I am often asked about the use of human growth hormone (HGH) as an anti-aging method. HGH is made by your pituitary gland. Your body produces it abundantly when you are young (for obvious reasons), but production falls off dramatically as you age. As a result, many health professionals believe that taking it when you are older will raise your levels and keep you young.
This has led to a booming anti-aging industry. Professional organizations have been built around its use. The revenues for suppliers of HGH, both in injectable form and oral forms, are exploding.
Injectable HGH availability has blossomed thanks to genetic engineering successes. Bacteria are inserted with human genes for HGH. They then freely make it for harvest in the lab dish. Before this technological advancement, HGH had to be extracted from human pituitary glands from cadavers. It was very expensive (not to mention morbid). So the new methods make HGH less expensive and much easier to get.
Oral HGH is not well absorbed. There are products containing amino acid precursors of HGH. Allegedly these naturally induce your own pituitary to maximize its HGH production.
Regardless of the form, we still have to ask the question, Does it work?
Theres a lot of research on HGH. Most of the research Ive reviewed does indicate that injectable HGH can help. It does help you stay youth-like. It helps you put on muscle and lose fat. It also may improve bone density.
However, practitioners of this growing health industry are either ignoring or suppressing well-documented information on the grave cancer risks of using HGH.
God designed HGH to promote an environment for growth. This is great when you are young. But as you age, it can cause problems. One of the biggest problems is that HGH stimulates your liver to increase its production of a hormone called Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1). IGF-1 levels normally decline with aging. That decline is a good thing. IGF-1 stops the normal death process of abnormal and cancerous cells. Stopping that process could lead abnormal cells to become cancer cells. And those cancer cells would not die like they are supposed to. So injected HGH could stimulate the growth and invasiveness of cancer cells.
This basic science is proven in multiple studies. Elevated IGF-1 levels are clearly associated with a significant increase in risk of prostate, colon, and breast cancers. Even small elevations in IGF-1 carry up to a seven-fold increase in the risk of breast cancer. That is close to the risk of carrying known breast cancer causing genes.
Many of my friends and colleagues jumped on the HGH bandwagon years ago. Some even administer HGH by injection to themselves. I was reluctant to jump on board, much to the chagrin of some close physician friends, as well as patients who wanted injectable HGH. I reserved it only for moderate to advanced osteoporosis and a few other conditions.
While some of my physician friends who use it still swear by it, I am still not a fan of injectable HGH. And this new information confirms my position. I admit that my sentiments about HGH may be in conflict with your integrative physician or even authors of other alternative newsletters. But I just have not seen very many places where the benefits outweigh the risks.
I do like its use locally by injection into degenerating joints. I feel that the local effect on the joint outweighs the overall risk to your body. I do not do it very often and I confine it to a particular joint. If your physician is one who recommends HGH, be sure to demand disclosure of its risks for cancer.
Oral HGH is a different matter. I have no problem with this form. But that is because it does not contain any HGH. If it did, your body would not absorb it. And if you find any supplements that say they contain HGH, do not buy them. They are worthless. Most HGH supplements you find contain amino acids, such as arginine and ornithine. These are required to make HGH. And these are supplements I recommend regularly.
They are very unlikely to push your body into excess. Providing your cells the raw materials only helps it make the optimal amount of whatever product its working on. And your body will rarely, if ever, make too much.
That being said, I cant prove that the oral supplements will cause any person to make more internal HGH. Try the product if you want. If you notice results within three months, great. If not, I would not toss more money into it.