"Anti-aging" hormones accelerate aging
Growth hormones shorten life
Kirill Stasevich, Compulenta
One of the most popular approaches in anti-aging therapy is based on the well-known observation that the hormonal balance of a person changes with age, in particular, the level of somatotropin (or "human growth hormone") synthesized by the pituitary gland decreases. Somatotropin triggers the synthesis of other hormones, such as insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF–1) and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), a precursor of testosterone and estrogen.
It is somatotropin that is often recommended as an anti-aging agent, and its fame began with a 1990 paper published by Daniel Rudman and his colleagues in the New England Journal of Medicine, in which the authors described the effect of somatotropin in several men over 60 years old. After the hormonal course, muscle mass increased in the elderly, bones became stronger and fat reserves decreased. These results did not directly speak about the anti–aging effect, but some interpreters interpreted them that way, and since then, everyone began to refer to Radman's article - starting, of course, with representatives of the anti-aging drug industry.
However, there are several nuances here. Firstly, Dr. Radman himself said until his death that his results could not be used for anything anti-aging. Secondly, in 2003, the New England Journal of Medicine attacked those who quote an article by Radman and his colleagues with "anti-aging goals": the editorial board specifically emphasized that if someone argues for the purchase of anti-aging drugs, referring to this work, then he misleads potential buyers. The use of somatotropin is fraught with many side effects; in addition, the reaction to it generally depends on many parameters that have not yet been fully investigated. Only in one case it can be prescribed – when a person's hormone level is below normal. However, this very "low hormone level" is a rather subjective diagnosis, and in some clinics somatotropin is given to people who do not need it.
Over time, works began to appear in which it was shown that the use of somatotropin, estrogen and other hormones can lead to cardiovascular diseases, cancer, joint problems and other disorders. Finally, one of the latest studies on this topic, published in the same New England Journal of Medicine, states that a long life is provided not by a high, but, on the contrary, by a lowered hormonal level (Milman et al., Low insulin-like growth factor-1 level predicts survival in humans with exceptional longevity).
Nir Barzilai and his colleagues from Albert Einstein College (USA) analyzed the relationship between human age and insulin-like growth factor-1 (thereby, the level of which can be raised with the help of somatotropin). The study involved 184 people aged between 80 and 90 years. They were followed for 11 years, and it turned out that the chance of the subject to live to the end of the study was determined by the level of IGF-1: one nanogram of IGF-1 per milliliter of blood was equal to one week of life.
The reduction of IGF-1 was especially useful for those who had cancer: three years after the start of the study, 75% of those who had cancer, but who had low IGF-1, remained alive – against 25% of those who had both cancer and IGF-1 had high. The results were not too surprising: earlier, the same scientific group found that people over 90 have a mutation that limits the level of IGF-1 more than often. And experiments on mice showed that animals lived longer – and were less likely to get cancer if they were resistant to somatotropin. However, the new work contained one strange thing: people with low IGF-1 levels also had low sugar, which somewhat contradicts early research on this topic.
In this regard, by the way, it is impossible not to recall a recent work on the dangers of a protein diet, in which the authors just discuss the negative impact of IGF-1 on life expectancy. However, in that case it was about the negative effect of the hormone at an earlier age, from 50 to 65 years. Anyway, it is obvious that the relationship between somatotropin, its mediator and helper IGF-1 and life expectancy is much more complicated than it might seem at first glance. Even if somatotropin helps you look better (removes excess fat and stimulates muscle growth), this does not mean that it will allow you to live longer. It may well be that a good appearance will be given in exchange for longevity.
But even if these hormones in some way, under some conditions, can indeed increase life expectancy, then the effects of them still need to be studied and studied. Meanwhile, growth factors are often offered precisely as elixirs of longevity. In this case, however, the situation is somewhat different than with the notorious antioxidants, the negative effects of which scientists themselves did not immediately discover. Initially, researchers were not at all mistaken about growth hormones; as for the frenzied enthusiasm about them, this is the result of the voluntary or involuntary fantasies of some pharmaceutical industry workers, whose imagination was also fueled by obvious commercial prospects.
Prepared based on the materials of LiveScience: 'Anti-Aging' Hormone May Actually Shorten Life.
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