What Is HGH?
HGH, or human growth hormone, can be seen almost everywhere these days, from sports scandals to medicinal uses, supplements and livestock, it’s hard to understand what HGH really is because there are so many uses for it.
But in its most basic form, human growth hormone is a protein-based peptide hormone that stimulates growth, and cell reproduction and regeneration in, surprisingly enough, humans.
Prescription Use
In prescription use, the hormone is given to patients in its most concentrated form intravenously. This extra dose of the human growth hormone is beneficial to adults who have thyroid problems which result in hormonal imbalances. It is also used with children who have growth disorders in an attempt to regularize the production of new cells in the body.
These doctor-regulated doses are also used to treat those who have medical conditions that produce short stature like Turner syndrome, intrauterine growth retardation and idiopathic short stature, but they are not related to a deficiency of growth hormones.
Livestock Use
Although human growth hormone doesn’t sound like it would be useful in anything but humans, industrial agriculturists all over the place have been interested in the idea of targeting the growth hormone in their animals that helps them regenerate, reproduce and grow to their greatest potential.
Since November 1993, Monsanto has been selling artificial bovine (cow) growth hormone to dairy farmers with FDA approval. This development and production has been a huge achievement in the dairy industry, as bovine growth hormone greatly increases a cow’s ability to produce milk.
Athletic Use
Because HGH is such a powerful mechanism for boosting cell regeneration, it has been used by athletes to increase the amount of muscle they can produce and repair in a given amount of time.
Before the artificial human growth hormone was available, the only way athletes could get their hands on HGH was by taking it from cadavers, making it a hot item on black markets. Despite its black market popularity, its free-reign in athletics was short-lived and the International Olympic Committee banned human growth hormone from Olympic competitions in 1989.
Despite this ban, athletes continued to use both synthetic and natural human growth hormone because it wasn’t detectable from their own HGH until a new blood test was developed in 2004.
Supplement Use
America, as well as many other countries, has become intrigued by the idea of human growth hormone’s ability to reverse the signs of aging, increase the body’s efficiency and ability to recover and regenerate itself. However, the use of human growth hormone when taken intravenously can be dangerous because of the likelihood of overdosing.
Unlike the growth hormone that is found with a doctor’s prescription, or on the black market, supplements do not contain a pure shot of growth hormone. Rather, they take the legal route and have combined substances and compounds that have been shown to urge the body to produce more of its own HGH. T
his method has streamlined the effects of human growth hormone, making these HGH releasers as safe as your own body’s natural production, but giving you all the benefits of the intravenous approach.
So whether you’ve read about HGH on the Sports, Medicine or Science page of the newspaper, all the different ways of using human growth hormone are essentially looking for the same end result—faster regeneration, quicker healing, and healthier cells.