4 Days of Melanotan-I research...very happy

[TooBigtoFail]

I used MT1 for 2 months and had to stop. freckles/brown spots popping up everywhere. I did get darker and no other side effects. Is making my dermatologist's job harder now.

 

[BlueDog55]

interesting! I'm kind of freaked out but intrigued by it. My girlfriend tried it and said it caused diarrhea and extreme libido - did you experience that?

No offense Sorry, But the "caused diarrhea and extreme libido" part of your post made me laugh out loud... definitely not a combo any of us would want... Hey honey come here kiss...kiss oh wait... then running off to the bathroom... sorry I feel like a kid laughing it this but it just hit me like that...

 

[sheilarae74]

Do not use if there is a personal or family history of melanoma or non-melanoma skin cancer

Melanocortins may increase blood pressure. Use with caution if hypertension is present

It is NOT recommended to use a melanocortin agonist concurrently with a PDE5 inhibitor in men due to risk of priapism

Damn, that sucks. My mom had skin cancer.

 

[PAPoots]

I'm curious if the people with side effects titrated up to fast, or started at too high of a dose.

 

[JourneyToPerfection]

I just bought a kit of MT1 & this post has made me really excited to try it

Few things

Will I only tan where I get sun exposure?

I always wear sunblock on my face (I use tret cream so am extra cautious about this), do you know if this would affect the skin tone of my face with a ton of sunblock on?

 

[CNCCurrency]

I just bought a kit of MT1 & this post has made me really excited to try it

Few things

Will I only tan where I get sun exposure?

I always wear sunblock on my face (I use tret cream so am extra cautious about this), do you know if this would affect the skin tone of my face with a ton of sunblock on?

Yes and I use sunscreen and still tanned on my face evenly. It only requires your body to start the melon release and mt 1 releases it longer.

 

[FarmgirlRebel]

Okay...it's been a minute. Update, I keep getting darker. I do get sun exposure, but I don't lay out and I've noticed my legs, which get hardly any sun, the base color has ticked a bit darker as well.

I've heard this can happen with people that have olive skin tones, and for me it turned out to be true. My "sun kissed" look turned into a full on tan .

I have noticed no uptick in any age spots or new spots coming on board, I did notice my existing beauty mark did get darker...I don't have really have freckles, so can't speak to that, no new freckles.

 

[Wenjo]

MT1, .5mg 2x a day walking shirtless for about 2 miles each walk. I'm stopping after 1 vial...

I wanted to try MT1 since ages ago, but I also like to be outdoors and always been afraid to get burned or too tan and just look stupid

 

[FarmgirlRebel]

Just to try an clear a lot of this up and give my thoughts. MT1 (the approved drug afamelanotide) just activates the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R). MT2 activates MC1R and MC3, 4 and 5R, its the additional receptor stimulation that causes the libido and nausea/appetite effects. MT1 does not cause these additional effects. MT2 also is a more potent stimulator of the MC1R receptor, and will produce pigmentation/tan more evenly even without the presence of UV. MT1 is more patchy and can pigment the face more without UV.

The MT1 trials and follow ups (over 8 or 10 years) showed no increased risk of melanoma above the controls. MT2 has not undergone that testing. Doesn't mean its less safe, it just means we don't know, so there is some risk there. Most of the MT2 melanoma reports are case studies, that are totally confounded by the fact those people were also using sunbeds (a known melanoma risk).

In healthy skin, MC1R activation appears to be protective. It builds eumelanin (main type of melanin in the skin for pigmentation), that physically blocks UV and shields your DNA from damage. It also ramps up the cell's own DNA repair and antioxidant defences. Also in mice, activating MC1R prevented melanoma from forming, and topical MT2 even shrank existing tumours. This was an animal model, but definitely interesting.

There is also a small 2023 study where switching this receptor on inside existing melanoma cells turned down the signal that calls immune T-cells into the tumour, so the cancer hid better and grew. I'm not sure how to reconcile this one to be honest. I think the mouse data and the clinical data for MT1 very much overwhelm this mechanistic study though.

So IMO, some pretty decent data on MT1, not loads on MT2. But the risks definitely seem overstated (nothing is safe though).

Interesting. My experience w/MT1 has been an all over even tan, no patchiness...but perhaps that is due to my base skin tones? A fairer complected person may have a completely different result

 

[Vriende]

My experience w/MT1 has been an all over even tan, no patchiness...

From what I have read of users' experiences, patchiness and becoming uncomfortably-overly-tan has happened more with MT2.

Lots of reasons to play it safe and stick with MT1

 

[Vriende]

The data I looked at:

Habbema L, et al. Risks of unregulated use of alpha-MSH analogues: a review. Int J Dermatol 2017.

I appreciate your summary and citing your data sources.

A breath of fresh air compared to how many user here spew out fancy formatted AI stuff with no disclosure or citations.

Thanks!

 

[JourneyToPerfection]

Have you tried it? How's it going?

I haven’t had the chance to yet my kit arrived ages ago, but it’s winter here in Aus and even though that means it’s slightly less bullshit hot that normal there still hasn’t been a decent week or two of sun for me to bathe in with MT1 in my system

 

[FarmgirlRebel]

I'm glad its going well! Have you been getting sun on most of your body too? Or has it tanned evenly even without sun exposure?

I do a lot of horse back riding so I do get sun exposure, esp on face, shoulders and arms...so those areas are definitely getting darker. However, my base color on my legs and torso has indeed ticked a little darker w/o sun exposure. Not enough to call tan, but just enough to be noticeable.

 

[FarmgirlRebel]

Well, I just ordered some MT-1.... Let's hope it gets here! lol

Let us know how it goes!! I have to say, it has been extremely effective for me, to the point where I am now avoiding sun as I'm turning into a brown nut

 

[Indiana]

Let us know how it goes!! I have to say, it has been extremely effective for me, to the point where I am now avoiding sun as I'm turning into a brown nut

Will definitely let you know how it goes. I just want a soft tan not to be too dark.

 

[Skidude]

I was curious on how this effects Vitamin D.

Do you guys increase Vitamin D supplementation on this?

Google said:

Yes, it is harder for darker skin to produce vitamin D from sunlight because high levels of melanin act as a natural filter that blocks ultraviolet B (UVB) rays. [ 1 , 2 ]

How Melanin Affects Vitamin D

Slower production: Melanin reduces the skin's ability to synthesize vitamin D from sunlight. [ 1 , 2 ]

More time needed: Darker skin tones may need significantly longer sun exposure (ranging from three to six times longer) than lighter skin tones to make the same amount of vitamin D. [ 1 , 2 ]

Higher deficiency risk: People with dark skin living far from the equator or in northern regions are much more prone to low vitamin D levels. [ 1 , 2 ]

 

[FarmgirlRebel]

I do not because of this, I take d3 with k2

Same here...d3 and k2

Will definitely let you know how it goes. I just want a soft tan not to be too dark.

If you are fair skinned you will probably get exactly that...if you are olive skinned, you may end up getting darker than planned.