3 Ways to Increase HGH – wikiHow Health

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This article was medically reviewed by Sarah Gehrke, RN, MS. Sarah Gehrke is a Registered Nurse and Licensed Massage Therapist in Texas. Sarah has over 10 years of experience teaching and practicing phlebotomy and intravenous (IV) therapy using physical, psychological, and emotional support. She received her Massage Therapist License from the Amarillo Massage Therapy Institute in 2008 and a M.S. in Nursing from the University of Phoenix in 2013. This article has been viewed 55,119 times.

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Updated: May 20, 2024

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Maintaining healthy HGH levels can help you to gain muscle, reduce fat, and strengthen your bone density. You can increase your HGH levels by eating a healthy, balanced diet and working out at least 3 times a week. Try to avoid foods with simple sugars, like cookies, cakes, and soda, and eat plenty of wholegrains, vegetables, and lean protein instead. A lack of sleep can reduce your HGH levels, so aim to get 8 hours of shuteye a night. Its also important to de-stress every day, since too much stress can lower your HGH levels. Set aside time to have a relaxing bath, read a book, or meditate. Low HGH levels can sometimes be caused by underlying conditions, but if a test shows you have low HGH, your doctor will talk to you about your treatment options. For more advice from our Medical co-author, including how to reduce your HGH levels with supplements, read on.

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3 Ways to Increase HGH - wikiHow Health

What To Expect With Growth Hormone Therapy for Your Child

There are so many milestones your child hits in the first couple years of their young life: first step, first birthday, first word.

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And when you visit your childs pediatrician, they may ask about these indicators, while also doing their own observation on your childs growth journey by measuring their weight and height. In some cases, your pediatrician may suggest growth hormone therapy, also known as HGH therapy.

Growth hormone therapy is a medication given by a daily injection to treat growth hormone deficiency (GHD) and help children grow to their full potential, explains pediatric endocrinologist Roy Kim, MD.

If your childs body doesnt make enough human growth hormone (HGH) which is produced by their pituitary gland it can lead to poor height growth. This condition is called growth hormone deficiency and is the most common hormonal disorder causing slow growth in children. Other medical conditions such as chronic kidney disease, Turner syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome can also cause slow growth that can be treated with HGH therapy.

Your child may be diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency because theyre falling off their growth chart, meaning that at their well visits, their height percentile on the growth chart is falling over time, clarifies Dr. Kim.

Dr. Kim explains how a growth hormone deficiency is diagnosed and what to expect during growth hormone therapy treatment.

To determine if your child has a growth hormone deficiency, your pediatrician or pediatric endocrinologist will conduct a few tests. In addition to reviewing your childs height measurement and rate of growth, your pediatrician will start with a screening blood test.

What were checking for is insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), which is produced by the liver. Thats a good indicator of growth hormone sufficiency, shares Dr. Kim. If that growth factor is low, and our suspicion is strong enough for growth hormone deficiency based on other factors like nutrition, stage of development and growth rate, we perform what we call a growth hormone stimulation test.

A growth hormone stimulation test is a little more involved.

After fasting overnight, a child is given two kinds of medicine that stimulate the pituitary gland to release growth hormone, he says. And then a blood sample is collected every 30 to 60 minutes for several hours.

Those samples are sent to a lab for evaluation and if levels are low, your child will be diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency.

If a child has growth hormone deficiency, we take a look at the pituitary gland with an MRI scan, says Dr. Kim. The vast majority of the time, it will show a normal appearing pituitary or a pituitary gland that may be small. In a scenario where growth hormone is low, but the pituitary looks normal, its called an idiopathic growth hormone deficiency.

Another test your pediatrician may suggest? Checking the bone age of your childs left hand with an X-ray.

In that X-ray, were looking at the growth plates in the fingers and then the wrist, he explains. We can determine what the potential for future growth is for that child. Frequently, children with growth hormone deficiency have a bone age thats younger than their calendar age.

You may come across several different brands of growth hormone treatment. The most common method is a daily injection, but weekly injections have recently become available and are considered safe and effective.

Your pediatrician can help you determine which brand and method is best for you and your child.

And Dr. Kim says that body weight is used to help guide the initial dose.

Then, over time, we use factors like their growth rate, blood test results and how their weight changes to help us determine those increases, he adds.

Your child is about to start growth hormone therapy. How can you and your child prepare? What should you expect? Dr. Kim provides the following guidance.

Your doctor will determine the right dose for your child, but then, youll need to administer it at home through a subcutaneous injection, which will need to be stored in a fridge.

It can be injected anywhere where you can pinch up the skin, says Dr. Kim. Most commonly, the injection can be given in the thighs, abdomen or buttocks area. And its always a good practice to rotate injection sites so the skin can heal.

Many options are also available in pen form and contain multiple treatments where you can adjust the dose based on your pediatricians instructions. This form of treatment can be maintained at room temperature.

And when you give your child their injection, its important to pay attention to the time of day.

It turns out our bodies make most of our growth hormone in the evening, notes Dr. Kim. We try to mimic that by giving a shot at night.

After a child starts growth hormone therapy, we would expect them to be on it until their growth plates are closed and their growth slows on the growth chart, says Dr. Kim. The duration depends on when they were diagnosed we have children on this therapy anywhere from two or three years to their whole life.

And what type of results can you expect while your child is using growth hormone therapy?

Dr. Kim says that you can hope to see a noticeable increase in growth rate over six to 12 months of treatment.

After one to two years of treatment, we often see growth rates go from less than one or two inches per year to double that rate after growth hormone has started, he says.

But how long your child will need to be on a growth hormone treatment varies from child to child. To monitor your childs progress, youll meet with a pediatric endocrinologist a few times a year and then receive a blood test and X-ray at least once a year.

Growth hormone therapy can cause certain side effects, like:

If a child has diabetes, it could make the blood sugar higher, but it doesnt cause diabetes, stresses Dr. Kim. It also doesnt cause scoliosis, but rapid childhood growth can magnify or bring out scoliosis. We screen for complications during monitoring visits.

Rarely, some children may experience problems with their hips known as slipped capital femoral epiphyses (SCFE).

If we suspect this, we might order a hip X-ray, says Dr. Kim. Treatment can include stopping the growth hormone, but if its severe, the child may need an orthopaedic consult and possible surgery.

If your child experiences negative side effects of growth hormone therapy treatment, Dr. Kim says you should talk to their pediatric endocrinologist.

You may be concerned about the cost associated with growth hormone therapy, but Dr. Kim says in many cases, your health insurance will cover treatment if theres a growth hormone deficiency.

But whats variable is how much the insurance company will cover it and how much cost falls to the family, clarifies Dr. Kim.

There are a few other conditions where growth hormone is typically approved by health insurance, he says.

This includes children who are born with low birth weight and then grow slowly as infants. Also, children with severe kidney disease who are growing poorly can also qualify for growth hormone. There are several syndromes Turner syndrome, Noonan syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome where short stature may be a feature, Dr. Kim adds. For children affected by those syndromes, they dont need a growth hormone test. They just have to have these diagnoses.

Growth hormone therapy has come a long way from when it first started in the 1950s.

In the early days of growth hormone therapy, it used to be derived from human cadaver pituitary glands and that posed some risk of infections, shares Dr. Kim. But for many decades now, growth hormone is produced in a lab.

He adds that most children who take growth hormone therapy do so without any adverse effects.

Its important that you raise all concerns and questions with your pediatrician before making the decision about whether growth hormone therapy is right for your child

Our goal with growth hormone therapy is to give the body back what it would normally make, encourages Dr. Kim.

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What To Expect With Growth Hormone Therapy for Your Child

Skeptics challenge claims of Alzheimers disease transmission via growth hormone – The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives

Skeptics challenge claims of Alzheimers disease transmission via growth hormone  The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives

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Skeptics challenge claims of Alzheimers disease transmission via growth hormone - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives

Growth Hormone – Actions – Regulation – TeachMephysiology

Growth hormone, also known as somatotrophin, is one of the hormones produced by the anterior pituitary gland. It has numerous functions that are essential for normal growth and development in humans.

This article will discuss the function of growth hormone, the regulation of its axis and relevant clinical conditions to its dysfunction.

GH has direct metabolic effects on tissues by binding to cells, and has indirect effects by stimulating cells in the liver to produce insulin-like growth factors (IGFs or somatomedins). The main IGF is IGF-1.

Growth hormone, either directly or indirectly, affects almost every tissue in the body, especially skeletal muscle and cartilage cells (chondrocytes).

The overall effects, arising from an interplay between GH and IGF-1, are important for the following:

The effects of GH via IGF-1 can be thought of as anabolic (compound building) like insulin and include:

IGF-1 is important especially after a meal when glucose and amino acids are available in the blood. Glucose is taken up into cells through the action of insulin for ATP synthesis. At the same time, IGF-1 binds to plasma membrane receptors to increase their uptake of amino acids for protein synthesis, which uses up energy.

The hypothalamus secretes growth hormone releasing-hormone (GHRH).GHRH stimulates somatotroph cells of the anterior pituitary to release growth hormone (GH), also known as somatotropin.

Several factors including stress, exercise, nutrition, hormones such as ghrelin (synthesised by the stomach) and sleep modulate the production of growth hormone.

The growth hormone axis is different to the typical endocrine axis. Whilst GHRH promotes GH release, the hypothalamus also produces growth hormone inhibiting hormone, also known as somatostatin, which inhibits GH.

IGFs directly suppress GH secretion by somatotrophs. IGFs also indirectly suppress GH secretion by inhibiting GHRH release and stimulating GHIH release.

[start-clinical]

In children, a deficiency of GH could result in short stature due to slow bone and muscle maturation and delayed puberty. In adults, changes are more subtle and include:

One famous example of growth hormone deficiency is that of footballer Lionel Messi. The Ballon dOr winner moved to FC Barcelona at the age of 13, as the club promised to fund his treatment of the condition.

In adults, excess GH is called acromegaly and is mostly caused by a pituitary tumour secreting GH.

Clinical features include:

In children, hypersecretion of GH before the bony epiphyses have fused results in gigantism, whereby the child grows very tall.

Treatment involves surgery to remove the pituitary tumour, via the sphenoid bone (transsphenoidal) if the tumour is large enough, or medically by using somatostatin analogues.

[end-clinical]

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Growth Hormone - Actions - Regulation - TeachMephysiology

Genentech: Understanding Human Growth Hormone

Understanding Growth Hormone (HGH)

Human growth hormone (hGH or GH) is a protein produced in the body that's important not only during childhood but also throughout adulthood. Growth hormone is produced by the pituitary gland, which is known as the "master gland" because it secretes many hormones that control the actions of other glands. A part of the brain called the hypothalamus sends signals to the pituitary gland to produce GH, which then travels through the bloodstream to function in other parts of the body.

Although scientific research usually focuses on the role of GH in the growth process, its contribution to adult metabolic processes is also crucial.

As most of us know, many factors influence growth. Good nutrition and overall health affect growth, as do hormones in the body such as GH. However, GH is not the only hormone involved in the growth process. Other pituitary hormones including thyroid-stimulating hormone, adrenocorticotropic hormone, luteinizing hormone, and follicle-stimulating hormone affect growth indirectly by acting through other glands. Although all of these hormones can influence growth, GH is the major growth regulator in the body.

The primary job of GH in childhood is to stimulate bone and tissue growth. GH stimulates the epiphyseal growth plates in the bone, which are responsible for bone elongation. GH also triggers the release of the insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) protein, which stimulates the growth of bone, muscle and other tissues in response to GH and also, in turn, regulates GH release from the pituitary. Growth hormone also contributes to proper bone density, which is important in both childhood and adulthood, when poor bone density can lead to problems such as osteoporosis.

This mechanism, in conjunction with other complex body processes, maintains the growth of the human being from infancy through adulthood.

Although GH's main function is to promote growth in childhood, GH is still important once adulthood is reached. In adults as well as in children, GH helps regulate metabolism a critical chemical process through which the body turns food into energy, tissue or waste products. GH assists in transporting molecules, conserving sugars, building proteins, and breaking down fats. Not only is the GH produced in your body vital to maintaining healthy body composition, it also contributes to proper bone density, heart muscle function, and ratios of "good" to "bad" cholesterol, all of which are important to reduce the risk of such conditions as high cholesterol and osteoporosis.

Thus, like children, adults also need to maintain adequate levels of GH in the body. Without sufficient GH, adults have an increased risk of developing serious health problems, such as cardiovascular disease and bone disease, later in life.

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Genentech: Understanding Human Growth Hormone

Alzheimers revelation: How the brain disease was spread between humans via a growth hormone given to children in the UK up until 1985 – The Olive…

Alzheimers revelation: How the brain disease was spread between humans via a growth hormone given to children in the UK up until 1985  The Olive Press

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Alzheimers revelation: How the brain disease was spread between humans via a growth hormone given to children in the UK up until 1985 - The Olive...

Human Growth Hormone: Not a Life Extender After All?

Jan. 26, 2010-People profoundly deficient in human growth hormone (HGH) due to a genetic mutation appear to live just as long as people who make normal amounts of the hormone, a new study shows. The findings suggest that HGH may not be the "fountain of youth" that some researchers have suggested.

"Without HGH, these people still live long, healthy lives, and our results don't seem to support the notion that lack of HGH slows or accelerates the aging process," says Roberto Salvatori, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Endocrinology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The researchers, working with an unusual population of dwarves residing in Itabaianinha county, a rural area in the northeastern Brazilian state of Sergipe, and led by Salvatori, sought to sort out conflicting results of previous studies on the effects of HGH on human aging.

Some studies have suggested that mice whose bodies don't efficiently produce or process the mouse equivalent to HGH have an extended lifespan. Other research has shown that people with low levels of HGH due to surgical or radiation damage to the pituitary gland that makes HGH have increased risk of cardiovascular disease, a factor that can shorten life span. These patients also have decreased levels of other important hormones that the pituitary produces, possibly confounding results.

Complicating the picture, in recent years, HGH has been widely touted - especially on Internet sites - as an anti-aging marvel. Advertising pitches often base the claim on observations that among those with an HGH deficiency, HGH supplements can reduce some physical signs of aging such as thinning skin and reduced muscle mass.

In an attempt to resolve the research discrepancies about HGH's anti-aging value, Salvatori and his colleagues studied 65 of the Brazilian dwarves. Each member of this group has two mutant copies of a gene responsible for releasing HGH, leading to a severe congenital HGH deficiency. All of the study subjects have unmistakable characteristics of the deficiency: very short stature, childlike facial appearance, and high-pitched voices.

After genetic tests confirmed the presence of the mutation, the researchers collected birth dates and, for those deceased, death dates for the dwarves and their 128 unaffected siblings among 34 families. They compared these life spans with each other, as well as with the death rate in the general local population.

Salvatori, who has turned to this population for numerous studies of pituitary function and HGH, and his colleagues found that those deficient in HGH lived just as long as their unaffected siblings. Compared to the general population, those deficient in HGH had a slightly shorter lifespan, based solely on higher death rates in five females under age 20. When this subgroup was excluded from the analysis, average lifespan among the dwarves and the general population was identical.

The researchers aren't sure why this subgroup had a shorter lifespan, but speculate that lower growth hormone levels may affect the immune system's ability to fight off sometimes deadly infections. Of the five, four were known to have died from diarrheal disease, Salvatori explains. Why this factor affected only females is unknown.

To learn whether having a single copy of the mutant gene might affect lifespan, the researchers recruited volunteers from the Itabaianinha polling place on election day (voting in Brazil is mandatory). Since those with a single copy of the affected gene are of normal stature, the researchers determined which volunteers had this quality by genetically testing volunteers' saliva samples. When the researchers compared numbers of young people (ages 20 to 40) and older people (ages 60 to 80) bearing a single copy of the abnormal gene, the figures were nearly identical, suggesting that being "heterozygous" for this gene does not affect life span, either.

Overall, these findings, published in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, suggest that levels of HGH don't affect lifespan positively or negatively, says Salvatori.

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Human Growth Hormone: Not a Life Extender After All?