HGH & Its Effect on the Muscles

Human Growth Hormone (HgH) has become popular in the media and among supplement manufacturers in recent years. At first, it was touted as a "fountain of youth," reversing signs of aging. Since the recognition of the dangers of anabolic steroids, bodybuilders have started taking HgH to shorten workout recovery times and speed up their muscle development.

Function

• HgH is most important in childhood. It helps regulate the growth and reproduction of bones and other tissues. At age 20, as our body size reaches its adult parameters, HgH production in the pituitary starts to decline quickly, eventually ceasing in your forties. The absence of HgH seems to be a critical factor in aging, including graying and hair loss, decreased libido, frequent muscle and joint pain, decreased circulation, memory loss and wrinkling of the skin.

Types

• HgH was originally extracted from the pituitary glands of dead patients. Now HgH is created synthetically in laboratories, and it is usually available as an injection. In addition to direct infusion of HgH, drugs may be taken orally to stimulate the body's own production of HgH.

Effects

• Synthetic HgH can be difficult to prescribe, because each patient may require different dosages. Often, therefore, it is prescribed in small amounts and increased only gradually. When the dosage gets a little too high, the development of female breasts in men, increased arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, fluid retention and increased blood sugar are common. If not properly monitored and doses get even higher, regular HgH injections can lead to acromegaly, an abnormal growth of the bones and connective tissue in the face, hands and feet. It can also lead to diabetes, excess body hair, an enlarged heart, and damage to the thyroid and liver.

Alternatives

• Oral medications can stimulate the hypothalamus to produce more GHRH (growth-hormone-releasing hormone), which then triggers the pituitary gland into once again producing more HgH. The medication must also contain revostatin to suppress an HgH antagonist (somatostatin) that would otherwise cancel the effects of the drug. Dosage for this alternative is less critical, and in many patients it is tolerated better than synthetic HgH.

Benefits

• The main proven benefit on muscles is that with increased HgH they are more easily exposed, because HgH increases the fat-burning metabolism. One early study (New England Journal of Medicine, 1990, vol. 323) showed a small increase in muscle growth in elderly men over a placebo group, but subsequent studies (American Journal of Physiology, 1992, vol 62; and Journal of Clinical Endocrinological Metabolism, 1994, vol. 79) on both young and elderly men have shown no significant effects on muscle growth or strength with increased HgH.