HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE RESEARCH & NEWS

Prescriptions Written for Bio-Identical Testosterone Triple in Last Ten Years

Testosterone Hormone Replacement Therapy is quickly becoming one of the hottest topics in endocrinology. As a result of new research and new methods of Testosterone Treatment, more and more people are turning to the hormone Testosterone in order to improve their health and their love life.

Testosterone Prescribed More Often Than Ever!

A new research study presents evidence that Testosterone is being prescribed at a rate three times faster than it ever has in the United States for male patients over the age of forty. Twelve years ago, in the year 2001, only 0.81 percent of males in the United States utilized Testosterone in any form. Today, that percentage has increased to over three percent of males!

Researchers find that there are many reasons why there has been such a rapid increase in interest in this potent hormone. In the past fifteen years, Testosterone has become increasingly advertised in a manner which reaches directly out to potential patients. Most of these advertisements have been directed to males in their forties and fifties, during the period in which the symptoms of Testosterone and the aging process are producing more and more of an effect on a man's life.

In addition to this, more clinics are starting to specialize in the areas of Hormone Replacement, Aging, Longevity, and General Health and Wellness, increasing the number of doctors and physicians that work heavily with Testosterone and Other Hormones by virtue of their specialization.

A third reason for this expansion is that Testosterone HRT is becoming simpler and easier by the year as new treatment methods become available in the United States.

Testosterone Debate Rages On

Although the use of Recombinant Testosterone for Hormone Replacement has risen dramatically in recent years, the debate over the benefits and risks of the treatment are hotly contested around the country. Testosterone Replacement has been shown to produce some beneficial and potent changes in the human body.

Bio-Identical Testosterone is proven to significantly increase muscle mass while reducing the fatigue associated with low decreased strength. In addition to this, Testosterone vastly increases libido and sex drive in patients that are Deficient in Testosterone. Other studies, however, have shown that under certain circumstances, Testosterone Replacement can actually have a negative effect upon fertility and sperm counts in male patients.

Also, there is a mild correlation between Testosterone Hormone Replacement Therapy and Prostate Cancer that is being explored further in order to uncover potential hard links. At this point, evidence seems to suggest that Testosterone Treatments have a negative effect upon Prostate Tumors, but does not seem to increase the risk of the development of new tumors. In any case, Male patients that utilize Testosterone should meet on a regular basis with their general practitioner in order to maintain proper health and uncover any negative issues before they become overly problematic.

Testosterone and the Lifespan

It is a proven fact that Testosterone Production slowly and steadily declines throughout the lifespan, but there is some controversy regarding exactly what level of deficiency should be officially declared Low-T. The scientific term for Low-T as well as Testosterone Deficiency is Hypogonadism, referring to an inability of the body to efficiently produce sex hormones. This deficiency is primarily defined in two ways: Primary Hypogonadism and Secondary Hypogonadism.

Primary and Secondary Hypogonadism

Most male patients experience the former, Primary Hypogonadism. Usually in this form of deficiency, the Testes slowly lose their ability to effectively produce and secrete Testosterone, at a rate which averages around one to two percentage points every year starting in the later twenties or early thirties. Some patients may experience this form of Hypogonadism for other reasons such as Testicular Trauma, however.

The second, less common form of Testosterone Deficiency is Secondary Hypogonadism. This type of deficiency originates in the brain, usually from the Pituitary Gland or the Hypothalamus, preventing the Testes from getting the appropriate stimuli to produce Hormonal Testosterone.

What is the Threshold for Low-T?

The most commonly agreed upon standard for Testosterone Deficiency is a Free Testosterone level that is beneath 300 ng/dl, although the number may very dependently upon the physician. If Testosterone Levels are beneath this threshold, then the patient will likely qualify for Hormone Replacement with Testosterone.

Testosterone Research Analysis

In the research that we mentioned at the beginning of the article, around fifty percent of patients that received Testosterone Hormone Replacement Therapy were treated after Hypogonadism Diagnosis. A surprising piece of data is that nearly one quarter of patients received no diagnostic testing in order to evaluate their hormone levels before they received treatment.

Also, among the males that did undergo Testosterone Testing, it is not completely clear exactly how many of the patients actually suffered from Low Testosterone. Researchers explain that Free Testosterone Production can be sensitive to many factors, including the time at which the test is administered.

AMA Opinion on Testosterone

In a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the researchers of this study wrote that additional examination is necessary in order to figure out exactly how many patients that seem to have Testosterone Deficiency are prescribed Testosterone Treatments even though they truly have clinically normal levels of the hormone. By evaluating this data, scientists hope that Testosterone Replacement can be prescribed more appropriately to patients that are truly in need.

On the other hand, as our knowledge of Testosterone Hormone Replacement Therapy expands, we may find that the Threshold in which benefits outweigh risks is higher than we first suspected, in which case, more patients will qualify for treatment.

Make Sure Low-T Symptoms are Really the Result of Low Testosterone

If you believe that you may be suffering from the symptoms of Testosterone Deficiency, it is important to rule out other potential causes of your symptoms before turning fully to Testosterone Replacement Therapy. Dr. Lizza, a New York City Urologist, explains that many symptoms that seem to be the result of Testosterone Deficiency may actually be due to other disorders that cause similar symptoms in the same stage of life.

Although Testosterone Replacement can be an effective tool to treat the symptoms of the disorder, if Testosterone Deficiency is not your primary medical issue, you may simply be covering up other underlying health conditions. Dr. Lizza also claims that for many patients, other common treatments for erectile issues are likely better for patients that do not suffer from a legitimate Deficiency of Testosterone.

Testosterone Research Data Source and Qualifications

The data for this study was obtained from the files of a large health insurance provider, and the data-set included over ten million males over the age of forty in order to determine the exact number of patients utilizing Testosterone Replacement Products.

Of course, the data-set obtained for this research cannot be used to provide a complete view regarding what percentage of males use Testosterone, because access to Testosterone through Private Health Insurance is not fully predictive in revealing the number of patients without healthcare, or the number of patients with public insurance through Medicare, that choose to turn to Testosterone.

Hormone Replacement Therapy: The Future of Medicine?

In the end, the researchers feel that more testing is needed in order to examine Testosterone HRT, in order to maximize the effectiveness of treatment while limiting the number of patients that receive the therapy when other treatments may be more effective at safely improving their health care situation.

There is no doubt that in the coming years, our knowledge about the pros and cons of Testosterone Hormone Treatments will increase tremendously.

Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone Shown to Increase Cognitive Health

Regular injections of Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone have been clinically shown to boost cognitive capacity for both mildly impaired patients and perfectly healthy older individuals.

GH-RH Alzheimer's Treatment

In a recent clinical trial, both healthy and slightly impaired participants were injected with GH-RH in an attempt to quantify the potential cognitive benefits of the hormone. The study took place over the course of 5 months, and was aggressively controlled and randomized in order to ensure the quality of the results. Subjects that were treated with GH-RH were found to have significantly improved mental performance in comparison to recipients of placebo. The primary researcher in this study was Dr. Laura Baker, representative of the U. Washington Medical School. The study was recently released in the Archives of Neurology.

Baker and her associates were able to pinpoint the general areas of the mind which receive the most promising benefits of GH-RH Hormone Therapy. Improved mental faculties were the result of an overall increase in the patients' ability to organize, prioritize, and execute mental processes. The primary area which seemed to improve was verbal but the treatment did not seem to have a beneficial affect upon the patients' ability to remember, visually.

GH-RH, HGH, and IGF-1

Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone is one of the most important hormones released by the hypothalamus. GH-RH is responsible for the proper release of Human Growth Hormone by the pituitary, which has a stimulative and restorative effect upon the body in numerous different ways. Although we have known how HGH affects metabolic properties regarding fat and muscle in the body, we are just beginning to more fully comprehend how Human Growth Hormone affects the brain and other complex organs.

After Human Growth Hormone is secreted as a result of GH-RH stimulation, HGH cycles through the blood stream to the liver, where it is processed into IGF-1 and other important hormones known as Growth Factors. Although most HGH is converted into IGF-1, HGH does have direct stimulative affects on many tissues on its own.

Growth Hormones Have a Powerful Effect Upon the Brain

In the brain, GH-RH, IGF-1, and HGH all have beneficial effects upon the health of brain tissue. No where does this seem more clear than in the case of patients suffering from Alzheimer's. As our knowledge of this dreaded disease becomes more fully fleshed out, more and more evidence points to the hypothesis that Alzheimer's could be considered a third form of diabetes, a type of metabolism disorder that effects not the blood sugar, but the composition of the brain itself.

Alzheimer's Correlated with IGF-1 Deficiency

There is growing evidence that Alzheimer's is correlated with decreased levels of these three important and interconnected hormones. New research suggests that it is possible to restore hormone balance with Recombinant Hormones that are functionally identical to GH-RH such as Sermorelin and Tesamorelin, in order to reduce the risk of cognitive decline and safeguard mental capacity in patients that are either at high risk of Alzheimer's, or are experiencing mild symptoms of the disorder.

Alzheimer's GH-RH Study Specifics

In order to explore the hypothesis, Baker and her associates gathered a group of 152 men and women between the ages of fifty-five and eighty-seven. Sixty-six of these patients were already experiencing mild symptoms of cognitive decline. One set of patients received Tesamorelin Injections, while the second group received imitation placebo injections. All shots were delivered subcutaneously just beneath the skin.

The injection period was designed to last a total of twenty weeks. In the end, 137 of the subjects completed the study, seventy-six control patients, and sixty-one experimental patients. At the beginning of the study, patients underwent cognitive examination, and changes in cognitive ability were measured at three different intervals during and after the study.

The cognitive tests administered were normal assessments of cognitive capacity. After Tesamorelin injections began, Cognition was evaluated after ten weeks, after twenty weeks, and then ten weeks after GH-RH Injection Therapy ceased. At the same time that cognitive evaluations took place, researchers also conducted blood diagnostics in order to find out the level of each of the three considered hormones (IGF-1, GH-RH, and HGH) that was circulating through the blood stream.

GH-RH Benefits both the Healthy Mind and the Cognitively Impaired Mind

As they examined the data, Baker and her fellow researchers discovered that Tesamorelin had the capacity to increase serum levels of IGF-1 by an average of 2.17 times the level active in the blood stream before treatment. This finding was well within the range of significance, and restored the patients' IGF-1 Levels to physiologically normal volume. This proved that the Tesamorelin had a physiologically appropriate affect on the hormone balance of the patients.

After evaluating the physiological expectations of therapy, the researchers then statistically evaluated the cognitive benefits of therapy. All but one of the 152 patients were evaluated cognitively, and signs of mental improvement in the experimental group were found to be significant. Interestingly enough, the increase in cognitive capacity benefited both the control group and the experimental group.

At the end of the study period, the 137 patients that finished the trial were evaluated in the same manner. Cognitive testing showed an even clearer statistical improvement after a full twenty weeks of treatment.

Tesamorelin GH-RH was shown to produce benefits in multiple aspects of physiological health. As a whole, the experimental group experienced an overall increase in their overall executive ability, while also experiencing significant gains in their ability to conceive of language and abstraction, but the GH-RH Replacement did not seem to affect visual representative memory.

GH-RH Burns Fat, Builds Muscles, and Builds Strong Minds

Outside of mental evaluation, GH-RH Injections also burned fat and increased muscle mass, leading to a reduction in fat-muscle ratio of 7.4% in all patients injected with GH-RH. Among patients exhibiting signs of cognitive decline, GH-RH Administration boosted fasting insulin by thirty-five percent. This increase was well within the healthy range of insulin production, however.

GH-RH Side-Effects Minor

Most negative events that occurred during the study were minor in nature, but they did occur at a higher rate among patients receiving Tesamorelin. Sixty-eight percent of experimental patients experienced at least some minor issue during treatment, whereas the placebo group only experienced these problems thirty-six percent of the time.

Large Scale GH-RH Trial Coming Soon

Although the results of this study are incredibly promising, the researchers are quick to remind their audience that a larger study is needed in order to more fully explore causality, although the treatment is clearly beneficial. They say that longer and bigger studies are necessary in order to more fully confirm the ability of GH-RH to beneficially safeguard mental health into old age.

GH-RH Hormone Replacement Therapy May Be Best Hope for Alzheimer's Care

This study shows that GH-RH injections have the capacity to increase cognitive ability in both the mentally healthy and those experiencing mild cognitive decline as a result of early Alzheimer's or other neurological conditions. GH-RH Research may very well be the beginning of a new era of Alzheimer's treatment that can improve health outcomes and extend quality of life and mental acuity much longer than was previously possible for these patients.

Alzheimer's is one of the most devastating and cognitively incapacitating diseases in the world, and the quicker we improve treatment options, the quicker that countless patients across the globe can experience a life less addled by the debilitating disease.

Testosterone Shows Promise in Treating Obesity and Diabetes

There are countless men across the country that vouch for the effectiveness of Testosterone Creams, Injections, and Sprays. As the years go by, more and more people are made aware of the potent benefits of the therapy. More men (and even some women) are choosing Testosterone in an attempt to alleviate the changes that are associated with aging.

Although there are many who come forward to praise the benefits of this potentially life-changing hormone treatment, there are certainly some detractors. There are some physicians that are wary of the rapid increase in the Prescription of Therapeutic Testosterone, but that has done nothing to slow down the rate at which new men have chosen to adopt the hormone. In America, there is evidence that Testosterone Prescription numbers have risen in all fifty states as well as all United States Territories.

Global Increase in Testosterone Usage

The use of Testosterone HRT has grown at a remarkable pace in other countries around the globe. Australia has seen a sharp increase in Testosterone prescription in the past decade, for example. In Australia, two forms of Testosterone Replacement Therapy have been recently approved: A Testosterone Gel and a Testosterone Injection which only needs to be administered once per week or less.

The range of Testosterone Products is larger in the United States, and these new products in Australia have been available domestically for some time. Recently in the United States, Testosterone Sprays and Dermal Implants have become available, expanding patient choice even further.

Testosterone User Happy With Treatment

One anecdotal proponent for Testosterone Replacement is Chris Running. Chris is fifty seven years old and feels younger than he has in well over fifteen years. He raves about his Testosterone Injections, claiming that the therapy has led him to both increase his muscle mass and drop pounds at the same time. He claims that the changes that have taken place in his body are not only physical, but mental as well. He says that he just wakes up every day feeling great, and when he sees himself in the mirror each morning it makes him feel even better.

Testosterone Can Help Many People

It is important to remember that although Testosterone Shots and Creams aren't for everyone, there are a significant number of aging men that could see tremendous benefit through the use of the vital hormone. Testosterone can be legitimately prescribed to any man that displays active symptoms of Testosterone Deficiency. There are also a number of medical disorders which require Testosterone Replacement in order to improve health and human function, including Klinefelter Syndrome.

How Testosterone Makes a Man

A mixture of clever marketing and potent promises have melded into a perfect storm of consumer interest that has males across the globe engrossed with the concept of Testosterone Deficiency and what it means, hormonally, to truly be a man.

Testosterone is the primary tool in the genetic alchemy which creates a man. Testosterone is primarily responsible for practically all traits which differentiate males from females, including psychological traits such as aggressiveness and assertiveness, as well as physical traits such as enhanced muscle development and a full and thick beard. In patients with significant Testosterone Deficiency, hormonal imbalance is literally robbing men of manhood, decreasing their strength and increasing their body fat while also softening the dominant traits which help men succeed and make the most of their daily life.

Libido and Low-T

Testosterone Deficiency has a negative effect on male sexuality as well. As the level of deficiency rises, a man's sexual ability falls at a rapid pace. First, libido and sexual interest start to decline. As Testosterone Levels decline further, the actual nuts and bolts of sexuality start to go haywire also. Men can actually completely lose the ability to maintain an erection if their deficiency reaches a certain level of severity!

Andropause Treatment with Testosterone HRT

Testosterone can also be used as a valid treatment for a medical disorder known as Andropause. Andropause is a medical condition which is similar to Menopause, but different in some key ways. Like Menopause, Andropause is a natural result of the aging process in which key hormone levels start to decline, changing the life of the individual and increasing the rate and severity of the physical progression of aging. Unlike Menopause, however, Andropause is a gradual decline that slowly and steadily alters the body's ability to produce the Hormone Testosterone.

New Uses for Testosterone: Obesity and Diabetes

In addition to its use as a treatment for Andropause and sexual dysfunction, Testosterone is also being studied in regard to a number of other medical disorders as well. The two most promising Testosterone Medical Treatments are for Diabetes and Obesity. A recent study completed in Australia in 2010 provides evidence that Testosterone Hormone Injections may be a potent tool in the war against obesity.

Benefits of Testosterone for Obesity

In this study, Testosterone use in obese patients had the dual benefit of both increasing lean muscle mass and decreasing the overall adipose fat mass of the body. Testosterone Deficiency causes overweight males to produce too much Estrogen and Cortisol in relation to Testosterone.

In the male body, Testosterone is produced primarily by adipose fat cells, and as these cells grow and become profligate, the body's capacity for estrogen production increases as well. Fat cells have a unique capability to transform the Testosterone Hormone into Estrogen, and high levels of Estrogen are related to a number of negative health conditions throughout the body.

Obesity Boosts Cortisol

Cortisol is the body's primary hormone secreted in response to high-stress situations. Cortisol is great for increasing pain tolerance and handling the stress of high-intensity situations, but it also eats away at the body's ability to produce Testosterone, because both hormones are created using the same precursor hormones. Like Estrogen, high Cortisol Levels also vastly increase the incidence of a number of negative health consequences such as increased arterial plaque and disastrous cholesterol levels.

Testosterone-Diabetes Trial

In another promising Testosterone Study, a large number of diabetic men will be treated with Testosterone in order to quantify the potential benefits of treatment among men with this physiologically devastating disorder. Male patients that participated in this study will be evaluated over the course of a year in regard to cardiovascular risk and body-fat ratio.

Before this large scale study was approved, small-scale pilot research was conducted which proved the feasibility of the hypothesis, granting the researchers the opportunity to further test their hypothesis with a larger pool of participants. The scientists, led by Doctor Carolyn Allan, are optimistic that their study will successfully yield a new and potent means to combat Diabetes.

Study in Process of Expansion

Today, the researchers are in the process of fielding candidates for this study all over the country in Australia, in order to study Testosterone as a potentially valid and useful treatment for Type-Two Diabetes. Dr. Allan is looking for patients that will potentially benefit from Testosterone Replacement for Testosterone Deficiency while also not being at an elevated risk of adverse complications from treatment such as prostate cancer.

Due to the conflicting affects of Insulin and fat upon Testosterone production, obese and diabetic patients have a higher incidence of Testosterone Deficiency than nearly any other population, and it is hypothesized that balancing Testosterone availability will have a very strong affect upon the patient's ability to burn fat, increase energy, and build muscle. The study will combine Testosterone Hormone Administration with a thoughtful diet, nutrition, and exercise plan in order to improve the short-term and long-term health of the patient.

The Future of Testosterone

Testosterone Hormone Replacement Therapy is not necessarily a panacea to the aging process, but as time passes and the body of knowledge continues to grow regarding this vitally important hormone, it becomes vividly clear that Testosterone Deficiency has an incredibly negative affect upon male health and longevity. Over time, the number of valid treatments using Testosterone will undoubtedly increase, as the importance of hormone balance becomes more well-understood. For now, just talk to your doctor.