Human Growth Hormone for weight loss

Growing Younger With Hormones?

Question:
GHR-15 (Growth Hormone Releaser) is being touted as the ’fountain of youth’ and the medical discovery of the century. Is there any basis to the hype? Does this product do anything measurable to improve health and delay aging?

Answer:

Sept. 25, 2001 -- Medical science is as close as it’s ever been to conquering aging, and the fountain of youth -- if there actually is one -- comes in the form of a hormone. Human growth hormone (HGH), produced in the body by the pituitary gland, is plentiful during childhood and adolescence, but its levels decrease dramatically as we age.

Numerous scientific studies have shown that restoring levels of HGH in aging individuals can have dramatic effects. One landmark study, published in 1990 in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that 12 men who took HGH had
an increase in lean muscle and bone density and a decrease in fat, while nine men who didn’t take it experienced none of these changes.

Most of these scientific studies used pharmaceutical grade, injected HGH, a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Doctors have been prescribing it for years to those willing to pay the price -- treatments for a year can cost from $3,000 to $10,000.

Now, a new generation of products sold via the Internet and in health stores as dietary supplements, and therefore not regulated as drugs by the FDA, claim to produce the same effects at a fraction of the price -- about $1,000 per year. These are formulations of amino acids that allegedly trigger the release of HGH in the body. One such product is GHR-15, although there are many other growth hormone releasers on the market.

The idea behind these growth hormone releasers is actually based on scientific studies showing that certain amino acids can trigger the production of HGH from the pituitary. But consumers should be cautious, says Ronald Klatz, MD, president of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, a society of more than 7,000 physicians and scientists involved in anti-aging research. These formulations of amino acids have to be very specific, and it is unclear whether many of the products out there are using the correct type and combination of these compounds, says Klatz. Clinical studies proving effectiveness are lacking. One manufacturer acknowledges that he had no studies; another says clinical studies have begun in Brazil.

There is tremendous science and validity behind HGH research, Klatz says. The problem comes when marketeers make unsubstantiated promises. Some claim their products are equal to pharmaceutical grade HGH. According to Klatz, It’s like saying that a race car has four wheels and travels 200 mph, so a matchbox car can also travel that fast because it has four wheels.

Edward Lichten, MD, senior attending physician at Providence Hospital inSouthfield, Mich., treats many patients in his private practice with injected HGH. When Lichten followed some of his patients who used four of
the health food store products, he could see no improvement in their symptoms or their blood levels of HGH.

Before buying from a health food store or via the Internet, Klatz advises, ask if the company has solid scientific evidence published in reputable medical journals about the product’s effectiveness.

This article exemplifies a disturbing trend in the diet industry: taking something that has one purpose and transplanting its potentially positive characteristics onto some other condition, namely weight loss. It is another attempt by diet companies to make a simple issue complicated in order to sell a product.