Understanding Growth Hormone Deficiency

• A growth hormone deficiency is caused by any disease or condition that results in your pituitary gland producing a less than adequate supply of growth hormone.
• Growth hormone levels naturally decline with age, and sometimes this leads to a kind of age-related growth hormone deficiency.
• In adults with age-related growth hormone deficiencies, growth hormone replacement therapy has been clinically proven to increase muscle mass, improve fat metabolism, increase strength, and improve cognition.

Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency is very real, and it can be a very debilitating condition. If you are a man or woman over 40 and are experiencing unusual levels of fatigue, weakness, and/or sexual health issues, you may be suffering from growth hormone deficiency.

Growth hormone, also known as Human Growth Hormone, or HGH, is one of the most important hormones in your body. It is the presence of HGH that stimulates and regulates all of the processes that allow you to literally grow from a child to an adult. As you might have guessed from its name HGH, is what is responsible for the growth of all the cells of your body. Growth hormone is secreted by the pituitary gland, a small gland at the base of the skull, with a very big purpose. In addition to HGH, the pituitary releases 7 other critical hormones.

In a person with growth hormone deficiency, also known as “GHD,” the pituitary fails to produce and release enough growth hormone. GHD is more common in children than in adults. Children with GHD will fail to reach their full stature, or not fully mature in other ways. However, increasingly, doctors and researchers are recognizing a condition known as Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency. Instead of failing to “grow up,” adults with GHD will exhibit tiredness, fatigue, depression, will gain weight more easily, and may even experience erectile dysfunction or other sexual performance issues. If those sound like the symptoms of “just getting older,” you are right, and that is no coincidence. That is because your growth hormone level decreases as you age, resulting in a condition known as “age-related growth hormone deficiency.”

If you are a man or woman over 40 and are experiencing unusual levels of fatigue, weakness, and/or sexual health issues, you may be suffering from growth hormone deficiency. In a person with growth hormone deficiency, also known as “GHD,” the pituitary fails to produce and release enough growth hormone.

Age Related Growth Hormone Deficiency

There is a type of adult growth hormone deficiency that is the result of a pituitary malfunction, which is usually the result of an injury or a disease state such as cancer.  This type of adult GHD can result in some very severe symptoms such as:

• Significant weight gain, and body mass imbalances
• Muscle loss leading to reduced strength
• Fatigue
• Lethargy
• Poor general health
• Increased triglyceride levels
• Higher than normal LDL or “bad” cholesterol
• Increased sensitivity to cold
• Increase risk of “comorbid” conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension
• Depression
• Baldness in men
• Reduced energy
• Reduced bone mass, osteoporosis
• Memory loss, impaired concentration
• Reduced sex drive

However, the normal decrease in HGH levels that occurs as we grow older, results in a kind of partial GHD, or what can be described more accurately as “age-related growth hormone deficiency.”

The signs and symptoms of age related GHD vary, and can mimic many other disease conditions. This is why age-related growth hormone deficiency can be very hard to diagnose. Symptoms can include: increased fat, particularly belly fat, loss of lean muscle mass, diminished muscle strength, a lack of physical energy, loss of stamina, mood swings, anxiety, depression, memory loss and other cognitive issues, even sexual dysfunction.

The signs and symptoms of age-related GHD vary, and can often be confused with simply growing old. This is why age-related growth hormone deficiency often goes undetected.

How is Age-Related Growth Hormone Deficiency diagnosed?

Laboratory blood testing directly for Growth Hormone levels are difficult to interpret since levels are extremely low & variable during the day, and not very practical.

IGF levels may be helpful to guide toward a diagnosis, along with the clinical symptoms, as noted above.

Response to Growth Hormone treatment.

How is Age-Related Growth Hormone Deficiency Treated?

If you are over 35 and properly diagnosed by a practitioner who specializes in hormone therapy, the easiest way to treat age-related GHD, is to replace what time and nature takes away, with HGH replacement therapy.

HGH replacement therapy is given to you with a doctor’s prescription via growth hormone injections.

There have been enumerable medical studies and published research papers that have documented the many positive benefits of growth hormone therapy. HGH replacement therapy has been shown to:

• Reduce fat, particularly abdominal fat
• Increase strength
• Improve vitality
• Improve mood
• Help build lean muscle
• Improve sexual performance

Of course, results can vary, and not everyone will see all of these improvements from HGH replacement therapy. However, you should expect a general improvement of your quality of life with treatment.

Until very recently, age-related growth hormone deficiency was largely ignored by conventional medicine, its symptoms usually ascribed by general practitioners to “just getting older.” However, antiaging professionals now know this is a very real condition that can leave men and woman over 40, mentally and physically compromised, and unable to continue to enjoy doing the things they love in life. Studies have even suggested improved memory and cognitive abilities with use of HGH.

However, such individuals with adult growth hormone deficiency, no longer need to suffer in silence. Thanks to our greater understanding of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in general, and HGH therapy specifically, men and women are realizing that they can grow older, without missing out on the things that they love in life.

Once properly diagnosed, the safest and most effective way to treat age-related GHD, is with growth hormone replacement therapy. HGH replacement therapy is given to you with a doctor’s prescription via growth hormone injections.

HGH side effects may include:

• Increased blood sugars
• Hypothyroidism
• Pancreatitis
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Joint pain
• Headache

HGH should not be used/or used with caution under the following:

• Diabetes
• Diabetic retinopathy
• In patients with known cancers
• In patients with severe scoliosis

HGH replacement therapy is not a miracle cure for aging or for the consequences of neglect of one’s health. HGH, can however, along with a combination of a healthy diet and regular exercise, help restore your health & body to a level that you never thought possible. Only by being proactive & involved can you get to where you want to be.

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