The growth hormone and testosterone myths

Testosterone and other anabolic steroids and growth hormone are not just about cheating and theyre not just a problem to be dealt with by Major League Baseball and other overseers of professional sports. The sale and prescribing of testosterone and other anabolic steroids and growth hormone are illegal for athletic use, body building and anti-aging, and for good reasons.

These drugs, when marketed and used for medically fallacious reasons, can cause financial, physical and psychological harm.

Many clinics that go by various descriptions ranging from anti-aging, age-management and wellness clinics and spas to life extension and longevity institutes cater to young men looking for drugs for body building and of course professional athletes looking for athletic performance enhancing drugs as well as more middle aged and relatively wealthy individuals succumbing to marketed pitches of youth, virility, and weight loss.

This is a cash only business (except for fraudulent insurance claims) because private and public insurers wont pay for these treatments that are viewed by endocrinologists as outside the scope of the reasonable, safe and legal practice of medicine.

One of the consequences of this being a cash only business is that the clinics, internet sites and compounding pharmacies are ineffectually regulated. Adverse medical events go unreported and some clinics obtain signed contracts stipulating that patients lose their rights to report adverse events or unprofessional behavior to regulatory agencies.

Testosterone in its various forms, including Androgel, can cause impulsive violent behavior and unpredictable rage and precipitate psychotic behavior and mania. One only needs to recall Charlie Sheens recent psychotic meltdown to see the profound and scary side effects of this drug. Chris Benoit, a famous pro-wrestler, killed his wife and son and then himself, while, like most other pro-wrestlers, he was taking what amount to toxic hormone soups or what the anti-aging industry euphemistically calls hormone replacement therapy.

There are dangerous physical side effects from testosterone as well, including obstructive sleep apnea, irregular heart beat (called atrial fibrillation, which increases the risk for stroke), and problems that all increase the risk for heart attack, including high blood pressure, increased blood viscosity, and very low good (HDL) cholesterol levels. Anabolic steroids taken by mouth, like Anavar, are additionally associated with markedly increased risk of inflammation of the liver and can lead to liver failure.

Over the past five years or so we have been deluged by pharmaceutical advertisements promoting testosterone injections, gels and creams to baby-boomers as the male fountain of youth. One anti-aging doctor states that all men as they get older require testosterone supplementation. According to less conflicted experts, somewhere between 2-18 percent of men have age-related declines in testosterone levels and coexisting clinical problems that merit testosterone supplementation even in the face of testosterones significant risk profile.

A study appearing this year in the Journal of Sexual Medicine showed that by 6 months of treatment, only about one third of 15,400 men stuck with their testosterone gel and by one year, the rate was down to only 15 percent. Maybe the vast majority of the men who succumbed to the marketing blitz realized it wasnt worth it or they sustained adverse effects.

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The growth hormone and testosterone myths