Bacteriostatic water. Do you need it when reconstituting your peptide vials?

A lot of discussion online has been had on whether or not you need to use bacteriostatic water for injection when reconstituting (mixing) your peptide vials. In short, no, you do not. However, I still recommend and use bacteriostatic water myself. Here’s why:

1.) Harm reduction. If your peptide vials are bunk and are contaminated with any harmful microbes, the bacteriostatic water will take care of it and destroy those little buggers. If you are unsure of the legitmacy of where you have sourced your peptides, or are just genuinely a cautious person, may I suggest to reconstitute your peptide vial 24 hours before injecting any of the solution. Although the bacteriostatic water will kill 99% of any lingering microbes, it has been shown that it can take longer than a few seconds after the bacteriostatic water has entered the vial.

2.) Bacteriostatic water increases the shelf life of your peptide. Whether your peptides are pure, sterile, or not; eventually, some microbial contamination will get in there. The moment you pierce that vial, air has made contact, and the gates have now been opened for microbes to get in. Most microbes that will get in are not harmful to the human body, but many microbes can degrade/denature your peptides and decrease their shelf life or decrease their potency if sterile water or saline solution is used. If you choose bacteriostatic water, this process will take substantially longer. Certainly, enough time would have passed, that you would have already used your peptide vial before it has gone bad. As a safe rule of thumb, most clinicians will recommend a 30 day expiry date after you have reconstituted your peptide vial with bacteriostatic water, but the truth is this deadline has not been extensively researched for all of the common peptides people in this community use. It is highly likely that many of these peptides (aside from perhaps IGF-1 LR3), will last well into 60 days post reconstitution without any loss of potency and be safe to use.

Considering that bacteriostatic water will cost you less than $1 per ml, it is sensible insurance in my opinion. There is some discussion on whether or not bacteriostatic water is safe for the body because it contains benzyl alcohol, but what one has to know is that the dose of this benzyl alcohol is miniscule, even if you injected the entire vial. When it comes to toxicology, the danger is in the dose, not the poison. There is actually no substance on earth at the right dose, that would not be potentially safe. Even strychnine could likely be ingested at a micro-dose and be harmless. I do not recommend attempting to find that dose though. But yeh, It is all about the dose. With that said, there will be a small number of individuals who will have an allergic reaction to bacteriostatic water, but these cases are rare. Peanuts kill several people a year who have peanut allergies. Does that mean we tell everyone not to eat peanuts? No. The choice is yours, but bacteriostatic water is a sensible and very affordable choice if you ask me.