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Media & Entertainment Law

: Sports Law Blog

Dispelling the Myth about HGH

By Rick Karcher, Michael McCann, Geoffrey Rapp, Greg Skidmore, and Howard Wasserman

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At the Congressional hearing last month, Congressman John Yarmouth twice challenged the notion whether performance enhancing substances do in fact enhance performance. Mitchell said "a lot of it is psychological" as well as "speeding recovery time" and Selig's response was that most people and trainers believe these drugs enhance performance in baseball. However, there is no medical or scientific evidence whatsoever suggesting that these drugs improve performance in baseball. To take it one step further, there is a lack of evidence to support Mitchell's statement that they even allow athletes to more quickly recuperate. In an article about Sylvester Stallone's use of HGH and testosterone, USA Today's Elizabeth Weise interviewed researchers who can't prove that HGH does anything but reduce body fat:

It has been popular in recent years with bodybuilders and athletes because they believe it will increase muscle mass, decrease fat and allow them to more quickly recuperate after punishing workouts.

Studies have found that it can slightly, but only slightly, increase muscle mass. And because it cuts down on body fat, it can give bodybuilders the "ripped" look they want, says Alan Rogol, a professor of endocrinology at the University of Virginia and Indiana University School of Medicine.

But there's not a lot of evidence that the hormone does anything else, says George Merriam, a professor and endocrine researcher at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Seattle.

"If Mr. Stallone is taking his growth hormone shots to improve the way he looks without his shirt on, the benefits that he's talking about may be real," Merriam says. But he says most studies have consistently shown that "there isn't improvement in physical or physiological performance."

Marc Blackman, associate chief of staff for research at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center, who has conducted many of the definitive studies on growth hormone and aging, says despite years of research worldwide, no one "has yet been able to show that supplementing growth hormone improves the function of the body."

Full post as published by Sports Law Blog on February 06, 2008 (boomark / email).