Cellular regeneration is one of the most important functions of human growth hormone but by the time you reach your late 20’s to early 30’s your production of growth hormone begins to decline. As we age, our body does not produce enough growth hormone to support natural cellular turnover. At the Anti-Aging and Wellness Clinic, we can help you optimize your levels of growth hormone.
Human growth hormone (HGH), also known as somatotropin, is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland to stimulate cell regeneration, growth and maintenance. It is critical to maintaining bones, muscles, organs, tissue and heart function. Growth hormone raises the concentration of glucose and free fatty acids and stimulates the production of IGF-1, which stimulates growth in a variety of tissues including bone. Growth hormone and IGF-1 work together to ensure you have a sufficient number of new cells for your body each day.
The role of HGH:
- Increases muscle mass
- Promotes the breakdown of fats and lipids
- Increases cell production and regeneration
- Stimulates the growth of organs
- Stimulates the immune system
- Helps maintain the balance of physiologic processes
- Reduces liver uptake of glucose
- Helps maintain pancreatic islets
- Promotes the synthesis of glucose in the liver from non-carbohydrate sources
- Increases calcium retention and strengthens mineralization of bone
The production of growth hormone begins to decline in your 30’s and continues to decline as we get older. Other factors that can affect the secretion of growth hormone include; diet, exercise, stress, other hormones and sleep.
What happens if you are growth hormone deficient?
Muscle Mass
Without sufficient amounts of growth hormone, lean muscle mass decreases. Adequate levels of growth hormone ensure your body produces enough cells to maintain and even grow healthy muscle tissue.
Metabolism
Growth hormone plays a significant role in how well your body metabolizes protein, fats and carbohydrates and supports cellular uptake of insulin and glucose. Individuals with low levels of growth hormone gain weight and have higher levels of diabetes. This is the main reason, people have a more difficult time maintain or losing weight as they age.
Immune System
As we mentioned earlier, growth hormone influences cell regeneration. As we age our thymus gland, the gland crucial for producing infection fighting T-cells, shrinks to almost nothing as we age so, maintaining its integrity is very important for fighting illness. Growth hormone receptors are expressed in thymic epithelial cells showing that HGH directly acts on the thymus gland – the body’s producer of T cells.
Additionally, by activating factor 1 release which also a critical function for supporting the immune system, growth hormone plays an important role in maintaining a healthy immune system.
- B cells which form in bone marrow
- Immunoglobulin formation
- Myeloid progenitor cell maturation to modulate cytokine response
- Interleukin 2 production for antibody production
- Increased red and white blood cell counts
- GH stimulates T and B cells proliferation and immunoglobulin synthesis, enhances the maturation of myeloid progenitor cells and is also able to modulate cytokine response.
Organ function
Your organs are in a continual state of cell renewal. If your body is not producing enough growth hormone your organs shrink and fail to perform optimally. This is important for fighting age related degenerative diseases and maintaining a healthy immune system. Adequate growth hormone levels help maintain optimal organ function.
For example, skin is the largest organ in the body and requires 30-40 thousand new cells every minute. When we experience a decline in growth hormone production, we also experience a decline in collagen and elastin production which causes sagging, wrinkles, cellulite and age spots.
Bone
Bone is in a constant state of remodeling. Growth hormone stimulate stimulates osteoblastic proliferation, differentiation and bone turnover and increases the production of IGF-I and IFG-II and both play an important role in bone remodeling.
If are not producing enough growth hormone your body does not produce enough new bone cells to replace the daily loss of bone cells resulting in weaker, more brittle bones. The older you get the greater risk of developing osteoporosis and fractures.
Hair and Nails
Growth hormone is crucial for supplying the cells that make up the hair follicle, hair shaft, fingernails and toe nails, keeping your hair and nails strong and resistant to breakage. Additionally, HGH is responsible for sending increased blood cells to the follicle to nourish the growing hair cell stimulating growth.
The anti-aging experts at the Anti-Aging and Wellness Clinic use medically supervised bio-identical hormone replacement therapy to slow the aging process and rejuvenate both their male and female clients.
Frequently we begin to experience the first symptoms of aging between the ages of 35 and 40 including; reduced sex drive, baldness, loss of memory, reduced muscle strength and increased fatigue.
Men and women that are treated with HGH experience weight loss, increased strength and muscle mass, stronger hair and nails, improved organ function, stronger immune system and an increased sex drive.
Human growth hormone is just one hormone critical to slowing the signs of aging, and using comprehensive testing we will evaluate many key hormone levels to develop a health plan specific to your needs.
Contact the Anti-Aging and Wellness Clinic to learn more about human growth hormone therapy.