Growth Hormone: The Ultimate Therapy

Julian Whitaker, MD

Many of the physical changes associated with aging, including loss of muscle, or sarcopenia, are caused or accelerated by declines in hormone levels. Hormone replacement therapy with bio-identical hormones is an excellent way to retard some of these changes, and the mother of anti-aging hormones is human growth hormone (HGH).

HGH, which is secreted by the pituitary gland, promotes bone and muscle growth and fat mobilization. Levels are exceptionally high during the growth spurts of childhood and adolescence, but after we reach our twenties, production declines and continues to decline every decade thereafter for the rest of our lives. Most people over the age of 60 have low HGH levels, some of them precipitously low.

A Landmark Study

In 1990, Daniel Rudman, MD, and colleagues published a study evaluating the use of supplemental HGH in adults. While HGH had been around for decades, used to boost height in children with HGH deficiencies, Rudman’s study was the first of its kind.

Over the course of six months, 12 healthy men between the ages of 61 and 81 were given injections of growth hormone three times a week, while another nine served as a control group. The results were astounding. The men on HGH gained an average of 8.8 percent in lean body mass and had a 14.4 percent reduction in fat. Their lumbar spine bone density increased by 1.6 percent, and their skin thickness increased by 7.1 percent.

According to this study, “The effects of six months of human growth hormone on lean body mass and adipose tissue mass were equivalent in magnitude to the changes incurred during 10 to 20 years of aging.”

A Lot of Bang for Your Buck

Since 1990, hundreds of studies have been conducted on supplemental HGH. They have demonstrated that HGH is an excellent therapy for reversing wasting conditions, enhancing wound healing and post-surgical recovery, treating heart failure, and increasing muscle mass in frail, elderly patients. It is also used by healthy older people, like those in the Rudman study, as an anti-aging therapy with excellent results.

HGH is administered by injection, which patients can be taught to give themselves. It’s a little expensive, running about $80 a week, but you get a lot of bang for your buck. Many conventional doctors just don’t get HGH and may tell you it’s ineffective or unsafe. They’re wrong, and the research proves it.

Recommendation

• If you’re interested in trying this remarkable therapy and your doctor won’t give you a prescription, look for one who will. For an appointment at the Whitaker Wellness Institute, call (866) 944-8253.

Modified from Health & Healing with permission from Healthy Directions, LLC. Copyright 2006. Photocopying, reproduction, or quotation strictly prohibited without written permission from the publisher. To subscribe to Health & Healing, click here.