In Reply to: GHR-15 posted by KELLY on April 25, 2000 at 20:17:03:
: HAS ANYONE TRIED GHR-15? I'M CURIOUS IF ANYONE HAS EXPERIENCED THE GREAT EFFECTS THAT THE COMPANYS PROMOTE.
Dr. Weil's Website say's this:
(Published: 3/18/98) I'm also hearing a lot about human growth hormone. It's usually coupled with the phrase "fountain of youth." For the truth about this fountain of youth, I called on my neighbor Seymour Reichlin, M.D., Ph.D., research professor of medicine at the University of Arizona, an endocrinologist and an expert on the subject.
According to Dr. Reichlin, human growth hormone is one of the hormones made by the pituitary and is important in simulating and regulating growth. In the absence of growth hormone, children fail to grow normally and are dwarfed. It is now possible to treat those children with synthetic growth hormone (made by genetic engineering methods) and restore their normal development. At the other end of the (age) spectrum, it is known that growth hormone declines with age, so that individuals beyond the sixth decade have progressively lower levels in their blood. There's no question that if you have a true growth hormone deficiency as an adult, as might be caused by a pitutiary tumor, you need supplemental growth hormone. It will correct all of the problems (loss of bone density, muscle strength and vitality, for instance) resulting from lack of the hormone in adulthood. But the big question is whether normal, healthy aging people would benefit from taking supplements of growth hormone.
The best information we have now is that injections of growth hormone in otherwise healthy older individuals do not improve strength beyond what a well-designed exercise and muscle-strengthening program could do. Even though growth hormone can increase muscle mass, this increase does not necessarily improve strength.
At present, it's not known whether growth hormone treatment in the aged would have other desirable benefits, for instance, on mental functioning or the quality and appearance of skin. I think it could, but good studies are lacking.
On the other hand, there are many reasons not to take growth hormone replacement: Too much of it can bring on diabetes mellitus in people who otherwise wouldn't have it. Growth hormone can also stimulate overgrowth of connective tissue, leading to arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome. It can also cause edema (fluid retention) and hypertension. In the studies that have been done, many patients, particularly women, have requested that the treatment be stopped because they found the side effects of fluid retention and joint pain too unpleasant. Also, it's not known whether prolonged growth hormone treatment might increase the risk of cancer. This is a possibility because patients with pituitary tumors that secrete excessive amounts of growth hormone have an increased incidence of tumors of the stomach and colon.
You should also know that human growth hormone is expensive. Currently available preparations require injections at least once a day to get any possible benefit, which could cost from $10,000 to $35,000 a year. Some endocrinologists believe that all of the adverse side effects could be avoided by using much smaller amounts of growth hormone and that adequate long-term studies to test this have not been done. Recently, new medications that stimulate the body's own growth hormone and restore the values of youth have been developed by several drug companies. These agents have the additional advantage of being effective when taken by mouth, and of being much less expensive than the normal forms that have to be injected up to five days a week. These drugs are in clinical trials at present, and the long-term effects have not been determined as yet
I think anyone contemplating taking human growth hormone should be very cautious until we learn more. Decline in muscle strength with aging can be managed successfully by muscle-strength-training programs.