clean but it faded FAST. Like, within an hour I was back to baseline.

Annoying enough that I kept redosing and then got irritability from stacking doses too close. Switched to NA Semax Amidate a couple months ago at roughly 400 mcg once in the morning, sometimes a second dose around noon. The difference is pretty noticeable for me.

The focus just hangs around longer. I get a solid three, maybe four hours of clean mental clarity before it tapers. Anecdotally, less of the edgy feeling too.

Could just be that I'm not redosing on top of residual peptide anymore. One thing I will say, do NOT dose this stuff late afternoon. I made that mistake once and was staring at the ceiling till 2am.

The extended half-life is great for focus but it cuts both ways with sleep. Anyone else compared the two directly? Curious if the amidate version hits differently for other people or if it's just me noticing the duration more than the effect quality.

Comments

• curious_scientist: The sleep thing is real. I tried NA Semax Amidate once around 3pm and had the same problem, just wired all evening. Plain Semax I could get away with an afternoon dose no problem. For me the amidate version felt smoother too, less of that sharp onset. Almost like the difference between instant release and extended release meds. Whether that's actually the pharmacokinetics or just absorption differences, hard to say. Have you noticed any tolerance building over the couple months? That's the thi
• student748: For what it is worth that tolerance question is exactly what i'd want to know too. I've only been messing with semax stuff for a short bit so i can't speak to long term but the IR vs ER comparison makes sense to me, smoother onset would theoretically mean less of a spike that your brain compensates for. Or that could be completely wrong, just me guessing. Has anyone here run it like 3+ months and tracked whether the focus holds up or fades?
• sleep_coastal: Your guess about smoother onset meaning less compensatory downregulation makes sense to me intuitively but I have no idea if that is actually how it works. I have only been on the Amidate version about two months now so I can't really answer the 3+ month question either. So far the focus still shows up but it is maybe 80 percent of what it was the first week. Could just be me getting used to feeling normal though. Anecdotally, I took a week off recently and it came back strong, so cycling might
• sleep_coastal: The IR vs ER comparison is spot on, that's exactly how it feels. On tolerance, honestly not much yet at two months. Maybe a little less of the "wow this is clean" feeling but the focus still shows up. I do take weekends off though, which probably helps. Plain Semax definitely dulled faster for me too, around week three it was like drinking coffee that had gone cold. You taking any off days with the amidate or running it straight through?

Community discussion - research and educational context only. Not medical advice.