Thousands of athletes in many sports spend millions of dollars on growth hormone and growth hormone promoters in the hope that it will help them grow larger muscles, become stronger and therefore be better athletes. Researchers from Winnipeg reviewed the scientific literature and found that there is no controlled data to show that growth hormone helps make athletes stronger Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, Volume 12, 2002). As you age, blood levels of growth hormone drop. A 1990 study from the University of Wisconsin showed that taking growth hormone enlarges muscles. Since then equal numbers of studies support and refute that growth hormone increases muscles and decreases fat. Growth hormone is a protein that is destroyed in the stomach, so it can only be given by injection, and growth hormone injections can only be given legally by prescription, so most of the advertised products are "growth hormone releasers" which are taken by mouth, not by injection. They do not contain ANY growth hormone. The advertised products are amino acids, the building blocks of protein, the same as the protein you get in your food. Eating anything raises your blood level of growth hormone temporarily, and protein raises it a little bit more than fats or carbohydrates. So any food can be sold as a growth hormone releaser without lying, but food sources of protein are a lot less expensive than the pills. The growth hormone releaser products are nothing but ordinary protein from soybeans, tuna or milk. |
