Growth Hormone (GH ) is one of many endocrine hormones, like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone,  Melatonin and DHEA, that all decline in production as we age. Hormones are tiny chemical messengers continuously secreted in the bloodstream in order to regulate the activities of the vital systems of the body. The word “hormone” is derived from a Greek word meaning to stimulate. Many of these hormones can be replaced to deter the effects of aging.
GH supplementation has been found to reverse age-related symptoms including increased body fat, decreased muscle mass, increased cholesterol, decreased stamina and energy, decreased mental function, decreased collagen production, wrinkling of the skin and loss of libido. When GH levels fall below the optimal range, supplementation can boost the body’s internal supply and production.
What is Growth Hormone?
Growth hormone is a naturally occurring hormone that is secreted by the pituitary gland. It is a very small protein substance that is chemically similar to insulin. It is secreted in short pulses during the first few hours of sleep and after exercise. GH promotes growth of cells, bones, muscles and organs throughout the body throughout life.
Every three years approximately 90% of the cells in the human body are newly re-made. The body is composed of more than 100 trillion cells that are continuously dying and regenerating. The brain and the nervous system retain their original cells; however, in the brain new proteins are continuously being produced to store memories of every new experience. Overall intelligence and the ability to learn and memorize all depend on adequate growth hormone.
Our bodies naturally produce GH in abundance when we are young, but its production gradually slows over time. Production of GH peaks during adolescence and falls after the age of 21 by about 14% per decade. By age 60 GH production is reduced by one-half. Healthy humans produce 500 micrograms per day at age 20, 200 micrograms per day at age 35. Between the ages of 70 and 80, the GH production can drop as low as 25 mcg per day. Individuals with higher levels of GH appear more youthful and report greater vitality and stamina.

Signs and Symptoms of aGHD

If you are diagnosed with Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency (aGHD), it may come as a surprise. That’s because growth hormone-deficient adults may have been told that their symptoms were simply due to “aging.” Signs and symptoms associated with aGHD include:

• Decreased muscle strength
• Decreased bone mass
• Increased body fat
• Decreased collagen production
• Increased Cholesterol levels
• Memory weakness
• Moodiness, depression or apathy

Because many other conditions can also cause these symptoms, it is very important to see a doctor if you suspect aGHD.

What causes aGHD?

aGHD can be caused by your own  hormonal decline, or environmental influences, including excessive oxidation, damage to the pituitary gland, surgery or radiation treatments that affect the pituitary.

 

Growth Hormone Testing

Growth Hormone is difficult to measure because of its pulsatile variation throughout the day. However, Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF-1 and IGF BP-3) is a related hormone produced in response to the secretion of GH that can be used to measure GH activity over the course of a 24 hour period. Unlike the pulsatile pattern of Growth Hormone secretion, IGF BP-3 levels are relatively constant and provide a superior marker of GH status in the body. Low levels of IGF-1 and IGF BP-3 are associated with decreased cardiac function, increased abdominal fat mass and general frailty due to decreased lean muscle mass and decreased collagen quantity and strength.
Growth Hormone Functions
While GH usage is not new, its availability as a supplement has been limited. Specialized clinics and physicians have been using GH injections for over 30 years on thousands of patients with consistent results.
CLINICAL  STUDIES
Effects of human growth hormone in men over 60 years old: by Rudman D, et al., Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin,Milwaukee. Source:N EnglJ Med 1990 Jul 5; 323(1):1-6
SUMMARY: 21 healthy men from 61 to 81 years old who had plasma IGF-I concentrations of less than 350 U per liter during a six-month base-line period and a six-month treatment period that followed.
RESULTS. In group 1 that received hGH injections (0.03mg/kg 3 X/wk), the mean plasma IGF-I level rose into the youthful range of 500 to 1500 U per liter during treatment, whereas in group 2 that received no treatment, it remained below 350 U per liter.
RESULTS: The administration of human growth hormone for six months in group 1 was accompanied by an 8.8 percent increase in lean body mass, a 14.4 percent decrease in adipose-tissue mass, and a 1.6 percent increase in average lumbar vertebral bone density.

CONCLUSIONS

Diminished secretion of growth hormone is responsible in part for the decrease of lean body mass, the expansion of adipose-tissue mass, and the thinning of the skin that occur in old age.
Numerous clinical studies have shown the following after 6 or more months of GH therapy:
GH  Benefits

• Improved memory
• Enhanced immune system
• Quicker wound and fracture healing
• New hair growth and color
• Sharper vision
• Improved exercise performance
• Increased muscle mass
• Reduction of cellulite and fat
• Increased stamina and vitality
• Reduction in high blood pressure
• Improvement in sleep
• Wrinkle reduction and smoothing
• Decrease in LDL (bad) cholesterol
• Increase in HDL (good) cholesterol
• Strengthening of bones
• Anti-aging

CLINICAL   BENEFITS
Everyone is different but many patients report the following (results may vary from person to person):
1st Month: Increase in mental sharpness, enthusiasm for life and an elimination of a mild to moderate depression. More energy, better results from exercise and weight control efforts. Better sleep.
2nd Month: Improved muscle tone, enhanced sexual function, improvement in nail growth, improvement in skin tone, better digestion, increased strength & weight loss. Improved hair growth-thickening of hair with a shiny & healthy appearance.
3rd Month: Mental processes improve, including desire to do & complete projects, increased muscle size, especially if the individual works out, hair growth, reduction in post menstrual symptoms in women, increased sexual desire, greater body flexibility.
4th Month: Same as 3rd Month: Generally most improvements are heightened and more consistent.
5th Month: Impressive weight loss, reduction of inches, since fat is reduced & muscle tissue is increased, toned improvement to skin texture, reduced appearance of wrinkles, Vast improvements of hair growth.
6th Month: This is a rather significant stage since cellulite greatly diminishes, body is more contoured, eyesight is greatly improved, stronger resistance to colds, flu, and other illnesses, some pain & soreness will disappear, old wounds heal, excellent exercise tolerance, grayed hair begins to return to natural color, medical test show a reduction in cholesterol (LDL) & triglycerides, blood pressure normalizes, heart rate improves, some conditions due to disease vanish or are diminished & immune system improves.
Is Growth Hormone Safe?
GH has been successfully used in the medical community for over thirty years and has been studies for over 60 years. It is generally safe as long as the total blood levels are kept within the optimal zone and not pushed above that level.  No potential mutagenicity of GH was revealed in a battery of tests including induction of gene mutations in bacteria (the Ames test), gene mutations in mammalian cells grown in vitro (mouse L5178Y cells), and chromosomal damage in intact animals (bone marrow cells in rats).
Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and its main binding protein, IGF BP-3, modulate cell growth and survival, and are thought to be important in tumour development. Circulating concentrations of IGF-I might be associated with an increased risk of cancer at high levels, whereas IGF BP-3 concentrations appears to be associated with a decreased cancer risk. (Lancet. 2004 Apr 24;363(9418):1346-53.)
GH should not be used when there is any evidence of neoplastic activity. Intracranial lesions must be inactive and anti-tumor therapy complete prior to the institution of therapy.
Growth hormone should not be initiated to treat patients with acute critical illness due to complications following open heart or abdominal surgery, multiple accidental trauma, or to patients having acute respiratory failure.
Are there side effects?
In clinical trials with GH in 1,145 GH deficient adults, the majority of the adverse events consisted of mild to moderate symptoms of fluid retention, including peripheral swelling, joint or muscle pain and stiffness of the extremities, tingling or decreased sensitivity. These events were reported early during therapy, and tended to be transient and/or eliminated with reduction of dosage.
 

When should I think about replacing hormones?

In the average man and woman, hormones start to decline in the mid to late twenties. By age 35 declines are sufficient that symptoms maybe evident. If you want to reverse the signs of aging, boost your vitality, reduce fat, increase lean muscle  mass and strengthen collagen and bone density you should test your Growth Hormone levels and find out whether or not your levels are low. The best time to start testing and treating declining hormones is before age 45. However it is never too late.

Natural Growth Hormone Building Blocks/Stimulators

 
Secretropin^® is not Growth hormone, it is a secretagogue which enhances the signals that your body sends to the pituitary gland to tell it to make more growth hormone. Unlike injectable growth hormone, Secretropin^® works within the regulatory mechanisms that controls the level of growth hormone that your body can produce.
In simple terms, when your body produces growth hormone another hormone called Somatostatin is also produced in proportion to the amount of growth hormone produced.  As the level of GH production rises so does the level of Somatostatin. At a level called the Threshold, somatostatin will stop the pituitary from producing GH. As the GH levels decrease so does the level of somatostatin. At some point the inhibitory ( negative feed back) effect of somatostatin on the production of GH is lost and GH production starts back up.
When a person uses injectable GH, it doesn’t matter that the Somatostatin level goes up very high and shuts off the natural production of GH by the pituitary because, you are replacing the lost production with injections of GH. In fact, after two days of GH injections your natural production of GH has dropped by 40% and after 30 days your natural production of GH is zero. This is caused by the high spike in the production of somatostatin by the brain when injectable GH is used.
When using a secretagogue like Secretropin, GH levels have been recorded to elevate from 50-300% above the baseline. When this spike in GH occurs and is at or above the Threshold, somatostatin shuts off the natural GH production by the pituitary gland. Therefore, patients using Secretropin^® can experience a drop-off in GH production which is corrected by lowering the dose of Secretropin.
When a patient who is using injectable GH stops, it can take up to a year for their own pituitary function to reestablish full production.
Secretropin^® has been shown over 12 years of clinical research to increase the production and release of growth factors (GH, IGF-1 and IGFBP-3).  This was accomplished with over 1000 patient months worth of blood testing and not just 16 patients as other products tout.
Starting in 2001, Secretropin^®, a non-peptide, secretagogue that has clinically been found to increase the production and release of GH (as measured by IGF-1 and IGFBP-3) through a number of neurochemical pathways; suppresses Somatostatin, stimulates production of GHRH, agonistic to Dopanergic and Gherlin receptors, and the non-specific Synthetic GH Receptors.  Additionally, Secretropin is believed to directly stimulate pituitary Somatrophs thereby increasing the production and release of GH.  Secretropin is classified as a natural food (dietary) supplement and not a drug. Secretropin does not contain any (prescription) drugs.
Presently, there are nearly 2000 physicians worldwide using Secretropin^® as a first approach to growth hormone, IGF-1, and IGFBP-3 enhancement.  It is a safe and cost effective means of increaseing IGF-1.  This is why many of our leading hormone specialists are starting with Secretropin and not leaving. Ask your physician for Secretropin before injectable. A practical solution for important results.
 
Secretropin^® Ingredients
Ornithine
Ornithine is derived from the amino acid arginine. High doses of oral ornithine have successfully raised GH levels. Bucci et al investigated the effect of 40, 100 and 170 mg/kg of oral L-ornithine HCl. 25% of the subjects experienced a significant increase in their serum GH level at the two lower doses, while 50% of the subjects showed an increase in GH at the highest dose. GH levels increased up to four times higher than the baseline level.7
Arginine
Arginine (Arg), when taken in large quantities, has also been noted to increase the serum levels of GH, IGF-1 and IGFBP-3.8 The mechanism of this stimulated increase has since been found to be due to the suppression of somatostatin release.9,10
 
Ornithine-alpha-ketoglutarate (OKG)
Ornithine alpha-ketoglutarate (OKG) is formed of two molecules of ornithine and one molecule of alpha-ketoglutarate. OKG is a promising anti-catabolic agent that promotes wound healing and protein synthesis. Researchers have hypothesized that OKG fulfills these functions by encouraging the secretion of insulin and GH, and by upregulating glutamine and arginine production. When fed enterally to trauma patients, OKG significantly increased both IGF-1 and GH levels.11
 
Arginine and Lysine
During resting conditions, GH was significantly elevated 60 minutes after consumption of arginine and lysine compared with the placebo trial. The researchers concluded that ingestion of 1500 mg arginine and 1500 mg lysine before resistance exercise did not alter exercise-induced changes in GH in young men. However, when the same amino acid mixture was ingested under resting conditions, an acute increase in GH secretion occurred.12
 
Glycine
Glycine is a non-essential amino acid contained in gelatin protein and is an important component of collagen. Although early research focused on glycine’s ability to increase strength in athletes, more recent research has shown the reason this occurred was the result of its GH-boosting capabilities (with females experiencing a 22% increase and men a 32% increase in cycle ergometry workloads after ingestion of 5-12 g of glycine daily).13,14
 
One study clearly illustrated glycine’s ability to act as a GH secretagogue. When 19 normal, nonobese subjects consumed 6.75 g of glycine orally, GH levels significantly increased for 3 hours, reaching a maximum of 3 to 4 times that of baseline at 2 hours. According to the researchers, glycine is one of the stimulatory agents inducing the pituitary gland to secrete GH.14
Glutamine
Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in human muscle and plasma, directly regulating both the production and wearing-down of protein, as well as immune cell activity.15 When healthy subjects consumed 2 g of oral glutamine 45 minutes after a light breakfast, 89% of the subjects experienced elevated plasma GH within 90 minutes. These findings demonstrate that a small oral glutamine load is capable of elevating plasma GH. Glutamine is converted into citrulline in the small intestine, which in turn triggers the synthesis of arginine, an amino acid shown to increase the release of GH by suppressing somatostatin release.9,10 Moreover, glutamine is converted into glutamate, which directly enhances GH secretion.16-19
 
GABA
Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the brain’s major inhibitory neurotransmitter. Studies have shown that GABA is responsible for both the rise of GH (when at rest) and the inhibition of GH (when exercising). Oral GABA supplementation has increased GH levels in humans. In one study, a single oral dose of 5 g of GABA administered to 19 subjects significantly elevated plasma GH levels compared to placebo-treated controls.20 A number of studies have demonstrated that alcohol consumption abolishes the ability of GABA to affect the secretion of GH. 21
 
Mucuna Pruriens
Also known as the velvet bean, Mucuna contains a significant amount of extractable L-dopa (L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine) in its seeds and roots.22 Unique to this natural form of L-dopa is its rapid absorption and bio-availability with a low potential for toxicity when compared to the pharmaceutical, synthetic product.23,24
 
When L-dopa/dopamine binds to the DR2 cell receptors in the brain, an atypical neuroregulatory mechanism leads to the stimulation of GH production and release.25, 26 The elucidation of this relationship has been tested in obese premenopausal women who have suppression of dopamine production by virtue of their obesity. Bromocriptine use improved upon the circadian GH secretion which added support to the role of Dopamine Receptor-2 as an adjunctive means of stimulation of GH secretion.27
 
Liposomal Delivery Technology
A liposome is a spherical vesicle composed of a bilayer membrane. In biology, this refers to a membrane composed of phospholipids, and a cholesterol bilayer. Liposomes can be composed of naturally-derived phospholipids with mixed lipid chains (like egg phosphatidylethanolamine), or of pure surfactant components like DOPE (dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine). Liposomes, usually but not by definition, contain a core of aqueous solution; lipid spheres that contain no aqueous material are called micelles, however, reverse micelles can be made to encompass an aqueous environment.28
 
Liposomes were first described by British hematologist Dr Alec D Bangham FRS in 1961, at the Babraham institute, Cambridge. They were discovered when Bangham and R. W. Horne were testing the institute’s new electron microscope by adding negative stain to dry phospholipids. The resemblance to the plasmalemma was obvious, and the microscopic pictures served as the first real evidence for the cell membrane being a bilayer lipid structure.29
 
Liposomes are used as drug delivery systems due to their unique properties. A liposome encapsulates a region of aqueous solution inside a hydrophobic membrane, preventing dissolved hydrophilic solutes from readily passing through the lipids. Hydrophobic chemicals can be dissolved into the membrane, and in this way the liposome can carry both hydrophobic molecules and hydrophilic molecules. To deliver the molecules to sites of action, the lipid bilayer can fuse with other bilayers such as the cell membrane, thus delivering the liposome contents. By making liposomes in a solution of DNA or medication (which would normally be unable to diffuse through the membrane) they can be (indiscriminately) delivered past the lipid bilayer.29
 
Liposomes can also be designed to deliver drugs in other ways. Liposomes that contain low (or high) pH can be constructed such that dissolved aqueous drugs will be charged in solution (i.e., the pH is outside the drug’s pH range). As the pH naturally neutralizes within the liposome (protons can pass through some membranes), the drug will also be neutralized, allowing it to freely pass through a membrane. These liposomes work to deliver drug by diffusion rather than by direct cell fusion. Another strategy for liposome drug delivery is to target endocytosis events. Liposomes can be made in a particular size range that makes them viable targets for natural macrophage phagocytosis. These liposomes may be digested while in the macrophage’s phagosome, thus releasing its drug. Liposomes can also be decorated with opsonins and ligands to activate endocytosis in other cell types.30
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