General Health

The Usual Decline of HGH in the Body As We Age

A group of researchers headed by Jens Sandahl Christiansen of Aarhus Kommunehospital in Denmark sums up just how ubiquitous the effects of low human growth hormone in the body are:

"Untreated human growth hormone deficient adults have been shown to have increased cardiovascular mortality, reduced exercise capacity, reduced muscle strength, subnormal glomerular filtration rate and renal plasma flow, defective sweat secretion and defective thermoregulation, reduced energy expenditure and basal metabolic rate, abnormal thyroid hormone metabolism, reduced myocardial function and clinical signs of premature arthersclerosis".

The researchers found that in untreated HGH deficient adults body composition was abnormal with increased fat mass, decreased lean body mass, decreased muscle fat ratio, visceral obesity, reduced extracellular fluid volume, and reduced bone mineral content. Furthermore, two independent groups reported impaired psychological well being as compared to treated subjects with normal human growth hormone levels.

The effects of decreased human growth hormone are not as dramatic as some hormones. For instance, a sudden drop in insulin is an acute condition that can be life threatening. The slow decline of human growth hormone over the years causes the body to show the effects of aging.

As we age the pituitary gland continues to produce HGH, however the amount released into the bloodstream diminishes, and so the body has less and less to use to maintain good health.

Human growth hormone is one of the body's major hormones, like DHEA, melatonin, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone that decrease with age. Supplementation of these other hormones has been available for years, but it was believed that adults did not need HGH.

Improving the levels of these other hormones also helps with the symptoms of aging, however we now know the effects of growth hormone go far beyond the effects of the others. HGH cannot only slow down and delay the aging process, it can even reverse many of the symptoms of aging that have already occurred.