Human Growth Hormone basically promotes linear growth in prepubertal children. HGH acts on the liver and other tissues to stimulate the production of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I, also known as somatomedin C), which is responsible for the growth-promoting effects of HGH and which serves as an indicator of overall growth hormone secretion.
The declines in HGH production and the decrease in muscle mass in healthy elderly subjects, and presumably in adults with growth hormone deficiency, have led to attempts to determine whether the administration of HGH will be advantageous to them. In an experiment which involved 61-to-81-year-old men who had HGH levels below those of healthy younger men after six months it was shown that they had an increased lean body mass. However when the same experiment was performed on healthy men who had the correct levels of HGH, there was not much difference in the fat to muscle ratio but their insulin levels had shot up.
Furthermore there are a lot of side-effects that involve HGH. HGH can affect carbohydrate metabolism adversely (producing hyperinsulinemia, glucose intolerance, and diabetes mellitus), the musculoskeletal system (producing arthritis and arthralgia), and the cardiovascular system (producing hypertension, edema, and congestive heart failure), as exemplified by acromegaly. Therefore, before the use of growth hormone in healthy older adults must be researched further and a lot of questions must first be answered.
If growth hormone is to be given to healthy older adults with diminished production of the hormone, when should its administration begin? If the purpose is to reverse the decline in growth hormone secretion that occurs with aging, then treatment would need to begin in the fourth decade of life in some people. If it is given, for how long should it be given? What is the optimal dose and frequency of administration? Does long-term treatment with growth hormone improve muscle function?
With a lot of questions still unanswered and of a lot of side-effects being confirmed, it seems that the risk to benefit ratio stands in favor of further testing since the lives of a lot of aging people could be adversely affected by any HGH treatments that were found to be lacking enough testing and research. Logically speaking, HGH in the elderly should be avoided for now, especially if the elderly are healthy and strong.
In fact, it still is not clear if the body itself naturally slows down production of HGH for a valid and positive reason. This is because some experiments involving lab rats have shown that increased intake of HGH production enhancers significantly reduced their lifespan as compared to the lifespan of a rat that did not take any HGH.
With these thoughts in mind Human Growth Hormone for the elderly is still a bid question mark. A lot of research must still be conducted go determine all the answers to all the questions that were previously raised. Only when they are answered positively should HGH be given to the elderly.
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