Can Sprinters Run Faster with HGH?
Recent research has found that HGH has a positive effect on the performance of athletes. In fact, in a 10-second sprint there was a 4-second improvement, which is adequate to see an Olympic athlete in last place move up to first place, especially in any of the sprint events such as swimming or running. That means the human growth hormone could be the difference between no medal and a gold medal.
Up until now, the research to confirm athletic benefit has been minimal. However, because there was some evidence of performance enhancing it was considered a banned substance.
HGH is produced naturally in your body. It is one of the most important hormones you have and it is responsible for growth and metabolism. For individuals who suffer from a growth hormone deficiency there are injectible growth hormones available through a doctor. For everyone else, a supplement is adequate to help the body produce normal levels of the human growth hormone.
Several athletes have turned to taking HGH because they feel it bulks up their muscle mass and improve their overall physical performance. This has become known as growth hormone doping. However, up until this recent study there had been little scientific research to actually prove there was an increase in physical performance.
Study at Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Researchers at Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research verified that HGH increases an athlete’s ability to sprint on a bicycle, but that when it comes to overall fitness, jumping, or weight lifting it has no effect on performance. In the men who received testosterone injections in addition to growth hormone supplementation the effect on sprint capacity nearly doubled.
The study involved 103 healthy recreational athletes that ranged in age from 18 to 40, and who and regularly engaged in athletic training the previous year. This was a double blind and placebo controlled study, which means that neither the participants nor researchers knew who received the HGH injections and who received the salt water injections.
Professor Ken Ho
Professor Ken Ho, the Chairman of the Department of Endocrinology at St. Vincent’s Hospital, and the head of pituitary research at Garvan, undertook the project with Drs Udo Meinhardt and Anne Nelson, who were both important members of the large team involved in this study.
“Those athletes given growth hormone improved their sprint capacity by 4-5 percent,” said Professor Ho.
“Growth hormone recipients did not increase their muscle mass. They did, however, retain body fluid and experienced swelling and joint pain, unlike those who received salt water injections.”
“We used lower doses of growth hormone than athletes are reported to use, and for a shorter time. We can speculate, therefore, that the drug’s effects on performance might be greater than shown in this study, and its side effects might be more serious.”
“In conclusion, growth hormone increases athletic sprinting when given alone or in combination with testosterone. This is the first demonstration of improvement in a selective aspect of physical performance with growth hormone. We believe that this effect may bring a competitive advantage to athletes engaging in sprint events.”
Summary
This research certainly confirms what has been believed for some time – HGH can benefit athletes. However, how it can benefit and which athletes it actually benefits appears to be quite different from what may have been the initial belief.
We must all remember that human growth hormone can actually benefit everyone because it has so many important qualities that help to keep us younger and healthier. While you might not be a sprinter, HGH supplements can help you to enjoy a better quality of life.
