Baby Boomers and Human Growth Hormone (HGH); the wrong way to fight aging

According to the Broward County, Florida, medical examiner, Anna Nicole Smith's autopsy uncovered "a cocktail of anti-aging drugs including human growth hormone, or HGH. Smith's 'repeated intramuscular injections,' he wrote, were "self-treatment for longevity and weight control.'"

Though Smith is just a few years shy of being a baby boomer, HGH's popularity is growing popular with boomers. In February, "early-stage" Boomer Sylvester Stallone was arrested in Australia for illegally importing 48 vials of HGH. HGH has been a big problem in sports. According to the Los Angeles Times, "several pro athletes, including former baseball players Jose Canseco and David Bell, current players Jerry Hairston Jr. and Matthews, and former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield, have been implicated in the probe, and investigators are strongly considering releasing the names of others."

HGH reportedly helps build muscle, shed fat, and fight aging. It is a multi-billion dollar business worldwide and often an illegal one. It's usage has been approved in certain instances by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration, such approved usages do not include anti-aging therapy, body building or athletic enhancement.

HGH's popularity can be traced back to a 1990 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.***

The study involved 12 men, aged 61 to 81, who were apparently healthy but had IGF-I levels below those found in normal young men. The 12 men were given growth hormone injections three times a week for six months and compared with 9 men who received no treatment. The treatment resulted in a decrease in adipose (fatty) tissue and increases in lean body (muscle) mass and lumbar spine density. An accompanying editorial warned that some of the subjects had experienced side effects and that the long-range effects of administering HGH to healthy adults were unknown. It also warned that the hormone shots were expensive and that the study had not examined whether the men who received the hormone had substantially improved their muscle strength, mobility, or quality of life.

The study inspired many offbeat physicians to market themselves as "anti-aging specialists" and thousands of web sites and spammers are hawking the "actual hormone; alleged HGH releasers; alleged oral hormone products (which can't work because any HGH would be digested); and/or "homeopathic" HGH products."

Robert N. Butler, M.D., noted gerontologist and founder of the International Longevity Center-USA warns that, "So-called anti-aging medicine is largely a sham" and reading the claims by some providers of HGH confirms this:

Order cheapest Human Growth Hormone (HGH) from http://thumbset.net/hgh.html Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is what sets the young apart from the elderly. It is what gives you that youthful glow, healthy body, sharp wit and iron metabolism. As you age, your pituitary gland produces less and less HGH for your body to use. This causes all the symptoms we normally associate with aging, such as wrinkles, baldness, lack of energy, poor skin tone, dull thinking and reduced sex drive.

By now, it should be apparent that there is no "magic-bullet" medication that retards or reverses aging. Exercise, proper diet, cessation of smoking, maintaining proper weight are what's called for. For improved physique, resistance weight training improves muscle strength and function. Real effort is what works and that doesn't come in a bottle, ointment, or shot.

***Note that in March 2003, the New England Journal of Medicine took the unprecedented step of denouncing misuse of Rudman's 1990 article.

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