What About HGH – Again!

By Nurse Mark

Our friend Ron asks us some good questions: As a bodybuilder he is always looking to improve his physique, and like so many people he is looking for that “magic bullet” that will take the hard work out of it. We hear this often – variations of “I don’t want to change my diet, I don’t want to have to exercise, and I don’t want to have to remember to take all those vitamins – don’t ask me to change my lifestyle, just give me a pill or a shot that will make me slim and strong and young!”

Here is Ron’s question:

Hey Doc, as always I ask you first… Tell me about HGH. A friend of mine takes the injectable type. $400.00 a month. Is the stuff good / bad?? He does get it from a Doc. But I do know not all Docs are created equal…   Thanks  Ron

Hi Ron,

Here we go again with the hGH… We’ve talked about hGH before, and our thoughts on this subject have not changed – while hGH is not necessarily harmful, there are far better ways to spend $400 a month.

Here is a tidbit taken from the Wikipedia website – a good source of information for so many things:

Some old scientific articles have demonstrated that hGH supplementation does not significantly increase muscle strength or aerobic exercise capacity in healthy individuals. While it is possible that there are some advantages, such as an increase in lean body mass, it is also evident that benefits are being exaggerated by some for commercial gain and ineffective products are being sold to unsuspecting consumers. [emphasis added]

Newer studies have shown that hGH supplementation in adults can improve body composition by increasing muscle mass and decreasing fat mass. It may also improve bone density, improve muscle strength, improve cardiovascular parameters such as LDL cholesterol, and improving the quality of life. In my opinion it is highly likely that these improvements are as much a result of the exercise and workouts that the people who use hGH do as they are to the hGH alone. In other words, if you diet, exercise and work out you are going to see improvements – hGH or not!

The use of moderate doses usually has no side effects. However – BUT – and this is a big BUT – hGH is not a “magic bullet.” You cannot be given an injection of hGH and expect to be miraculously transformed into some sort of real-life “Incredible Hulk” as Lou Ferrigno was in the movies. You cannot expect to lose fat mass without reducing your dietary intake, and you cannot expect to increase muscle mass and strength without exercising. It just ain’t gonna happen!

Now, as for your friend:

Fortunately he is being sold “the injectable type” – so he is not being totally “ripped off.” The pills and sprays and other potions that claim to provide hGH are bogus. The hGH molecule can ONLY be absorbed into the body when it is injected. When it is “snorted” in a spray it is too large to be transported across the mucous membranes into circulation and when it is ingested orally it is simply broken down and digested. Taken from the DEA website:

Various oral preparations (e.g., sprays and pills) purported to contain hGH are also marketed and distributed. However, hGH is only bioavailable in the injectable form. The hGH molecule is too large for absorption across the lining of the oral mucosa and the hormone is digested by the stomach before absorption can occur.

Now, you remember that I said moderate hGH use usually has no side effects – but not always. Some side effects reported by previously healthy adults after taking high hGH doses include:

• Edema (fluid retention and swelling)
• Joint pain
• Carpal tunnel syndrome (possibly related to edema)
• Hypertension (possibly related to fluid retention)
• Insulin resistance, diabetes and other problems with glucose metabolism
• Gynecomastia (enlargement of male breasts) This is “man boobs” and NOT larger pecs!

Long-term hGH use is not well studied, except in children for acute growth deficiencies. An increase in colon cancer and Hodgkin’s Disease has been observed with long-term use in children.

The bad news for your friend, or more correctly for your friend’s doctor, is that unless he is prescribing and dispensing hGH for a proven deficiency of hGH (beyond the normal decrease in levels that comes with ageing) he is doing a very risky dance with the DEA, the FDA and with his medical licensing board. The government and medical boards have absolutely no sense of humor when it comes to the use of hGH for athletic performance enhancement and consider it to be a very serious offense. Here is a quote regarding “legal” uses of hGH taken from the DEA on their “drug diversion” webpage:

Accepted medical uses in adults include but are not limited to the treatment of the wasting syndrome of HIV/AIDS and hGH deficiency.

I’m certain that I would not want to put myself in a position where the “friendly, helpful folks” from either the DEA or the FDA might visit me to ask questions about how and why I was being given this drug – again from the DEA webpage:

Human growth hormone is not controlled under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). However, as part of the 1990 Anabolic Steroids Control Act, the distribution and possession, with the intent to distribute, of hGH “for any use…other than the treatment of a disease or other recognized medical condition, where such use has been authorized by the Secretary of Health and Human Services…and pursuant to the order of a physician…” was criminalized as a five-year felony under the penalties chapter of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act of the FDA.

Yikes! A federal felony conviction and five years in the slam!

So, just what could a person do with that $400 a month that might be more effective and legal than hGH injections?

(As always, be sure to follow the links for more detailed information and references on each of these items.)

Start with the basic foundation of a good optimal-dose multiple vitamin like Maxi-Multi : $39.95

Add a high-potency, top quality fish oil like Maxi Marine O3 to provide Omega-3 essential fatty acids important to muscle and heart health and for their anti-inflammatory effects : $54.95

Be sure to take CoEnzyme Q 10 – a supplement that has solid research showing that it increased athletic performance. It is important for cellular energy and vital for heart health : $35.95

Acetyl-L-Carnitine and Alpha Lipoic Acid are both proven to be extremely important in the transport of free fatty acids into the cells and in the proper utilization of carbohydrates as energy – something that is necessary for anyone wanting to reduce fat mass and build muscle mass : $24.95 and $19.95 each.

There you have it – a basic supplement regimen for fat loss and muscle-building for just $175.75 a month.

Whether you supplement with hGH or not, you are going to have to work out to build muscle. hGH will not make muscle magically appear out of nowhere. Without some raw materials what will you build that muscle with?

That leaves plenty for some add-ons like Super Shake fixin’s – the pure high-quality protein and other ingredients will go a long way to supplying you with the raw materials your body needs to build muscle without extra carbs that will be simply stored as fat. Two Super Shakes a day for a month will set you back $231.60 and your body will thank you.

So, for about the same as the cost of hGH injections which aren’t going to magically increase muscle mass (at least not the way body-builders want muscle mass!) you can nourish your body with fat-burning, muscle-building-specific supplements. You can give your body the raw materials and the energy-transporting machinery it needs when you do your workouts.

Why would anyone take the chances involved with hGH steroid use for athletic performance enhancement?

One last tidbit from the DEA:

hGH is listed by the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee as a performance enhancing drug barring athletes from using it.

So, Ron, here is my thought on the issue: Do it right, do it honestly, do it legally, and when you have the physique that you want you can know that you have done it “fair and square” – no tricks, no drugs, no cheating.

By Nurse Mark

Our recent article “Girlie Man Water” drew some feedback – like this note from our friend “Ninja” Ron;

Wow this article’s just in time. Hey Doc & Mark, Its me Ron still in Iraq . But went on R&R did a dose of Test [testosterone] (IM) and took some nolvadex… anyway I took a few doses and decided NOT – I’ll try and stay natural, I have enough health problems… How about an article about how to gain weight and natural ways to really raise test levels. Anyway  thanks – I should be home in 5 weeks.   Ron

Now, Ron is a martial arts student and instructor, and weight trains regularly. I’m not sure if Ron would call himself a “bodybuilder” in the competitive sense but he is serious about staying fit and “pumped.” He is also having to work harder at it as he is no longer a young man – it takes more effort for us fellas to keep and build muscle as we age and our hormone levels change away from those of youth. As a result, the temptation to “help out mother nature just a little bit” with some synthetic drugs becomes a siren song for some.

This is not without risk, and Ron hit the nail on the head when he said “I’ll try and stay natural, I have enough health problems…”

As many bodybuilders and other athletes have discovered, there is more to it than just a simple injection of testosterone or other steroid hormone, or a quick fix in a bottle of pills to alter or block the normal metabolism of our naturally occurring hormones. Fooling around with any one of these things in isolation is a recipe for health disaster!

Yes, plenty of guys do “‘roids”, and plenty of guys seem to get away with it just fine – until they don’t. Like the person who says “well, I was in great health – until I had my first heart attack!” they are fine until their bodies rebel – then they can find themselves “in a hurt-locker” very quickly.

Here at The Wellness Club we really, strongly recommend that nobody ever fools around with their hormones unless they are doing so with the guidance of a physician who is well-trained in hormone balancing and who has the benefit of a Hormone Profile from which to work.

If hormones are deficient, or excessive, or unbalanced a Hormone Profile will reveal it and a good physician can recommend effective natural ways to correct and optimize for maximum performance and best health.

So, Ron, when you get back Stateside we’ll look forward to doing a Male Hormone Profile, or better yet a Comprehensive Plus Hormone Profile with HGH on you – that way we’ll know what we are working with.

Gaining weight (fat) is easy – just eat a bunch of carbohydrates! Gaining muscle mass is a little trickier – proteins and essential fatty acids are, well, essential to our diet while carbohydrates are certainly not essential to human dietary intake. The limited amounts of carbohydrates that are required by some specialized tissues of our bodies are easily supplied for us by our livers through a process called gluconeogenesis. Eating for muscle mass is easy – get plenty of high-quality, hormone and antibiotic-free proteins and fats, and avoid carbohydrates as much as possible. As muscle mass increases and fat mass decreases things get even easier, as the fat cells are not there to produce estrogens. Guys, you did know that fat cells make the female hormone estrogen didn’t you…? When you lose the fat you lose a source of estrogen!

There are some herbs that tend to stimulate an increase in endogenous testosterone – maca is one and tribulus is another. Are they “magic bullets” or some form of “herbal viagra?” Heck no! But they can be helpful as a part of a carefully planned male wellness and longevity protocol and we use these and other herbal supplements routinely for our male patients. Should you just go ahead and get a bottle of each and start taking them, hoping to increase testosterone? NO! If you are having trouble with that concept, please re-read the paragraphs above dealing with hormone testing and balancing – simply “increasing testosterone” could do the very opposite of what you want if you are not careful!

Hormones are a tricky thing – foods are converted to hormone precursors that are converted to pro-hormones, that are converted to hormones, that are converted to other hormones, and so on – and a problem in any one of the biochemical steps in this process can result in imbalances. It is not so simple as just getting a shot of testosterone!

We will be running some additional articles about eating for optimal athletic performance and supplementation for healthy male hormone balance in the near future – so stay tuned…

Until then, Ron, watch your six, stay alert, stay safe, and get back home to us in one piece real soon!

Cheers,
Nurse Mark

Are You a Deer In The Headlights?

By Nurse Mark

It was late and dark and the highway was like glass, covered in powdery snow and ice. I was driving a 1/2 ton truck and pulling a powerboat on a trailer, traveling at about 50 mph. Suddenly, just outside the illumination of my headlights, I caught a glint of reflected light. Just one heartbeat later, a deer leaped onto the road in front of my truck.

With several tons of inertia on ice, I knew only too well that a sharp swerve or hard braking would spell disaster. I tried my best to slow and move aside as much as I could.

I will never forget the look in that poor creature’s eyes.  I could almost hear it’s thoughts: “Uh… oh, what to do … Should I jump left? Should I jump right? Maybe straight up? Uh, Uh, what to do, what to do?” I could see it wavering; a bit to the left, a bit to the right, but it never actually moved – it stood, transfixed.

Then came the sickening whuuuuump! I had slowed and moved across to the other lane, but not enough to save the animal. My quick decision to brake and swerve as best I could had surely saved me and my truck. The impact crumpled my right front fender, but I was able to continue my trip because my radiator was not damaged. The deer did not fare as well.

The poor deer’s indecision — paralysis actually — cost it its life. Had it moved in either direction instead of standing paralyzed it would likely have survived. I felt terrible for the animal, but was glad to be safe myself.

Why tell this painful story?

Because we have been seeing that “Deer-in-the-headlights” look a lot lately since Dr. Myatt has recently been overwhelmed with stage 4 cancer patients in her practice. (For those of you who don’t know, Stage 4 is very advanced cancer – “Stage 5” is the funeral service…)

Conventional medicine pretty much gives up on stage 4 cancer patients and treats them as “hopeless,” “terminal,” and “palliative” or “hospice.” But we don’t give up, and as a result we get plenty of referrals from other so-called “hopeless cases” – patients of ours who have confounded the predictions of their conventional doctors and are now referring friends and acquaintances to us when they too are turned away, given up on, and all-but-abandoned by conventional medicine.

We also hear a lot from folks who have just been given that most terrifying of diagnoses: cancer.

Cancer is a word that strikes fear into the heart – for we intuitively know that despite the grandiose claims made by the drug companies, conventional medicine does not have a very good track record when it comes to most cancers. Cut, burn, and poison are the treatments offered, and despite a few high-profile success stories (think Lance Armstrong), the results are more often disappointing (think Patrick Swayze).

People fear that the diagnosis will sentence them to a lingering and painful illness, punctuated by mutilating surgeries, nauseating drug treatments, and debilitating radiation exposures – none of which offer much of a promise of extended life though they do promise to make whatever life remains feel longer…

So we take on cancer patients.

And many — I’d say most — exhibit that very same terrified “Deer-in-the-headlights” look of indecision.

You see, they have been “researching” on the internet. They have been reading how-to-cure-your-cancer books written by cancer survivors. They have talked to their friends, their family, their neighbors, their hairdresser, their dog groomer, their postman, their accountant – none of whom is a cancer expert, but each of whom is more than willing to offer their own treatment advice based on something they heard or read somewhere that someone else claimed to work.

Apple cider. Alkalinizing. Juice Fasting. Veganism. Carrot juice. Celery juice. Pineapples. Green apples. Saunas. Exercises. Detoxification. Enemas. Bloodletting. Blood infusions. Vitamins. Coral Calcium. Energized water. Ionized water. De-ionized water. Magnetically aligned water. Oxygenated water. Hydrogen peroxide. Silver ions. You name it, someone is promoting it.

The list of “guaranteed cures” is as endless as the people that are happy to assume the role of cancer expert and recommend them.

So the poor person freezes with that “deer-in-the-headlights” look of indecision. Too many choices, too many promises – how can they all be right? Which one is right? How to know? What to do? How to do it?

If they don’t come to us, many of these people will stand, transfixed, like the deer – not really doing anything, or doing little bits of this and little bits of that and little bits of every other idea and treatment that they hear; but not ever deciding one one thing, one path to follow.

Like the deer in the headlights, indecision will cost them their life.

When they do come to us we have our work cut out if we are to help them: Not only must we research and determine the best course of treatment for each individual patient (oh, come now; you really didn’t think that there was one magic, secret, fail-proof, natural herbal cure for cancer did you?) we also have to find a way to cut through all that mesmerizing, overwhelming information overload that these patients come to us filled with.

“I heard that…”
“But what about…”
“I read in this book…”
“I found on the internet…”
“I got this email that says…”

The reality is that there are exceedingly few treatments that Dr. Myatt has not heard of and researched to determine it’s merits. If something works, it is in our arsenal. If it doesn’t work, no matter how promising the advertisement or book sounds, we won’t waste precious time with it.

Then when we have recommended a course of treatment we must deal with the nay-sayers:

“My doctor / oncologist / chiropractor / massage therapist / pharmacist / veterinarian says that this is a dangerous treatment / herb / supplement / diet…”
“My neighbor says that your idea can never work and I should try…”
“I read that a diet like this can cause (insert organ or body part here) damage…”
“I have a book that says (insert herb or vitamin or other remedy here) will work and that your recommendation won’t…”

All the while, time’s a-wasting! The clock is ticking, and when the cancer is to that 4th and last stage, time is short – and precious.

For every cancer treatment, no matter how unusual, unconventional, or even outlandish, there is at least one person – if not more – who will swear that it has cured their cancer. Whether the claim of cure is accurate or the cure was a coincidence is something we’ll often never know, since many of these treatments, remedies, and cures and backed up not with peer-reviewed scientific research but by testimonial.

“Ah, but the government / conventional doctors / pharmaceutical companies are suppressing it!” people will say – and they may be right. Even so, if there is any shred of credibility to a treatment, Dr. Myatt and her research team will know about it – she is very good at separating truth from fiction in these matters!

So, if you have cancer, do something! Don’t be that deer in the headlights; don’t allow yourself to be gripped by indecision. Pick a program. Chart a course. Choose your doctor and let your doctor do his or her job helping you to find your best strategy for treatment. Then do it whole-heartedly!

That’s not to say that if compelling evidence of the need to do something different comes along you must not change – it just means that you must not succumb to the temptation to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that, all the while really doing little indeed. Asking questions of your doctor is fine – but stopping treatment or delaying treatment while waiting to have each concern of every other well-intentioned outsider answered is simply a waste of precious time. Time is something that most stage 4 cancer patients just don’t have.

And remember: While I’ve talked about cancer patients here, this same advice goes for anyone who has been given any serious diagnosis: cardiac, diabetic, viral, renal, whatever. Even people wanting simply to lose weight or improve their overall health succumb to this “deer in the headlights” syndrome!

Research is fine, but only action will change your health.

P.S. Remember that reading one or two books constitutes “secondary knowledge,” and that actual medical practice and experience constitutes “first-hand knowledge.” Dr. Myatt and I both recommend that anyone with a life-threatening medical condition work with a skilled holistic practitioner who can bring this first-hand knowledge to your case. A little bit of second-hand knowledge is a shaky platform from which to make life-and-death medical decisions.