What is Human Growth Hormone? 66
EelBait asks: "I get a lot of spam selling Human Growth Hormone (HGH). Supposedly this stuff builds muscles, make one lose weight, enlarges various external organs and glands, etc., etc. Does anyone really know any good articles about this? Is it dangerous? The fact that it's being sold through spam is enough to give me pause, but I want to know if there are any legitimate uses for this stuff."
No (Score:1, Redundant)
oooohhh Cardinal sin of /. (Score:3, Funny)
Re: META (Score:1)
I like these questions.. who cares if they're on google. The answer to every question is on google.
It is an interesting question, right?
In this case, I had wondered the same thing, but I never would've bothered looking it up had someone else not asked the question.
I think it's good to have questions like these -- there are many questions that are answered by google that I haven't even thought about asking. Real hardcore computer type stuff, or stuff that all nerds ponder once in their life. This way I can learn about something I never knew I needed to know about.
If you know the answer, why not post it so people like me can learn a little..
thanks
Re:oooohhh Cardinal sin of /. (Score:1)
Does anyone know anything about Penis enlargement? (Score:3, Funny)
I keep getting spam on it and was curious about it. The fact that I was revceiving spam on it gave me pause, but I figured I'd ask the slashdot crowd about my spam for some reason because PE is an acronym. Geeks like acronyms, don't we?
Of course this begs the question: Did Cliff just get trolled?
It's not supposed to be used by adults (Score:5, Informative)
You mean spam can't be trusted? (Score:2)
So, the conclusion is that you were right to be mighty suspicious of that spam you keep getting.
Really? My God! I always thought that unrequested advertisements featuring fantastical claims sent to me via an anonymous email source were very reliable! Damn! I guess I learned something today!
GMD
It is exactly what it is called (Score:2)
Re:It is exactly what it is called (Score:2)
I can totally see how it helped that kid, but his mom better make sure he gets off it soon. Hormones are, like, powerfull stuff and he could end up accelating his "growth" right past his prime!
Oh, and I almost forgot, don't give any to your little bother!
-Derek
Re:It is exactly what it is called (Score:1, Interesting)
OK I'm biased, but I'm female and 6'5". By the time I was 12 I was already 6' tall, and my mother's sister was so 'concerned' about the effects of me being tall, she constantly contacted doctors and welfare groups about the need to stop my growth. Most of them told her to piss off, but she was persistent enough that through my childhood it felt like I was being hounded constantly for being unnatural.
Screw that! I'm tall, I ADORE being tall, and if anyone had messed around with my natural height I'd be pretty damned annoyed at them for taking that from me. If it's the kids decision, all's fair, but this is such a common thing, for parents to take their tall daughters for treatment to stop growth.
(fwiw it's genetics. My grandfather was over 7' and most of my mother's side are near 6')
Re:It is exactly what it is called (Score:2, Interesting)
No regeneration, not exactly...
You know, some people get in their old age a glandiary deficiency and they start having growth hormones again. What happens is that some parts of their body, especially nose and ears start to grow again...
Bullshit (Score:2)
Re:Bullshit (Score:1)
I also knew of a young man who between 7th grade and 8th grade grew from about 5'4" to 6'6". So even if I didn't have my father's example, there's one.
Unusual? Yes. Improbable? Yes. Unlikely? No; even in a population of about 350 million it's going to happen at least once and more likely many more times. Get a big enough population sample and pretty much anything is possible, especially with genetics.
Uhhh. (Score:5, Funny)
Besides, I'm sure the HGH being sold by spam is only the pureset, unadulterated, and completely legit you can get. In fact, if you need money to buy it, I'll give you $419,000,000 if you help me get some funds out of Nigeria.
What do YOU want it for? (Score:3, Insightful)
Check the NIH site for information.
Also, of course don't buy anything from spam on principle alone!
Re:What do YOU want it for? (Score:2)
If you're taking St. John's WART, yuck. If Wort, well, the concern with St. John's Wort is that while it probably has mild antidepressant effects (some of which may be placebo), it also steps on other toes in the nervous system to cause complications in some individuals. Although I am indifferent as to the source of a drug, some people like that St. John's Wort is "natural." So are strychnine and a thousand other nature's poisons -- natural doesn't mean safe.
In terms of effect, commercial antidepressants are much more powerful and have fewer side effects. Prozac has just come off patent, so it's finally cheap. Taking St. John's Wort in conjunction with prescription drugs can cause problems, esp. if you don't tell your doctor.
There is also good reason to question self-medication. If the depression is more than minor, or even if it merely won't go away, do consult with a doctor. You can always say no to further treatment. If you say yes, be cautious to get a good doctor, they are not all created equal (I used to work at a psych hospital, I know).
Anyway -- do some research on the web, I have seen many postings concerning St. John's Wort, and it's best if you read until you're satisfied for yourself. Here is the NIH view. [nih.gov]
Re:What do YOU want it for? (Score:2)
Impotence? Did you know that death is an extremely common side effect of major depression?
You are confusing major and minor depression. The latter *might* at best be suitable for the Wort, at worst the Wort is a waste of money and diverts someone who need treatment from getting treatment.
But, sure, trust "trust herbalists and naturopaths that haven't been brainwashed by the medical industrial complex" who have no controlled studies, no regulation (becuase it's "not a drug"), and nothing monitoring them more than the profit motive. And ignore any studies that contradict what you want to believe. Very rational. If you're that much more horrified by impotence than depression, you're not particularly depressed.
Re:What do YOU want it for? (Score:2)
It is also a fact that it is rare for prozac to not cause some kind of sexual dysfunction.
Patently false; I would like to see the study. In my experience a sentence that starts with "It is a fact that" will be followed by an assertion backed by nothing. Numbers, please.
The truth is that really good studies don't exist on these Q's. Sexual dysfunction (impotence, delayed ejeculation, loss of libido -- so it affects women, too) is very common for Prozac, but reliable figures are that less than 50% of patients are affected, which means not having is SD is far from rare, and not having severe SD even farther from rare. It must be factored in that depression causes SD, that some forms of SD are treatable by reducing dose, adding Viagra, etc -- or switching to a different med., and that for some men delayed ejaculation is actually desirable. You are extrapolating far too much from your personal experience -- it applies only to your physiology -- and there are too many alternatives to Prozac to decide preemtptively that St. John's Wort is preferable, esp. considering the chiefly anecdotal evidence for its effectiveness. Relying on anecdotal evidence brought us problems like relying on leeches and bloodletting for medical care -- everyone said it worked great, why study it?
Prozac et al. are mostly reserved for major depression and preliminary interventions in lesser depression. Prozac is the oldest and possibly worst of the SSRI bunch -- about 20 years -- and has been improved upon, but everyone's heard of it. Meanwhile, everyone's heard of St. John's Wort but it is unlikely appropriate for even moderate depression, and in mild depression must nonetheless be used with caution and with an attentive ear to new studies showing it interferes with anti-AIDS drugs, etc. My post carefully recognized the difference. So does the NIH page. I was pissed for having bothering to look anything up for you. I am -almost- offended to be called "brainwashed" by the pharmcowhatever complex because you misread my comments, but know better.
If St. John's Wort works for you, great, but be aware it may well be a placebo effect, and that the herb (what we call a drug that grows in the ground; there's nothing natural about purifying an extract and ingesting it) may interact with other drugs, or have other effects unknown because it has barely been studied. Your subjective experience means nothing but that you think it works for you, which is nice but not proof it actually works. One day it suddenly may not work at all. Ideally no one would need to take any mood-altering anything. Depression is not ideal.
There are also a number of antidepressant outside the SSRI's -- Effexor, Wellbutrin, the tricyclics, and as a last resort the MAOI's -- plus a novel SSRI called Lexapro, a refinement of Celexa and introduced this year, that is claimed to avoid most side effects (the prelim data looks promising, but Celexa's also coming off patent next year, raising concerns Lexapro is more a revenue-enhancer). It is not mentioned much, but the SSRI's are not more effective than the tricyclics we've had for decades, but they have much better side effect profiles and, significantly, are much harder to commit suicide with.
I'm relating this not so much for you but anyone else who stumbles this way. Your situation is stable, but someone who is crashing hard and wastes time with SJW could not only waste time and money but get hurt. I consider accurate information of vital importance, regardless of who it makes look good. Don't forget people are making a lot of money of SJW; greed is not a risk only to the pharm companies; and it's only a matter of time before the FDA regains consciousness and regulates SJW as the psychoactive drug it is. Above all, I worry about people not getting the help they need, or getting help they don't need.
Your prescription of Prozac may have been inappropriate or dosed too high -- dosage is partly art with these drugs -- and Prozac is one of the worst of the ~5 SSRI's (Zoloft, Celexa/Lexapro, Remeron, Paxil, Prozac) for side effects (Remeron is supposed to be pretty bad for weight gain); and I mentioned the generic fluoxetine because some people do worry they don't have the money to seek treatment. If you're out-of-pocket the price difference is big, and even with insurance co-pays the generic is usually much less.
Why am I wasting time writing this? You already know everything, except all the stuff I could continue to write. Good luck.
Re:Dueling dogmatisms (Score:2)
I'm fairly skeptical, but here I'm mostly thinking about science. One of the major points of controlled double-blind studies is to weed out the placebo effect of which anyone self-reporting "It works!" would be unaware. This isn't personal observation but self-evaluation, and by someone with a mood disturbance of ill-defined severity and type and duration, and who is prejudiced against taking "drugs" over "natural" remedies. (A double-blind trial has further purposes of course, such as screening for even unwitting biases of the investigator.)
So the poster's finding is anecdotal not scientific. And anecdotal evidence pretty much is hearsay -- unverifiable, uncontrolled, unreproducible. Ditto for the poster's purported diagnosis of minor depression (does that mean dysthymia [about.com]? cyclothymia? minor depression? where's the DSM??). We also don't know if the Prozac trial was botched in some way, and would have to know dosages, duration, the patient's life situation during treatment, and other meds, the presence/absence of other medical problems, age, consumption of alcohol etc.
ESPECIALLY with psychiatric illnesses, self-medication and evaluation is risky. With minor depression the stakes are at least low; maybe you feel miserable, but you don't commit suicide. Of course, we're relying on his self-reported diagnosis of minor depression -- can we trust that? You see what I'm getting at, I could rattle off many questions.
Granted if you feel OK on SJW, then you probably do feel OK, for now. But don't expect to get that into Science.
I wrote what I did, I hope it is obvious, not to be tendentious but because I care very deeply about the welfare of the mentally ill. That means allowing each person to get what best suits them, not strong-arming them onto Prozac. The truth must be available over whatever claims anyone might make, and the requirements on the supplements industry are ridiculously light. On the same package they claim something treats malady-of-your-choice while disavowing that it treats malady-of-your-choice because the FDA will sue them (and has done so). Even if this doesn't kill anyone and folks enjoy taking the supplements it could well be consumer fraud. If every package of shark toenails had a disclaimer "This has never been shown to do anyone any good in any credible way" I think sales would fall.
These days what angers me is misinformation and prejudice directed to or against people who need real help. I look forward to the next generation of antidepressants; it appears that the SSRI's have just about been milked dry, and though they were a nice achivement they're also about 20 years old. Effexor and Wellbutrin and different drugs, and I think I mentioned Lexapro [lexapro.com], the new flavor of Celexa created by teasing out one of the two isomers -- clever stuff. (I'm not promoting this stuff, I just find the science interesting and hope the clinical work pans out.)
Re:What do YOU want it for? (Score:1)
The active ingredient is Hypercin. It is an interesting beast in that Hypercin works both as an SSRI and an MAOI. THhis combination is normally lethal, but for some as of yet unknown reason this particular chemical does not have death as a side affect, so it may be the best drug in the rare case of someone needing the effects of both classes of drugs. It is an extremely mild SSRI however, and exceeding the recommended dosage does not make it any stronger but only increases it's side affects. All in all, it is a rather safe chemical, but it is not recommended you mix it with any other SSRI or MAOI for fear of that potential lethal combination cropping un=p. Because of it's mild nature, it is generally not strong enough to treat any but the mildest cases of depression. If you "think" you are depressed, the depression is probably so mild that Hypercin might just work, and it doesn't need a perscription, so it's probably worth a shot if only FOR the placebo affect. If you have real clinical depression, your probably out of Hypercin's league and are better off with a stronger SSRI like Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, etc.. or some other class of anti-depressants, like wellbutrin, or the tricyclics.
Re:What do YOU want it for? (Score:2)
The MAOI angle I had not heard. These drugs have nasty interaction with certain other drugs and chemicals, and are really last-resort drugs clinically where a patient will tolerate or respond to nothing else.
And, yes, its mechanism appears to overlap the SSRI's somehow.
I think the post-SSRI generation will arrive soon.
P.S. Oh yeah -- for the glassy eyed readers, MAOI = monoamine oxidase inhibitor, such as Nardil. The oxidase enzyme breaks up neurotransmitter, so by inhibiting it the idea is to force the neurotransmitters to stick around longer, prolonging their postsynaptic effects. Unfortunately, the MAOI side effects are probably the harshest of all antidepressants.
Re:What do YOU want it for? (Score:2)
You post on
So being impotent would just be -1 Redundant.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong on several counts (Score:1)
Re:Wrong on several counts (Score:1)
Re:illegal (Score:3)
Anything good for you is something you most certainly won't feel in a day.
If you are feeling it in a day, be alarmed. Ultra high doses of caffeine, super saturated sugar and butt load of carbohydrates *will* make you feel better in a day, all the while ignoring or masking the ill effects of ODing on such.
Yeah, you can OD on sugar and carbos. I won't explain how, because it is so simple to see.
Effervescent creatine. Hahahahaha. Is that like effervescent RDNA? Ion exchange? HAHAHAHAHA. Oh, yeah, but it is ISOPURE. Beam me up, Scotty.
He goes on to say that another common method of adding energy is to add dextrose to the mix. Yeah! Hello! Super-sutrated sugar in an 8 ounce can will light up an elephant for a week! Ya, wonder why it spikes your insulin level? Diabetic yet?
Ha.
Re:illegal (Score:3, Insightful)
If I understand creatine's mechanism correctly, it enables you to train for longer. Essentially, the amount of work (reps at a given weight) to produce an increase in strength remains constant whether or not you use it, but the creatine enables you to do more reps in each training session and recover faster, so the "wall clock" time for an increase in strength is reduced. For example, maybe you could normally do 500 reps of a particular lift in 10 weeks, now you can do them in 5. You still have to do them, tho'.
So you would see the result in terms of being able to train harder after a very short time (possibly after the first use), altho' obviously actually developing the muscle will still take time. I've never used it myself, and would advise you check with a doctor if you are thinking about it.
Re:illegal (Score:1)
Creatin actually makes you work much harder, in a number of ways, but one of them is by causing water to be retained in the muscle, making each rep expend more energy, and work the muscle harder.
You will absolutely feel it in one day, especially if you work out regularly, as you're regular work out will wreck you completely.
As for your comments on the names: Their brand names and brand names never were claimed to be interesting. Penguin Computing? Does that mean it was built by flightless birds in antartica?
And he's correct about the dextros, and he provides that information with the warning you so gleefully yack off on.
Go home pasty.
Re:illegal (Score:2)
Yes but what's bad about the comment is that he uses the GNC-world's pseudo-scientific terms as if they mean something. People with brain cells know that ExoIsoLimboHydroCalifragilisticexpialodociousness doesn't mean jack. The companies that market over the counter drugs to athletes and body builders prey on the fact that many of their are scientifically illiterate (other than what they learned from these drug companies, and from freinds and coaches who learned it from the same, ad infinitum). They hype up pseudo-scientific words and descriptions - and 99% of the time a scientist can show that the claims don't mean jack, or at least mean nothing at all similar to what people usually take them to mean.
Re:illegal (Score:2)
Creatine is great stuff, I used it in college for a couple of months on/off and had a noticable gain (the best measure I can give you is going up 30-40 pounds in my bench press over the course of about 3 months). I used to stack Creatine with Hydroxycut, and I got great results from that. Hydroxycut gave me the energy to work out after a full day behind a computer, and the creatine added the muscle. Don't do it for long, I think 2-3 months is the longest stretch you're supposed to use it and then cycle off for another 2-3.
Remember, more than anything a healthy diet and workout regimen are the most important parts. If you're taking anything (creatine, andro, hydroxycut...) and not working out or eating crap, you're doing your body a disservice. Good food, LOTS of water and working out are the way to go.
--trb
Re:illegal (Score:1)
Why would the legal status of a hormone supplement depend on whether or not it occurs naturally in the human body? If it did, I would have thought the dependence should go the other way: if something doesn't occur naturally in the body, it has more reason to be illegal, surely?
Re:illegal (Score:1)
Re:illegal (Score:1)
Over the past year, the Creatine helped quite a bit. I went from a 125 lbs geek to 155 lbs at age 35. I decided to start doing something about exercise since I sit at a desk all day. (Hm. I'm posting on
Judging from everything I've read on HGH, I will be staying far from this stuff.
Not the place to be asking (Score:2)
First, go to a shop that sells supplements. Not a GNC shop. Make sure the guy weighs at least 200lbs, works out regularilly, etc. Build some rapport. Ask him what he has "behind the counter". Then ask about HGH. Ask him about results, side effects, etc. Even if he doesn't use the stuff or sell the stuff, if you're at a knowledgeable shop he'll answer your questions. Make sure that they are smart questions or you'll get squat. (And not a set of squats at a squat rack).
Then read what the journals such as the New England Journal of medicine have to say about them.
Then decide where your stupid line is and whether taking HGH crosses your stupid line.
Then buy the penis enlargement program instead.
My personal advice is to go to a good gym regularily. If everyone who works out at this gym wears workout gloves, then you're not at a gym you're at a spa. Eat 5-7 healthy meals a day. Go easy on the carbs. Jack up the protein intake from sources like chicken and tuna. Then consider supplements such as protein powders, creatine, glutamine. But make sure you do your research.
I suspect evangelizing working out to the /. crowd is like evangelizing opensource to MS.
I'll leave you with some words of wisdom by Rocko from Undergrads [undergrads.tv]: Diets are for chicks. Real men go to the gym
Look Daddy, I'm a Farmer!!! (Score:2, Informative)
It used to be produced by sucking it out of dead people [bbc.co.uk] but now is now synthetically produced due to CJD (human variant of 'Mad Cow' disease) risks-- it comes from the pituitary gland so is high-risk for transferring the disease (possibly!)
... and in this press release from Nature [nature.com], they "suggest that boars (male pigs), which can produce up to half a liter of semen at a time, could be similarly engineered to produce pharmaceutical proteins both cost-effectively and efficiently"
... "Look Daddy, I'm a farmer!!"
Scientists are now looking at producing HGH from animal semen [nature.com] because "semen is a body fluid that can be collected easily on a continuous basis"
!!
I guess it goes
1. Get pig
2. Genetically engineer pig
3. Find someone to 'milk' half a liter
4. profit!
Damn it, I was eating!!!!! (Score:1)
HGH 'works' if you inject it (Score:4, Informative)
Professional bodybuilders inject it along with steroids and insulin; and it makes you big and strong when used that way, in combination with exercise and eating lots and lots of food. Atleast it does unless the insulin or the steroids kill you first.
In overdose of HGH causes deformed joints, and atleast one bodybuilder ended up with leukemia that was promoted by his abuse of HGH.
People with naturally high levels of HGH die young by the way, so it's very probably not a fountain of youth, although it may make you feel stronger and better, but you will probably die earlier.
Oh yeah, there's a natural way to boost HGH levels. If you've had no protein or carbohydrates for about 5 hours (doesn't work otherwise), 3 grams of arginine on an empty stomach triggers its secretion after about 1/2 an hour. It lasts for about an hour in the body. If after 1/2 an hour you eat some food, it may be very slightly anabolic but minisculy so. That's probably what they are advertising. If so, it's best taken before breakfast. Oh yeah, and taken that way, it's hardly anabolic at all, and probably can still cause the deformed joints if you overdose.
HGH can have some serious side effects (Score:3, Informative)
The Effects of Human Growth Hormone (Score:3, Informative)
HGH works by stimulating the growth of cartilage in the Epiphyseal Plate [vt.edu], which causes lengthening of the bone. Unfortunately, once you finish puberty, the epiphyseal plate hardens into the epiphyseal line, which is why you stop growing (if you get an X-ray done on your arm, have the doc point it out to you - it'll be right near the end of the bone, just before it widens at the end).
In mature people, however, elevated levels of HGH cause the sides of bones to thicken, leading to very heavy features in the face, and wide hands and fingers. This can be seen in pictures of 'Giants' as well - not only are they quite tall, but their hands and faces are quite wide as well.
Basically, HGH in large amounts is bad for the mature human being. There have been a number of studies on its effects, and the major bad ones include increased incidence of cancer and diabetes. You have to remember that this is a hormone, and hormones basically control our bodies - messing with their balance can have very bad side effects. If you're serious about bulking up, an exercise routine is a much better way to go.
Art Bell loves it (fear the shadow people) (Score:1)
Re:Art Bell loves it (fear the shadow people) (Score:1)
Yummie (Score:2)
Hmmmmmmmm, HGH. Sweet taste, some gigantism.
Growth Hormone (Score:3, Informative)
Giantism and Dwarfism are two conditions that can be caused from too much or too little HGH production. The most common reason for over production of HGH is a tumor on or near the pituitary.
Although the effects on growing animals are well documented, the effects on grown animals are less understood.
If I recall my college Endocrinology classes correctly, in children HGH has the most profound effects in long bones in the legs and arms. Long bones grow from the middle of the bones, in regions called growth planes (IIRC). HGH stimulates these growth zones.
The problem with using it on children is principally the dose. If a child is small and you give it HGH, you will increase it's growth, but you may also end up fusing the growth planes early. Thus the 4'6" boy may grow a whole foot, but finish growing early at 5'6". Once the growth planes fuse, HGH isn't going to do much that is visible.
Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) is used to stimulate milk production in dairy cows. However, the public concern about this practice caused Ben & Jerry's to ban the hormone in cows that provide milk to them.
I would be highly suspect of any HGH preparation you could buy from a spammer over the internet. HGH is a protein, and proteins can degrade during extraction. I recall using hormones in laboratory research and refrigeration was necessary for all our hormones at almost every step. Since the structure of the hormone is the reason it's biologically active, anything that can degrade the structure is a bad thing. A previous writer is also correct. Injection is preferrable to ingestion. Stomach acid does awful things to protein.
Ask your doctor (Score:2)
If you really want to know, ask your doctor. He will be able to tell you what the effects of HGH are, whether or not you can legally obtain it. In most countries, it would be classified as medication and thus subject to several regulations. Ordering this product from a spammer could be illegal.
If your doctor decides it would have beneficial effects on you and gives you a prescription, use that to obtain it, and not buy from the spammer. After all, you don't know what they will sell you, and when you have already paid, it is too late.
Whatever you do, do not buy anything from a spammer. (You don't want them to use you as an example to show that "spam works", do you?)
Personally, I wouldn't believe them. After all, if it really works, would they have to resort to spam to sell it?
You didn't see nothing (Score:2)
Re:You didn't see nothing (Score:2)
Dear /. (Score:1)
what I know (Score:1, Informative)
The stuff is not going to make you grow in height if you are past a certain age, I would think late teens would be the cutoff for most. It will make you gain muscle (if you are working out). All top body-builders use GH, as well as massive amount of steroids, and they are freaks of course. It is sort of holy-water for juicers, but its price seriosuly limits its use. Problems involved can be a lot of things. This stuff causes you to grow. I have seen people have to get braces because their teeth started messing up, a common thing is enlarged thyroid and even heart. Not a lot of research has been done on people at the doses bodybuilders are using it. And its not just bodybuilders. I would say olympic athletes abuse GH heavily because it is pretty much untraceable; the best they could do would be test your HGH level, but if you have been off just a few days it would have returned to baseline or less. Actually, sheesh, whats her name, the sprinter-lady with long finger nails, she had thyroid problems because of GH use.
It does not increase penis size, as that doesn't really have anything to do with "growing" in the HGH sense.
I have not tried HGH because it is extrememly expensive, and to use it adequately you have to inject frequently (at least 2-3 times a day) but it is a subcutaneous injection (insulin needle) so it wouldn't be THAT bad.
Some of this info may be bunk, it is just the 'underground juicer' heresy type gossip; and I have not even been keeping up with that for a good year now.
For those that like... (Score:2)
For those that use the keyboard and don't professionally wrestle, there's Ask Slashdot.
Humatrope (Score:1)
Lyle Alzado (Score:1)
Of course, he was probably taking enough to kill a race horse. From what I have both read and heard, this stuff makes bone tissue grow, not just muscle tissue. Who the heck knows what it does to your kidneys.
Penis Enlargement? (Score:1)
don't bother with it (Score:2)
It helps reduce bodyfat, increase vascularity, and with testosterone it will also increase lean body mass (will not do so on its own).
Any growth from it largely comes from its stimulation of IGF-1 (insulin like growth factors).
Bodybuilders mix it with insulin to get to the freakish size that they are now (not to mention it helps if your body already isn't very good at producing myostatin).
In obvious terms, the spam is worthless and you shouldn't bother with it.
Reasons why:
1) HGH is expensive, but WAY more expensive through these clincs that are spamming
2) worse yet, HGH is frequently faked, or people try to sell precursors or things that will stimulate natural production - they don't work (although IV glutamine has shown some response - but not oral).
3) once you start using outside sources of HGH, your body will shut down its own production, and for the most part, once it shuts down, it isn't coming back.
4) the side effects of giganticism are largely falsehoods - you would need HUGE doses of HGH for a long time, and your growht plates would need to not be fused yet - so when you are 10 and hit the HGH hard, then you will be tall and grow caveman-like features, but otherwise, you aren't likely going to.
The GH gut (large protruding abdomen) is argued to be a falsehood as well, but there seems to be fighting on either side how much that is true. It seems that the gut (seen in nearly all bodybuilders) is more likely from overfeeding and high levels of other hormones in the system, as well as torn abdominal supporting structures).
If you want to improve your body health and shape, you are far better off (in terms of health, long term side effects, and cost) just buying fish oils.
Fish oil is nearly all Omega-3s. The regular diet of the average person is high in Omega-6 but low in Omega-3 - raise up the latter and you will improve your insulin sensitivity as well as increase testosterone production, not to mention increased permiability in the cell membrane.
I can go on and on...