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Genetically Engineered Anti-Aging Medication (HGH) Poses Undisclosed
Cancer Risks, Warns Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.
Use of the genetically engineered human growth
hormone (HGH) for anti-aging medication has become a major growth
industry. Suppliers
of HGH, including those offering mail order prescriptions, are
proliferating on websites and the Internet. The Chicago-based seven-year-old
American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, with over 8000 members,
promotes injectable HGH in programs claiming to stop or even reverse
aging, including decreasing body fat, and increasing muscle mass
and bone density. However, practitioners of this burgeoning "health" industry
are either ignorant of or suppress well-documented information
on the grave cancer risks of HGH medication.
HGH induces growth promoting and other effects
by stimulating the liver to increase production of the natural
Insulin-like Growth
Factor-1 (IGF-1) whose blood levels normally decline with advancing
age. However, there are numerous publications in prestigious peer
reviewed scientific journals showing that elevated IGF-1 levels
are strongly associated with major excess risks of colon,
prostate, and breast cancers; even minor elevations are associated with up
to 7-fold increased risks of breast cancer, risks almost as high
as those in women carrying genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2) with the strongest
hereditary predisposition. Additionally, IGF-1 inhibits the programmed
self-destruction (apoptosis) of cancer cells, thus stimulating
the growth and invasiveness of small, undiagnosed cancers, besides
increasing the resistance of cancers to chemotherapy. For these
reasons, anti-aging HGH medication, compounded by failure to explicitly
disclose its grave risks, constitutes medical malpractice.
Learn
more about IGF-1
There are also growing concerns on possible
risks from the use of HGH nutritional supplements, including oral
sprays. It should,
however, be recognized that HGH absorption from the mouth and gut
is unlikely to be significant, in striking contrast to complete
absorption from injectable medication. Nevertheless, nutritional
HGH supplements should be phased out until it can be shown that
they do not elevate blood IGF-1 levels.
HGH medication should only be used by qualified
endocrinologists for highly restricted medical disorders, such
as dwarfism due to
pituitary gland deficiency, as approved by the FDA in 1985; anti-aging
medication has never received such approval.
Source: Cancer Prevention Coalition Press Release – March
14, 2000
CONTACT:
Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.
Chairman,
Cancer Prevention Coalition
c/o University
of Illinois at Chicago
School
of Public Health, M/C 922
2121
W. Taylor Street
Chicago, IL 60612
312-996-2297
epstein@uic.edu
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