Article by Lisa Wells, RN
Some doctors have been concerned about giving human growth hormone (HGH) injections to diabetics. Previous studies, including Dr. Rudman's study using large doses of HGH injections showed that human growth hormone had caused increased insulin resistance in patients, so diabetics saw an increase in blood glucose levels. Dr. Bengtsson, an endocrinologist in Sweden showed similar results in his 6 week study.
Dr. Bengtsson's study had first shown that growth hormone caused increased insulin resistance, however, after 6 months of HGH therapy his patient's insulin sensitivity returned to where it had been before the therapy.
This 6 month study showed that growth hormone did not increase the patient's blood glucose or make the patient diabetic. Dr. Bengtsson says that it may very well be that the improvement in the patient's body composition (decrease in fat cells) after 6 months of therapy offset any negative effect that growth hormone may have had on insulin.
Can HGH Help Diabetes?
There are some indications that human growth hormone may actually improve diabetes. A study done at John Hopkins about the effects of HGH on blood glucose supports the idea that when elderly people have low human growth hormone they also have more intraabdominal fat and their insulin acts less well.
In this situation they have a tendency to have high blood sugar. If these elderly people are given growth hormone therapy correctly, rather than excessively, their blood sugar levels should improve rather than worsen.
Thierry Hertoghe, MD, who specializes in hormone replacement therapy in Brussels believes that human growth hormone helps to promote the action of insulin. He believes that because HGH helps to direct the insulin to put glucose into the muscular cells, cardiac cells, and nerve cells, rather than the fat cells of the body HGH may actually help to improve diabetes.
Greg Fahy, Ph.D., of the Naval Medical Research Institute has stated that he may have discovered a method to possibly cure adult-onset diabetes using HGH. He has stated that his own experiments have shown that human growth hormone is very beneficial for diabetes.
Lisa Wells, RN.
IGF-1 Helps Diabetes
Growth hormone exerts most of its effects through the powerful growth factor called IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor #1). Click to continue for information about IGF-1 and Diabetes.
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