Week 152 :: Why Are We Trying To Enhance GH, And... Is It Working?

[the_fake_webmaster]

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* Note: How can I win? 1. Answer all questions in the order that they are asked. 2. Go over reviews (located at the bottom of past TOTW articles) and see what was said about those that did not win. Good Luck!
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TOPIC: Why Are We Trying To Enhance GH, And... Is It Working?

For the week of: January 10th - January 15th
Wednesday @ Midnight Is The Final Cut (Mountain Time, US & Canada).

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Being exposed to the bodybuilding community and all of the current news regarding steroids in sports, many of us have heard all about the use of growth hormones. However, how many of us know how they work, or why they work?

Why are we trying to enhance GH?

How effective is GH?

What are the differences between GH and steroids?

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* New Rule (beginning: June 1st, 2006): Any exercise not listed on our exercise listing (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.htm) must be accompanied by a full and complete description and pictures (or a link to the exercise(s) where pictures and description are given).

Thanks.

Don't discuss any other topic in this section. ONLY discuss the question above.

The best response will get $75 in credit to use in our online store! The other good responses will be used in an article on the main Bodybuilding.com site, with the poster's forum name listed by it. Become famous!

Thanks,
Will
Webmaster
Bodybuilding.com

[bigbrody]

growth hormone has absolutely ruined the sport in my opinion. i am not an expert whatsoever on gh or steroids but what i know is that gh as opposed to steroids increases everything in the body including organs, which is why bodybuilders stomachs stick out so much these days. maybe i'm alone on this one but i think that that look is absolutely terrible and takes away all the aesthetics bodybuilders should have, the focal point being a tight tiny waist. notice the bodybuilders of old and they all had great aesthetics mainly due to big lats tapering down to a tiny waist. all those bodybuilders used to take was steroids such as d-bol and deca, and they all looked great. unless they can make gh to not have this effect on the organs, than they shouldn't bother trying to enhance it. bodybuilders are already too big as it is so why try to make the bigger? i'm glad the DEA is cracking down on steroids because hopefully it will have a positive effect on the sport and bring back aesthetics to it as well.

[Beastinthemakin]

here is my entry! i hope i win this week need some new supplemetns for football off-season. noticed some grammar errors, so i edited them.

[djkoca]

here is my entry! i hope i win this week need some new supplemetns for football off-season
Beastinthemakin
Your description is the best answer what GH does. I am still waiting for the best way to taking it. I've read that if taken orally by mouth, it is neutralized by your stomach acids.
I don't know if it can be worn as a patch, what I mean, can it be absorbed through a persons skin, bypassing the stomach and liver.
djkoca

[Belloc]

Here's my entry.

Good luck to everyone but I hope I win this time round.

[blackirish]

Great responses, Belloc and Beastinthemakin. Good luck to you both.

Attached is my submission.

[mrkdrt]

Enchancing GH (HGH)

[Mighty Kev]

Here's my article!

Clean version is attached below.



Being exposed to the bodybuilding community and all of the current news regarding steroids in sports, many of us have heard all about the use of growth hormones. However, how many of us know how they work, or why they work?

Why are we trying to enhance GH?

Human growth hormone has recently become a topic of controversy in the bodybuilding community. Although many people talk about it as one of the factors that will lead to the decline of professional bodybuilding, many people simply do not know what it is. So let?s take a second to look at what GH actually is.

Growth Hormone, or GH, is a hormone that is secreted by the pituitary gland in the human body. The simplest way to describe the effects of growth hormone is to say that it causes cell growth and cell reproduction. (1)

But, what does growth hormone actually do? There are a couple of things that growth hormone does.
First of all, growth hormone raises the body?s ability to insert calcium from foods that are consumed into bone tissue. This strengthens the skeletal system, allowing the body to be very much more resistant to trauma. This essentially means that you?re less likely to break bones if you?ve got high levels of growth hormone.
The second thing that the growth hormone does in the body is that it increases protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is the creation of new proteins in the body, which leads to new muscle mass, as muscle is primarily made out of protein. What a lot of people don?t realize about protein is that the protein you eat doesn?t directly get put into your muscles in the same form that you eat it in. When you consume protein, your digestive system then releases acids in addition to an enzyme called pepsin, the acid helps denature (unwind) the protein while the pepsin breaks the protein into small peptides, which then get broken down into smaller monomers called amino acids. These are then built back together by the body, into new proteins, which is the actual synthesizing of the protein. Now, this is a real limiting factor in bodybuilding, and the simple fact that growth hormone increases the rate at which proteins are synthesized, directly means more muscle mass with the same amount of training.
The third thing effect that growth hormone has on the body is that it increases the body?s ability release fat from adipose cells into the body?s bloodstream. This directly allows the body to use stored fat as energy rather than glycogen, which would keep your body fat at the same percentage. This release of extra fat molecules into the bloodstream adds up to be one of the strongest natural ways to lose body fat.
Another thing that growth hormone does to the body, and the last we?ll be looking at in this article is it?s ability to stimulate the central nervous system, allowing the individual to be much healthier and much more resistant to falling ill to the common cold and even other serious illnesses.
As you can see by the effects that growth hormone has on the body, these are some very desirable properties. Who wouldn?t want stronger bones, more muscle, less fat, and have a much stronger immune system? Certainly every reader here at Bodybuilding.com. So this leads us to ways that we can increase the amount of growth hormone flowing through our veins.

Naturally, there are a few things you can do to increase your HGH levels. A few of them include getting good amounts of sleep, resistance training, and cardiovascular activity. Another way to increase amounts of growth hormone is through the proper use of supplements. According to a variety of studies, it is suggested that arginine supplementation, such as the Arginine-Alphaketoglutarate found in many common NO2 supplements, can significantly raise GH levels. Not only that, it can also provide massive pumps during your workouts which will in turn increase productivity in the gym, also raising GH levels naturally through the stress placed on the body. Another method of raising your GH levels through supplementation is through taking a more direct GH stimulator. The most commonly purchased HGH supplement here at Bodybuilding.com is ASN?s Humagro. This product is a source of homeopathic growth hormone, which is the most potent source of growth hormone that is currently allowed by the FDA. (2)



How effective is GH?

Growth Hormone, being a naturally occurring hormone in the body is very simply one of the most effective hormones in the body. Since it is a naturally occurring hormone, rather than a chemical that is normally never seen in the body, it is safer, and more effective than chemical supplementation. To essentially reiterate the some of the information above, growth hormone is remarkably effective at not only increasing the size of muscle fibers, it can also increase the number of muscle fibers, which is called hyperplasia. In addition to this, it increases protein synthesis in the body in addition to increasing the rate at which lypolysis occurs in a person?s body. Simply stated, growth hormone, or increasing the amount of growth hormone your body can be a very valuable tool that a bodybuilder, or even a person just looking to lose a few pounds of fat while putting a bit of muscle on, should certainly look into for easier gains.

What are the differences between GH and steroids?
Steroids are essentially drugs that mimic or lead to increasing the amounts of testosterone in the body for the sake of much faster muscle recovery. Typically steroids are prescribed to people who have been succumb to an injury and need help in the recovery process. This leads us to why some athletes such as bodybuilders take them. They also want much faster muscular recovery, which allows them to work out and recover much more quickly, allowing them to train two or three times as frequently as us natural athletes. The problem with this is that it is illegal.
The real difference in between steroids and growth hormone is in the side effects. Although more research is needed, growth hormone has little to no side effects on the body. Steroids have side effects such as severe acne, shrunken testicles, roid rage, and gyno. Now, I know that some people will argue with me that growth hormone does have a huge side effect, forgive the pun, called agromegaly. Acromegaly is basically referred to as gigantism, and is an unnatural growth of bone mass or thickening of the person?s skin which is caused by a very large amount of growth hormone for an extended period of time. (3) Now this seems silly to think that you?ll turn into a giant from supplementing with GH raising supplements, but if you?re worried about it, cycling is the way to go. Keep in mind, that people who suffer from gigantism have uncontrolled amounts of GH due to tumors or improperly working pituitary glands, so remember you have control of how much you want secreted, and can stop supplementing if you wish to.
Steroids, or more specifically testosterone; is like growth hormone in the sense that they?re both hormones that the body naturally produce. Since these two substances require prescriptions, this shifts the focus of what we are talking about to supplements that aim to raise the amount of either of the two hormones in the body by stimulating the body to create them, rather than doing something like ?injecting? them. There are both GH promoting supplements in addition to Testosterone boosting supplements that can legally and safely be taken by the general public. These supplements will aid in your bodybuilding gains in addition to reducing the amount of work needed to maintain the gains you have made.

Thanks for reading!
-K (Opiewags99)





References:
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hormone
(2) http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/asn/hum.html
(3) http://www.rajeun.net/sideeffects.html

[Mighty Kev]

Whew, barely made that one in time

[Beast2Be]

Are these due tonight at midnight, or was it last night?

[Belloc]

Are these due tonight at midnight, or was it last night?

I think it was a typo since the 15th was yesterday

[Mighty Kev]

These topics are always due on tuesdays

[Mighty Kev]

Oh I See, tuesday was christmas day, so that week he changed it to wednesday. But usually they're always tuesdays, meaning I think he just never changed to thing back to say Tuesday in the first section. I'm assuming it was a tuesday night thing... or else I Wouldn't have posted my entry until tonight for the sake of people reading mine to help write theirs..

[Beast2Be]

Where did they post the winners? I noticed in almost every thread they don't post the winners

[Mighty Kev]

You've got to check the link, for example topic 142 is up here

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/topicoftheweek142.htm then just type in the number of the topic you want to see instead of 142. They don't post the winners often, you need to check if you'd like to see =)

[Beast2Be]

Oh i gotcha! Thank's for the help :)