The only advantage rHGH has over the secretagogues is the ability to inject amounts much larger than a human could possibly produce. This provides some accelerated fat loss and (minor) muscle building benefits, but exceeding the physiologic limits of growth hormone (IGF-1 levels more than 1.3x the upper limit of normal for your age, or a “Z score” of 2), over the long term, as little as 18 months, risks very real, serious, but insidious and notoriously difficult to notice harms.
To make matters worse, the clock doesn’t “reset” when you take a break. It’s cumulative.
Until recently, running high doses continuously was very, very rare because of expense. Now we’re got people who have no idea what their IGF levels are, or that IGF is even a thing, thinking they can just run rHGH forever at whatever dose because they’re “harmless” like other peptides. rHGH isn’t an addictive drug, but because it boosts thyroid function, some people feel good on it, in some way they find difficult to describe, which makes it habit forming.
Unfortunately this reckless use won’t end well. At least bodybuilders are somewhat accepting of the risks of performance enhancing drugs, so discovering they have an enlarged heart or kidney failure isn’t exactly a surprise.
Mary Sue and Billy Bob Peptide will likely be a lot more vocal to the media, to lawmakers, “demanding something be done” when they find out the “5ius” they were taking because that’s what someone told them to take, not knowing that pushed their IGF to 700, and after 2 years each thinking of the other “wow, he/she is sure aging badly, getting ugly in the face, like they hit a brick wall, look at his/her big ass nose”, “I wonder why my ring isn’t fitting any more, I’m not getting fat”, “why are my teeth misaligned?”, “my sleep is terrible and it’s getting harder to breath (from thickened nasal passages narrowing)”, “why is my voice changing? (enlarged tongue)”, discovering they’re pre-diabetic (or full diabetic) when they were fine a year ago, shoe size changing… it goes on and on. It’s estimated 80% of people with acromegally from pituitary tumors causing excess GH secretion are never diagnosed, because the symptoms above happen in slow motion and rarely noticed or they’re attributed to the aging process. Doctors don’t even notice because they’re not trained to look for them.
Meanwhile, secretagogues can bring you to maximum physiological levels of growth hormone production, all the feedback systems stay in place so the body will block GH / IGF levels from getting excessive, and you’ll still benefit from higher, more youthful levels of GH (IE, better body composition, faster healing, skin / nail / hair quality, etc.
Endocrinologists worldwide stopped prescribing rHGH by “IUs” 20 years ago and use IGF-1 levels to determine the correct dose, rechecking it a couple times a year and adjusting as necessary to keep it within the normal range, specifically to prevent this shit. Some might need 4ius, and for others 2iu might be too much, but without checking IGF there’s no way to know if you’re in the danger zone.
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