The 2008 Growth Hormone Summit was held by the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in conjunction with Major League Baseball (MLB) and the law firm of Foley and Lardner at the Beverly Hills Hotel in California on November 10, 2008. Dr. Gary Green, professor of family medicine at the UCLA medical school, chaired the conference of leading anti-doping experts and scholars. “Growth Hormone: Barriers to Implementation of hGH in Sports” addressed several scientific, legal and ethical issues involving testing athletes for human growth hormone (“Landmark conference to look at use of human growth hormone by athletes,” October 22). [Read more...]
Growth Hormone Will Not Be Added to Controlled Substances List
April 16, 2008 by Leave a Comment
Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have modified a bill that would have added human growth hormone (HGH) to the Controlled Substances List. The bill was introduced as a kneejerk reaction to revelations of widespread HGH use in professional baseball. But in the end, legislators avoided making the same mistake with HGH as they did with anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) with the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990. (“HGH bill altered to help children,” April 16) [Read more...]
WADA Testing for Growth Hormone Within Weeks
April 3, 2008 by Leave a Comment
According to the New York Times, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has purchased thousands of doping kits that will be used to screen blood for exogenous human growth hormone (HGH). The top-secret HGH test has been available for some time but WADA only recently found a secret European-based manufacturer capable of producing significant quantities of the blood screening kits (“Agency will increase blood tests for HGH,” April 2).
WADA says the out of competition testing for HGH will begin within weeks The test will be used at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Additionally, a WADA spokesperson says the the HGH screening kits will be used to analyze previously frozen blood samples from athletes. [Read more...]
Impact of Steroid Hysteria on Medical Treatments Involving HGH and Steroids
March 17, 2008 by Leave a Comment
The steroid hysteria related to steroids in sports continues to have an adverse impact of the availability of anabolic-androgenic steroids and human growth hormone for legal use in legitimate medical conditions. Congressional attacks upon anabolic steroids and other anabolic drugs (solely because athletes use them) are hurting those patients who stand to benefit from these highly beneficial and effective drugs.
Nelson Vergel, HIV activist and co-author of Built to Survive, published a letter on his blog that outlines how patients with legitimate medical needs for these pharmaceuticals suffer as a result of the steroid hysteria and legislation that limits the availability of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (“Hearings on Steroids in Sports and the Impact on Treatments for HIV and other Medical Conditions,” March 12). [Read more...]
Human Growth Hormone and Athletic Performance
A recent literature review of the performance enhancing effects of growth hormone has concluded that HGH does not help athletes (“Systematic Review: The Effects of Growth Hormone on Athletic Performance,” Annals of Internal Medicine).
This confirms what J.C. Bradbury, Ph.D. has been saying all along. [Read more...]