# Can human growth hormone slow aging?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-human-growth-hormone-slow-aging/627058
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [July 3, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-human-growth-hormone-slow-aging/627058 "2012-07-03T02:46:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@IceQube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IceQube)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-human-growth-hormone-slow-aging/627058/1 "2012-07-03T02:46:04Z")
Word bolded for emphasis:
> [@Cecil Adams](#):
>
> Here’s the story so far. HGH is a chemical produced by the body that’s essential to normal growth in children, and scientists have now come to realize it’s important in adults, too. In many but not all elderly people, HGH levels drop well below those of adults in their prime, and some researchers think this leads to loss of lean body mass, increased body fat, and other hallmarks of aging. Before the mid-80s the sole source of HGH was the pituitary glands of cadavers, but gene-splicing technology has made it possible to produce synthetic HGH in quantity, though still at a stiff ( **sorry** ) price.
Why does Cecil apologize for his use of the word “stiff”? Is there some sort of innuendo I’m missing?
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-human-growth-hormone-slow-aging/627058/2 "2012-07-03T02:47:47Z")
Stiff=corpse, it’s a pun - for which some people, inexplicably, feel a need to apologise.
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-human-growth-hormone-slow-aging/627058/3 "2012-07-03T15:28:26Z")
It’s a more modest way of saying “ha ha, see my funny pun? Ha ha”.
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### Author:  [@IceQube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IceQube)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2012, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-human-growth-hormone-slow-aging/627058/4 "2012-07-05T04:46:35Z")
Ohhh … now I perceive the word “cadaver” preceding the word “stiff.” I thought the pun was sexual in nature at first (although that didn’t make much sense, I didn’t really have much of an alternate explanation).