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Article
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"Growth Hormone Replacement
in Adults"
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| Though less true than in the past,
frailty and age seem to go together. Must that continue to be the case? |
| The United States National institute
on Aging is funding studies to confirm earlier findings that human growth
hormone (HGH) and other hormones, including DHEA (an adrenal hormone) and
sex hormones, can slow, stop, and/or possibly reverse the changes associated
with aging. |
| The levels of a variety of hormones
drop substantially with age. Hormones are protein messengers that tell
the cells what to do (such as protein synthesis and cell replication and
repair). One of the hormones that declines sharply is human growth hormone.
Human growth hormone (HGI-I) is a hormone synthesized by the pituitary
gland in the human brain, it is responsible for the physical growth in
childhood and puberty periods. The circulating levels fall by more than
50 percent from the peak during puberty and reaches "older" levels by age
33 to 40! |
| Research in human growth hormone (HGH)
in healthy human subjects prior to the 1980's was restricted due to scientists
inability to synthesize the complex molecule, made up of 191 amino acids.
However, scientific DNA recombinant technological breakthroughs in the
early 1 980s finally gave scientists the ability to synthesize the human
growth hormone in large quantities. The human growth hormone molecule,
so synthesized by the DNA-recombinant technique, is identical to the one
produced by the pituitary gland in the human brain. This led the Federal
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to promptly approve growth hormone for
human consumption and experimentation in healthy individuals in the late
1980's. |
| One of the scientists who jumped into
human growth hormone research was Daniel Rudman, M.D. at the Medical College
of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. For many years, Dr. Rudman had asked the world
these questions: "Do hormone levels control the aging process? If they
do, then does replacing the hormone levels to the youthful range in humans
reverse the effects of aging?" Up until the 1980s, no scientist in the
world could give him an answer, especially with human growth hormone (which
drops the most drastically) because human growth hormone research could
not be done on healthy individuals due to the lack of FDA approval in this
country. |
| Once this hormone became FDA approved,
Dr. Rudman and his colleagues promptly entered into a double blind study
using twelve healthy elderly men, ages 61 to 81, from a nearby Veterans
Administration Hospital. These volunteer subjects were given human growth
hormone three times a week for six months to restore the circulating insulin
growth factor (IGF) levels to the youthful range-above pg/ml IGF is a protein
synthesized mostly by the liver, and its level is regulated by the levels
of growth hormone secreted and in circulation. It represents an indirect
measurement of the circulating levels of growth hormone, since the secretion
of growth hormone in the human brain is in a pulsatile fashion and is difficult
to mea sure accurately during any period. |
| When compared with the controlled
subjects who received the placebo, the growth hormone treated subjects
showed changes that were "equivalent in magnitude to the changes incurred
during 10 to 20 years of aging." He reported his discovery and was promptly
published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, July 1990. |
| Following the landmark discovery,
scientists from all over the world commenced research on replacing growth
hormone in elderly persons. The results were astonishing. Additional beneficial
findings were discovered. Growth hormone was shown to increase bone mass
in osteoporosis, to reverse declining cardiac function, to reverse declining
pulmonary function, to reverse the decline in immune function associated
with aging, increase lean muscle mass, decrease the percentage of body
fat, increase capacity for exercise, hence, vitality, prevent illness,
and reduce sleeping disorders. The Scandinavian scientists even eliminated
the minor side effects seen in the Rudman Study- namely problems associated
with the water retention effects of the growth hormone. By changing Rudman's
three times weekly method of injecting growth hormone to twice daily injection
of smaller doses of growth hormone, the water retention side effects from
growth hormone (though reversible) were completely eliminated. Between
the years of 1990 and 1992, hundreds of scientific studies were conducted
on growth hormone's effect on age-associated changes in the human body.
The findings concluded that growth hormone replacement therapy can be safe
with proper doses and proper methods of administration. That is good news
for advanced aged men and women with medical problems related to aging
and growth deficiencies who want to reverse the effects of aging. |
After examining the various studies
that show growth hormone's ability to reverse changes associated with aging,
the Stanford University Medical Researchers concluded in 1992 that "It
is possible that physiologic growth hormone replacement therapy might REVERSE
or prevent some of the 'inevitable' sequelae of aging." (Psychoneuro-endocnnology,
volume 17, NO. 4, pages 327-333, 1992)
Unfortunately, growth hormone has
received many "bad raps" lately in many lay journals because of its abuse
by athletes for its performance-enhancing effects. These athletes abused
growth hormone in large doses, which led to a condition called acromegaly-the
overgrowth of many bodily parts. When one compares growth hormone to insulin
hormone, the growth hormone is much more forgiving, as an overdose of insulin
hormone can cause instant DEATH! |
| Medical research is often trapped
in a paradox. For example, fetal tissue research for the treatment of Parkinson's
disease, in vitro fertilization for infertile couples, and the use of growth
hormone for reversing aging are all examples of science working to improve
lives. But these scientific endeavors are often criticized by skeptics
who believe we are treading into unchartered intellectual and moral areas
where humankind is not intended to go. Still, it seems imprudent to limit
growth hormone research and replacement therapy simply because a few skeptics
disagree or because of abuse by a few athletes. |
| Dr. Rowen, Johannson, and Bengtsson
of the University Hospital of Goteborg, Sweden, had this to say: "When
one does not abuse or overdose human growth hormone, there is simply NQ
evidence suggesting that human growth hormone replacement therapy causes
ANY LONG TERM side effects." ('Hormone Research, 43, Pages 93-99, 1995) |
| Dr. Eve VanCauter,
a human growth hormone researcher at the University of Chicago Medical
Center has this perspective on human growth hormone replacement therapy
for elderly people. "All of these ideas about treating people with growth
hormone have been directed toward people 65 and older. If you look at the
data, people have so-called 'elderly' levels by age 40. Perhaps we should
be giving human growth hormone replacement therapy earlier rather than
attempting to treat tissues that have seen little or no growth hormone
for decades." |
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