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About Human Growth Hormone HGH

Human growth hormone (hGH) is a proteohormone secreted by the pituitary gland. It acts through binding to the hGH receptor, inducing either direct effects or initiating the production of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I). HGH (Human growth hormone) has several legitimate medical uses. It's a treatment for dwarfism in children and Turner's syndrome, a genetic disorder affecting girls that is caused by a missing or incomplete X chromosome. On an experimental basis, it's been used successfully to treat children who have been badly burned and AIDS patients with excessive abdominal fat.

HGH is a naturally occurring hormone made by the pituitary gland, the pendulous "master" gland that hangs off the base of the brain. Small amounts of the hormone are released by the anterior half of the gland until puberty, but once the adolescent growth spurt is over, levels decline: secretion falls steadily in adulthood at a rate of 14% per decade. Another name for HGH is somatotropin. The gradual decrease in adults is sometimes referred to as somatopause.

But there's a huge black market in HGH (Human growth hormone) these days. Professional athletes are customers, but so are many others. The hormone has been sold as an anti aging remedy since the early 1990s, after a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that it reverses the loss of muscle and gain of body fat that accompanies old age. It's becoming popular among younger people, who often take it in combination with anabolic steroids to improve the appearance of their bodies.

HGH is essential to growth, especially in children, but it is also involved in many other processes in the body, including bone density, muscle mass, and mood. HGH (Human growth hormone) levels are influenced by factors other than age. Secretion occurs in short, 90 minute bursts, and one of the largest of those comes within an hour after we fall into deep sleep. Diet can make a difference: high-protein meals stimulate secretion, high-carbohydrate foods and the resulting high blood sugar levels — suppress it.

You can also pump up HGH levels with exercise. Levels in the blood can increase 10-fold during a long session of moderate exercise, but a short, rigorous workout might have an even bigger effect: some research suggests the response is more closely related to the intensity than the total amount of exercise. Age blunts the exercise response, so as you get older, the same workout produces a smaller spike in HGH.

Also keep in mind that these controlled experiments bear little resemblance to how HGH (Human growth hormone) is used by elite athletes or even people at the local gym who want to look better. Many "stack" anabolic steroids on top of any HGH they're taking. Endurance athletes may combine it with erythropoietin, the hormone that stimulates production of red blood cells. Some athletes say they've used HGH not to add muscle but only to speed recovery from an injury.

HGH (Human growth hormone) was in short supply when human cadavers were the only source. That changed in the 1980s with the development of recombinant genetic techniques that made it possible to splice the genes that churn out the hormone into microorganisms. Now several companies make HGH, and it's sold under brand names like Genotropin, Humatrope, and Protropin. Even with recombinant technology, it's expensive: treatments run at least $1,000 a month. It's also inconvenient. HGH is broken down during digestion so the hormone must be injected.

The New England Journal of Medicine article spawned a lot of questionable HGH enterprises, but it also led to some interesting research. A series of experiments by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis showed that HGH made people's muscles bigger, but not necessarily stronger. One possible explanation for these and other similar results is that HGH (Human growth hormone) causes fluid retention and adds connective tissue, but doesn't bulk up the contractile tissue that adds strength. It's also possible that these studies were too short and had too few participants to show a more subtle longer term effect.


Reference

Publish Date : 01/01/1970