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HGH quackery HGH and hGH refer to "human growth hormone" (cf hCG, human chorionic gonadotropin). The reader may be curious as to why only these two hormones are still often referred to as "human" when the term could obviously be appended to every hormone in the list. After three-letter abbreviations of amino acids were found so useful in the 1950s, endocrinologists in the 1950s tended to favor 3 letter abbreviations even for two-word hormones. At that time, most of the hormones available for administration, especially the proteins, were derived from animals. Most were similar, if not identical, to human hormones in structure and effectiveness.
However, animal growth hormones were relatively ineffective in humans because of structural differences. Growth hormone purified from human pituitaries was a rare commodity and the abbreviation HGH distinguished it from animal growth hormones in medical reports. When synthetic, human-sequence GH made by recombinant DNA technology replaced use of cadaver hGH in the mid-1980s, the term HGH no longer made sense. The abbreviation rGH refers to synthetic human-sequence GH made by recombinant DNA technology.
The internet consumer should understand that use of the term HGH since 1990 usually indicates that the author has little expertise in endocrinology and is a nearly infallible sign that a product so labeled contains no effective amount of growth hormone. A Field Guide to the Growth Hormone Scams In certain circumstances, growth hormone treatment can improve a child’s growth, enhance an athlete’s performance, slow certain physical aspects of aging in adults, increase muscle mass and reduce body fat, improve mental energy and resilience, and reduce risk of death from heart disease! Is it any wonder that GH has also been the subject of exaggerated claims, ineffective use, and outright fraud? So how do you separate the legitimate uses from the wasteful, unproven, or even dangerous? The majority of the products sold as growth hormone and virtually all of the products sold as “HGH” will do nothing worthwhile for your body. If you don’t have time to become board-certified in endocrinology, how do you recognize the outright frauds? Luckily, I became board-certified in endocrinology so you wouldn’t have to. Yes, I’m that good a friend!
Logically, this guide should begin with an extended explanation of what growth hormone is and how it is produced by the pituitary, followed by an excursion into the wonders of insulin-like growth factors. BUT this stuff is eye-glazing for most people, and even doctors have been known to tune out when an endocrinologist tries to explain the higher arcana of the hypothalamus. YOU probably want the executive synopsis first. Okay, if you promise me you’re an executive, here it is:
Top ten signs you are contemplating a product that is unlikely to produce a significant, measurable benefit1 for you (or your child):
10. Your IGF and post-stimulation GH levels have not been checked.2
9. The product is not FDA approved and does not require a prescription.3
8. No list of possible side effects is offered,4 and nothing’s going to be monitored during treatment.5
7. The sales pitch refers to Rudman’s paper6 or Klatz’s book.7
6. The product is available as a nasal or oral spray8, drop8, pills8, skin lotion9, aroma9, or digital vibration.10
5. The offer is accompanied by a multilevel marketing pitch.11
4. The offer refers to the product as “natural,”12 as “homeopathic,13 or as “HGH.”14
3. The product contains amino acids described as “releasers or “precursors.”15
2. The sales pitch contains a message such as “this information and product are not intended to diagnose or treat any disease.”16
And finally, the number 1 sign that you will probably derive no measurable benefit from this purported GH product: 1. It is being offered to you by anyone except an endocrinologist who has evaluated you or your child,17 has explained that tests indicate probable growth hormone deficiency,2 is charging you a couple hundred dollars,18 and is telling you the GH treatment will cost thousands of dollars a year.19
What do all those tiny numbers mean?
1. significant, measurable benefit Measurable benefit means a change in a body that can be objectively measured, and is a greater change than would happen without the treatment. Examples of such objectively measurable potential benefits include acceleration of rate of growth, improvement of measured muscle strength, increased bone density, reduction of percent body fat, reduction of cholesterol level, reduction of heart attack rate or fracture rate in a population. Some potential benefits, such as mental energy, social resilience, mood, or sex drive, are difficult to measure objectively. Some claimed benefits are so vague (overall well-being or better luck) or intangible (balanced chakras, reduced subluxation, shorter time in purgatory) that it would be impossible to objectively confirm or refute that they have occurred. Intelligent people should be wary of treatments whose benefits are exclusively of these types. Significant means that the benefit is great enough that the average person will consider it worth the effort, cost, and risk of treatment. For example, how much would you pay for a treatment that produced a one point reduction of your cholesterol? Not much, I hope. Assessments of intangible benefits, or of “significance” are of course value judgements, and the seller of a minimally efficacious product can hide behind such issues. If you suspect that your assessment of significant effectiveness is much different from mine, my opinions may not apply to you or your product.
2. IGF and post-stimulation GH levels How do we know if someone will benefit from GH treatment? The most reliable indicator of probable significant, objective benefit is that the person has GH deficiency. GH deficiency means that the person makes much less GH day by day than most healthy people of the same age and sex. A child who is severely deficient in GH will be very small, will grow slowly, and will have a delayed bone age maturation. GH replacement will safely reverse all these things and will induce catch-up growth until the child reaches the height he “should” reach. An adult who is severely deficient will usually have poor muscle strength, an increased amount of body fat, reduced bone density, higher levels of cholesterol, reduced stamina, even reduced social energy and ambition, and a higher than average chance of dying at a younger age than someone not deficient. Growth hormone replacement will safely improve all these things. Wow! So what percent of children are below average in height? Fifty percent. What percent of short children would grow a lot faster and end up a lot taller with GH? Less than one in a hundred. What percent of adults feel like they could use stronger bones, less body fat, lower cholesterol, more strength, energy, and drive, and a longer life? Maybe 90%? What percent of the adult population is GH deficient? Less than 1%; the rest are just a target for the GH scams. There are lots of more common reasons than GH deficiency for people to be shorter, weaker, fatter, more tired, or less socially effective than they would like to be. There are lots of more common reasons than GH deficiency for people to have high cholesterol, to have weak bones, or to die prematurely. Remember, 50% of the population is below average! And if we make everyone in the population 200% healthier, 50% of the population will still be below average. So how can you tell if your child’s shortness or your fatigue is due to GH deficiency? Amounts and patterns of GH in the blood are lower, as are the levels of other proteins such as IGF-1 and IGF-BP3. See below for more details on normal and deficient patterns. In many cases the pituitary gland is structurally abnormal if sensitive imaging of the brain is performed (like an MRI). Unfortunately, criteria for diagnosing GH deficiency are actually much more complex than making a diagnosis of thyroid deficiency or iron deficiency. No single test is completely sensitive (detects all cases of deficiency) or specific (is never positive in a person without deficiency), and the diagnosis is usually based on several pieces of evidence.
3. not FDA approved and does not require a prescription This means that the maker of the product does not want to submit research studies to the FDA which demonstrate safety and efficacy, and that the product contains what he says it contains. He would rather you take his word for all three. This is called “health freedom.”
4. No list of possible side effects Side effects are simply effects on the body that are unwanted. It is rare for a substance to have only desired effects on the body if it has any effects at all. The highest probability of beneficial effects with the lowest chance of unwanted effects occurs when we administer the right amount of a substance that the body needs but lacks. Some examples of treatment which produce significant, measurable beneficial effect with very low risk of unwanted effects include replacement of the right amount of oxygen to a person in respiratory failure, thyroxine to a person with hypothyroidism, protein to a person who is starving, glucose to a person who is unconscious from hypoglycemia, iron to a person with iron deficiency, vitamin B12 to a person with pernicious anemia, and insulin to a person with juvenile diabetes. The benefits in these cases can be nearly miraculous, yet there is still a small chance of producing an unwanted effect as well. Furthermore, when a person does not have hypoxia, hypothyroidism, starvation, hypoglycemia, iron deficiency, pernicious anemia, or juvenile diabetes, the likelihood and size of the beneficial effects is much smaller, but the chance of unwanted effects is no lower and may even be higher. Growth hormone provided in the right amount to a person who is deficient produces similarly spectacular results, but there are still a few potential risks. Potential risks of GH therapy at the right dose in deficient children include small chances of a problem with the hip joint (called slipped capital femoral epiphysis), headaches due to increased pressure in the head (called pseudotumor cerebri), tiny bruises at injection sites, slight pain with injections, the nuisance of doctor visits and blood tests, and perhaps the emotional stress of increased attention to the child’s unsatisfactory height. Potential risks of GH at the right dose in deficient adults include pseudotumor cerebri, injection bruises or pain, insurance or employment problems related to an expensive medical condition, temporary fluid retention, temporary joint or limb swelling or discomfort, carpal tunnel syndrome, the nuisance of doctor visits and blood tests, and perhaps the emotional stress of a long-term medical condition. The magnitude of benefit is reduced in persons who are not deficient, but there is no reduction of the side effect risk. Excessive amounts of anything, including such necessities of life as light, water, salt, oxygen, glucose, protein, and vitamins can be harmful. This is especially true of hormones. In general, the magnitude of benefit shrinks and the likelihood of potential side effects rises as the dose of a hormone increases, or when it is given to someone who is not deficient. Risks of excessive amounts of GH are inferred from naturally occurring conditions of GH excess. In adults, excessive production of GH by the pituitary gland leads to a condition known as acromegaly. Connective tissue thickens and becomes less flexible. Skin is thickened, with increased production of oil and sweat. Lips, nose, tongue, brow ridges, and jaw can grow, distorting facial appearance. Larger nasal sinuses can lead to recurrent sinusitis. Nerves and joints can be damaged leading to pain, tingling, or reduction of sensation or reflexes in the legs or arms. In some cases, the muscles become abnormally weak. The person becomes less sensitive to insulin, which sometimes results in type 2 diabetes. The death rate for persons in their 40s with acromegaly is approximately twice expected. The likelihood of these acromegalic effects is minimal when replacement doses are given to deficient people, but rises with excessive amounts given to people who are not deficient. Finally, remember that the only products that have no side effects are those that have no effects at all, such as the homeopathic preparations that contain infinitesimal amounts.13
5. Nothing’s going to be monitored during treatment An endocrinologist will monitor a person receiving GH for both wanted and unwanted effects. We follow growth, bone maturation, bone density, muscle strength, lipids, and/or body composition, depending on desired benefits. We follow IGF levels to avoid overtreatment, and we see the person periodically to detect unwanted effects.
6. Rudman’s paper This famous paper from the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine reported real research by a real endocrinologist (Dan Rudman). It described modest improvements in some physical parameters such as bone density and muscle strength in a small number of older men treated with real growth hormone for a few months. The men were not severely GH deficient by standard criteria. The paper was widely publicized in the mass news media, leading to much prediction that GH would be used routinely to slow aging in all of us. Larger subsequent studies showed conflicting or less impressive results and of course were less interesting to the news media. Duration of benefit and real risks of GH supplementation in non-deficient men has yet to be settled by long-term research. The paper is routinely cited by the sellers of products that they hope you will confuse with real growth hormone. In many cases the paper is cited in such a way as to imply that Rudman was testing their product. Do you think this is honest? I don’t. Dr. Rudman has no connection with these products and was using real GH. The exact citation if you’d like to read the paper: Rudman D, Feller AG, Nagraj HS et al (1990). Effect of human growth hormone in men over 60 years old. New Engl J Med 323:1-6.
7. Klatz’s book In 1997, Dr. Ronald Klatz published Grow Young With HGH: The Amazing Medically Proven Plan To Reverse the Effects Of Aging (New York:Harper-Collins, 1997). It is a fairly uncritical touting of GH as the answer to aging. Again, although fraud artists cite the book incessantly, Dr. Klatz was referring only to real growth hormone. Sellers of products with similar names hope you will think he was writing about their product. I don’t think that is honest either. Dr. Klatz’s book is a fine representative of a genre of books written by doctors for the public to tout the wonders of a new hormone. A classic example is The Male Hormone: A new gleam of hope for prolonging man's prime of life, written by Paul de Kruif (Garden City: Garden City, 1945). I mention it only because its promotion of testosterone for Everyman is so strikingly similar to the GH claims. Only the hormones change—the claims continue to be the desiderata of everyone past 50: vigor, energy, strength, slimness, protection from heart disease, etc, etc. “Those ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it.”
8. The product is available as a nasal or oral spray, drop, pills Right. Do you really think we prescribe GH by injection to children when there is an oral spray that does the same thing? GH, like other large protein hormones, will be largely digested in the stomach and very little intact hormone will be transported into the blood. Many large pharmaceutical companies are spending millions of dollars trying to discover a way to get proteins into the blood without needles. And you are supposed to believe that the bozo who sent you a spam e-mail has beaten them? They are lying to you, gentle reader.
9. skin lotion, aroma I did see one advertisement for a lotion called something like KH3/GH10. It claimed that it contained GH precursors to be rubbed into the skin of any body part that you want to make bigger. I haven’t yet seen an aromatherapy claim related to GH, but I haven’t looked. Please let me know if you find one.
10. digital manipulations This is a pun, referring simultaneously to two different potential health scams. If you don’t understand it, don’t worry about it. In honesty, I haven’t seen either in connection with GH, but that’s probably because I haven’t looked very hard.
11. a multilevel marketing pitch Do you have to be told to be wary of companies that are more interested in getting you to sell their product than buy it? If you’ve bitten this hook before, are you still using the product? The product is certainly not growth hormone.
12. “natural” In connection with a health product, “natural” means “can be sold by someone who isn’t licensed to write prescriptions.” The health food shops, vitamin stores, and alternative boutiques call everything “natural,” even if it’s made in a factory. Ironically it’s a downright frightening claim in relation to GH. The last truly natural GH was the human GH extracted from pituitary glands collected by pathologists at autopsies from the 1960s to the early 1980s. We stopped using it in 1984 when we discovered that a few people contracted Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, a “natural” but fatal infection otherwise known as “mad cow disease.” This example alone should persuade you to mistrust anyone who thinks natural is a synonym for safe.
13. “homeopathic” This is my favorite. Real growth hormone is pretty expensive, about $10 to $100 a day, depending on the dose needed. What if you could buy 1 vial of GH and dissolve it in a thousand tanks of water? You could divide it up into a million little bottles and still have a product with real GH in it! Yet if you dissolved it in so much water that no amount could be detected, you wouldn’t have to register it with the FDA, would you? If you marketed it to people who didn’t need real GH, no harm is done, right? If you don’t know the story of the emperor’s new clothes, you are the prey of the sellers of homeopathic GH. A fuller explanation of homeopathy can be found at: http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/homeo.html
14. “HGH” Back in the 1960s, endocrinologists devised a variety of three letter abbreviations for the clinically important hormones, similar to the standard three letter abbreviations of the biochemists for the amino acids. Growth hormone was more species-specific in its action than other hormones like thyroxine or insulin, and several animal preparations of growth hormone were being used in research. The designation HGH referring to “human growth hormone” was widely adopted. The distinction “human” became either meaningless or ambiguous with the advent of synthetic protein hormones of human sequence produced by recombinant DNA technology from bacteria (E. coli, to be precise). At the same time, GH from real human beings was abandoned because of the CJD risk. Is it correct to refer to synthetic, human-sequence GH made in a factory by bacteria as HGH? Real endocrinologists seldom refer to growth hormone as HGH these days. Nevertheless, perhaps because of Dr. Klatz’ book, there are plenty of products that use the initials to make you think they are growth hormone. Many of them don’t actually spell out growth hormone because they don’t contain any. It is legal, but is it honest to call something HGH when it contains no growth hormone?
15. amino acids described as “releasers” or “precursors” This claim is pretty clever. Several of the amino acids, if given by mouth or by IV, can induce the pituitary gland to release a burst of GH. We take advantage of this phenomenon in diagnostic testing. Intravenous administration of arginine usually produces a brief rise in the blood level of GH in healthy people. A person with GH deficiency will usually fail to respond. A low-budget version of this test used for years in England was the Bovril stimulation test. Bovril was a brand of beef bouillon that had enough amino acids to induce a brief GH rise in most children. People with GH deficiency cannot be treated with amino acids to increase their GH because their pituitaries don’t respond well to them. On the other hand, if your pituitary will respond to amino acids, then you are not deficient and are unlikely to benefit from more GH. Furthermore, the GH rise after amino acids only lasts about 20 minutes, and diminishes with repeated doses or concurrent carbohydrate consumption. Nevertheless, clever marketers have found gold in these facts. Hey, let’s market some cheap waste protein (like connective tissue collagen remaining on cow carcasses after the meat is removed) as a “natural GH releaser”! It’s not dishonest because (a) amino acids do increase GH levels in most people, (b) more GH helps deficient people be younger, slimmer, more energetic, etc, (c) this protein does contain amino acids. Wow, all true! What they don’t tell you is (a) the amount of extra GH produced by daily use of their product is quite small and lasts about 20 minutes, (b) no benefit has ever been demonstrated from slightly increased amounts of GH in non-deficient people, (c) no benefit has ever been demonstrated from their product, and (d) some beef bouillon or canned tuna would be a whole lot cheaper and just as effective. The “precursor” claim is even stupider. All proteins, including GH, are strings of amino acids. Ultimately, most of the amino acids come from our diet. Therefore, any amino acids we might happen to eat, whether from a pill or our last hamburger or that hydrolyzed cow carcass collagen, just might end up in a GH molecule. I mean, it could happen… Yes, that’s all they mean by “precursors.” If you’re going to pay $10 an ounce for protein, you might as well buy a good steak.
16. a message such as “this information and product are not intended to diagnose or treat any disease.” This statement is usually the most truthful statement in the entire sales pitch. Believe it.
17. an endocrinologist who has evaluated you or your child, There are pediatric endocrinologists and internist endocrinologists. A pediatric endocrinologist will often be more efficient and accurate at assessing a short child or adolescent, and will refuse to evaluate a 50 year old. The converse is usually but not invariably true of internist endocrinologists. Few other doctors have much training or expertise in growth hormone deficiency or use. Many insurance companies will only pay for GH prescribed by an endocrinologist.
18. charging you a couple hundred dollars Making a diagnosis of GH deficiency is often more complex and difficult than the diagnosis of other hormone deficiencies. You and your insurance company are getting your money’s worth.
19. GH treatment will cost thousands of dollars a year If it doesn’t cost this, it’s not going to provide the benefit if you are deficient. If you are not deficient, you don’t need it. The brands of real GH are expensive products with high profit margins. Do you really think a company that devises an oral form that avoids the injections will market it for less?
GH products and uses
The following guide to GH, effective uses, questionable uses, GH quackery and fraud is divided into three sections: (1) a discussion of legitimate growth hormone products and proven uses, (2) questionable or unproven uses of real growth hormone, and (3) things that aren’t growth hormone. For some of these products and uses, quackery and scam are clearly not applicable. For others, these are absolutely accurate. The scams camouflage themselves in the references and language of the more legitimate. In the following tables, routes of administration include SQ (subcutaneous injection), oral (into the mouth by pill, liquid or spray), IV (intravenous), and nasal (spray into the nose). Indications is a medical term which describes the condition which a medication is intended to treat. Examples are some of the brand names of the products. Status refers to FDA approval for the indications listed and is approved (studies strongly demonstrating efficacy and safety submitted to the FDA and approved and available by prescription), experimental (studies to demonstrate efficacy underway or not submitted for FDA approval), investigational (only available in clinical trials for FDA approval), and alternative.
Table 1: Real GH or releaser, real uses
Type of product Route Examples Indications Status 1. real GH (recombinant human somatropin or somatrem) SQ Protropin, Nutropin, Humatrope, Genotropin, Norditropin, Saizen Growth failure in children due to GH deficiency, renal failure, Turner syndrome. Prader-Willi syndrome (to improve growth and body composition). AIDS wasting and lipodystrophy. Adult growth hormone deficiency (to improve body composition, bone density, lipids, strength). Approved 2. GH releasing hormone SQ Geref Growth failure in children due to certain types of GH deficiency Approved
The first box lists the major brands of real GH used in the United States and the conditions for which most GH is prescribed. Evidence of significant benefit in these conditions is high enough to have obtained FDA approval and (usually) insurance coverage. GH in these conditions can have benefits that approach the miraculous. Note that all of these products require prescription, daily to monthly subcutaneous injection, and cost roughly $2000 to $40,000 a year, depending on dose needed. Side effects (listed above, note 4) are uncommon when GH is given in replacement doses to people who are deficient. Geref is a true growth hormone “releaser,” but offers little advantage over GH in cost or method of administration.
Table 2: Real GH or related substances, but questionable, unproven, or experimental uses
Type of product Route Examples Indications Status 1. real GH (recombinant human somatropin) SQ Protropin, Nutropin, Humatrope, Genotropin, Norditropin, Saizen Growth failure not due to GH deficiency or the other approved categories. Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue. Burns, wound healing. Preserving lean body mass during wt loss. Protecting muscle and bone during high dose steroid use Rare types of heart failure Experimtl 2. real GH (recombinant human somatropin) SQ Most of above brands Enhancing muscle strength and athletic performance. Reversing physical changes of aging in older people without GH deficiency Experimtl in healthy people 3. GH-releasing agents (hexarelin, ghrelin, GHRP-2, GHRP-6, MK-677) Oral, IV, SQ investigat Growth failure, GH deficiency; other conditions for which GH-type effects might be beneficial Investigat 4. IGF-1 SQ investigat Certain types of growth failure, as an insulin adjunct in diabetes Investigat 5. IGF1/IGFBP3 SQ investigat Investigat
GH has been tried experimentally in dozens of clinical conditions in addition to those approved by the FDA. The products, costs, and potential side effects in groups 1 and 2 are nearly the same as in Table 1, but the benefits for these conditions are inconsistent, smaller, or insufficienctly proven. In a few instances, full FDA approval has not been sought because there are two few patients with the condition to make the rigorous qualifying trials profitable (although doctors can still prescribe for those conditions). Two controversial uses are grouped in row 2, because most of the instances of this type of use are not occurring in a true experimental context. Athletic use is actually illegal and forbidden by Olympic and NCAA rules of competition although occasionally you can see advertisements in the bodybuilding magazines for GH prescriptions by phone or mail without testing. Real GH is expensive and hard to come by legally, which makes people willing to use it for athletic or body building the targets of a variety of scams. Will taking real GH increase your strength, your size or your athletic performance if you aren’t deficient? I suspect the answer is “not much.” Is it safe? The risk of side effects is likely to increase as the dose increases for people not deficient. I have not seen any good studies measuring benefits of GH use for athletes or bodybuilders, and there is nothing at all in the way of tracking for long-term side effects. A recent issue of Baillere’s Clinics in Endocrinology and Metabolism on Doping in Sports had an excellent review of this issue; unfortunately it is not available online. There is even more interest in GH as an anti-aging hormone than for athletic enhancement. There are doctors who prescribe, and people who take, injectable GH for its anti-aging effects. If you are reading this because of an interest in this use, see below for a more extensive discussion. Real GH releasers (not amino acids) and real IGF-1 are still in the stage of clinical investigation, and may or may not prove effective enough to be approved, marketed, and prescribed. You can read more about GH releasers at http://ips1.lwwonline.com/servlet/GetFileServlet?J=1840&I=3&A=11&U=1&T=1 There are hundreds of papers accessible through Medline on experimental uses of synthetic IGF-1.
Table 3. Products not to be confused with real GH
Product Route of administr Why it isn’t equivalent to real GH
Amino acids or protein sold as “Precursors” Oral pills, drops, sprays As explained above, amino acids are the building blocks of all the proteins in the body. A tiny fraction (about 1 amino acid of every 100,000 molecules) you eat will be incorporated into GH. For people getting plenty of dietary protein, eating a few more grams or even ounces a day will NOT measurably increase the amount of GH you make.
Amino acids or protein sold as “Releasers” Oral pills, drops, sprays A meal of protein without accompanying carbohydrates will often stimulate the pituitary gland to release GH, raising a person’s GH levels for a few minutes. The effect is too transient to be successfully used to treat GH deficiency. I promise you that the peptide GH releasers being researched by pharmaceutical laboratories will NOT be marketed as oral dietary supplements by mall vitamin stores or MLM schemes.
Homeopathic growth hormone Any The 20X or 50C homeopathic medicines are truly the emperor’s new clothes of alternative medicine. If you think that even one GH receptor in your body is going to see a functional GH molecule from these products, you are too stupid to be allowed to spend money.
Herbal preparations Any Herbal means anything, but usually it means this company did not have enough confidence in its product to subject it to either (1) the research trials which would prove that it will act like GH, or (2) the FDA standards that give you the best assurance that the product contains what the label says. Remember, they know more about what’s in it than you do.
IGF-1 Drops, pills, sprays Whatever this is, if it isn’t an expensive injection obtained in an FDA-approved research protocol, it does not contain enough real and usable insulin-like growth factor 1 to provide any measurable benefit to your body.
Counterfeits Inject Apparently there are vials of something with counterfeit GH labels being sold on the internet, or in Mexican pharmacies.
Table 3 lists alternative, “not-quite,” “not even close,” or downright dishonest products that are not effective forms or amounts of growth hormone, no matter what they’re called. The alternative category refers to formulations and products made by companies that do not conduct research of the quality needed for FDA approval, have no intention of seeking FDA approval, and usually warn the consumer that their product is not intended to treat disease. The failings of nearly all are explained in the notes above and the table. Products in Table 3 are usually marketed in misleading ways, although if you learn to read the fine print, they may be perfectly honest in their labeling. They are generally not intended for use by real physicians treating real people with real deficiency of growth hormone. Is that plain enough? I am not naming brand names for several reasons. Websites, email spam and brand names come and go in an endless variation on the types listed above. If you do an internet search on HGH you will score dozens examples of these products. For instance, a single site that lists many HGH products is: http://www.worldhealth.net/hgh.html
Finally, I’m not interested in inviting nuisance lawsuits by offended companies. If you sell a GH product, I’m sure yours is a legitimate exception to the descriptions above and you share my desire to see your fraudulent competitors discredited. Just send me the info and I’ll be happy to acknowledge that none of these descriptions applies to your product. The following is a fine example of a website that is willing to explain just what’s wrong with all the competing products: http://www.hgh.ws/ I couldn’t have said it better myself.
So what about REAL growth hormone to keep you young?
If you are going to read this section, note two things:
First, the GH to which this discussion refers is Humatrope, Protropin, Nutropin, Genotropin, and the other expensive, injectable, recombinant DNA synthetic GH products made by the major pharmaceutical companies.
Second, you must keep in mind the difference between real “adult GH deficiency,” and the diminished GH production of aging.
Adult GH deficiency refers to a persistent inability to produce as much GH as other healthy people of your age and sex. It is a fairly rare condition affecting less than 1 in a thousand people). In most cases it results from damage to the pituitary gland by a tumor, radiation, surgery, birth defect, stroke, or inflammation. Many of these people are deficient from childhood. It is usually diagnosed by demonstrating low levels of IGF1, and absence of a rise in the GH level of the blood when the person is given a drug to stimulate the pituitary to release GH. Adult GH deficiency can have a variety of effects when untreated, including diminished mental and physical energy and strength, poorer bone density, increased body fat and weaker muscles, increased levels of cholesterol and earlier atherosclerosis. Without treatment, many people with this condition die somewhat earlier than expected. Treatment with real GH reverses or improves many of these effects, although many adults with GH deficiency refuse to take GH because it is expensive, taken by injection, and the benefits are not always rapidly perceptible. Treatment of adult GH deficiency with GH is approved by the FDA, although insurance companies do not always cover it. A fuller description of adult growth hormone deficiency and its treatment can be found in any recent textbook of endocrinology, in numerous published reviews in medical journals, or at http://www.endocrinology.org/SFE/gh.htm
GH production naturally diminishes with age. Some people think that means that older adults are GH deficient and would benefit from treatment. Hormones are signals that regulate many functions and organ systems of the body. Amounts of most hormones produced each day change through life. Amounts of GH and testosterone produced each day by an infant are different than the amounts produced by an adolescent. Amounts produced by a young adult are different than amounts produced by an older adult. The greatest amount of GH is produced during the adolescent growth spurt. The amount produced each day declines throughout adult life. Does this mean that healthy infants are GH or testosterone deficient and would benefit from treatment with additional GH or testosterone? Does this mean that healthy older adults are GH or testosterone deficient and would benefit from treatment? While the former question sounds (and is) silly, many people are tempted by the second. Here are the basic arguments pro and con. Pro 1. As adults age they make less GH than when they were younger. 2. As adults age their bodies change in ways that also occur in adults with untreated real GH deficiency. Muscle and bone mass and strength are reduced. The proportion of body fat often increases. Energy and drive often diminish. Blood vessels often become narrowed, especially if cholesterol levels are higher than average. 3. GH replacement safely improves all these problems in severely GH deficient adults. 4. Therefore, GH treatment should safely improve these things in “normal” adults as it does in severely deficient adults. Con 1. Too much or too little of all hormones, including GH, can cause problems. 2. In general, the likelihood of benefit from taking a hormone is much higher when one is severely deficient compared to most people of one’s age and sex. 3. There is usually little or no benefit when a person who already has normal amounts of a hormone takes extra. 4. In general, the likelihood of unwanted effects is higher when a person who is not deficient takes extra hormone. 5. Many hormones are produced in higher amounts in certain periods of life. This does not mean that people are “deficient” during the other times of life 6. There are many causes of extra body fat, weaker muscles, poorer bone density, blood vessel disease, fatigability, and lack of “drive” which are far more common than GH deficiency, testosterone deficiency, or thyroid deficiency. 7. Therefore, there is no reason to think most adults who would benefit from extra hormone.
Although
Glossary physiology Changes with aging The paradox of adult treatment GH and cancer Messing with mother nature
homeopathic great site telling how all the others are misleading http://www.qualitycounts.com/fpgrowthhormone.html page with instructions on getting gh in Tijuana, description of fake gh from china, gh scams by mail, links to Dr Cranston, mention of counterfeit gh, and links to good drug descriptions of costs etc
also an endo soc summary of adult gh def and rx ____