Description
HGH 10iu/vial (Human Growth Hormone)
Injectable GH is typically provided as lyophilized powder in vials.
Any injectable GH product should be identical with natural GH, which has 191 amino acids. Some products however are a cheaper analog with 192 amino acids. These products can cause adverse immune response and should not be used.
Desirable Effects of Growth Hormone Use
Growth hormone use can increase muscular size, increase metabolism, reduce fat mass, reduce elevated blood pressure, and improve healing, strength, natural testosterone production, recovery from training, sleep, and perceived quality of life. In those experiencing effects of aging, it can improve appearance of skin, reduce or reverse osteoporosis, and appear to partially reverse some signs of aging.
All the above are potentials rather than guarantees.
Possible and Likely Adverse Side Effects of Growth Hormone Use
Growth hormone can be used with good safety. However, there are possible adverse side effects, particularly with high dosing and especially with chronic high dosing.
GH use can cause insulin resistance, increase serum free fatty acids, and increase TNF-alpha, lipoprotein (a), and fibrinogen. These effects can act towards increasing cardiovascular risk.
Additionally, growth hormone use can cause carpal tunnel syndrome, tarsal tunnel syndrome, peripheral neuropathy, compressive myelopathy, water retention, and sleep apnea. Acne can be promoted. Prolactin can be increased. In women, hirsutism, menstrual irregularities or endometrial hyperplasia can occur.
Of these, the most consistent effect is insulin resistance. This can essentially be guaranteed at sustained higher doses.
Other possible adverse side effects of GH use include increase in skin tags, imbalance in phosphate levels, hypervitaminosis D, promotion of arthritis, and growth promotion of existing cancers or polyps.
Incidentally, while increase in skin tags could seem a minor thing, there’s a strong correlation between having more than 3 skin tags and having increased risk of colon polyps. Gaining skin tags, then, may be a warning sign.
Long term GH use giving levels comparable to those occurring naturally in acromegaly may yield the adverse consequences of that condition. These include diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, heart enlargement, joint thickening, arthritis, coarse facial features, enlargement of hands and feet, thick skin, darkened skin, chronic fatigue, impotence, increased rate of death from cardiovascular disease, increased rate of death from cancer, and a two to four times overall increase in mortality rate. Of course, in acromegaly high GH levels are experienced for years or decades on end, and not every person with the condition suffers all these effects.
With all this said, when used in moderation GH’s track record for safety in bodybuilding is good. Problems usually are limited to worsening of insulin sensitivity and, commonly, carpal tunnel syndrome or other neuropathies which usually are reversible on cessation of use.
Extreme use, especially over an extended period, likely carries significant health harms and risks.
Pharmacology of Growth Hormone
What does growth hormone itself do at higher doses, exclusive of what may happen from released IGF-1?
In skeletal muscle, GH at supraphysiological doses interferes with insulin signaling, decreases glucose uptake, increases fatty acid uptake, and increases basal rate of lipid oxidation (fat burning).
Overall, the effects promote anabolism and a metabolic shift towards fat-burning over glucose-burning.
At supraphysiological doses, GH also increases lipid storage within muscle cells, which is an adverse effect, yielding to some extent lipotoxicity. (Only adipose cells are capable of storing substantial amounts of lipids without self-harm and metabolic impairment.)
At normal GH levels, the story in muscle is largely the same as above, except that normal GH levels actually support normal insulin signaling, rather than impair it, and do not cause abnormal lipid storage.
In adipose tissue, GH increases lipolysis, decreases lipogenesis, decreases glucose uptake, and decreases local activity of corticosteroids by downregulating 11βHSD1. Some of the increase in lipolysis appears to be from upregulating adipose β2 and β3 receptors.
All this helps in fat loss or to help in partitioning nutrients towards muscle gain. Additionally, the increase in serum free fatty acids produced from increased lipolysis appears to be GH’s mechanism for increasing muscle anabolism. When this increase in free fatty acids is blocked, GH no longer increases muscle anabolism.
In the liver, GH stimulates conversion of glycogen to glucose, impairs insulin sensitivity and thereby reduces glucose uptake, increases uptake of triglycerides, increases storage of triglycerides, and increases production of VLDL (“bad cholesterol.”)
In both muscle tissue and the liver, GH also stimulates production of IGF-1. IGF-1 produc