Serious Health Risks Attributed to Human Growth Hormone and How to Avoid It

Serious consequences of abuse

The society in general is concerned about the abuse of HGH therapy by many persons and especially athletes, celebrities, and those who are trying to beat the biological clock and remain young for much longer. Like we have said, there are many legal and safe uses of human growth hormone treatment in both children and adults, trouble abounds in what is referred to professionally as the "off label use" of growth hormone as an anti-aging agent or in the athletics market coming with a host of side effects and risks.   

One major risk factor that off label users have to contend with is the issue of proper dosage. Most of them assume that the dose they should use should be greater than that which is given professionally for the right purposes.  When one exceeds the doses that are proper and goes for something higher, there are complications they will encounter like those found in Acromegaly, an endocrine disease, which is the result of too much HGH in the body. The condition can very easily lead to muscle weakness and sometimes heart diseases.

Abuse by athletes

There is the other danger that athletes have to contend with. Because of advertisement they sometimes end up acquiring something completely different from what they intend to purchase. Thinking they got HG hormone, they end up with synthetic chemicals that are harmful to their health. Many of the preparations they by in the name of growth hormones are taken orally or through sprays, however, the scientific fact remains that the real HGH can only be administered through an injection.

The substances they end up with are usually anabolic steroid hormones or steroid precursors, which are suspected to promote the growth of tumors. The unlisted ingredients are usually in quantities only known to the manufacturer and the purity can also be in doubt

Danger of diseases

The human growth hormone that is administered professionally is made by recombinant DNA techniques and not from human tissue. Along time ago the only source of HGH was from the pituitary gland harvested from dead bodies but this is not the case anymore. This was discontinued because it was known to spread the rare but fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. There are suspicions that some of the HGH available from the black market is actually harvested illegally from cadavers and may carry this deadly disease.

Conclusion

The human growth hormone is prescribed legitimately for a number of serious health challenges such as GH deficiency, chronic kidney disease, and idiopathic short stature among many others. This however does not include anti-aging or improvement in athletic performance, using it for any purpose other than that which is intended puts one at a very big health risk.