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Your body naturally makes growth hormone to help fuel growth during your childhood and to help maintain your tissues and organs throughout your life. Beginning in your 40s, your pituitary gland — the pea-sized structure at the base of your brain where growth hormone is made — slowly reduces the amount of the hormone it produces.
Some people believe the dwindling level of growth hormone is responsible for the frailty that typically comes with getting older. And that's prompted some who are concerned about growing old and losing independence to turn to injections of synthetic human growth hormone (HGH) to stave off the realities of old age. But there's little evidence to suggest human growth hormone is the Fountain of Youth.
Who needs to take human growth hormone?
Synthetic human growth hormone is available only by prescription and is administered through an intramuscular injection. It's currently approved to treat adults with true growth hormone deficiency — not the expected decline in growth hormone due to aging. Growth hormone deficiency can be caused by pituitary tumors and radiation or surgery to the pituitary gland, among other causes.
Human growth hormone is also approved for:
- Children with short stature
- Children with kidney failure
- Children with Prader-Willi syndrome
- Children with Turner's syndrome
- Muscle wasting associated with AIDS and HIV
Studies of adults with growth hormone deficiencies show that injections of human growth hormone can:
- Increase bone density
- Increase muscle mass
- Decrease body fat
- Bolster the heart's ability to contract
- Improve mood and motivation
- Increase exercise capacity
Because of those results, some people believe that synthetic human growth hormone can help healthy older adults who have naturally low levels of growth hormone regain some of their youth and vitality.
What can human growth hormone do for healthy older adults who don't need it?
Studies of healthy older adults taking human growth hormone are limited. Many involve a small number of people followed for a short period of time. The studies that have been conducted have found that human growth hormone injections can increase muscle mass and reduce the amount of body fat in healthy older adults.
That increase in muscle doesn't translate into increased strength. Though the study participants gained muscle, they weren't any stronger. One study compared older men who took human growth hormone with older men who went through strength training programs. The bottom line: Strength training can increase both your muscle mass and your strength, making it cheaper and more effective than taking human growth hormone.
It isn't clear whether human growth hormone can provide other benefits, such as increased bone density and improved mood, to healthy adults. Most of the research into human growth hormone has focused on people with true growth hormone deficiencies.
