Healthy aging: Over 50 (27)
- DHEA: Evidence for anti-aging claims is weak
- Easy bruising: Common as you age
- Human growth hormone (HGH): Does it slow aging?
- see all in Healthy aging: Over 50
Healthy retirement (6)
- Aging: What to expect
- Long term care: Early planning pays off
- Memory loss: 7 tips to improve your memory
- see all in Healthy retirement
Dependent seniors (5)
- Home care services: Questions to ask
- Alzheimer's disease
- Adult day service: What you need to know
- see all in Dependent seniors
Free
E-newsletter
Subscribe to Housecall
Our weekly general interest
e-newsletter keeps you up to date
on a wide variety of health topics.
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Human growth hormone (HGH): Does it slow aging?
Human growth hormone is described by some as the key to slowing the aging process. Before you sign up, get the facts — and understand proven ways to promote healthy aging.
By Mayo Clinic staffGrowth hormone is produced by the pituitary gland — a pea-sized structure at the base of the brain — to fuel childhood growth and help maintain tissues and organs throughout life. Beginning in middle age, however, the pituitary gland slowly reduces the amount of growth hormone it produces. This natural slowdown has prompted an interest in the use of synthetic human growth hormone (HGH) to stave off the realities of old age.
If you're skeptical, good for you. There's little evidence to suggest human growth hormone can help otherwise healthy adults regain youth and vitality.
Who needs to take human growth hormone?
Synthetic human growth hormone, which must be injected, is available only by prescription. It's approved to treat adults who have true growth hormone deficiency — not the expected decline in growth hormone due to aging.
Growth hormone deficiency in adults is rare and may be caused by pituitary adenoma — a tumor on the pituitary gland — or treatment of the adenoma with surgery or radiotherapy. For adults who have a growth hormone deficiency, injections of human growth hormone can:
- Increase bone density
- Increase muscle mass
- Decrease body fat
- Increase exercise capacity
Human growth hormone is also approved to treat AIDS- or HIV-related muscle wasting.
What can human growth hormone do for otherwise healthy adults?
Studies of healthy adults taking human growth hormone are limited. Although it appears that human growth hormone injections can increase muscle mass and reduce the amount of body fat in healthy older adults, the increase in muscle doesn't translate into increased strength. It isn't clear if human growth hormone may provide other benefits to healthy adults.
Next page(1 of 2)
- Smit P, et al. Growth hormone therapy and risk of malignancy. The Endocrinologist. 2008;18:39.
- Nass R, et al. Effects of an oral ghrelin mimetic on body composition and clinical outcomes in healthy older adults. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2008;149:601.
- Liu H, et al. Systemic review: The safety and efficacy of growth hormone in the healthy elderly. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2007;146:104.
- Giannoulis MG, et al. The effects of growth hormone and/or testosterone on whole body protein kinetics and skeletal muscle gene expression in healthy elderly men: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2008;93:3066.
- Blackman MR. Use of growth hormone secretagogues to prevent or treat the effects of aging: Not yet ready for prime time. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2008;149:677.
- Olshansky SJ, et al. New developments in the illegal provision of growth hormone for "anti-aging" and bodybuilding. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2008;299:2792.
- Can we prevent aging? National Institute on Aging. http://www.nia.nih.gov/NR/rdonlyres/E50A04DC-BDA8-4CF3-AE7E-82C2B5F94C90/15120/CanWePreventAging.pdf. Accessed Nov. 3, 2010.
- Import alert no. 66-71: Detention without physical examination of human growth hormone (HGH), also known as somatropin. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cms_ia/importalert_204.html. Accessed Nov. 3, 2010.
- American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. Guidelines for use of growth hormone in clinical practice. Endocrine Practice. 2009;15:1.
Find Mayo Clinic on