getting prescribed HGH

[ohmygoodness]

kids get it in my hood

GH is prescribed to children under certain guidelines.

 

[dragonfire101]

You ain't going to get GH prescribe unless u have a legit medical reason and and you get sent for testing that shows your GH is low such as HGH Provocation test, Insulin Tolerance, or Arginine test. You will have to demonstrate you have an issue producing GH at least two consecutive times before it will be prescribed and covered by insurance.

I have a pituitary tumor and GH output is very low. Second test I just missed the cutoff and still could not get it prescribed.

Now by looking at your prices U either don't have insurance or your using one of those semi quasi HRT Clinics who will prescribed almost to anyone with some low average blood test readings. In that case you probably could get it from one of those HRT Clinic for a few grand a month.

 

[KillerStack]

They prescribe gh for anti-aging purposes not for bbing purposes.

I'm pretty sure "anti-aging therapy" with GH is basically illegal too. And if anti-aging was a legit reason then a doc could easily claim 6iu or even higher was better for this indication. I mean why not? I know it's wide spread but these clinics and docs are taking chances.

You ain't going to get GH prescribe unless u have a legit medical reason and and you get sent for testing that shows your GH is low such as HGH Provocation test, Insulin Tolerance, or Arginine test. You will have to demonstrate you have an issue producing GH at least two consecutive times before it will be prescribed and covered by insurance.

Yup. But it's great that these places exist, adds some insulation for the patient (i.e. bodybuilder ). If I was in the US I would use these places too, instead of the black market. Those price lists look like candy stores for any bb.

 

[KillerStack]

You have to have a legit reason for getting any of these, too.

What would be a legit reason for getting a oxan/stano mix injectable for example?

 

[dragonfire101]

2iu a day is standard antiaging dosages prescribed. 6iu a day is in no way a antiaging dosage.

 

[Metal]

Any chance???

Does anyone know if Insurance will cover anti-aging? Im nervous to ask my Human Resources... Not sure if it could prompt a steroid screen, my ordinates already think im huge.

 

[KillerStack]

2iu a day is standard antiaging dosages prescribed. 6iu a day is in no way a antiaging dosage.

"Antiaging" is NOT a legal reason to prescribe GH, regardless of dose. There is no proof it wards off aging and might even decrease lifespan (who knows for sure?). But if antiaging was legal then why couldn't a doc deem it beneficial to prescribe a higher dose? For example, say he thinks it reduces wrinkles better and the patient feels stronger and healthier at that dose.

From quick google search:

Growth Hormone Deemed Illegal for Off-Label Antiaging Use

News Author: Laurie Barclay, MD
CME Author: Désirée Lie, MD, MSEd

Authors and Disclosures



Oct. 28, 2005 — Growth hormone (GH) is illegal for off-label antiaging use, according to an article in the Oct. 26 issue of JAMA. This article reviews the literature concerning the uses and adverse effects of GH as well as the legal ramifications of selling, using, or prescribing it.

"Prescribing and administering GH has become a routine intervention in an industry that is variably called anti-aging, regenerative, longevity or age management medicine," lead author Thomas Perls, MD, MPH, from Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts, said in a news release. "Hundreds of thousands of patients who have received GH in recent years as a purported treatment for aging are unaware that they are receiving the drug illegally."

Authors of the review conclude that 1988 and 1990 amendments to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) make off-label distribution or provision of GH to treat aging or age-related diseases illegal in the U.S. Unlike most drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), GH can only be distributed for indications specifically authorized by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and these do not include aging and related disorders. In addition, the FDA has clearly indicated that GH is not a dietary supplement.

The FDA has approved GH only for GH deficiency-related syndromes causing short stature in children, adult GH deficiency caused by rare pituitary tumors and their treatment, and muscle-wasting disease associated with HIV and AIDS. Most GH prescriptions should therefore be for children, but 74% of human GH (HGH) prescriptions in 2004 were for adults aged 20 years and older, and 44% were for adults aged 40 to 59 years, suggesting to the authors that a large proportion of GH sales are for illegal uses.

"Off-label use for many drugs is a normal and accepted practice in medicine, but that is not true for growth hormone," says coauthor S. Jay Olshansky, PhD, from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. "According to laws instituted by Congress more than 10 years ago, HGH can only be distributed for indications specifically authorized by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and aging and its related disorders are not among them. The use of HGH as an alleged antiaging intervention is a major public health concern not just because it is illegal, but also because its provision for antiaging is not supported by science and it is potentially harmful."

U.S. officials have reportedly estimated that in 2004, 25,000 to 30,000 older adults received HGH for antiaging. Many Internet sites and antiaging clinics market HGH, claiming that it prevents or reverses aging and improves nail and hair growth, sleep, skin tone, digestion, strength, weight loss, vision, and sexual function. Claims that aging is caused by an age-related decline in HGH levels and that supplementation can therefore stop or reverse aging have not been substantiated by research to date in transgenic mice or other animal models.

"Although there is no evidence that HGH administration stops or reverses aging, many people spend a great deal of money on these products," Dr. Perls says. "On the contrary, responsibly conducted and peer-reviewed science indicates that HGH could in fact accelerate aging and shorten lifespan. It is associated with very high rates of serious adverse effects, and long-term use could increase one's risk of cancer."

Although GH has been documented to improve some measures of body composition, including increased muscle mass, decreased total body fat, improved skin elasticity, and reduced rate of bone demineralization, these positive effects may be modest and short-lived. Benefits have not been demonstrated on strength, functional capacity, or metabolism.

Significant adverse effects reported with GH include carpal tunnel syndrome, glucose intolerance, diabetes, arthralgia, myalgia, peripheral edema, and elevated triglyceride levels. Long-term GH treatment has raised concerns of an increased cancer risk and the potentiating effects of insulin-like growth factors on cancer.

When sold through Web sites, GH may be expensive, and in some cases distributed without physician supervision. Formulations may include tablets, sprays, or injectables, ranging in cost from $200 to $1,000 monthly. The Federal Trade Commission estimated that one Internet site generated more than $70 million in sales of pills and sprays purported to contain GH or to stimulate its production. In 2004, U.S. sales of GH totaled $622 million for nearly 213,000 prescriptions, not including Web site sales. Worldwide annual sales of GH are estimated at $1.5 to $2 billion.

"Millions of dollars in profits are made off of useless pills and sprays like these," Dr. Perls says. "Pills with GH are destroyed in the stomach, and because the molecule is too large to enter the blood stream via sublingual and nasal sprays, such products have absolutely no biological effect. You might as well be paying hundreds of dollars for sand and water."

Physicians within the antiaging industry estimated that in 2002, 100,000 individuals obtained GH without a prescription. Although GH, unlike anabolic steroids, is not a schedule III drug, Congress specifically authorized the Drug Enforcement Agency to investigate offenses related to HGH distribution. The penalties for distribution or provision of GH for antiaging purposes may include up to five years in prison, or 10 years if the offense involves a minor, with fines of up to $250,000 for an individual or $500,000 for an organization, or alternatively, twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, in addition to forfeiture of property used in or derived from violations of the HGH law.

"In 1988 and again in 1990, the [Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act] enacted very stringent controls with substantial penalties involving the distribution of HGH," says coauthor Neal Reisman, MD, JD, from Baylor College of Medicine and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas. "Hopefully our paper will raise awareness of the legal issues surrounding the improper distribution, marketing, and provision of GH and discourage this criminal practice."

Distributing GH via the Internet is in violation of another law because the FDCA requires that GH must be prescribed by a physician who, "'based upon an individualized determination of a proper course of treatment, authorizes the drug's distribution to a patient under his supervision.'" Numerous Web sites reviewed by the authors showed either no evidence of such supervision, or purported supervision in which the supervising physician never met the patient. Distributors may also be in violation of laws against false advertising or deceptive promotion.

"Given the clinical concerns and the legal issues involved, we believe that physicians or other persons who currently market, distribute, or administer GH to their patients for any reason other than the well-defined approved (ie, legal) uses of the drug, should not do so," the authors conclude. "Pharmaceutical companies that manufacture GH should play a more effective role in making physicians and the public aware of the circumstances in which the marketing and distribution of GH are legal and illegal. Federal and state agencies should be allocated resources to better deal with the illegal distribution of GH. Finally, the FDA and professional and lay organizations are in excellent positions to conduct awareness campaigns to educate physicians and the public about the legal and medical ramifications of GH use for antiaging."

The authors have disclosed various financial arrangements with The American Federation of Aging Research, the Alliance for Aging Research, and/or the National Institute on Aging and Boston University School of Medicine's Evans Medical Foundation in Massachusetts. Drs. Perls and Olshansky have disclosed that they are defendants in a lawsuit brought against them by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and others.

JAMA. 2005;294:2086-2090

Study Highlights

* Retail and mail pharmacy supplies of HGH in 2004 generated total sales of US$622 million.
* 74% of HGH prescriptions were for adults aged 20 years and older, and 43.7% for those aged 40 to 59 years.
* In 2002, physicians in the antiaging industry estimated that 100,000 individuals obtained the drug without a prescription.
* Another, less common, use of HGH is for athletic enhancement.
* Off-label distribution or marketing of GH to treat antiaging or aging-related conditions is illegal in the U.S.
* Although HGH is not a schedule III drug, the Drug Enforcement Agency has been charged with the authority to enforce laws governing the use of HGH.
* GH is not a dietary supplement. It was approved in 1940 as a drug by the FDA prior to the enactment of the 1994 Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act and cannot be classified as a dietary supplement.
* In addition, HGH is bioavailable only in an injectable form, and this is another reason it cannot be classified as a dietary supplement.
* The prevalence of adult GH deficiency in the U.S. is estimated to be 50,000, and the incidence is approximately 6,000 per year, but a substantial proportion of adults with this condition are not being treated with HGH.
* GH has been documented to improve some measures of body composition, such as increased muscle mass and reduced body fat, but the effects are transient and modest and in one study disappeared after 24 months.
* Adverse effects of GH include arthralgia, myalgia, edema, carpal tunnel syndrome, glucose intolerance, and hypertriglyceridemia.
* A higher risk of cancer is a concern due to the potentiating effects of insulin-like growth factors.
* Adverse effects are seen at doses used for legal indications in patients with AIDS wasting syndrome.
* No studies have assessed the long-term efficacy or safety of HGH.
* The FDCA permits the distribution of HGH in connection with (1) "'treatment of a disease'" or (2) "'treatment of other recognized condition'" that has been authorized by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
* The FDCA requires that GH be prescribed by a physician who "'based upon an individualized determination of a proper course of treatment, authorizes the drug's distribution to a patient under his supervision.'" Therefore, prescribing without having a patient seen or supervised by a physician is illegal.
* The Federal Trade Commission has indicated that fines and disciplinary action can be brought against distributors who disseminate false marketing information and promote and sell HGH with false claims that cannot be substantiated.
* Provision of GH is legal for children with short stature (defined as a height greater than 2 SDs below the mean for age and sex) who have GH deficiency, poor growth due to renal failure, Turner syndrome, or Prader-Willi syndrome, or for children small for gestational age or with idiopathic short stature.
* In adults, GH can be legally distributed for only 2 conditions. The first is GH deficiency that meets the criteria of biochemical diagnosis (subnormal response to a GH stimulation test) and patients with GH deficiency alone or with multiple hormone deficiencies (hypopituitarism) or as a result of pituitary or hypothalamic disease, surgery, radiation therapy or trauma, or childhood GH deficiency.
* The second adult indication for HGH is wasting syndrome of AIDS, which does not include lipodystrophy.

 

[dragonfire101]

"Antiaging" is NOT a legal reason to prescribe GH, regardless of dose. There is no proof it wards off aging and might even decrease lifespan (who knows for sure?). But if antiaging was legal then why couldn't a doc deem it beneficial to prescribe a higher dose? For example, say he thinks it reduces wrinkles better and the patient feels stronger and healthier at that dose.

From quick google search:

Your right its not. U need a legit medical reason, which I sated earlier even then your going to have hard time getting it prescribed.

I'm saying at these quasi legal HRT clinics they usually prescribe 2iu a day as the standard. Many recently started switching to Sermorelin, supposedly because its more beneficial to use a growth hormone secretagogue by stimulating pituitary gland to releases GH, plus negative feedback is also regulated by pituitary. Plus at the moment the issue of legality is not regulated with Sermorelin for off label use, as with GH, stated in below article. So there are couple benefits to using.

DAT has plenty posted on CJC-1295 under peptide section and which form to use.

Clin Interv Aging. 2006 December; 1(4): 307–308.


Sermorelin: A better approach to management of adult-onset growth hormone insufficiency?
Richard F Walker
International Society for Applied Research in Aging (SARA)

Growth hormone replacement therapy (GHRT) using recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) has been embraced by many age management practitioners as one of the most effective methods for opposing somatic senescence currently available. However, its routine use has been controversial because few clinical studies have been performed to determine the potential risks of long-term therapy. Also, certain medical and legal issues have not been resolved causing some practitioners to restrict their use of the product. Some of these issues include the fact that:

* Improper dosing can lead to side effects that may be serious in some patients,
* Injection of hGH creates unnatural conditions of exposure to the hormone that may erode normal physiology,
* The Code of Federal Regulations specifically forbids the use of rhGH in adults except for treatment of AIDS or human growth hormone deficiency (GHD) diagnosed pursuant to regularly accepted guidelines.

While there is a wealth of information showing that long-term administration of rhGH reduces intrinsic disease and extends life in adults suffering pathogenic GHD, consensus on whether extrapolation of those data to the aging condition is justified has not been reached (Perls et al 2005). Most of the major concerns derive from the fact that rhGH is mitogenic and may awaken latent cancers, that improper dose selection may promote metabolic disorders such as diabetes, and perhaps that pharmacological presentation may exacerbate decline of endocrine function by distorting essential hormonal interactions. Of course, all these concerns are speculative and will not be resolved until sufficient scientific evidence for or against GHRT eventually accumulate. In the interim, the value of rhGH in GHRT will continue to be debated; unfortunately based more upon personal prejudice than objective information.
Despite the eventual outcome to the “Great Hormone Debate” as it has been titled in media articles (Landsmann 2006), certain negative aspects of GHRT using rhGH cannot be disputed and justify searching for a better alternative. For example, “square wave” or pharmacological presentation of the exogenous hormone cannot be avoided since it is administered as a bolus, subcutaneous injection. Since the amount of rhGH entering the general circulation is not controlled by normal feedback mechanisms, tissue exposure to elevated concentrations is persistent and eventually may lead to tachyphylaxis and reduced efficacy. Also, because the body cannot modulate tissue exposure to rhGH, the practitioner is required to “best guess” the appropriate dosage based upon little other than serum measurements of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and subjective comments from the patient about perceived responses to the hormone. Thus, it would seem that an alternative method(s) of GHRT that circumvented these problems would be of great value so long as it retained the positive attributes of rhGH.
One possibility that is receiving growing attention is the use of GH secretagogues to promote pituitary health and function during aging. An example of such molecules is growth hormone releasing factor 1–29 NH2-acetate, or sermorelin, that recently became available to practitioners for use in longevity medicine (Merriam et al 2001). Other alternatives include orally active growth hormone-releasing peptides that are currently being developed by pharmaceutical companies. Some of these have been reported to be effective at improving physical performance in the elderly (Fahy 2006). However, it is unlikely that they will be marketed for several years. On the other hand, sermorelin, an analog of naturally occurring growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) whose activity declines during aging, may presently offer a more immediate and better alternative to rhGH for GHRT in aging (Russell-Aulet et al 2001). The molecule was commercially produced and marketed for many years as an alternative to rhGH for use in children with growth retardation, but it could not compete with rhGH and was withdrawn as a therapeutic entity by the manufacturer. Paradoxically sermorelin failed as a growth-promoting agent in children for the very reason that it is a better alternative for GHRT in aging adults. Growth-deficient children need higher doses of growth hormone than can be achieved by stimulating production of their own hormone, whereas the beneficial effects of sermorelin on pituitary function and simulation of youthful growth hormone secretory dynamics in aging adults have little effect on growth rate in children. Unlike exogenous rhGH that causes production of the bioactive hormone IGF-1 from the liver, sermorelin simulates the patients own pituitary gland by binding to specific receptors to increase production and secretion of endogenous hGH. Because sermorelin increases endogenous hGH by stimulating the pituitary gland, it has certain physiological and clinical advantages over hGH that include:

* Effects are regulated by negative feedback involving the inhibitory neurohormone, somatostatin, so that unlike administration of exogenous rhGH, overdoses of endogenous hGH are difficult if not impossible to achieve,
* Because of the interactive effects of sermorelin and somatostain, release of hGH by the pituitary is episodic or intermittent rather than constant as with injected rhGH.
* Tachphylaxis is avoided because sermorelin-induced release of pituitary hGH is not “square wave”, but instead simulates more normal physiology,
* Sermorelin stimulates pituitary gene transcription of hGH messenger RNA, increasing pituitary reserve and thereby preserving more of the growth hormone neuroendocrine axis, which is the first to fail during aging (Walker et al 1994).
* Pituitary recrudescence resulting from sermorelin helps slow the cascade of hypophyseal hormone failure that occurs during aging thereby preserving not only youthful anatomy but also youthful physiology (Villalobos et al 1997).

Finally, there is the question of lawful practice. Unlike rhGH which has legal restrictions on its clinical use, the off-label prescribing of sermorelin is not prohibited by federal law. Thus, it can be carefully employed and evaluated by the practitioner to objectively determine whether it provides greater benefits with less risk to his/her patients. In support of this effort, the Society for Applied Research in Aging will be providing sermorelin free of cost on a competitive basis to practitioners willing to study its effects under protocol conditions and to report the outcomes in a peer-reviewed journal such as Clinical Interventions in Aging. Hopefully, through such efforts we can contribute to development of a paradigm for evidence-based GHRT in clinical age management.