Cenegenics -human growthhormone stimulates growth of undetected cancer cells

[Guest guest]

Aging In The 21st Century

Steve Kroft Reports On The New Field Of Anti-Aging Medicine

 

(Page 3 of 4)Aug. 20. 2006

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(CBS)

Jack Benny, the late, great comedian who perpetually gave his age as

39, once said that growing old is a case of mind over matter. " If

you don't mind, it doesn't matter, " he said.

 

The problem is, most of us do mind — and the graying of 78 million

baby boomers is creating a vast marketing opportunity for doctors

and pharmacists who claim they can slow down that process.

 

This new field is called anti-aging medicine, or age-management

medicine.

 

As correspondent Steve Kroft reported earlier this year, the

treatment usually includes doses of the same performance-enhancing

drugs now banned by most professional sports: things such as

testosterone, DHEA, and human growth hormone.

 

Needless to say, this is all highly controversial, and may be even

illegal.

 

But that's not stopping thousands of doctors from taking up the

practice — or patients from seeking them out.

 

(CBS)

According to the Food and Drug Administration, there are very few

approved uses for human growth hormone and they are listed on each

product's label.

The most common is " growth hormone deficiency, " which is caused by

disease or damage to the pituitary gland, and is thought to afflict

only three out of every 10,000 adults.

 

If that's true, a lot of them seemed to be at the anti-aging

convention.

 

All of this is particularly alarming to Dr. Shlomo Melmed, who

literally wrote the book on human growth hormone.

 

He says there are all sorts of reasons why its use is supposed to be

carefully controlled.

 

" I would not take growth hormone because it's unsafe, " Melmed says.

 

" As a physician, I would certainly not recommend to my family or my

patients that they take growth hormone unless they have a proven

indication for pituitary damage. "

 

Melmed, director of Cedars-Sinai Research Institute in Los Angeles,

is one of the world's leading researchers on human growth hormone,

and president of the International Society of Endocrinology, which

is the study of hormones.

 

" There's no study published which shows that growth hormone

administration will prolong life in a controlled fashion.

 

There is no controlled study which shows that growth hormone

administration in the long term will benefit any of the frailties of

old age, " says Melmed.

 

He says the benefits of taking testosterone and human growth hormone

are often temporary and largely cosmetic,

while the potential side effects, which include " joint

pain, " " carpal tunnel syndrome, "

" diabetes, " " high blood pressure " and " heart failure, " are very

real.

 

 

But Melmed's biggest concern is that human growth hormone stimulates

the growth of undetected cancer cells, such as prostate cancer in

men over 50.

 

" It may well be that it's beneficial for us to have low growth

hormones as we age, " says Melmed.

Asked why, he says, " It may be protecting us from cancer and heart

disease. "

 

" If someone has a latent cancer, is there any way to diagnosis that

before you begin administering human growth hormone? " Kroft asked.

 

" Unfortunately not, " Melmed replied. " I would be very reluctant to

pour fuel onto the fire of a cancer by adding a very powerful growth

factor. "

 

Melmed says the use of growth hormone bothers him. " It bothers me

that people are prepared to spend so much money on a molecule which

may be unsafe for them, " he says.

 

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