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Should Women Take Growth Hormone?
Human growth hormone or HGH is something that some bodybuilders and fitness models use in order to get ready for a fitness or bodybuilding competition. In this article, I explain more about HGH and what it does.
What is HGH?
HGH also is known as growth hormone is naturally produced by the human body. Growth hormone is made by the pituitary gland located at the base of the brain.
Growth hormone plays an important role in the human body, it keeps tissue, the brain and other vital organs in the human body healthy.
Another kind of growth hormone is somatropin, a peptide hormone that stimulates cell production, growth, and cell regeneration in humans.
Once our body secretes HGH it remains active in the body for several minutes, allowing the liver to convert it into insulin growth factor (IGF-1) which promotes healthy cell tissue growth throughout the body.
When I first head about HGH I actually thought it was a steroid, it seems to be popular amongst both male and female bodybuilders.
There are synthetic equivalents of HGH sold, however, it is illegal unless it is prescribed by a doctor so you do need a prescription to buy it legally.
How popular is HGH?
In the U.S the DEA claims that HGH is one of the most abused drugs among bodybuilders and athletes.
There are several reasons why bodybuilders take HGH many use it along with other steroid substances in order to enhance the look of their physique.
HGH is a forbidden substance by both the World anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee, getting busted with this substance is serious and you could end up in jail.
Does HGH increase athletic performance?
Since GH is not legal it’s hard to follow specific performance enhancements if any, however, there have been a few studies done on the effects HGH can have.
One study was conducted by a team of researchers from California, they studied 440 individuals to see if there were performance enhancements from using HGH. The subjects had an average age of 27 years with a body mass index of 24 and in good physical shape. Of the subjects 85% of them were men.
Of the subjects, 303 of them received HGH injections every day for 20 days, 137 subjects received placebo shots.
At the end of the study, the subjects who received the injections gained 4.6 pounds of lean body mass, however, there was not a big increase in athletic performance.
It seems that the biggest benefit of using HGH is to increase lean muscle mass.
Other benefits of taking HGH include:
- Quik fat loss.
- Helps slow down the aging process
- Makes it easier to gain lean muscle
- Increase muscle definition and vascularity
- Reduces muscle recovery time
HGH is not only used by fitness models and bodybuilders it has been used by actors in Hollywood in order to get a chiseled body fast.
Many years ago Sylvester Stallone got busted for the possession of GH, I don’t deny that Sylvester did not work out hard to get his muscular body but I’m sure that the growth hormone helped improve muscle definition and make his six-pack abs stand out more.
Potential side effects of taking HGH
Some of the immediate side effects of taking HGH include bloating and it can increase glucose levels which can reduce insulin sensitivity. Long term use could cause diabetes.
From most of what I have seen and researched about HGH, it seems like an expensive route to take for the sake of a few more pounds of muscle and a little less body fat. I have seen on some bodybuilder forums where people will pay anywhere between $600.00 $1500.00 a month for HGH therapy which is outrageous.
Most women don’t need that unless you in fact are older and suffer from some kind of medical condition, otherwise you may get just as much benefit from taking a natural HGH supplement.
Conclusion
Unless you are a competitive fitness model or bodybuilder HGH is one of those substances that is naturally occurring and there are certain things you can do to increase HGH which includes eating certain foods or even applying certain training techniques.
It has been shown that high-intensity exercise can naturally increase HGH.
References:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12457419/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18362505/
Conclusions and opinions given in this article are for educational and entertainment purposes only.
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Hi My name is Rosalie and the author of Womenandmuscle.com I started this blog to help women understand a little about the side effects of anabolic steroids and share some of my favorite alternatives that have helped me stay in shape and improve my performance in the gym.