Does using rHGH increase Insulin Resistance ?
High Dosage rHGH use
The original dosage of GH treatment used in GH deficient adults were body weight-adjusted high dosing derived from the dosage used in GH deficient children, however this practice has changed to individualized dosing with lower doses to avoid adverse events of overtreatment since early 2000s.
Many of the early studies using high GH doses (≥0.01 mg/kg/day) reported that fasting glucose and insulin levels increased after short-term GH treatment for less than 6 months, but were usually restored to baseline levels after 1 or 2 years of GH treatment.
GH treatment in high doses was effective for the reduction of total and visceral fat mass. However, long-term GH replacement in high doses decreased insulin sensitivity and aggravated insulin resistance, which can be explained by the anti-insulin effects of GH.
Despite increased insulin resistance, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels remained unchanged in both short-term and long-term treatment
Low Dosage rHGH use
Low-dose GH administration in GH-deficient adults has been reported to be effective in improving body composition, albeit to a lesser degree than high-dose GH
Most of the studies using low-dose GH treatment (<0.01 mg/kg/day) demonstrated no significant change or just a transient increase in fasting glucose levels.
Most of these studies reported unchanged insulin resistance and insulin sensitivity after long-term treatment with low-dose GH.
Two studies conducted by the same investigators showed an improvement of insulin sensitivity in GH-deficient patients with obesity after a short-term treatment with a fixed low-dose GH (0.1 mg/day).
Most studies with low-dose GH treatment reported no significant changes in HbA1c levels, although a few studies showed a mild decrease in HbA1c within normal range in GH deficient adults
One study investigated the effect of GH on fasting glucose levels and HbA1c in GH-deficient patients with pre-existing diabetes mellitus, and it revealed a mild elevation of fasting glucose without statistical significance and no aggravation of HbA1c value.
Takeway ?
Time and time again
Yes rHGH is capable of increasing Insulin Resistance when abused 100 percent true
There is no evidence that is true at lower dosages
What exactly does low dosage mean ?
<0.01 mg/kg/day
1.16mg per day for me… 3.5 IU day
This paper was published in 2017..
Victor Black
What does Insulin Resistance or Insulin Sensitivity Mean ?
Insulin Resistance, Insulin Sensitivity are they the same ? Can we use them as interchangeable terms ?
In simple terms we can say Insulin Resistance is a condition when your body gives a subnormal biological response to a given concentration of Insulin in your Blood.
Clinically the term “Insulin Resistant” is used when the an individual’s response to Insulin falls outside of the “normal range of response”
Whilst we use the term ” Insulin Sensitivity” without a positive or negative connotation, in other words you can have great, good or bad or horrible ” Insulin Sensivity”
In this way if your Insulin Sensitivity is “poor” you can say you are Insulin Resistant.
So how does one become Insulin Resistant?
Like most biological conditions there are a number of factors that can lead to Insulin Resistance.
But lets set aside what I will call ” Medical conditions” ie various insulin resistance syndromes and inherited conditions such as receptor mutations and glucocorticoid excess, infections, and even gross obesity can cause/contribute to it.
For the purposes of our discussion here lets just focus in on our tribe and assume you are an otherwise normal healthy individual.
So what underlies Insulin Resistance in our tribe ?
Simply this..
Insulin Receptor over-stimulation over an extended time block – thats it.
What that means is the more regularly the insulin receptor is activated via interaction with insulin, the less sensitive it will become to its effects.
This process is by far the most common cause of insulin resistance and the lead on from that state is the developement of Type II diabetes.
This is what that process looks like in real life..
When an insulin receptor is stimulated via binding with with Insulin molecule, the intracellular glucose transporter GLUT-4 will rise to the cell surface membrane, and carry the glucose outside of the cell to the inside of the cell where it can then be used for energy, glycogen synthesis, etc.
However when the insulin receptor is over-stimulated and as a resuly insulin sensitivity falls, Glut-4’s response to insulin also decreases, causing less Glut-4 to rise to the cell membrane surface.
When this happens and Glucose builds up in your Blood – ie a rise in Blood Glucose levels your pancreas receives a signial to secrete more Insulin and this additional over expression of Insulin results in more Glut-4 being called up and the normalization of blood glucose levels.
We are now however somewhat in a cycle and as Insulin sensitivity continues to worsen, the insulin receptor requires more and more insulin in order to recruit sufficient Glut-4 to fullfil this action.
Eventually, the pancreas can no longer keep up with demand resulting in chronically elevated blood sugar levels and over time, the development of numerous health problems, and can lead ultimately to type II diabetes.
So what next ?
Well now we need to look at our “Bodybuilding lifestyle behaviors”, and understand that many of them including the Overconsumption of Food and many of the drugs we take can contribute in meaningful ways to this issue.. in my experience many many Bodybuilders demonstrate less than ideal Insulin Sensitivity..
And then by extension we need to open up the discussion which we will do tomorrow … what can we do to improve this condition ?
We will need to explore the following areas.
Nutrional Interventions
Minerals and Vitamins that play an important role here
Sleep Hygiene
PED Selection and Dosage
Supplmenation than can help.
and ultimately the role of Glucose Disposal Agents
The one note I will place here
Understand like Exogenous Testosterone your Body does not differentiate between Endogenous Insulin, that which your body produces naturally and exogenous ( administered Insulin ). Insulin like Testosterone is simply recognise by your body as Insulin … and in a dosage dependant manner.
In other words using exogenous Insulin will not make you Insulin Resistant perse but using too much most certainly can.
