THE SEARCH FOR THE FOUNTAIN of YOUTH

Human growth hormone (HGH) is being hailed in some quarters as a weight-loss and youth elixir. But is it? And should you try it?

- GLYNIS HORNING

It’s been called the Peter Pan drug, rumoured to have hooked a generation of ageing stars such as Demi Moore, Jennifer Aniston, Madonna, Suzanne Somers, Sly Stallone and Nick Nolte. But such is the controversy around human growth hormone (HGH) that only a handful have publicly acknowledged using it.

Caught bringing it into Australia in 2007, Stallone told NBC’s Today show that he uses it under the supervision of his doctor to help with endurance and recovery after exercise. Nolte has called it ‘a system repair’, and reportedly injected it into his stomach. And Somers, the perky blonde in Three’s Company, has published a best-seller about it (Ageless: The Naked Truth about Bioidentical Hormones), in which she extols its ability to combat the ‘Seven Dwarfs of Menopause’: Itchy, Bitchy, Sweaty, Sleepy, Bloated, Forgetful and All-Dried-Up.

‘A change is a-comin’,’ she told Vanity Fair. ‘As the boomers age and lose their edge, they’re looking around at the ones who are looking like they have a secret. More and more, my phone rings with Hollywood folks who want to know who to go to.’

GROWING AWARENESS

HGH is produced in the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. It spurs growth in childhood and adolescence, and helps maintain and repair healthy tissue, assisting with the regulation of our body composition, body fluids, muscle and bone health, sugar and fat metabolism, and heart function, among other things. ‘It has myriad effects,’ says Cape Town endocrinologist Dr Wayne May.