HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE RESEARCH & NEWS

HGH and Olympic Performance Enhancement at the Beijing Games

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, more than eleven thousand athletes from all around the world will meet in Beijing in the spirit of international pride and competition. Although the majority of these representatives will likely arrive with the intent to square fairly against their opposition, a significant portion of these athletes will be attempting to flaunt the rules put forth by the International Olympic Committee and try to cheat their opponents by utilizing Performance Enhancing Drugs such as Human Growth Hormone, EPO, and Testosterone.

Although the IOC takes impressive measures in order to maintain the integrity and fairness of the games, there will be numerous men and women who will attempt to beat the random PED Testing performed by Olympic Officials. Unfortunately, performance science will always be one step ahead of the enforcement community, and there will always be those who slip through the cracks and boost their performance without setting off any alarms.

Chinese Cracking Down on PED Abuse

Beijing Olympic Organizers say that they will make unprecedented efforts in attempting to catch Athletes who are engaging in the use of PEDs such as Human Growth Hormone shots in order to cheat their competition. They will have forty one different drug testing stations, and 4,500 participants will be selected at random for drug testing in order to deter the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs. These facilities will be set up both at the Olympic Village and on site at the various competition locations. All drug testing will be performed under the guidance of official chaperones in order to make sure that the urine and blood samples provided by athletes are not tainted or faked.

Although Random Enforcement Testing will level the playing field significantly, it is still inevitable that some of the Olympic Athletes will get away with cheating with absolutely no repercussions.

The Inevitability of Performance Enhancing Drug Usage

Peter Sonksen is an English biologist who specializes in endocrinology and drug testing. He tells reporters that there are men and women across the world that utilize techniques such as blood doping while still arriving at the Olympics and passing all PED tests. Peter Sonksen is one of many scientists that are working to develop new and innovate ways to monitor for Performance Enhancing Drug usage in order to ensure fairness in national and global competitive events such as the Olympics.

Developments in HGH Blood Testing

Sonksen most recently developed a new test that allows officials to more accurately test for Human Growth Hormone Usage. It has been very difficult to test for Human Growth Hormone Performance Abuse in the past, but new strides in testing technology are quickly making the task easier.

How Long Does HGH Stay in your System?

The problem with testing directly for HGH is that Injections of Human Growth Hormone do not stay in the system for an extended period of time. HGH is designed by Mother Nature to disseminate throughout the body rapidly as it is secreted by the pituitary gland. After only minutes, all Human Growth Hormone released into the blood stream is converted to derivative forms such as Insulin-like Growth Factor One.

Monitoring IGF-1

Luckily for proponents for fair athletic competition, IGF-1 remains in the Blood Stream for four to ten hours after Human Growth Hormone has been converted, and IGF-1 remains active when connected to a cell receptor for up to three days. New techniques such as Sonksens new drug testing method monitor for higher levels of IGF-1 in the blood stream and in its activated form in the cells.

Sonksen understands that the current methodology of PED drug testing will still leave many left slipping through undeterred, but he is still pleased that the Beijing Olympic Committee has been so proactive in monitoring for Performance Enhancing Drug Usage. Du Lijun is the chief officer of the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency and is responsible for drug testing at the Beijing Games. Sonksen believes that Lijun is performing his task dutifully, but the culture of Performance Enhancement always seems to be a step ahead of those who enforce fair competition.

The PED Arms Race

Athletes are proactive at finding new means to get the edge over their competition. They are made aware of new Drug Testing Techniques and immediately begin to figure out how to work around these tests and build up their performance without being caught. In the end, its a constant evolutionary arms race. As scientists get better at catching cheaters and preventing certain forms of doping, athletes are able to find new and original methods of performance enhancement. Its a metaphorical race in which the scientists will inevitably always be one step behind.

Because of the difficulties in catching cheaters, drug testers have to be proactive and on their toes in order to discover those who are using methods such as Human Growth Hormone Injections in order to enhance their performance.

Julian Chang is the head medical representative of the Hong Kong Olympic team. He says that the reason why athletes are always a step ahead is that before Anti-Doping officials can test for a substance, they must first discover that it is being used for performance enhancement. The secretive nature of peak athletic performers makes this very difficult. The primary tool in the battle against PEDs is the spectrograph. Spectrographs are tools which identify particular chemicals and can alert Drug Testing Officials to unusual spikes of certain substances within blood and urine samples.

The problem with this set-up is that until a doping technique is identified, these unnatural spikes are meaningless because there is no proof that they are the result of PED usage. Certain signifiers may be causes of concern, but until a case can be made against them, there is no real way to tell if an Athlete is a legitimate competitor is trying to cheat the system, much like Marion Jones did with Human Growth hormone in the Sydney Olympic Games.

Marion Jones PED Abuse

Marion Jones was put in prison after it was proved that she committed perjury by lying to United States civil prosecutors denying her use of Performance Enhancing Drugs. In addition to this, her Olympic medals were stripped and she was retroactively disqualified and eliminated from Olympic Records.

Marion Jones is one of the best examples of why it is so difficult to test against Athletic Cheating with PEDs. Jones was evaluated over one hundred times before events and was never caught using the drugs. Although later on, she was implicated and punished severely, it is clear that the majority of those who utilize Hormone Injections and other forms of Performance Enhancement will not be caught.

Marion Jones was caught largely because of her celebrity status. Jones was primarily using a steroid known as tetrahydrogestrinone, otherwise called THG. The hormone is referred to by the athletic community as The Clear because of how it was possible to take the Androgen hormone while easily passing random drug testing. She originally claimed her trainer provided it to her, calling it Flaxseed oil so that she could use it and still claim ignorance.

The drug company which provided her trainer the THG, known as BALCO, was eventually raided and she became a target of investigation. This is when she lied to investigators. Drug testing techniques continued to improve as she continued to compete, and she lied to prosecutors and traded a guilty plea in order to arrange for more lenient sentencing.

HGH as a Performance Enhancing Drug

Although Marion Jones was finally caught because of her use of THG Testosterone, it is likely that she utilized a number of other techniques in order to cheat her competition as well. One of the most common methods of performance enhancement today is Human Growth Hormone. Bio-Identical HGH was originally created in order to treat growth disorders in children, but it has been more recently shown to be effective in treating Adult Human Growth Hormone Deficiency as well. Although there are a number of valid uses for HGH among adults, especially those over the age of thirty with a diagnosable and symptomatic deficiency, it has also been discovered to be a highly potent tool for performance enhancement.

Why Do Athletes Use HGH?

Athletes who take HGH shots generally do so for three reasons.

The first reason is that Human Growth Hormone burns calories and fat in order to provide enhanced endurance and energy during training.

The second reason is that HGH has the ability to enhance muscle strength. When combined with vigorous training, Human Growth Hormone Injections have the ability to amplify the effects of exercise, giving athletes an edge over their competitors.

The third reason that Athletes use HGH is because the drug greatly reduces downtime which normally results from extreme physical exertion. This allows athletes to recover from exercise sessions more quickly. Quicker recovery time means that people who use HGH can exercise more often without feeling the painful effects of overexertion, giving them more training time in comparison to their honest competitors.

The Futility of Early HGH Testing

In the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and the 2006 Olympic Winter Games of Torino, no athlete was caught using HGH Injections. IGF-1 Testing was not available for the 2004 and 2006 Olympics and injected Human Growth Hormone does not have to be present in the body in order to provide Performance Enhancing Benefits. It is also relatively easy to avoid being caught using Human Growth Hormone shots as well, because current testing only detects HGH within the body for one to three days after injection.

This gives a much more significant window for enforcement, but HGH therapy provides benefits for months after a month long cycle of injection. As long as athletes know when drug tests will be performed, they can easily avoid detection. Experts continue to improve their methods, but it may be years before a fool-proof HGH Test becomes available in order to stem its widespread use. For now, word of mouth and financial investigations are the primary means by which illicit HGH usage is discovered.

Harsh punishments and retrospective disqualifications are two of the biggest tools of deterrence available today. Although it wont catch all of the minor players, athletes of significance such as Marion Jones and Roger Clemens will often be caught as rumors and evidence of their PED usage become undeniable.

Why Are PEDs so hard to Track?

Those athletes who use Human Growth Hormone for Performance Enhancement are likely to have been using the substance regularly for a period of months before an athletic event such as the Olympics. The Olympics are such a huge international contest that it is simply impossible to drug test all competitors in the months leading up to the Olympics. Since the benefits of HGH stick around even after use of the Hormone has subsided, it is possible to quit usage weeks before drug testing begins while still maintaining a clear advantage as a result of HGH Injections.

Julian Chang is pessimistic about current enforcement of Human Growth Hormone Detection. He says that the only way to get caught using Human Growth Hormone is due to stupidity and carelessness.

The Future of PED Testing

There are new techniques available which can make HGH usage a more risky proposition. One new strategy involves freezing drug samples. World Anti-Doping President John Fahey has come forth and told Australian reporters that there is now a protocol in place to hold Olympic competitors accountable for following the rules. Olympic Anti-Doping officials are using techniques in order to freeze blood and urine samples for as long as eight years without degrading the sample. By doing this, they can retest samples at a later date if any allegations arise regarding PED abuse or if new tests make it easier to test for particular banned substances.

In addition to this, there are a number of new tests that are being developed which can trace other substances frequently used as performance enhancing drugs such as IGF-1 R3, peptide hormones, and clenbuterol. These substances have been shown to produce physiological benefits similar to those of Human Growth Hormone.

Timeline of PED Abuse Cases

Although in the 90s and early 2000s, drug testers repeatedly discovered endemic Performance Enhancing Drug Abuse among Chinese competitors, the Chinese seem to have cleaned up their act significantly. Below is a list of significant cases which involved Chinese PED use:

In 1994 a group of 11 Chinese competitors at the Asian Games in Japan were found to test positive for Performance Enhancing Steroids. Among the 11 athletes who were caught, 7 were members of the swim team. As a testament to the effectiveness of Steroids as a performance booster, 3 of the swim team members achieved world championship times.

In 1998, a Chinese swim team member named Yuan Yuan was apprehended with a distributive quantity of HGH while preparing to board a plane at the Sydney, Australia International airport. She was caught just prior to the world swimming championships. In the same year, 4 of her teammates were discovered to have been cheating as well. Over the course of the 90s, a total of 38 swim team members and/or swim coaches were caught with Performance Enhancing Drugs across the ten year span.

In 2000, 4 Internationally renowned Chinese track athletes were handed down a two year total ban from competitive track and field events as a result of being caught utilizing Performance Enhancement Drugs.

Also in 2000, Chinese Track coach Ma Junren was discovered to have been utilizing Performance Enhancing Drugs such as Steroids and Human Growth Hormone in an attempt to create a team of what could be considered super-athletes. Junrens track team recorded many incredible track times, blowing away their competition and fuelling suspicions that he was facilitating cheating among his pupils. Eventually, his utilization of PEDs was discovered by national officials and he was fired from his position as Chinese Olympic coach.

Largely as a result of Junrens misdeeds, forty athletes representing the Chinese Olympic team were banned from making the trip to Sydney, Australia. Among those in the group, twenty seven were not able to pass a drug test. As a result, the entire group of forty was banned from competition.

In 2001, four more Chinese star track athletes were punished or completely banned from world track competitions as a result of PED use.

Two years later, Shang Shichun was uncovered as a cheater in 2003. She broke 3 world records for his strength performance in weight lifting completion. Her trio of gold medals were all revoked as a result of her disqualification.

In 2005, Chinese Anti-Drug agents raided a track facility in the province of Liaoning. As a result of the raid, drug agents discovered a refrigerator loaded with enough banned Performance Enhancing Drugs to supply the entire facility. Eight track and field athletes from the facility tested positive for PEDs.

Source:

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/621/story/442667.html

The Conscious Evolution Institute

Articles like this outline the risks associated with misuse and abuse of HGH shots, Testosterone patches and gells, and other forms of performance enhancement. Success breeds prying eyes, and the most successful are at the highest risk of being discovered abusing these drugs. Even national heroes such as Lance Armstrong are not immune to such scrutiny.

For what Purposes are HGH and Testosterone Legal?

Although we in no way condone the use of HGH or Testosterone as a performance enhancer, articles such as these highlight the amazing changes that can result from the use of these hormones. We only provide Hormone Replacement Therapies for patients who show a clinical need for HGH or Testosterone as a result of a diagnosable clinical deficiency. As we surpass the age of thirty, our hormone levels naturally begin to decline. As a result, eventually all of us will begin to age at an increased rate as a result of hormone deficiency. Some of us experience this decline faster than others, which can result in premature aging.

If you are suffering from Low-T or HGH Deficiency, you are a perfect candidate for Hormone Replacement Therapy as a treatment for Hypogonadism and Hypopituitarism!

The Amazing Benefits of HGH

The benefits of Hormone Replacement Therapy using Testosterone or Human Growth Hormone are immense. Proper hormone balance is a key to extending life and making it both more enjoyable and more rewarding. If you are interested in using Hormone Replacement as an Anti-Aging Treatment, the Conscious Evolution Institute is here to help.

We can provide all of the testing required in order to both diagnose your deficiency and prove whether or not you are a valid candidate for the amazing treatments that we have to offer.

If you would like to learn more about Human Growth Hormone, Testosterone, or other forms of Hormone Treatment, call CEI today. Our highly qualified staff would be more than happy to answer any and all of your questions.

U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM MEDIA SUMMIT PRESS CONFERENCE Participants: Brian Clay (BC) Walter Davis (WD) Lashinda Demus (LD) Allyson Felix (AF) Reese Hoffa (RH) Carmelita Jeter (CJ) LaShawn Merritt (LM) Terrence Trammell (TT) Quotes:

Q: Brian, can you give us an update on your health?

BC: So far, everything is going just as planned. Before the 2004 Games, I had a personal best in the heptathlon leading into Athens. Again, this year I had another personal best and hopefully Ill taking everything I have done so far and taking that into the Games. I expect my health to be fairly good. I have had a few colds here and there, but other than that, things have been pretty good.

Q: Reese, does your dexterity translate from Rubix cube to sport? What will it take to make the team?

RH: With the Rubix cube, I just do it for fun. It doesnt really help anything. It actually hinders my throwing. Back in 2004 Olympic trials, I couldnt fully extend my arm and I barely made the team because of it. I basically do this for show, try to make people think I am smart... Why are you laughing? I am trying to be serious here. To make the team, especially this year, I just have to go out there and take care of business. Just do what I have done with the previous years in 2006 and 2007.

Q: LaShawn, were you surprised Jeremy Wariner changed coaches?

LM: I think it was a surprise to everyone that he changed coaches... He knows how to execute the race. It is his job, I dont think he would make a bad move.

Q: Lashinda, what are the logistics with managing your twins?

LD: I dont manage. They manage me. They rule me. I have no control. Its hard. I wanted to quit about a millions times. I am ready now. I was a Toyota and now I am a Maserati.

Q: Allyson, talk about your 100 meters focus? Carmelita, your evolution into the upper echelon of track?

AF: This year I am trying to focus more on the 100 meters. I would like to run it in the Olympics. My main focus is just the start; if I can get that down I can be very competitive in it. I also love the race. I love the speed. I am looking for good things come trials.

CJ: I am more 200/100 and I have been running for awhile. I graduated in 04. I had a reoccurring hamstring injury that hindered me from being able to show the world how I can run. Now I am healthy and I am ready to run.

Q: With the recent focus on doping, do you feel pressure to reclaim the image of track & field?

AF: I think we all know that our sport has taken another unfortunate step backwards. I think that we are all in agreement that it is our responsibility to shed some light back on our sport and I think we can do that by some amazing performances in Beijing. That is our top priority. I think that we all want people to see where we came from, to recognize the hard work we are putting in and to recognize that.

Q: Do you feel pressure to match historical greatness?

CJ: I dont feel any pressure. I am just going to go out and run my race. That is what is important to me. I am just going to go out and run my race.

AF: I think that, you know, you kind of feel the added pressure, but I think we can be proud of where we came from, the people who have come before us. We dont want to let anyone down. I think that will motivate us more, because we know our reputation is on the line.

Q: The USOC emphasized a clean team, and that youve seen the shame of doping violaters. How has it impacted you? Are you confident it is a clean team?

TT: I think the biggest thing that has happened is that it has put a cloud over the entire sport based upon the amount of press that is focused on drug use. I think that there are several different aspects of track & field... I think that with light being shed more toward the positive things of track & field, not just the Olympic year and I think that would help put the sport in a better light. I think that people make their individual choices based on what they feel or believe. I cant walk in the next mans shoes. All I can do is represent myself, my country, and my community the best that I know how.

Q: Can you speak about the Liu Xiangs pressure?

TT: I think he will be under an extreme amount of pressure. He is holding a nation on his shoulders. They are all watching him. I cant fathom 1.3 billion people anywhere in the world. That being the case, the one thing that I think that they are taking too far is the expectations. They are no longer hopes, they are expectations. It is a different ballgame when you have hope and when you have expectations. So he is going to be under a lot of pressure.

Q: With a trial scheduled for next month where names may be revealed, can track & field deal with another shadow?

BC: Well any time someone tests positive in track & field, it is a major blow. It can be during trials, during the Olympics, during Christmas, whatever, it is even more of a blow to the athletes trying to do it the right way. Because there are definitely things like sponsorship opportunities that does take away from trials and the other meets we have to do well at to make a living. Of course it is a hindrance, and quite frankly it sucks, to take away from what we are doing to do it the correct way. Our job is to compete to our best ability and to put our best foot forward and to try to represent U.S. track & field to the best of our ability. I think that is what we are all trying to do... We are going to put on the blinders and focus on our race... To let people know, this is the real US team here and this is our

Q: Lashinda, what elements came easy as you returned?

LD: It was actually harder for me to get my technique post-babies. I am stronger, not because I had the babies, but because I worked 10 times harder to get back to normal. I am ahead of schedule. I dont think my technique is any better than it was; I am just stronger.

Q: How has experience in other Olympics helped?

WD:Yes, I think the two Olympics before was experience. As they say, the third time is the charm. So as I go to Beijing, I hope that is the case. Yes, I will try to compete in both jumps...You cant triple jump and long jump at the same time. Since the long jump is first, I am going to try and do both again.

Q: With talk about doping, do you feel you have to prove you are clean?

BC: For me, any time I can get the opportunity to let someone know I am clean, I take it. I have had the most recent opportunity to... The USADA just started a program where they pick a few athletes that they are going to test a lot. Basically the point of Project Believe, their goal is to try and prove that athletes are clean instead of always proving athletes are dirty. I am a part of that. I have been tested, I cant tell you how many times. I went through a two week period where I was tested 11 times, blood and urine, with five vials of blood each time and urine tests. I have another round coming up. I am tested randomly more than the normal athlete. I will be doing blood and urine tests 2 times a month, up until the Olympic Games and through the Olympic Games. Plus I am being tested at meets I go to randomly, and I am still in the WADA pool. Any time I get to prove it, I try to take that chance. I know that there are questions. People are always asking questions, because of what is coming up in the News.

Q: Do you feel confident now that the U.S. will take a clean team to Beijing and that athletes are clean in your event (from other countries)?

RH: I have to believe that every athlete I will be competing against will be clean. I cant speak for every athlete. I know here in the U.S. we are definitely taking a lot of steps to make sure... That we are all extremely clean. The shot-putters in particular because I think we have more athletes ranked higher in the world. So, they kind of put us on a higher priority list. I have to believe we are all definitely clean. If for some reason that would happen to us, that we end up testing positive, the ramifications would be devastating to the sport in the U.S. Hopefully, any of the future athletes know that we like where shot-putting is in the past and in the world. We want to make a career of it.

Q: HGH blood test. How feel about having to test HGH blood tests versus other sports not having to i.e. football, baseball, etc.?

TT: We have been through this several times before. I dont think we need to panic or end all be all. I think my first one [HGH blood test] was in 2005 so that is nothing new. However, when you get to talking about specific dynamics about that attention, you have to also talk about the marketability and the perception of these sports. You have billion dollar industry in these other sports. I think with track & field, we are better athletes; we work a whole lot harder. I think we do tend to get the short end of the stick. The reason I brought up the money issue, it would appear to me, that with so much riding on those other sports, they wont let things tarnish their investment. It is something we are dealing with it and it is a shame. I would take it upon myself that everyone on this panel is doing it the right way. We take pride in that we earn it is what we get.

Q: Speak to your involvement in frequent drug testing, Marion Jones, and what do you think of her in jail?

AF: Well, I will talk about the Marion Jones thing first. It was around the year 2000 when Marion was everywhere; she was definitely someone I looked up too. It was personally devastating for me see that it was true and see her go through that. I guess I felt even more responsible to be a role model to younger kids because that was important to me. It would be great if my role model could have been clean and still been my role model. And now looking forward, I think that put the light on track & field once again. I am also part of the Project Believe which is an intense program where you are tested about two weeks for a period of time, with five vials of blood like Brian said, and urine and all of that. I feel that I will do whatever I have to do to prove I am clean. I am willing to do it no matter what I have to wake up. I am against doping.

Q: Allyson, what is the trickiest part of the multiple event schedule you are trying to pull off?

AF: I think the most difficult thing is the preparation, just to make sure your body can handle that number races in that amount of days and I am very confident that my coach, he has done it before, and I know he can do it again to get me to that level. Right now I am focused on the trials, I mean I need to get through those first before I try to schedule everything out. That is my main focus now.

Human Growth Hormone Declines with Aging

The decline of growth hormone with age is directly associated with many of the symptoms of aging, including cardiovascular disease, increased body fat, osteoporosis, wrinkling, gray hair, decreased energy, reduced sexual function and interest, and other ageing archetypal symptoms. Many of these symptoms have been found in younger adults who have growth hormone deficiency.

Research over the last 40 years confirms the decline of Real Injectable HGH as we age in our adult years and the decline of Real Injectable HGH production accelerates as we it is theorized we get older, therefore as we get older after the age of 30 our bodies are not stimulating the regenerating new healthy cells as fast as they are dying off, and as a net result, aging seems to be the process of our bodies slowly dying faster than it can replace itself at first and the dying process accelerates as we continue age.

HGH Levels in Life

Real Injectable HGH is produced at a rate that peaks during adolescence when accelerated growth occurs. Growth hormone secretion decreases with age in every animal species tested thus far. In humans, the amount of growth hormone after age of 25 to 30 declines about 14% per decade (or 1% to 2% per year), so that total daily growth hormone production is reduced dramatically with age. In numerical values, we produce on a daily basis about 500 micrograms of growth hormone at age 20, 200 micrograms at age 40, and 25 micrograms at age 80.

Age 40+

At age 40 our growth hormone production is only 40% of what we produced at age 20. The fall in IGF-1 levels with age is identical to the decline of growth hormone.

Another research has shown that by the age of 40, our Real Injectable HGH production is down to 50% of youthful levels. By the age of 55 it sinks to 20%, which is not much more than someone in their 80's can produce.

Human Growth Hormone Decreases Significantly after the age of 35 to 45. Scientists do not know the exact reason why persons over the age 35 to 45 tend to incur such a significant decrease in Real Injectable HGH growth hormone secretion from the pituitary gland, with the result causing symptoms of aging, andropause ie Doctor Prescribed HGH deficiency.

Some medical research has revealed that the aging pituitary somatotroph cells can still secrete as much growth hormone as the young somatotrophs cells if they are properly and adequately stimulated. As a result some researchers have come up with several theories regarding aging resulting from Real Injectable HGH related deficiency.

HGH Blockers Increase with Age

Real Injectable HGH Blockers” (called Somatostatin) increase with age
Some research scientists believe the problem lies with somatostatin (HGH blockers”), the natural inhibitor (blocker) of Real Injectable HGH. Somatostatin has been found to increase in population within the body with age and may act to block the pituitary’s release of Real Injectable HGH. When researchers eliminated somatostatin production in old rats, they found growth hormone secretion as great as those of young rats. This might indicate theoretically the Pituitary Gland has a life long ability to produce any healthy level of Real Injectable HGH we might desire.
Real Injectable HGH Stimulators Decrease with Age

Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone

A second theory is that the precursor hormone, growth hormone-releasing hormone (GH-RH), which stimulates HGH release by the pituitary gland, becomes less sensitive to signals from the hypothalamus. Hence, insufficient GH-RH is released resulting in a decrease of growth hormone secretions over time and age.

Decreased Ability to Process HGH

The Body Requires More Real Injectable HGH as we Age or the Body loses its ability to utilize Real Injectable HGH as we age

A third theory is that, not only does the growth hormone secreted and available to receptors in our cells decrease with aging, but that the cell receptors become more resistant and less responsive to the human growth hormone. Under this theory, aging can be viewed as a disease of growth hormone resistance within our cell receptors similar to the way in which diabetes is a disease of insulin resistance

See: HGH Deficiency Test