In humans, somatotropin or growth hormone (hGH) is required for growth during childhood and maintenance of healthy body structure during adulthood. This hormone is secreted by the pituitary gland in the brain, and its release is regulated by many different factors, including exercise, nutrition, sleep, and stress.

What is HGH?

By promoting growth in your body during childhood, growth hormone allows you to achieve your full adult height. It promotes the anabolic (building-up) processes in the body, while also helping to mobilize energy sources (like fat) to help support this growth. While promoting healthy body composition, hGH also increases calcium retention and helps to promote greater mineralization of the bones. To support muscle growth, hGH increases protein synthesis in the body and also directly increases muscle cell mass. Growth hormone also stimulates the growth of all organs in the body (except the brain). Finally, it also stimulates the immune system and helps to boost immune function. Thus, the presence of hGH helps to support an increase in muscle and a reduction of fat in the body, as well as several other health benefits.

Understanding HGH Deficiency

Individuals who lack sufficient growth hormone, because of genetics, pituitary damage or disease, have a reduced muscle mass, an increased fat mass, as well as reduced energy and quality of life. In children, this deficiency simply appears as stunted growth and replacement of hGH promotes achievement of adult stature. When hGH is replaced in affected adults, they burn more fat, decrease their fat mass, and have improved oxygen usage and maximal muscle function. Because of these results, many professional athletes began doping with hGH in an attempt to improve their athletic abilities. Until relatively recently, this abuse could not be seen on drug screening tests used in professional athletic competitions.

Health Benefits of HGH

Anti-Aging

As you age, bone density and muscle mass decline naturally and your body composition becomes more fatty by nature. At the same time, your growth hormone secretion declines by around 50% every 7 years (after the age of 25). Because hGH helps to improve bone density, increase muscle mass, and improve body composition, it has been touted as one of the body’s anti-aging agents. Maintaining optimal amounts can potentially help to slow some of the common effects of aging.

Ways To Boost HGH Naturally

Diet and Blood Sugar Balance

Interestingly, periodic fasting can stimulate the natural production of growth hormone, by placing demands on the body that require the recruitment of resources triggered by hGH. If occasional fasting isn’t for you, then simply aim to eat low-glycemic foods throughout the day to avoid blood sugar spikes, and focus your diet more on healthy protein sources for longer-term energy. The body strictly maintains steady levels of blood sugar throughout the day to feed the brain and organs. When blood sugar levels are low, growth hormone helps to pull fat from the tissues and supports its conversion into usable energy. Thus, it makes sense that growth hormone production in the body is naturally inhibited by excess blood sugar (hyperglycemia), like that seen in uncontrolled diabetes. This is a feedback signal to the brain that sufficient growth hormone is already present. Keeping a healthy, balanced blood sugar level is a great way to help ensure you continue producing sufficient hGH.

Increase Exercise

Vigorous exercise is another simple way to naturally boost your brain’s secretion of hGH. Weight training with high repetitions, and other activities that boost lactic acid build-up signal the body to secrete more growth hormone. Be careful to avoid injury, as lactic acid build-up can be painful and can prevent awareness of other causes of pain.

Reduce Stress

Today’s lifestyle is busy and often overwhelming, causing many people to have excessively high-stress levels on a long-term basis. Cortisol (the long-term stress hormone in the body) directly suppresses growth hormone secretion. Because of this, it is essential to maintain a healthy stress reduction plan in your everyday life. Yoga, deep breathing, and stress management courses can all help to reduce the effects of stress on the body, thus reducing cortisol production. When cortisol production falls, the body is free to begin producing larger amounts of growth hormone.

Quality Sleep

The most hGH that your body produces is released during the later stages of sleep. These later stages allow for your deepest sleep and can only occur after a sufficient time has passed. Because of this, regularly getting a good night’s sleep is a simple way to boost your HGH production. For most people, it is best to aim to get at least 8 hours of sleep per night. Taking Melatonin can help to improve sleep by supplementing the brain’s natural sleep hormone production.

Hormonal Balance

Certain hormones in the body, including sex hormones, can increase the secretion of hGH. These are naturally present in higher amounts during times of hormonal shift (which incidentally are also growth times) like puberty and pregnancy. Having a healthy hormonal balance is a great way to promote hGH secretion in the body. 

Supplements That Help Increase HGH

There are a variety of supplements that are touted to help boost the body’s natural production of HGH. These commonly contain amino acids, minerals, and vitamins that are used in the body’s manufacture of growth hormones. Two amino acids that are particularly useful for boosting growth hormone secretion are L-arginine and L-lysine. These two amino acids can boost hGH production when taken together (1200mg each) before exercise and before sleep. Glutamine is another amino acid that has been found to help boost hGH secretion in the brain and can be taken on an empty stomach.

Signs of Excess HGH

When there is too much growth hormone present in the body over the long term, it results in a condition known as Acromegaly. The physical symptoms of acromegaly are an enlarged jaw, hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating), diabetes, increased hand size, enlarged tongue, and reduced sexual function. Most of us will be familiar with André the Giant, who suffered from this condition for most of his life. More recent research has associated hGH with promoting several cancer cell lines in the lab. Its use may also be a risk factor for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Further research is required before conclusions can be made in this area.

Key Sources of HGH

It is possible to get hGH injections from a medical doctor to treat conditions resulting from deficiency. These are usually directly extracted from pituitary glands. More recently, hGH has been synthesized from a variety of sources, including bacteria. In 2011, a genetically altered soybean seed was created that could express functional human growth hormone as well. We may be finding many new sources of hGH in future. Ultimately, with the right support, our brain is the best source around!