This is an article from Projo from 2005...I have tried to find a link to this, but there is nothing available to link it..
It's I think an important article given the situation with Harrison and the sudden spotlight of HGH. Curran was way ahead of things with this article..and it brings up many points about it.
It's I think an important article given the situation with Harrison and the sudden spotlight of HGH. Curran was way ahead of things with this article..and it brings up many points about it.
Growth Hormone Efficient, Evasive
What HGH can do for athletes and the fact that it's virtually undetectable combine to make it arguably
the most tempting performance enhancer out there.
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, April 10, 2005
BY TOM E. CURRAN
-----Journal Sports Writer-----
Here's the choice. You're 21. You have a chance at earning a half-million in the NFL if you take something called human growth hormone (HGH). On the other hand, you have a guarantee of working as a bouncer while you finish your degree and a list of alumni names who may or may not be interested in helping you find a job now that you don't actually, you know, play football anymore. Which seems like the better option?
How about this one. You're 29. You have a year left on your contract. The next contract, the one that will set you and your family for life, might come next year. Or it might not. Because lately you feel just a half-step slower, not as strong. It's harder to recover from a Sunday afternoon's worth of simulated car crashes. Do you take HGH to ensure that mega-contract or do you resign yourself to the fact that your professional career is nearing an end before your third decade on the planet begins?
One more. You're a by-the-book person and proud of it. But in your line of work, you know that there are guys skirting the rules, using HGH. Guys who want your job. Guys you compete against on Sundays. You know there's no way they're going to get found out. And you know there's no way you'll be found out if you skirt the rules, too. Do you attempt to level the playing field? Or do you allow yourself to stay in what you perceive to be a professional disadvantage and play by the rules?
HGH may be the most daunting performance enhancer for professional sports to deal with. HGH builds muscle and burns fat. There is no urine test for it and it disappears from the system within 36 hours of its being administered. None of the American professional sports leagues test for it, not even the NFL, which has the most effective and comprehensive testing program for banned performance enhancers like steroids,ephedra and androstendione.
The first tests for HGH were administered at the Athens Olympics. According to published reports, about 300 athletes had blood drawn for HGH testing. It's unlikely that any pro sports union would agree to blood testing.
What HGH has the potential to do and the fact that it's virtually undetectable combine to make it arguably the most attractive performance enhancer for an athlete.
In a recent 60 Minutes segment, a former employee of South Carolina doctor James Shortt said she filled steroid prescriptions for three members of the 2003 Carolina Panthers. The employee, Mignon Simpson, also stated as fact that Panthers players received HGH and that she personally shipped it. She added that "probably a half-dozen" professional football players were sent HGH from Shortt's office on "a fairly regular basis."
If I were an athlete, I'd take HGH before steroids, said Dr. Mary Lee Vance, professor of medicine and neurosurgery at the University of Virginia Medical School. "It will increase muscle mass and it does good things for people with deficient (insulin-like growth factor 1 levels). But it shouldn't be used for athletic training. That's trading your health for your career. I really feel it's important that the public know that (HGH) is not a safe thingfor people to do."
Vance has extensively studied growth hormone and its effects and her research on growth hormone's effect on aging was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February of 2003. Her study was done in
response to a widely referenced 1990 NEJM study that said growth hormone administered over a six-month period to 12 men between the ages of 61 and 81 significantly increased lean body mass and decreased fat.
The initial study was often cited by supplement companies as proof of synthetic growth hormones' effectiveness. Vance believes in growth hormone's ability to aid growth but, in her article, mentions a 1994 study
that showed growth hormone improved body composition but not strength in resistance training.
A normal pituitary gland produces growth hormone in pulses throughout the course of each day. When the pituitary gland secretes growth hormone it binds to receptors on the liver which stimulates the liver to release
IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1). IGF-1 then stimulates bone and muscle growth and metabolism. Most is secreted after exercise and during the fourth stage of sleep. During youth and adolescence, growth hormoneproduction is highest and its levels taper off as we age. People with growth defeciencies -- children in particular -- are sometimes prescribed synthetic growth hormone. To give it to someone to build athletic performance is simply wrong, said Vance. Asked why, she responded, "Because it can be harmful. Too much causes acromegaly, overgrowth of joints, enlarged heart, blood pressure problems, growth of hands, feet and jaw." But Vance did acknowledge that it could aid athletic performance. It builds muscle, she said. "It reduces fat mass in people who are GH deficient and it raises energy levels. I give a lot to people who make none. In adults, it improves energy, tolerance and strength. That's what we want for people who have (no growth hormone), wewant to restore them to normal. But abuse is giving that hormone to someone who has normal levels. It's not right." It's also impossible to detect. Vance said a colleague in Germany is close to developing a more efficient test for excessive growth hormone levels. Currently, the only way to test for it is with a blood sample and even then, it's only detectable for a short time.
The NFL is aware of and concerned about HGH. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello recently told the Philadelphia Inquirer: "When (a test) is developed we will include that in our program. It's not something we're doing as a result of (the 60 Minutes piece). It was in the works. We don't accept that this as a widespread practice in the league."
Perhaps he's right. But in a business where being stronger, faster and bigger than your opponent is an advantage, the lure of taking something that will help you become all those things is understandable. And the fact that nobody may know you're taking it makes it all the more enticing.
The fact is, while the nation is currently on high alert for steroid abuse by its professional athletes, a more effective and harder to detect performance enhancer called HGH is out there. And the only deterrent for it is
the athlete's own conscience.
