Human Growth Hormone - Food and Health

Human Growth Hormone

Growth hormone this peptide hormone also known as somatotropin human growth hormone or HGH is a physiologically active hormone that has a significant role in multiple processes in the human body growth hormone synthesis production and regulation occurs in the hypothalamus pituitary axis these two glands located in the mind are answerable for a wide assortment of hormone guideline that incorporates thyroid capacity conceptive hormones, for example, estrogen and testosterone adrenaline dopamine and others notwithstanding development hormone the regulatory process is quite complicated and has an entire medical specialty dedicated to it known as endocrinology so I won't dive any deeper into that discussion but I would encourage you to look it up if you want to know more now growth hormone is an anabolic hormone in other words it promotes growth and while this does include skeletal muscle it definitely is not limited to that it's also worth noting that it is not a neurogenic as opposed to say testosterone meaning it doesn't promote male sex characteristics such as facial hair and a deeper voice now the most prominent effect of this hormone is that it promotes bone growth and is the primary hormone responsible for growing to an adult size in children is largely responsible for determining height and it is modulated by several complex mechanisms secretion peaks during puberty where the most bone growth occurs and then declines with age like most hormones along with bone growth it does promote bone mineralization and calcium retention and then other functions include skeletal muscle protein amalgamation explicitly sarcomere hypertrophy increment in fit weight fat breakdown protein combination somewhere else not simply in the muscle decline cell take-up of glucose increased glucose synthesis release of insulin like growth factor one which organs pancreas regulation immune system stimulation and promoting some level of thyroid activity there is such thing as the body producing too much growth hormone naturally not from supplementation and this can lead to one of two diseases in children who secrete too much growth hormone often from a pituitary tumor you get the disease giantism think Andre the Giant this person is excessively tall often over seven feet and this occurs primarily because their growth plates had not yet fused now if you develop this problem with too much growth hormone as an adult you get something called acromegaly the difference is your growth plates are now fused so you will not be excessively tall instead you have a constellation of symptoms which includes a prominent jaw large hands deep voice and a bunch of other symptoms there's also a spectrum of disease that can affect the hypothalamic pituitary axis which regulates growth hormone secretion leading to a deficiency and this deficiency can occur as a child or as an adult often secondary to something like a stroke or cancer and there's an FDA approved growth hormone therapy available for these patients.

Growth hormone supplementation and athletic performance before I discuss the topic which one made clearly that this is an off-label use it's illegal and I'm certainly not advocating for it I'm just sort of presenting the information that is available there's limited in mixed evidence that supplementing growth hormone will improve athletic performance it appears that growth hormone does have an anabolic advantage at the molecular level but it is not clear that this helps with strength power or performance so one double-blinded study found no increase on power output or oxygen consumption another study did show an increase in insulin-like growth factor-1 but again with no corresponding improvement in strength or performance and a third study found that supplementation improves skeletal muscle synthesis is no better than a placebo one possible benefit is the build above connective tissue speeding recovery from injury without any subsequent change in muscle mass or strength again this is theoretical and not evidence-based but it is widely held to be true in the sports world and what are the side from supplementing or from having excessive natural production this can include joint pain and joint inflammation and enlarged heart muscle weakness ironically high cholesterol impaired glucose regulation and an increased risk of type 1 diabetes impotence increased fatigue and possibly an increased cancer risk and because your body regulates the hormone using a negative feedback loop long-term supplementation can actually wreak havoc on your body's ability to naturally produce growth hormone in other words you can stop reducing it altogether and this is similar to what happens with long-term testosterone supplementation so the question is should you supplement and if you haven't figured out by now the answer is very simply put no it's illegal in the u.s. at least and supplementation should only be done under the supervision of a physician the more thoughtful answer is that there is limited and mixed data that it even helps at all there's no slam-dunk study stating that growth hormone will boost your athletic performance rather the dogma in the sports world exists primarily because of what we know it does naturally and how much supplementation helps out folks who have a growth hormone deficiency furthermore there are many profound side effects including and up to hindering the ability of your body to naturally produce the hormone at all there are a few ways for you to naturally promote secretion primarily this includes exercise which is well known to allow levels to rise unchecked immediately after exercise this is certainly true of resistance training and in endurance training some studies are actually little mixed and fat long-term training can reduce growth hormone healthy sleep is the other primary booster those are the two that you should focus on other promoters of growth hormone secretion include stress starvation puberty as we discussed low blood sugar and other hormones such as growth hormone releasing hormone so in conclusion there are many important functions especially for bone growth during puberty and adolescence there are diseases where your body produces too much or not enough there is limited and very weak evidence that growth hormone boost athletic performance at all and it has many known side effects so you are not advised to supplement given this information there are natural ways to promote it and that primarily includes exercise and sleep you...