side effects of GH injections?

[jlee9531]

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Hey guys....

So I was wondering if any of you guys have any knowledge on GH. I tutor this student who is 16 and is a pretty hardcore basketball player. He is about 5'8" and he has said to me that he has a strong interest in getting GH injections because he thinks it will help him grow much taller....potentiall up to 6'4".

He met this doctor that said he does this stuff but I am thinking that this doctor is trying to take advantage of the situation here. I am trying to convince him not to do it because my instincts tell me that taking GH at an early age and when your body obviously has no problem with its own GH is not a good thing.

Does anyone know about any potential side effects or dangers of this hormone supplementation for a normal person? I keep on telling him he has time to grow naturally since he is only 16 but I need a smoking gun to really have him think about the dangers of this stuff.

Thanks a lot for your help guys. I greatly appreciate this.

 

[calcrew14]

Accurate or not, the following might work: I believe that growth hormone not only stimulates growth,but it also enhances athletic performance and thus is a banned substance for athletes. Since this enhancement is (most likely) dependent on the continuous process of doping, all abusers will eventually get caught.

 

[PwnerOfAll]

GH can infact increase the size of bone.

BUT, GH can/will increase the size of bones everywhere. A common symptom of those who abuse it(pro bodybuilders) is that in particular, their jaw/face structure becomes thicker and appears to be more "caveman-like". I'm not saying this would happen under the supervision of a doctor but side effects are VERY common with GH. Besides, being 5'8" is nothing to be ashamed of. Sure, being 6'4" would help in basketball but it would be a curse in just about everything else.

But to reitterate, side effects are common in GH.

 

[PwnerOfAll]

Originally posted by calcrew14
Accurate or not, the following might work: I believe that growth hormone not only stimulates growth,but it also enhances athletic performance and thus is a banned substance for athletes. Since this enhancement is (most likely) dependent on the continuous process of doping, all abusers will eventually get caught.

Bump. It is banned, and for good reason.

 

[Alleria]

Acromegaly if you use really far too much. Presumably if he's treated by an MD, he'll be okay.

Some studies show however that GH isn't really as efficacious as one might think. My biochem notes say that it's cleared from the body very quickly, and that at both very high blood levels and very low blood levels, it is not efficacious.

Of course, all this is from a layman's perspective. <shrug>

 

[PwnerOfAll]

Originally posted by Alleria
Acromegaly if you use really far too much. Presumably if he's treated by an MD, he'll be okay.

Some studies show however that GH isn't really as efficacious as one might think. My biochem notes say that it's cleared from the body very quickly, and that at both very high blood levels and very low blood levels, it is not efficacious.

Of course, all this is from a layman's perspective. <shrug>

The only real market I've seen it being advertised to is geriatrics. But even then I've known doctors to be cautious in recommending such a treatment.

 

[duncanfj]

Stop and think for a moment. Even if the use of GH were allowed in a case such as this, he wants to grow six inches! Do you have any idea how much GH he would have to take to grow that much? I can gurantee it would have a negative impact on his health, and could very well cause diabetes. If this kid is at or near the end of his growth spurt, it would take alot of GH to force him to grow that much. So in other words, tell this kid to not do it. Maybe having a shot to play in college is not worth having serious medical problems for the rest of your life.

 

[calcrew14]

Originally posted by PwnerOfAll
The only real market I've seen it being advertised to is geriatrics. But even then I've known doctors to be cautious in recommending such a treatment.

Even a natural growth itself can be a two-edges sword for young athletes. By this time that my little brother has the size he has been wishing for, his performance has reduced from the status of a perennial MVP to just a bench warmer. How could that hapen in the last year of high school?

One can only hope that an increase in size would not have a negative impact on some athleticism such as speed, endurance and agility.

 

[Rose122]

GH is an effective remedy for muscle atrophy and the affects of aging in the elderly but it still carries with it it's own side affects. I wouldn't worry too much about the legal repricussions since it will be under the prescription of a MD and high-schools don't test for it anyhow. I would caution, from personal experience, that my neighbor (who comes from a nationally known sports family) was in the same situation and did use the therapy and is now institutionalized for mental health issues. The link is still controversial but I wouldn't take the risk for one of my patients when I am an MD. Also of note, recent gerontology reports show an marked decrease in life expectancy rats. Is it worth knocking years, maybe decades, off the end of your life?

 

[smartreader]

LOL, for a second I thought GH = Glenohumeral

 

[NE_Cornhusker1]

I'll come up to O-town and school him. He can naturally increase HGH levels by taking 3-4 grams of Glutamine daily. There's a pretty good paper out there about this [search '4 grams glutamine hgh increase' on Yahoo]. He ought to spend the money on his game [camps and trainers] and not on injections. Also a lot people keep frowing after the age of 16. I grew by about 2" in college [including about an inch when I was 22].

 

[leviathan]

Originally posted by Alleria
Acromegaly if you use really far too much. Presumably if he's treated by an MD, he'll be okay.

Acromegaly will presumably not occur in him if he is only 16 years of age. Acromegaly will only occur to those whose epiphyseal structures have fused, thus you see an increase in the mass of bones and not as much for growth.

My biochem notes say that it's cleared from the body very quickly, and that at both very high blood levels and very low blood levels, it is not efficacious.

It is true, the half-life of somatotropin is quite short, but it is replaced by the longer lasting insulin-like growth factor which will continue effects.

----
Overall, it's not always a good idea to start GH injections in someone getting to their later teens, and who does not have an original problem with hyposecretion of GH. I'm not a doctor, but I wouldn't recommend it anyhow.

 

[rgporter]

Don't they, or didn't they, used to harvest GH from cadavers. My old physiology prof. used to say that they did and that there was some terrible uncurrable disease which you could get from GH harvested in this way.
Actually it's been so long ago that the details are fuzzy. The kind of "doctor" that would make these things available for athletes are not to be trusted. I don't think I'd be letting a "Doctor Nick Riviera" mess with the normal development of my body.

 

[finnpipette]

Don't quote me on this one, but I've heard that people who take GH injections increase cancer rates.

 

[kg9921]

It was at one time harvested from cadavers at a costly and timestaking rate. Since then it has been harvested from E.Coli. As far as cancer rates, it is a fallacy that they are statistically correlated. Accounts of acromegaly only occur in pre-pubescents who also happen to suffer from hypogonadism. I don't understand the reasoning behind the physicians plans for his patient. I don't know how GH will increase his skeletal growth at all. GH is most often used to induce muscular hypertrophy and increases overal strength and hardness. Empirical data is all that is scientifically available and based on that he would need to be stunted hypophysially. That means the doc would have to have noted an insufficient release of GH by the hypophysis. At 5'8 and 16 he is obviously not suffering from stunted growth that is severely handicapping him. After longtime use this kid could be getting set up for many potential problems that HAVE been noted. These includes enlargement of the kidney and heart, and Thyroid malfunction. This doc seems real far off and is messing with a kid who's undergoing a hormonal imbalance as it is due to his age.

 

[juddson]

BTW, what does he hope to do with his new-found height? Is this all to increase his ability to play basketball, to play in college and then to the pros??? Good lord, how many 6'4" basketball players will NEVER make it to the pros? Risk Acromegaly, increase risk of cancer and possible brain damage for the 1 in a million chance that you'll be NBA material?

I don't get it.
Judd

 

[NRAI2001]

Most advertisments for GH are straight lying to u. Gentec is the only producer of GH and for a month of GH treatment it costes something like $10,000. How can someone sell u a bottle of 200 pills for $50. The FDA doesn't inspect supplements so there are no garuntees or laws prohibiting this.

 

[kg9921]

If it was prescribed he might be charged that much. At 50$ (and im not sure where you got that figure) he could barely get half an i/u. Something about this whole idea is just flawed. This has Dateline NBC cover story all over it.

 

[NRAI2001]

Originally posted by kg9921
If it was prescribed he might be charged that much. At 50$ (and im not sure where you got that figure) he could barely get half an i/u. Something about this whole idea is just flawed. This has Dateline NBC cover story all over it.

Thats what my pt is, there are advertisements on the internet and weightlifting magazines trying to sell bottles of GH at impossibly low prices. Most people don't know this and think that they are buying GH. What exactly is in the pills i don't know and I wouldn't trust.

 

[jlee9531]

thanks alot guys...

keep the info coming....the more the better....but for everyone who has posted thanks.

ill have to print this out and show it to him...

 

[McGillGrad]

Under and MD's supervision, GH will give him a little growth if his plates have not fused and some localized fat loss at the injection sites.

Other than that he won't see much.

Now if he were a bodybuilder, he would combine 4-6IU of GH, T3, testosterone and insulin to grow like a beast (along with 4-5 days a week at the gym). The again, this is obvious abuse of your body in terms of hormonal fluctuations and it is not good in the long run.

 

[Labslave]

1) If GH is being offered in an edible form, the consumer really is being deceived: it's a protein, and hence would go through the normal process of digestion and be broken down by all of those fun enzymes we're all too familiar with in the small intestine (not to mention the stomach acid) so that the individual amino acids can be absorbed. None of it would get to the blood stream. None!

2) To my knowledge, there are no tests for detecting blood GH levels. Hence, if the kid wanted to take GH injections, he wouldn't risk getting booted off his team because of a positive test.

 

[fullefect1]

Under and MD's supervision, GH will give him a little growth if his plates have not fused and some localized fat loss at the injection sites.

Other than that he won't see much.

Now if he were a bodybuilder, he would combine 4-6IU of GH, T3, testosterone and insulin to grow like a beast (along with 4-5 days a week at the gym). The again, this is obvious abuse of your body in terms of hormonal fluctuations and it is not good in the long run.

Haha.. you know a little bit more about juice then most people around here.

 

[fullefect1]

In the bodybuilding world... GH is the safest product out there. Unless he abuses it he won't see many sides.. especially under a doctor. Even if you were to abuse it, like many pro bodybuilders.. the most that happens is you will start to see seperation in your abs because your intestines will grow to large. Take a look at some of the top IFBB bodybuilders and you will see what I am saying.

 

[juiceman311]

Tell him he sucks at basketball, with or without the GH, and he will never be good.

 

[McGillGrad]

Haha.. you know a little bit more about juice then most people around here.

LOL...

You are right about the GH. Safe but expensive!

 

[Pdiddy310]

When used properly, GH can have numerous anti-aging effects. However, all the studies that I have read regarding GH use suggest that a dose of less than 1 IU per day will cause significant fat loss even without altering of nutrition and exercise. Of course these studies were done on men ages 25+. With your student being 16 years old, I would advise against the use of exogenous GH for one simple reason. Despite how relatively safe GH is when used in moderation, using the 181 chain amino acid at such a young age could be detrimental to his body's own GH secretion by attentuating his GHRP. To date, I have not heard or read of a study which has successfully restarted the body's own natural GH secretion. 👎

 

[red dot]

oh you guys are awesome! 😍


i love endocrinology...

 

[Pdiddy310]

oh you guys are awesome! 😍


i love endocrinology...

this is endocrinology? 😱

 

[NRAI2001]

Yea, med school will certainly be a breeze 👍

 

[Doctodd]

I want to open this up again......a patient asked me about this and i wanted to read up. Any links to studies? I did a quick search and only found research in dwarfs and Turner's(i think). My patient is 46 and physiologically HGH has stopped being produced anyway.

T

 

[Hardbody]

Hey guys....

So I was wondering if any of you guys have any knowledge on GH. I tutor this student who is 16 and is a pretty hardcore basketball player. He is about 5'8" and he has said to me that he has a strong interest in getting GH injections because he thinks it will help him grow much taller....potentiall up to 6'4".

He met this doctor that said he does this stuff but I am thinking that this doctor is trying to take advantage of the situation here. I am trying to convince him not to do it because my instincts tell me that taking GH at an early age and when your body obviously has no problem with its own GH is not a good thing.

Does anyone know about any potential side effects or dangers of this hormone supplementation for a normal person? I keep on telling him he has time to grow naturally since he is only 16 but I need a smoking gun to really have him think about the dangers of this stuff.

Thanks a lot for your help guys. I greatly appreciate this.

IMHO I would not touch that **** if I was 4'1". I can't believe that nobody has mentioned that there is a link between HGH and cancer! A while back I watched an hour long program on the discovery channel about this. I do not remember everything in the show with great detail but it has something to do with HGH speeding up mitosis and HGH causing telomeres to shorten up. After I watched the show it dawned on me that HGH is most likely what caused Lyle Alzado to get brain cancer and not the anabolic steroids that he blamed (which is why congress made them illegal about 15-16 years ago).

As a pre-med I am FAR from an expert on this but you may want to do some investigating into this before this kid jumps into something like this blindly. What I wrote about HGH being linked to cancer is not something I made up, although I am not sure how much research has been done on this topic, I know there has been at least some that have shown a link. Is 2"-3" in height when he is already 5'8" worth jeopardizing his life?

 

[Hardbody]

I almost forgot to mention that HGH can potentially lead to type 2 diabetes, something else to think about.

 

[cfdavid]

Under and MD's supervision, GH will give him a little growth if his plates have not fused and some localized fat loss at the injection sites.

Other than that he won't see much.

Now if he were a bodybuilder, he would combine 4-6IU of GH, T3, testosterone and insulin to grow like a beast (along with 4-5 days a week at the gym). The again, this is obvious abuse of your body in terms of hormonal fluctuations and it is not good in the long run.

Don't forget the post-cycle HCG and/or Clomid! (no, I've never done this. too much playing with mother nature.)

 

[mintendo]

Tell him he sucks at basketball, with or without the GH, and he will never be good.

I like.

8 inches is a lot. If GH is really that effective, there would be no short people in the world.

 

[Law2Doc]

I like.

8 inches is a lot. If GH is really that effective, there would be no short people in the world.

Tell him to hang from a jungle gym -- it worked wonders for Bobby Brady. Seriously though, GH is not something you want to dabble with -- the side effects are significant, ranging from acromegaly to clinical depression. There is a reason it is primarilly only prescribed for certain types of dwarfism and not to short people in general.

 

[NRAI2001]

Tell him to hang from a jungle gym -- it worked wonders for Bobby Brady. Seriously though, GH is not something you want to dabble with -- the side effects are significant, ranging from acromegaly to clinical depression. There is a reason it is primarilly only prescribed for certain types of dwarfism and not to short people in general.

How do you know if you have onset of acromegaly? Its very obvious when its reached its full onset, but how can you pick it up prior to that.

 

[MrDreamWeaver]

teenageer = growth plates probably fused = no height gain on GH, only bone density.

 

[u_r_my_serenity]

I do not have time to read all of the responses. There is some variation depending on race and the study you look at, but 16 years is the average age the epihyseal plates close for boys (14 for girls). If his growth plates are closed on his long bones, he will not grow vertically with growth hormone, but he would grow in areas such as the face or hands (acromegaly is simply increased growth hormone after closure of the epiphyseal plates, the only thing separating it from gigantism).

 

[jmnykrkts]

I read somewhere that you can increase GH levels through rigorous exercise. As in 20 minutes of all out sprints, or something to that effect.

 

[McGillGrad]

I want to open this up again......a patient asked me about this and i wanted to read up. Any links to studies? I did a quick search and only found research in dwarfs and Turner's(i think). My patient is 46 and physiologically HGH has stopped being produced anyway.

T

Bodybuilders use GH along with other compounds to increase muscle size and density, but there are also theraputic uses for lower back damage but the dosing is not well established and is highly influeneced by the dosing regiemts of bodybuilders.

Also, there is no valid correlation between GH use and neoplasm growth.

 

[McGillGrad]

I read somewhere that you can increase GH levels through rigorous exercise. As in 20 minutes of all out sprints, or something to that effect.

It is only significant with compound exercises such as squats and dealifts.

 

[McGillGrad]

Don't forget the post-cycle HCG and/or Clomid! (no, I've never done this. too much playing with mother nature.)

LOL... post cycle regime. Sure you've never done that 😀

 

[cfdavid]

LOL... post cycle regime. Sure you've never done that 😀

lol. honestly, i haven't. but, i was always fascinated with that stuff (yet was smart enough not to do it myself). i remember reading Muscle and Fitness as a kid. i think i instinctively knew that there was no way they got that way by doing the "Weider Negative Reps Principle" or using "Ultra-Mass Weight Gain Formula"! lol

that magaznine always had an article on the dangers of steroids (to their credit). but, every single one of those dudes were doing massive amounts of anabolics (obviously).

interestingly enough, and though many may dispute this (unless they do their homework), a lot of those guys are gurus on hormones (in an anabolic context). they even reference studies and all that. i mean, very few endocrinologists would be familiar with HCG (yeah, THAT HCG) as a MALE testicular atrophy treatment. lol (though Clomid is used by reproductive endocrinologists for male factor infertility).

 

[Law2Doc]

i mean, very few endocrinologists would be familiar with HCG (yeah, THAT HCG) as a MALE testicular atrophy treatment. lol (though Clomid is used by reproductive endocrinologists for male factor infertility).

There are plenty of endocrinologists who make careers out of studying the ins and outs of HCG. I would be inclined to heed their warnings over some body builder. Note that a disproportionate number of body builders, pro wrestlers and pro athletes seem to be having health issues later in life, which may be related to substances they dabbled in during their careers. Even Gov. Arnold had heart issues.

 

[Hardbody]

There are plenty of endocrinologists who make careers out of studying the ins and outs of HCG. I would be inclined to heed their warnings over some body builder. Note that a disproportionate number of body builders, pro wrestlers and pro athletes seem to be having health issues later in life, which may be related to substances they dabbled in during their careers. Even Gov. Arnold had heart issues.

I agree that there is probably a link between abusing these hormones and health problems. Hell I just posted about a possible link between HGH and cancer (this was not a study of bodybuilders or athletes btw), but you cannot automatically asume that pro wrestlers, athletes, and body builders have health issues either wholly or partly because of hormones that they have taken.

Examples: Take the pro football player that has been hit by Dick Butkus 75 times over a career plus 1,000's of other hits, probably coughed up blood from getting hit several times(I've done this playing football) plus multiple concussions and now he cannot figure out why he has health issues, hmmm? Or how bout the pro wrestler that has been powerbombed thousands of times and can barely move from 7 herniated discs, again can't figure out why he has health problems again. How bout the pro bodybuilder that used to squat 800lbs for reps and now cannot walk from having no cartilage in the knees and leads a sedentary lifestyle? Or the bodybuilder that used to rep with 550lbs of the bench press bouncing that off of his chest (I'm sure that is really healthy).

Do not take my post the wrong way (I am not trying to dispute you), but sometimes things aren't always what they may first seem to be. More research should probably be done in this area, and I am probably very ignorant of what research has been, but I try not to make assumptions without understanding the science behind it.

 

[alepe438]

Hey guys! Im a dedicated reader on this website...and this is my first post. BUT I must say that i have some knowledge on the subject matter here. My brother has been giving himself shots of GH for a bit over 2 years now. Now let me explain how it works. ANY well respected endocrinologist would know better then to give GH to any person who does NOT suffer from its deficiency. So those who would do it when you have the proper amount of GH in your body.... should not be out there. First of all, every couple of month my brother gets a BONE AGE test. As long as the test says " bone age less then or equal to 16", my brother gets a new presciption. But now that he is aproaching 16 ACCORDING to the test, the dose is decreased and will be stopped once it says 16! The GH is a mirracle for those who suffer from its shortage. My brother grew from 4'6 to 5'6 over the last 2 years and mind that he is almost 18 now. The BONE AGE test pretty much says that the bones are growing properly and are not expending horizontally.... Speaking of the price.... ouch! If im not mistaken... its been soemwhere in 3k zone a MONTH. So UNLESS the doctor PROVES that u absolutely must takes it.... the insurance does not cover it. I just do not see how anyone will get over 3k for something that is not needed that much. I hope i covered it all... if u think i need to add some extra info... let me know. Hope it helps!

 

[McGillGrad]

Examples: Take the pro football player that has been hit by Dick Butkus 75 times over a career plus 1,000's of other hits, probably coughed up blood from getting hit several times(I've done this playing football) plus multiple concussions and now he cannot figure out why he has health issues, hmmm? Or how bout the pro wrestler that has been powerbombed thousands of times and can barely move from 7 herniated discs, again can't figure out why he has health problems again. How bout the pro bodybuilder that used to squat 800lbs for reps and now cannot walk from having no cartilage in the knees and leads a sedentary lifestyle? Or the bodybuilder that used to rep with 550lbs of the bench press bouncing that off of his chest (I'm sure that is really healthy).

👍 You took the words right out of my mouth.

 

[McGillGrad]

I just do not see how anyone will get over 3k for something that is not needed that much. I hope i covered it all... if u think i need to add some extra info... let me know. Hope it helps!

A male with a degenerative disk disease used GH that cost about $500-750 per month for roughly a year and benefited from the self-treatment. GH has wide reaching benefits, especially for the elderly. And much of Congress is close to being elderly.

That is why GH is a prescription medication while anabolics are scheduled (i.e. you can get in trouble for it).

 

[crazy_cavalier]

Dude, 5'8" is plenty tall. He should be thankful he wasn't born with dwarfism or something. It's sort of like a 140 lb girl who wants liposuction to become 110 lbs. Come off it.