HGH warning: if you've heard that human growth hormone can help you look better and be a better athlete, beware: HGH is a dangerous and harmful drug

Scholastic Choices, Oct, 2008 by John DiConsiglio

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Corey Gahan won his first major event in the ultracompetitive world of in-line skating when he was just 10 years old. By the time he was 15, Corey, who's from Michigan, won national titles at three different distances. A year later, he won the U.S. Indoor Speedskating Championships, shattering a world record for his age group in the process.

Corey was fast on wheels, but he couldn't outrace his shameful secret. Corey may have been a champion at age 10. But by 12, he was a drug user--and a cheat.

Starting in 2002, Corey's father injected his son with a series of drugs, including human growth hormone (HGH). The HGH was supposed to make Corey skate faster and recover from injuries quicker. To Corey, HGH became a regular part of his practice routine. Although he often felt "like I was doing something wrong," Corey told Sports Illustrated that he trusted his dad.

Busted & Banished

That trust is gone now. At 16, Corey failed a drug test at a skating event. Within two years, he was stripped of all of his records. His medals were taken away too. Corey's dad is serving a six-year prison term. He's believed to be the first parent to go to jail for providing performance-enhancing drugs to his own child. And Corey, now 18, has been banned from the sport he loved. Today, he works on the loading dock of a department store.

Corey may be one of the youngest athletes to be victimized by performance-enhancing drugs, but he's far from being the only one. If you've watched ESPN over the last few years, you've heard the letters HGH as much as RBI and MVR The drug has even found its way into the music world. Timbaland, 50 Cent, Wyclef Jean, and Mary J. Bilge were reportedly named in an HGH probe. And last year, Sylvester Stallone, the star of the Rocky and Rambo films, was fined more than $10,000 for bringing 48 HGH vials into Australia.

Just what is HGH? "There are a lot of myths about HGH," says Michael Gimbel, an expert on substance-abuse issues with Powered By Me, an anti-steroid program in Maryland.

Beginning in the next column are answers to questions about HGH:

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(1) What exactly Is HGH?

It's a hormone. Your body makes it naturally in the pituitary gland, a pea-size structure at the base of your brain. How much HGH the gland secretes determines how tall you'll be. Kids whose bodies don't make enough HGH are abnormally small, a condition called dwarfism. In rare cases, young people's bodies make too much HGH, leading to excessive growth or gigantism. Teens who get large amounts of HGH after puberty can develop the condition acromegaly, which is extreme bone growth marked by grotesquely large hands, feet, and facial features.

(2) Why would someone need to take extra HGH?

There are medical conditions that require injections of HGH. Kids with dwarfism are often given it to spur their growth. In adults, HGH is used to treat rare pituitary tumors and AIDS-related diseases. But all other uses of HGH are illegal. Doctors can lose their medical license and even be arrested for giving patients HGH illegally. And possession of HGH without a prescription is a crime punishable by five years in jail.

(3) Why would an athlete take HGH?

Some athletes believe HGH will give them a competitive edge. They think it will help them build muscle and recover quickly from injuries. But there's no evidence that HGH makes someone hit a ball farther or run faster. True, some studies link it to tissue growth that could help repair injury. "But there is no study that shows taking HGH improves your athletic ability," Gimbel says. "It doesn't seem to make you any stronger. You may look like NBA star LeBron James, but you won't play like him."

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"There are a lot of claims that HGH is this wonder drug," says Dr. Hai Liu of Santa Clara Medical Center. "There's no evidence to support any of those claims." Still, some people spend as much as $1,000 a month on illegal HGH products. And many of them are completely worthless. Some sites sell HGH creams or sprays, but the hormone can only be taken by injection.

(4) Is it cheating to take HGH?

Yes. HGH is banned by Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the Women's National Basketball Association, the International Tennis Federation, the Professional Golfers Association and the Ladies Professional Golf Association, the Olympics, and even most state commissions for boxing and mixed martial arts.

(5) Is HGH harmful?

A number of ailments have been linked to HGH use, from acne and hair growth to high blood pressure and liver damage. HGH can make your heart grown dangerously large. Or you can experience out-of-control--and irreversible--bone growth, leading to protruding jaws and eyebrow bones and freakishly large hands and feet. HGH may be addictive too. And some scientists contend that using HGH increases a person's risk of getting cancer. "Using HGH promotes cell growth in the body and that's what cancer is--unbridled cell growth," says Dr. Thomas Perl, associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. "It's like pouring gasoline on a fire."