Health And General Life Care: Re: [Supertraining] Stallone puts muscle behind HGH; raises alarms

Illegal unless someone is proved clinically deficient? how then are those docs in California getting away with what they're doing? Did we not have a person on our list a few months ago not only advocating such procedures but actually selling them?

The show "30 days" on television actually did a documentary on a 30 something male who wanted to "grow younger" using such a regimen. They had a doctor who specializes and sells such work doing the program with him. He was forced to quit after 21 days when his liver appeared to present severe problems and he and his wife were struggling with some extreme mood swings he was already showing under the program.

So how can it be "illegal" and I thought the only persons who are "deficient" in the more conventional sense are children who are not growing when they should in puberty?

There must be either some loophole these doctors are going through to sell their wares or ?

I agree that it's a very bad idea for Mr. Stallone to do such a thing to his body AND for him to brag about the effects he is getting by such a treatment. The show referenced above DID have a perfectly healthy man undergo the treatment and pretty much crash and burn his body. The other really bad side effect on the 30 something male was loss of fertility...which also alarmed his wife as they wanted another child! They showed the drop off in production of sperm by way of his visits to the sperm bank to confirm or prove that he would be ok on the regimen.

I don't know if that episode is still available but it was quite interesting and alarming. The very fact the otherwise healthy male was unable to continue to complete the 30 days of the program is quite revealing in my opinion!

I'm sure it's quite lucrative to sell "youth in a bottle" but if it's truly illegal as stated in the article below, how then does Mr. Stallone among others circumvent the law considered proper for the REST of USA?

The Phantom
aka Linda Schaefer, CMT, CSCS, competing powerlifter
Denver, Colorado, USA

-------------- Original message --------------
From: Ralph Giarnella <ragiarn@yahoo.com>
This article has some interesting points concerning
HGH and aging.
Ralph Giarnella MD
Southington Ct USA
*******************************

Stallone puts muscle behind HGH; raises alarms
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
To get ready for the new Rambo movie, actor Sylvester
Stallone, 61, has stated publicly that he took human
growth hormone and testosterone, substances that
supposedly promote a lean, muscular body.
But doctors and scientists who study these potent
hormones say Stallone may be playing with more
firepower than even Rambo can handle.

Steroids such as testosterone have long been used by
athletes to bulk up, but the use of synthetic growth
hormones for that purpose by such a high-profile
figure has raised alarms in the medical community.

"These are not yet ready for prime time," says Marc
Blackman, associate chief of staff for research at the
Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center, who has conducted
many of the definitive studies on growth hormone and
aging. "This is still research; it is not to be
recommended for clinical practice. And neither the
long-term effectiveness nor the long-term safety have
been shown."

What has been established by researchers is that
growth hormone can cause or worsen diabetes,
arthritis, heart disease and possibly cancer.

It's also illegal to use it in a fitness regime. Under
Food and Drug Administration regulations, human growth
hormone is a controlled substance that can be
administered only by a physician. In addition,
physicians must do lab tests to prove that the person
being treated is clinically deficient in growth
hormone, says Richard Hellman, president of the
American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.

That's true elsewhere in the world as well, which
Stallone learned last year when he was caught
smuggling 48 vials of it into Australia. In May, he
was ordered to pay $10,651 in fines and court costs.

Popular among athletes, bodybuilders

Growth hormone stimulates growth and cell
reproduction. It is produced in the pituitary gland,
the pea-sized "master gland" that sits at the base of
the brain. It has been popular in recent years with
bodybuilders and athletes because they believe it will
increase muscle mass, decrease fat and allow them to
more quickly recuperate after punishing workouts. It's
also a drug of choice at many anti-aging clinics,
where it's given with the promise of restoring energy,
strength, vigor and sex drive.

But does it do any of those things?

Studies have found that it can slightly, but only
slightly, increase muscle mass. And because it cuts
down on body fat, it can give bodybuilders the
"ripped" look they want, says Alan Rogol, a professor
of endocrinology at the University of Virginia and
Indiana University School of Medicine.

Not a sure thing

But there's not a lot of evidence that the hormone
does anything else, says George Merriam, a professor
and endocrine researcher at the Veterans Affairs
hospital in Seattle.

"If Mr. Stallone is taking his growth hormone shots to
improve the way he looks without his shirt on, the
benefits that he's talking about may be real," Merriam
says. But he says most studies have consistently shown
that "there isn't improvement in physical or
physiological performance."

As for the anti-aging effects, it's based on the
notion that growth hormone production peaks in
adolescence. It begins to decline when normal aging
begins in the early 20s, Blackman says. By the time a
healthy person is in his or her 60s, growth hormone
levels are 30% to 40% of what they were at age 30.

But despite years of research worldwide, no one "has
yet been able to show that supplementing growth
hormone improves the function of the body," Blackman
says.

And it can do harm. Early symptoms are aching joints,
fluid retention and swelling. Some plastic surgeons
give it just for the effect of fluid retention on
wrinkles, says Roberto Salvatori, a professor of
endocrinology at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore.

It can also cause pain, weakness and numbness in the
hand and wrist when the narrow tunnel of ligament and
bone grows, crushing the medial nerve that passes
through the hand. Sometimes it causes the abnormal
growth of breast tissue in men, says Shlomo Melmed,
president of the International Society of
Endocrinology and a doctor at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center in Los Angeles.

There's also evidence that long-term use of growth
hormone may cause cancer by fueling the growth of
small tumors, Rogol says.

A cheaper alternative

And finally, growth hormone is very expensive and
requires daily injections. A so-called anti-aging
dosage for a year can cost up to $20,000, Melmed says.

But there is one easy, cheap and exceedingly healthy
way to boost your growth hormone levels: go to bed.
"Growth hormone and testosterone production peak
during sleep," says Richard Auchus, a professor of
endocrinology at the University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center in Dallas.

"You can actually get people to test pathologically
low for growth hormone by waking them repeatedly
during the night," he says. "I always tell people that
if you want to maximize your growth hormone, get a
good night's sleep."

Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-02-05-human-growth-hormone_N.htm

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

__._,_.___

Messages in this topic (56) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic

Messages

Modify/cancel your subscription at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups

Sign all letters with full name & city of residence if you
wish them to be published!