In our current series of anabolic hormones, we deep dived testosterone and Steroids to complete our series we look into Human Growth Hormone. Often times we correlate HGH with Steroids and in a sense, they do the same thing. Both stimulate skeletal muscle growth and are quite effective when coupled with resistance training. Furthermore, both are naturally occurring elements within the body. Steroids are derived from sex hormones in males and females. HGH is secreted in the pituitary gland. Both are used medically, however since my specialty is in exercise, we will be deep diving that aspect. Much like Steroids, HGH is injected into larger muscle areas (on the other hand Steroids can be taken orally while HGH is not effective taken orally). HGH is also a banned substance when taken for athletic performance.
Generally speaking, HGH differs from Steroids in that HGH stimulates bone growth and maintains blood glucose levels and increases the uptake blood glucose and amino acids. Additional blood glucose and amino acids would stimulate protein synthesis naturally. Another significant difference is that HGH in terms of athletic performance is not studied to the degree of Steroids due to the ethical concerns. Intentionally giving an athlete HGH would not only grow muscle tissue, but bones as well which may lead to acromegaly (disfigure widening of bones, organs and metabolic abnormalities). Words only do this justice; pictures are more effective way to convey just how large a human can get. Below is a picture of former baseball player Barry Bonds. To the left is Bonds early in his career with the Pirates and the right is Bonds later in his career with the Giants. Bonds went from an all-around player that could run, steal bases to a slugger who completely stopped stealing bases.
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