Growth hormone therapy is used in children to promote growth and in adults to improve muscle strength, reduce fat mass and improve metabolic profiles, which could predispose to cardiovascular disease. Despite the health benefits of growth hormone replacement therapy, using HGH therapeutically is still considered somewhat risky. Abnormally high GH levels have been associated with a number of disorders. The two classic disorders which are directly caused by high levels of GH are acromegaly and gigantism. Treatment with synthetic HGH may increase the risk of gigantism, an endocrine and metabolic disorder chracterized by abnormal size or overgrowth of the entire body or any of its parts. Gigantism and acromegaly are the same growth disorders; the former name is applied when it appears in children and the latter name is applied to the disorder in adults. Changes associated with acromegaly include coarsening of body hair, thickening and darkening of the skin, enlargement and overactivity of sebaceous and sweat glands such that patients frequently complain of excessive perspiration and offensive body odor, overgrowth of the mandible, cartilaginous proliferation of the larynx causing a deepening of the voice, and enlargement of the tongue. Excessive hormone production following growth cessation produces the irreversible disorder acromegaly that presents as enlarged hands, feet, and facial features. Excessive growth hormone is responsible for proliferation of articular cartilage which may undergo necrosis and erosion and endoneural fibrous proliferation which causes peripheral neuropathies. Excess GH also increases tubular reabsorption of phosphate and leads to mild hyperphosphatemia. Many of these symptoms are also seen in patients with gigantism. Children who suffer from kidney failure or who produce insufficient GH receive three-weekly biosynthetic HGH injections until adolescence to help them achieve near-normal size. In young adults with hypopituitarism, GH replacement therapy improves muscle volume, isometric strength, and exercise capacity.
Recombinant GH therapy may also cause edema, hypertension, carpal tunnel syndrome, hyperinsulinemia and impaired glucose tolerance. Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) refers to the compression of the median nerve (due to inflammation of flexor retinaculum, arthritis, or tenosynovitis) as it passes through the osteofibrous carpal tunnel along with the tendons of the long digital muscles which typically results in paresthesia, anesthesia, or hypesthesia in skin areas related to the thumb, index, middle, and lateral 1/2 of ring fingers. Carpal tunnel syndrome is believed to be caused by compression of the median nerve resulting from a swelling of tendons and sheaths. HGH supplementation can lead to enlargement of organs (the effect on the spleen can impair insulin production, which can lead to diabetes mellitus), an incrase of blood size can lead to hypertension, which also places stress on the heart due to increased blood viscosity or thickening, carpal tunel compression. Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs in adults being treated with GH, probably due to a combination of tissue growth and fluid retention causing pressure on the tightly confined nerves and tendons of the wrists. Swelling of the tendons in the carpal tunnel reduces circulation to the hands causing numbness and pain. It is well known that a person who performs repetitive motions with his hands might develop a repetitive stress injury such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Cardiovascular disease is a major health risk throughout the industrialized world. Atherosclerosis, the most prevalent of cardiovascular diseases, is the principal cause of heart attack, stroke, and gangrene of the extremities, and thereby the principle cause of death in the United States. Atherosclerosis is a complex disease involving many cell types and molecular factors. Positive risk factors for the development of atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction and stroke include high serum cholesterol (in low density lipoprotein (LDL) or very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) particles), triglycerides, lipoprotein (a), or fibrinogen levels, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, age and a family history of cardiovascular disease. Negative risk factors include high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol or apolipoprotein AI levels. Hypertension is a leading cause of human cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Another risk of using HGH injection is that the body may lose its ability to products its own HGH. Therefore, HGH use can lead to a degree of both psychological and physical addiction. |
|
