Can human growth hormone slow aging?

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Cecil’s 2004 column is back on the front page: Can human growth hormone slow aging? - The Straight Dope

Any interesting research since then?

[Melbourne]

I’ve read an interesting anecdote: After bike race doping became such a big story, there was a journalist/rider who did a season on drugs, to see how well he would do. He reported that there were some drugs he wouldn’t take again even if paid to do so. And there was HGH, which he’d have continued with if he could afford it.

One of the things he particularly liked was that he could stop useing glasses: his age-related lack of accomadation was reversed.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Very interesting - thanks. Any other, more scientific studies?

[mike625]

Growth hormone: Hormone of Stress, Aging, and Death?

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@mike625

Growth hormone: Hormone of Stress, Aging, and Death?

Thanks. I saw no study more recent than 1999 cited there, however.

[Pork_Rind]

@Melbourne

I’ve read an interesting anecdote: After bike race doping became such a big story, there was a journalist/rider who did a season on drugs, to see how well he would do. He reported that there were some drugs he wouldn’t take again even if paid to do so. And there was HGH, which he’d have continued with if he could afford it.

One of the things he particularly liked was that he could stop useing glasses: his age-related lack of accomadation was reversed.

I believe this is the article you’re thinking of.

For me, it would be a quality-of-life question, not a performance issue. If the HGH weren’t so expensive, I’d probably continue with it, at least until I had a good reason not to, like some new evidence that it makes you grow extra ears. (The side effects of HGH are reportedly mild—one is fluid retention.) If nothing else, it helped my eyesight, and I had more energy. Lately, I’ve been reading studies about how endurance athletes suffer from low testosterone, which leads to early signs of osteoporosis, so I’m going to continue to monitor my levels and, if they drop too far, consider boosting them with the cream.

With the EPO, even if somebody gave it away, I wouldn’t go down that road. Using it is too much of a literal and figurative headache, and if you get sloppy there’s always the danger of nasty results. And I would never touch steroids again, unless I had some specific medical need. It’s all just too powerful, too strange, and it’s hard to read a list of the side effects and not feel like you’re playing Russian roulette.

[Melbourne]

@Pork_Rind

I believe this is the article you’re thinking of.

Thank you. I’ve mentioned that to several people, but had lost track of the original. I had, of course, lost track of the fact it predated not postdated Cecil’s article… (It was re-published in several places).

Since first reading that article, my Mom was given EPO. It didn’t help her win bicycle races, but it did make her more active, alert, and intelligent than she had been for years. It’s effect was so positive, I asked my doctor why they didn’t just give it to her all the time? He said it was because it was dangerous and might kill her.