Growth hormone HGH, muscle building, exercise performance

Sports enthusiasts and athletes believe that human growth hormone (HGH) builds muscles and increases athletic performance. However, the safety and efficacy for increasing muscles, exercise stamina and exercise performance by growth hormone have been mired in debate due to conflicting literature.

Dr. Liu and colleagues from Stanford in California, examined the evidence thus far about the effects of human growth hormone (HGH) on muscle building, athletic stamina and performance in physically fit subjects. Their study titled, “Systematic review: the effects of growth hormone on athletic performance” was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine (2008).

The authors reviewed trials examining effect of HGH on muscles and exercise stamina and performance. The data from the combined studies yielded 44 articles and 303 participants receiving human growth hormone. This represented 13.3 person-years of HGH treatment. The average dose of growth hormone used was 36 mcg/kg per day while average duration was 20 days.

The authors found that lean body mass increased in subjects getting growth hormone as compared to those who did not. However, this was not accompanied by an improvement in muscle strength or exercise stamina and performance. Subjects receiving HGH also suffered from more soft tissue swelling and fatigue.

The authors concluded that HGH does not improve athletic stamina and performance. To the contrary, the data suggested that HGH may actually worsen exercise capacity with deleterious side effects.

Caveats: The HGH dose/frequency of HGH used by the athletes is probably much greater in real world than used in the clinical trials and thus the trials do not mimic real world situations. In addition, many athletes and power muscle-builders actually use HGH along with other products like steroids and insulin. Even more importantly, many athletes take use HGH because of healing powers of human growth hormone by “hastening recovery from injury”; this issue was not addressed in the study.

Do you or someone near you uses HGH for building muscles and enhancing athletic performance? Do you think people should use it for this purpose? Please share your thoughts.

Comments

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Has anyone tried homeopathic HGH oral spray?