hormones

Human Growth Hormone Therapy: A Way To Grow

As a child, your parents probably encouraged you to eat your vegetables, and drink your milk to grow into a strong adult. Even for children who are healthy otherwise, they lack the growth hormone to allow their bones and bodies to grow at the normal rate. That is why human growth hormone therapy may be necessary.

Human growth hormone therapy is an alternative for those children who are not able to produce the proper hormone to grow. Here is some information on human growth hormone therapy that may be useful to you:

What It Is

The pituitary gland in the brain secretes a growth hormone (also known as GH) to encourage growth and reproduction of the cells in humans and other animals with vertebrae; this hormone increase height, muscle and bone density. The growth hormone is made up of a protein string, and is at the highest secretion rate during puberty, and the peak of secretion occurs about an hour into sleep.

Growth Hormone Deficiency

If the pituitary gland does not produce enough of the growth hormone, or if there is a gene malfunction in that area of the brain, then the child will not grow at the regular rate as their peers do. Physicians will test for growth hormone deficiency by a simple test that will stimulate the pituitary gland to see if it will release the same amount of growth hormone as a normal gland will. If the pituitary gland is in fact not producing enough of the growth hormone, then the physician will recommend human growth hormone therapy. This type of therapy is the administration of a bio identical growth hormone that is synthesized within the laboratory to match the DNA makeup of the natural growth hormones. This will be given to the child to stimulate growth. The human growth hormone is injected into the blood via the muscles, and within a certain amount of time, the patient should notice a dramatic change in height, as well as lean muscle and bone mass. Human growth hormone therapy rarely has any side effects.

If your child, or if you know of a child who may be experiencing a growth deficiency, considering human growth hormone therapy may be the best way to increase growth and promote health and wellbeing as an adult. Taking care of the growth problem at a young age may be the best way to prevent any adult onset problems.