Human Growth Hormone Breakdown: What Is HGH?
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — YouTube videos promise Human Growth Hormone (HGH) can turn any scrawny bodies into the body of a god.
However, orthopedist and sports medicine doctor Gary Brazina says HGH should not be confused with anabolic steroids.
"You'll see studies done by the people hawking it, touting fantastic results, the reality is there are no good scientific double blind studies," Dr. Brazina told KCAL9's Cristy Fajardo.
Dr. Brazina has Olmypians among his patients, and he says HGH is too often touted as a 'fountain of youth' type of drug.
HGH can be found online all over the internet, but Dr. Brazina says those online versions are simply synthetic versions of a naturally-occuring hormone, which makes our bones and muscles grow.
"Some people say it increases heart disease, and it makes everything grow, so if you have cancer, that's going to get juiced upo and grow stronger too," Dr. Brazina added.
Still, he says some findings suggest HGH might help the elderly put on muslce, and help younger people heal after surgery.
Dr. Brazina also argued that if Peyton Manning did in fact use HGH, it would not make him a better athlete.
"He's not going to throw the ball farther, or be more accurate, but he is going to get over surgery sooner," Dr. Brazina said.
