All Growth Hormone Supplements are Worthless -Roger Mason

The HGH scams have been sweeping the country for years now. You see these ads on TV, on radio, in newspapers and newsletter, in catalogs, and especially on the Internet. ALL OF THEM ARE SCAMS- every single one of them. The only way to raise your growth hormone levels is to get real recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) from a pharmacy for a minimum of $1,200 a year (360 IU/120 mg). This is usually injected subcutaneously with a hypodermic needle. Air injector pens like diabetics use don't work because they shock the molecule and break it. Dissolving it in vodka and using 1 IU daily sublingually is a better choice. Pharmaceutical companies are working overtime to find oral or nasal spray "secretagogues" to raise growth hormone, but have been very unsuccessful over the past 20 or so years. The most promising of these was "hexarelin", but it proved to raise prolactin and homocysteine and was a failure.

One best selling book on growth hormone is as bad as the supplements that are sold. Ronald Klatz's Grow Young With HGH is very unscientific, completely misleading, and not based on clinical research at all. Klatz tells you to take 12 grams of the amino acid arginine. Arginine is useless for any health benefits (please read the article). He admits some studies show it doesn't raise HGH at all - what an understatement. Arginine doesn't work, never did work, and never will work. There are serious side effects to taking such a ridiculous amount, and even he admits this. So, why is he promoting this as an effective way to raise your growth hormone levels? Then he claims Sandy Shaw (the embarrassment of the life extension movement along with Durk Pearson) lost 25 pounds of fat and gained five pounds of muscle in just six weeks by taking a mere ten milligrams (that's right- a mere one hundredth of one gram) of arginine. This is too asinine to even comment on, that ten milligrams of arginine would have any effect at all. People get far more than that in their food every day. Maybe he wasn't sober when he wrote that chapter. Then he tells you to take the amino acid ornithine which is just as useless as arginine. Studies prove these have no value no matter how much you take. He doesn't quote any clinical evidence to back up his assertions, but keeps using that pitiful Dynamic Duo Shaw and Pearson as "proof." Now he says to take the amino acid lysine and refers to an Italian study. If you read the study you see that lysine failed to have any effect on growth hormone levels! He goes on to tell you to take ten grams of an ornithine derivative called OKG, but quotes no studies for this whatsoever. Maybe he just made it up for fun. He doesn't stop there, but tells you to take some of the amino acid glycine as well from a quarter of a gram to seven grams! Quite a spread of 28 to 1 there, huh? No studies of course. Why bother with studies? He now wants you to INJECT five grams of tryptophan into your veins every day for a "small increase" in HGH. He says there are five studies to prove this, but doesn't name any of them. Any of you out there want to attempt to inject an incredible five grams of tryptophan into your veins everyday? Call the local zoo and see if they'll sell you an elephant hypodermic syringe, as you'll need one. Don't throw away those syringes yet, as now  he wants us to inject 200 mg of the vitamin niacin. No studies are quoted, of course, as documenting his work seems to be a serious inconvenience. Injecting that much niacin would have very detrimental effects immediately. The RDA is just 20 mg.

You're going to think I made this up, so please go to the library and read it for yourself. You just aren't  going to believe it. He wants you to inject 2.5 grams of the illegal recreational drug GHB into your veins every day! Seriously, he said this. While this is not a "date rape" drug as the media tells you, it is a powerful intoxicant that will make you comatose and tastes like Drano. Bottom of the barrel  drug abusers would never even dream of trying to inject GHB in their worst nightmares. GHB used to be perfectly legal until 2000 when it was declared a scheduled drug, and is not even available from doctors or pharmacies.

He gets really crazy here and wants you to take a half gram of the anti-Parkinson's Disease drug L-dopa. That's right he wants you to take a dangerous, toxic, prescription drug that has listed side effects including psychosis, depression, intestinal bleeding, and arrhythmia among other serious problems.

Klatz doesn't stop here with his endless stupidity. He wants you to take another dangerous prescription drug Hydergine which is based on ergot and has very serious side effects. He keeps up this list with Dilantin which epileptics take to stop seizures as it lowers the entire electrical activity of the brain. Just what I wanted- to slow my brain down and stop it from functioning. Find an unfortunate epileptic who has been on Dilantin for ten years or so, and you'll really see detrimental effects that will give you nightmares. And he wants you to take the even more dangerous drug clonidine (clomid). This is a prescription medicine for people with Tourette's syndrome. The side effects here are frightening and there is no evidence any of these toxic, expensive and dangerous poisons will raise your growth hormone levels with regular use.

The only good advice in his book must have been an accident. It is true if you take a gram of L-glutamine in the AM and another gram in the PM you will temporarily spike your GH levels. This was proven with human adults at Louisiana State University (Am. J. Clin. Nutr. v. 61 in 1995.) L-glutamine is an inexpensive and well proven supplement that has wondrous effects on our intestinal health, and should be a part of everyone's supplement program.

Now he recommends the garbage you can buy over the counter. He recommends the useless amino acid formulation from Life Extinction Foundation which has been selling such crap for years now. This is just tiny, useless amounts of amino acids that wouldn't raise your growth hormone if you ate a whole bottle of the stuff. He also touts Weider's "HGH Plus" which is as worthless as the rest of them and is just another combination of amino acids and vitamins. The worst is from the criminal enterprise Gero Vita and their Amino Tropin which contains a proprietary peptide "proven to raise HGH". You remember the drug addict, criminal ex-con who owned Gero Vita and tried to buy a pardon from Clinton for repeated felony mail fraud counts. They are out of business.

Why doesn't he just tell you to get real GH and inject it?

At no time does Klatz realize you can raise your HGH by fasting regularly. You can fast one day a week on water from dinner to dinner every week by simply skipping breakfast and lunch on fast day. We've been doing this for over twenty years now, and it is a wonderful way to give your body a rest and raise your HGH naturally. Exercise also raises your growth hormone no matter what kind you do. People who exercise continually have higher levels. Being overweight blunts your HGH secretion. You must lose weight  to produce what you should. You can eat less calories and raise GH. Not less food, but fewer calories by making better food choices. Eat less or no red meat, eggs, poultry, chicken, milk, and dairy products. Eat more whole grains, beans, green and yellow vegetables, fruits, salads, soups, and seafood instead. You can honestly eat more food while eating less calories. Read Roy Walford's "The 120 Year Diet" and "Maxiumum Lifespan". or Dean Ornish's "Eat More, Weigh Less" to know more about this. Terri Shintani's "The Hawaii Diet" is also very good and lists food by calorie density.

How can you test you growth hormone levels? You would need to get four blood draws in one day at a clinic to get an accurate look at your GH level. There are no saliva test kits yet but should be within two years. Do not use the IGF-1 saliva kits, as IGF-1 does not parallel HGH despite the conventional "wisdom". The best way is simply to go by results. Just go by real world results after using it for 90 days.

Before you dream about growth hormone, which you probably can't afford, please remember that all your hormones work in concert together and all of them must be at YOUTHFUL levels for the longest and best life. If you're over 40 are you taking melatonin every night? Are you taking pregnenolone- the grandmother hormone? Have you tested your DHEA? You cannot take DHEA unless you test first. Are you using transdermal progesterone man or woman? Have you tested your testosterone level as a male or female? 9 out of 10 men over 50 have pitifully low testosterone levels. Have you had your T3 and T4 thyroid hormones tested? If they are low normal or low then raise them. Have you gotten a glucose tolerance test (GTT) to see if you are insulin resistant and secreting too much insulin? If you are a woman, do you know the levels of your three estrogens? All these things are cheap and practical. The price of growth hormone is not going to come down in the next ten years (in my opinion), nor are any good, inexpensive secretagogues going to be offered.

Meanwhile ALL HGH SUPPLEMENTS ARE USELESS GARBAGE! WORTHLESS CRAP! Do not listen to the alluring well written ads for them.