Human Growth Hormone of No help to Athletes

Athletes have been risking their carrier and reputation by taking human growth hormones to improve their performance. But this might be of no use, as a new study has found that, these hormones do not help in increasing the strength significantly.

Use of growth hormone is banned by the International Olympic Committee, Major League Baseball and the National Football League. U.S. law also prohibits its use for sports enhancement.

Dr. Hau Liu, who was the study’s lead author said, "It doesn't look like it helps and there's a hint of evidence it may worsen athletic performance." He is an affiliated clinical assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and associate chief of endocrinology at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose.

People who took growth hormone had swelling of their tissues and more fatigue compared to people not taking the drug, he added.

The data was collected from 27 studies covering around 400 people aged 13 to 45. The researchers found that using the hormone lead to a change in body composition which helped in adding some muscles but did not translate to either more strength or exercise capacity.

Researchers found that those who took doses of the hormone put on about 5 pound more of muscle, and lost about 2 pounds more of fat, although the fat loss wasn't statistically different. The researchers believe some of the extra body mass could just be fluid buildup in the body.

The researchers found that the situation in which the hormone increases the performance in when it is given to people with growth hormone deficits caused by pituitary tumors or other conditions. However in normal, healthy people it does not enhance strength.

Dr. Andrew Hoffman, a professor of endocrinology, gerontology and metabolism said that these results might not be hundred percent accurate as the athletes probably take much more hormone than the amount investigators gave to healthy people as it was ethically wrong. Also some athletes combine growth hormone with other anabolic hormones like testosterone which might help in performance enhancing.

Hoffman added that people get side-effects from high doses of hormones. They get fluid accumulation in the legs and pain in the joints.

Human Growth hormone is the performance enhancer of which baseball stars Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were accused of taking in the Mitchell Report. Clemens denies using the hormone, while Pettitte admits using it.