The hGH market reportedly amasses $2 billion annually, and majority of this staggering amount is not earned through hGH therapeutic applications but for its anti-aging and athletic-enhancing properties. And this is causing jitters from both the medical community and the federal government.

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center and the University of Illinois published an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) with regards to this growing concern. The article revealed many concerns about nonmedical use and distribution of hGH and principal of these concerns are the so-called anti-aging and age-management clinics, which aggressively market hGH (Human Growth Hormone) and use deceptive marketing tactics to lure customers. By deceptive, the group says, these clinics intentionally cross out the potential risks of hGH use. Since the article’s publication in 2005, the research group says the problem is getting worse, and the public should be warned against this.

“Despite the overwhelming evidence that the risks and dangers of growth hormone far outweigh the clinically demonstrated insignificant benefit in normally aging individuals, the prescribing, distribution and sale of hGH for alleged anti-aging aesthetic and athletic enhancement has dramatically grown over the past few years. Clearly, the coordinated and aggressive marketing campaigns of the anti-aging and age-management industries are highly and most unfortunately effective,” says Dr. Thomas Perls, Director of the New England Centenarian and medical professor at the Boston University School of Medicine.

“In my capacity as a reviewer of medical records seized from anti-aging clinics by the DEA, I almost never see hGH provided in isolation. It is usually a part of a complex cocktail of one or more anabolic steroids, human chorionic gonadotropin (specifically for men to decrease the obvious signs of steroid abuse such as small testicles and enlarged breasts), thyroid hormone, DHEA and other drugs. Additional drugs such as blood pressure medicines, diuretics and insulin may be given to treat the side effects of the basic cocktail,” Perls adds.

The authors of the study propose that several measures need to be taken to address the inappropriate distribution and use of hGH.

Among their recommendations are (as published at Science Daily):

•    The public must be accurately informed by physicians and scientists who do not have a vested interest in hGH, about health risks, fraudulent marketing and illegal distribution of this drug.
•    Organizations that promote or indirectly profit from the medically inappropriate and illegal distribution of hGH that have been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to offer American Medical Association Physician Recognition Award (PRA) category 1 CME credits or other categories of CME credit should, at a minimum, have their accreditation revoked.
•    U.S. manufacturers of hGH must be more effective in, and held accountable for, controlling the distribution of the drug to companies providing the drug for illegal uses.
•    Congressional hearings and media attention surrounding hGH should focus less on athletes and prominent entertainers who are also victims of deceptive marketing and pushing of hGH, and much more on the distributors who are violating federal and state laws by making the drug available for non-approved uses.

Tags: age-management clinics, anabolic steroids, anti-aging clinics, HCG, HGH, human growth hormone, nonmedical use of hGH, steroids

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