By Admin – Steroidal.com
According to a national, large-scale study, the use of human growth hormone (HGH) by US teens has more than doubled, as teens experiment with performance-enhancing and image-enhancing drugs.
According to the confidential 2013 study, 3,705 kids were questioned about their performance or image-enhancing drug use by the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids (PDFK), of which 11% reported using synthetic HGH at least once. Data from 2012 showed around 5% had tried performance-enhancing drugs, so figures doubled in year 2013.
The same survey also showed an increase in anabolic steroid use amongst teens, up from 5% to 7%.
However, there seems to be some problems with the report, as real pharmaceutical grade HGH is hard to come by and extremely expensive. Legitimate pharmaceutical grade injectable Genotropin by Pfizer, is priced at around $250 per 16units, making an effective cycle lasting months several thousand dollars. What the data in this study might show is them consuming fake products, or dietary supplements labelled similar HGH or herbal HGH boosters.
The data also indicates HGH is more popular than anabolic steroids, which is also incorrect. Steroids are much easier too obtain locally in gyms and from online steroid sources. The performance and image changes associated with anabolic steroids are also far more pronounced, taking days and weeks, whereas HGH gains are negligible and results seen after 4-6 months of continues use.
With products sold online such as, GH Boost, Maxx GH as well as others, the natural GH boosting sector is big business. The report also attacked the unregulated dietary supplement industry stating its “difficult to know what substances are in these products.”
The CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Travis Tygart, depicted the numbers as alarming but not shocking either, given the extensive online marketing of performance-enhancing substances and lack of testing high school athletes.
“It’s what you get when you combine aggressive promotion from for-profit companies with a vulnerable target — kids who want a quick fix and don’t care about health risk,” Tygart said in an interview. “It’s a very easy sell, unfortunately.”
With elite level athletes such as, cyclist Lance Armstrong and MLB’s Alex Rodriguez, performance-enhancing drugs have gained popularity as teens look to ways of obtaining their dreams of being the best at their sport or event.
The Texas-based Taylor Hooton Foundation, named after a 17-year-old high school athlete whose suicide in 2003 was blamed by his family on his use of anabolic steroids, has spoken to thousands of young athletes and teens about the abuse of anabolic steroids, and describe teen use as an epidemic.
Anabolic steroids and HGH come with a long list of temporary and some permanent side effects. Teenagers, with a still growing and underdeveloped endocrine system, can be more susceptible to these side effects, some serious.
Steroids side effects include; acne, high blood pressure, stunted growth in teens, testicular shrinkage, erectile dysfunction, gynecomastia and liver and kidney damage.
This report is questionable, and looks more like anti-drug foundations and the media using a flawed piece of data, attempting to shed a dark light on the dietary and supplement industry, most of all the GH boosting niche.
That said, we absolutely do not suggest teens use anabolic steroids or HGH, due to legalities and negative health effects.
Source:
http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/11250975/teen-hgh-use-increased-sharply-according-survey
