HGH Friend or Foe? Director of Health & Wellness, Doug Szakacsy Investigates...

It’s everywhere! A few years ago you could only find mention of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) in medical journals as a treatment for an underactive pituitary in pubescent youth so that they could attain a reasonable stature but just this month it’s been touted as a miracle anti-aging drug by everyone from Rocky Balboa to Suzanne Sommers. February 2008 also saw a controversial U.S. Congress decision to take time away from solving the ills of a suffering economy and Iraq War to investigate the drug use (including the particulars of his buttocks) of famed baseball stud, Roger Clemens. Who, by the way, denies ever using the stuff himself but I guess his wife admitted she tried it for a while, who knew?

So do they think it works like steroids to build muscle?
Are there side effects?
Why would women want to use it?
Are there ways to get our bodies to produce more of our own HGH?
How does this affect the addict?

Does it give you huge muscles like steroids? Obviously not…unless Suzanne Sommers and Debbie Clemens are trying to get yoked. Actually, HGH doesn’t come close to the muscle cell turnover of an anabolic steroid and is way more expensive since it is bioengineered now that so many legitimate patients died from the human version of Mad Cow Disease after using corpse-derived HGH prior to 1988.

Are there side effects? According to the New England Journal of Medicine, it has far less negative side effects than steroids (that can kill you) yet HGH provides some positive effects too. Though some studies have shown HGH use links to prostate and breast cancer, the New England Journal study explicitly stated there was no link. Some reported positive effects are quicker tissue repair time, increased lean body mass, stronger bones, improved mental state, etc. Thus it would make sense why trainers of injured athletes encourage HGH use to hasten recovery time and get back in the game. I suppose if they took enough for a long enough time they may improve muscle size and strength but at these amounts it would likely also cause an enlarged heart as well as Acromegly (Remember “Jaws” from the James Bond movies…enlarged facial bones).

Why would women want to use it? Women likely use it as a diet edge with its body trimming effect. Decreased body fat was a statistically significant, empirically proven result after six months HGH use in the New England Journal Study. Moreover, if you’re going to pay the big bucks and stick yourself with a needle everyday then the belief many HGH proponents have that it may improve skin tone and tightness also adds tremendously to its appeal. Researchers estimate that 30,000 American adults without a medically diagnosed HGH deficiency used HGH shots as an anti-aging therapy in 2004. Obviously not all were men and many must have discovered that natural HGH levels start depleting in the body as we reach 40 and beyond. The question is why? My theory is below.

Are there ways to get our bodies to produce more of our own HGH and how does this affect the addict? I’m glad you asked. I certainly want my older clients at Stone Eagle Retreat to benefit from all the reported graces of HGH but needles and addicts and going outside yourself (unnaturally) to achieve a feeling that can be better achieved naturally (even if you are over 40)…not good!

If it does stabilize mood and increase the feeling of overall wellness then HGH is a nice way to replace the self-induced, short-lived and organ-damaging euphoric effects of drugs and alcohol. This is precisely why a muscle training regimen is one component of our program for men and women alike at Stone Eagle Retreat. Other activities our clients enjoy are the hikes, surfing, kayaking, diving etc. that our adventure directors coordinate and these activities certainly induce a natural release of dopamine which is vital to recovery but they don’t induce HGH release. Our own HGH is capable of providing all the same benefits without the needle and it is guaranteed to work because it is made by us for us. As a physiologist I also understand that the negative feedback cycle informing the pituitary would cause our natural HGH release to attenuate (get lazy) and shut down if you are introducing the synthetic stuff. It is like you become dependent again on another drug in order to achieve what our bodies are equipped to do naturally…sound familiar (addiction)?

Does this mean I don’t believe the New England Journal of Medicine Study about the lesser amounts of HGH found in people over 40 causing the signs of aging? I absolutely believe it but I also absolutely believe that it is due mainly to the decreased muscle cell turnover and decreased amount of sleep this demographic also exhibits. HGH is released naturally in response to tearing down of muscle cells. This requires weight training or strenuous repetitive activity and this is what fewer older folks engage in. I prefer the weight training for our group because it can be done in a controlled manner to eliminate injury.

Not only does the body get a flood of HGH from consistent muscle training but the muscle demands so much more metabolically than any other tissue (other than the brain), that the muscle-toned body will actually burn more calories when asleep. What about sleep? The Journal also reported that most of our HGH is released during sleep…maybe this is why people who get quality sleep look and feel younger. What a nice cycle to be in: You are working out consistently to create muscle mass and this induces more quality sleep for repair purposes and both activities induce a flood of HGH that, in turn, makes you look and feel younger.

I would like to check the HGH levels of a few of my 50+ year old clients who have bought into this and compare them to the sedentary teenager who stays up all night playing video games. We might be surprised to find that HGH is doing just fine in the older folks who know how to “do life different”. As for the ladies fearful of weight training causing big muscles, you are not equipped with enough testosterone to accomplish this feat so fear not! Those female bodybuilders are not achieving masculine bodies without help…trust me. All a sustainable, moderate training program will achieve for you is a toned, younger looking you who will sleep and feel better consistently not to mention be burning more calories while you are sleeping.