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Human growth hormone (Hgh) therapy in elderly patients with hgh deficiency increases lean body mass and reduces body fat, helping them maintain fitness. Now, scientists say, that human growth hormone (Hgh) therapy may also dramatically boost the production of cells vital to fighting disease.

This conclusion is based on a human growth hormone (Hgh) therapy study published in the February issue of the journal Endocrinology. Using aging rats, researchers at the University of Illinois found that injected or implanted human growth hormone (Hgh) therapy stimulated the production of immunity-promoting hematopoietic cells in bone marrow, as well as in the spleen, liver and adrenal glands. Production in the treated elderly (2-year-old) rats was three times that of similarly aged, untreated rats and 80 percent of that in the more fit younger rats in the control group.

"By 60 years of age, 30 percent of men have dramatically low concentrations of plasma insulin-like growth hormone-1 (IGF-I), falling to levels found in human growth hormone (Hgh) deficient children," said Keith W. Kelley, lead investigator and professor of animal sciences in the UI Laboratory of Immunophysiology. "This is known as the somatopause of aging."

Some physicians now prescribe human growth hormone (Hgh) therapy to the elderly in an effort to counteract the effects of somatopause.

"These new results show that human growth hormone (Hgh) therapy of aged animals totally reverses the accumulation of fat cells in the bone marrow," Kelley said. "This reduction in fat cells is accompanied by a huge increase in the number of both red and white blood cells in the bone marrow, which is dramatically reduced in the elderly. These results establish that a classic hormone, Human Growth Hormone (Hgh), is a potent stimulator of the production of blood cells."

Such a production process is called hematopoiesis. "If similar results occur in the aged human, this kind of treatment approach could lead to an increase in the reserve capacity of both red and white cells," Kelley said.

Normal human growth hormone (Hgh) production declines as people age. Muscle size and tone wane, and fat accumulates not only in readily visible areas of the body but also within bone marrow, where it fills a void created by a declining number of hematopoietic cells. next >>

Human Growth Hormone - HGH Therapy