This is one of my older articles, but I wanted to post this due to a recent convo regarding hgh.

Now, we all hear or read the comments about how this hormone must be ran for a period of 6 months or more to reap the benefits or see results. Based on my own experiences thus far, I became motivated to further explore the physiological relationships with the hormone. In doing so, I came across various studies and facts that prove this to be untrue. I hope this doesn’t open the door for argumentative conversations with close-minded individuals. Instead, I wanted to share my findings in hopes that these facts would illicit some exploratory conversations on the benefits of GH – both short- and long-term.

My experiences…

Within the first week of my run, I began to notice some subtle changes/differences in myself. Keep in mind that I began the GH as a part of a specific pct experiment to which I will post lab results in due time. What I began to noticed, however, was a drastic elevation in my moods and increase in mental focus, as well as drastic decrease in my levels of stress. You miGHt ask, ‘coincidence?’ I thouGHt that to be a possibility, but I listen to my body when it speaks.

I am a very A-typical personality type. As a result, I tend to be very prone to stress, so this obviously stuck out for me. During my two days off for the first week, I began to REALLY notice a drastic shift towards the stress side of things, and my moods were a bit volatile. After about mid-day of the first day back on the GH, I noticed the stress levels decrease and felt a sort of calming/leveling effect (best way to describe the shift in my stress levels – not to be taken as a feeling of euphoria).

Aside from these psychological aspects, by week 2-3, I began to feel as thouGH my clothes were getting a bit looser. Some of my leaner body parts began to show a bit more vascularity and definition. From all the hype, I expected to experience some bloat or water retention, but I have yet to see any evidence of this in myself. I thouGHt to myself, maybe I’m trippin’. I can’t be leaning up this quick... Then I began getting compliments as others noticed the same differences that I was noticing.

Research Findings…

Naturally, my inner nerd decides to educate myself on the physiology behind these changes. I first began to explore the relationships between GH levels (not secretion) and the stress hormones, which ultimately led me into exploring the relationships between GH and the neurotransmitters. Lastly, I wanted to gain an understanding of the relationship between the hormone and the lipolysis process. Rather than getting technical with this, I will try to summarize the findings and include the reference links at the bottom.

During these studies, serum levels were measured of neurotransmitters and GH. The test subjects included subjects with pituitary GH deficiency and GH hypo- or hypersecretion. In the deficiency group, the subjects were administered exogenous GH. As a result, the focus was to observe the relationships between the serum levels not the secretion of GH. In summary, the findings revealed that a direct relationship exists between GH levels and serotonin levels. As serum GH levels increased in the test subjects, the levels of serotonin also increased. Likewise, as the GH levels declined, so to did the levels of serotonin.

The roles that serotonin plays within the body include mood elevation, suppression of stress hormone cortisol, hunger, and sleep. The need for serotonin production induces hunger pains because the brain depends on glucose to synthesize the neurotransmitter. This is the body’s attempt at supplying glucose.

Serotonin also acts as an antagonist to the stress hormone cortisol. Because the human body is programed to always strive for achieving homeostasis, we see the relationship between the stress hormone, GH, and the neurotransmitter. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone that exhibits decreases in moods, increases in stress levels, and has been shown to be linked to depression. In an attempt to achieve homeostasis, a chain reaction occurs. Cortisol drives GH production in the pituitary. Moderate amounts have been shown to increase GH secretion up to an extent. Excessive amounts – like what is found in clinically depressed individuals – has been shown to decrease and even inhibit the production of GH. Because of the direct relationship between GH and serotonin, the rise in GH simultaneously illicits a rise in serotonin levels. As serotonin levels increase, the antagonistic role it plays against cortisol begins to take over; thereby, suppressing the stress hormone all together. This was observed in the test subjects within a matter of hours, so the fact remains that mood elevation is indeed an acute side effect of GH.

As for the fat reduction, below is a brief excerpt from the study I found on the relationship between GH and lipolysis:

While growth hormone (GH) has long been known as a lipolytic hormone, it has been difficult to study the cellular mechanisms for this effect. Since cultured 3T3-F442A adipocytes have recently proven to be useful to study chronic effects of GH on adipocyte metabolism, we examined the effects of GH on lipolysis. In these cells, GH alone produced a dose-dependent increase in the release of glycerol after 24 to 48 hours. The maximum increase occurred with 10 ng/mL human GH.

The abstract continued in more detail, but I will try to sum it up in a way that is easier to understand. Within the fat cells, GH alone has been shown to have a dose-dependent increase in the breakdown of triglycerides within adipose tissue. This is accomplished by way of hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), a key lipolytic enzyme.

Excessive macros are stored in adipose tissue as triglycerides. Triglycerides are comprised of 3 fatty acids joined together with a backbone of glycerol. The primary role of HSL is to break the chemical bonds that join the fatty acids and the glycerol molecule. As a result, fatty acids are released into the blood stream to be made available for energy purposes. This process was observed to be dose-dependent with an increase after 24-48 hrs with levels of 10 ng/mL human GH.

Although I would agree that there are some long-term effects/benefits that can only be observed with a more long-term serum level, the facts here prove IMO that some short-term benefits can be expected. Hope this is informational to some and easy to understand.

References:

http://endo.endojournals.org/content/110/2/376.short

http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/280/4/E616.long

http://www.springerlink.com/content/a9kbl3wug495nc1w/fulltext.html