Is HGH (Human Growth Hormone) a performance enhancing drug?
This is a follow-up question to one asked by Greta a few days ago and my answer about a common baseball myth. We all agree that HGH is on the MLB banned list of drugs, but if it is not taken in conjunction with any other drugs will it help to enhance performance?
GPC: Your reference does not say anything about adding muscle mass and adding strength.
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6 Responses to “Is HGH (Human Growth Hormone) a performance enhancing drug?”
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Depends on how you define the term "performance enhancing."
If you mean "will it make you stronger, faster, quicker, etc." the answer is no.
It will make you taller if you are a young kid and your growth plates in your leg bones haven’t closed yet.
What HGH does do for an athlete, at least in theory, is help the body heal faster. So, if you are a workout fiend like Bonds, and you are approaching 40, the recovery time needed after a workout may go from 48 hrs down to 24hrs.
So, in that sense, it can enhance performance because it can enable you to train harder.
It also can help injuries heal, again theoretically. Actually, by the same mechanism it helps you recover after a workout (the soreness and pain is caused by micro-tears in your muscle fibers which HGH can help heal quickly).
Again, though it won’t make an injured pitcher throw harder, but it might get them back on the mound quicker. IF you define performance enhancement as "enabling you to perform at a healthy level more quickly" then yes, it could be considered an enhancer.
By contrast, anabolic steroids CAN increase strength dramatically when combined with a training program. They are most certainly performance enhancing.
Yes
"HGH" redirects here. For other uses, see HGH (disambiguation).
Growth hormone (GH) is a hormone that stimulates growth and cell reproduction in humans and other animals. It is a 191-amino acid, single chain polypeptide hormone which is synthesized, stored, and secreted by the somatotroph cells within the lateral wings of the anterior pituitary gland. The hormone is also known as somatotrophin when referring to growth hormone produced by recombinant DNA technology, and is abbreviated "rhGH".
Growth hormone has a variety of functions in the body, the most noticeable of which is the increase of height throughout childhood, and there are several diseases which can be treated through the therapeutic use of GH.
I heard it doesn’t. Apparently loads of body builders use GHB because it releases HGH. It says on http://www.erowid.org that this has no effect….hmmm
Yes it will. It stimulates growth and cell-reproduction, essentially by the cells reproducing at an increased rate, it heals the muscles that are partially torn during exersize. By healing more rapidly, they grow stronger more quickly.
HGH is naturally found in the human body at low levels but not with enough potency to drastically effect performance.
In laymans terms, it aids in healing so the athlete can get back on the field quicker.