Notwithstanding its broad spectrum of potential benefits, the main appeal of hexarelin is its powerful growth hormone-stimulating capability [5].
As humans get older, growth hormone production declines [6]. Since growth hormone is responsible for collagen production, muscle repair, maintaining bone density, body fat storage and distribution, and a host of other processes, there is significant research interest in safely restoring growth hormone levels with compounds like hexarelin [7, 8].
Let’s have a look at three popular reasons why hexarelin is being studied by researchers today.
Hexarelin for Recovery
As a growth hormone secretagogue, hexarelin enables the body to use growth hormone to improve muscle, tendon, and bone repair following injury or intense exercise [9]. When the body is able to rapidly heal from tissue trauma, one can increase training intensity and/or volume without excessive fatigue or muscle damage.
Sleep is another factor that is crucial to recovery [10]. A lack of circulating growth hormone, especially in aging individuals, is among many reasons as to why sleep might be compromised [11]. The effect of hexarelin on growth hormone secretion can result in deeper restorative sleep, which is invaluable for improving strength and body composition.
Hexarelin for Fat Loss
While fat loss is a complex process, one major correlate of obesity is insulin resistance. A 2017 study in Nutrition & Diabetes looked at the insulin sensitivity of two groups of previously overweight women compared to a control group of women who had never been overweight. The group that was successful in maintaining a healthy body weight had insulin sensitivity identical to the control group, while the group of women who had regained their weight were predictably insulin resistant [12].
Hexarelin has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity (thus increasing effective nutrient partitioning), decrease body fat, increase lean body mass, and decrease blood triglycerides, thereby improving metabolism and body composition in treated subjects [13].
Hexarelin for Heart Health
Historically, therapeutic doses of exogenous ghrelin have been given to cardiac patients to facilitate recovery from surgeries and adverse cardiac events. But ghrelin, which is a naturally-occurring peptide in the body, has short-lived effects due to its rapid degradation [4].
The synthetic hexapeptide hexarelin is superior to exogenous ghrelin in terms of potency, half-life, and number of favorable cardiac effects [4]. Hexarelin has the potential to improve long-term cardiac functioning in patients with chronic heart failure, reverse atherosclerosis, and decrease fibrosis and hypertrophy in the heart [4, 14, 15].