What is HGH?
HGH or Human Growth Hormone is a small protein produced by the pituitary gland in the brain. As the name suggests, this hormone spurs growth primarily in children and adolescents. It also helps to regulate body composition, body fluids, muscle and bone growth, sugar and fat metabolism and it is also thought to regulate heart function.
Synthetic growth hormone was developed in 1985 and typical use cases include treating short stature and poor growth in children. In adults, HGH is typically used for short bowel syndrome, a condition in which nutrients aren’t properly absorbed by the body, HGH deficiency and muscle wasting diseases.
The body’s natural production of HGH naturally decreases with age and it is thought by some that by taking synthetic doses of HGH as they get older will help to slow down the effects of ageing.
There are many supplements out there in the form of tablets and sprays that claim to be able to enhance your natural production of HGH but, of course, nothing can be as effective as prescription HGH which is given by injection.
Natural production of HGH occurs in bursts throughout the day with the highest rise in levels following exercise, trauma and sleep. Under normal conditions, your greatest spike occurs at night.
In adults, GH boosts protein production, promotes the utilisation of body fat, raises blood sugar levels and also raises the levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1).
The Benefits of HGH
The benefits of HGH for adults include protection from fractures, increased muscle mass, improved exercise capacity and energy and a reduced risk of future heart disease.
The Side Effects of HGH
Side effects include fluid retention, joint and muscle pain, carpal tunnel syndrome (pressure on the nerves in the wrist causing pain and numbness) and high blood sugar levels.
Sleep
A great way of monitoring your HGH production is by monitoring the quality of your sleep. Your greatest spike of HGH production occurs at night when you are normally sleeping. In my experiment, I took increasing doses of HGH before bed to see how it affected my sleep.
While you sleep, your body typically goes through several sleep cycles,AWAKE (yes, you do wake up multiple times a night) LIGHT SLEEP, REM and DEEP SLEEP.
Light sleep promotes mental and physical recovery.
Deep sleep promotes physical recovery and aspects of memory and learning. This stage has also been shown to support your immune system.
REM sleep promotes mood regulation, learning and memory. This is when your brain processes and consolidates information from the previous day so that it can be stored in your long-term memory.
My Experience with HGH
I took increasing doses of HGH over the 30 days just before going to bed.
Mentally - I felt very rested on most nights and my mood on most days was average to good which is a big deal considering we have been restricted from doing our normal activities due to the Covid pandemic for a while now. I did notice my libido skyrocketed during the last 30 days which makes sense because HGH is known to increase natural production of testosterone. Combined, those hormones could have had the positive effect on my mood that I was having.
Sleep - I monitored my heart rate during sleep to see if HGH was having any effect on it. Before I started taking HGH my heart rate at bedtime would slowly reduce with the lowest level being experienced not long before waking. However as I started taking HGH, my heart rate dropped almost immediately at bedtime and stayed quite steady all the way through the night (charts can be seen in video above). As I started taking higher doses of HGH, the effect was more pronounced. On the days I did not take HGH, the normal pattern returned. How was my sleep? For the most part quite good but there were some nights where I did experience insomnia.
Physically - Did I grow taller? No. I did however notice that I lost about half a kilo in weight over the 30 days. I maintained muscle the whole time and though I haven’t been able to go to the gym, I clearly did put on some muscle mass and lost some fat. If you are thinking of taking HGH to build muscle, it definitely works, provided you do eat and sleep and train well too.
Tips on how to boost HGH production naturally
HGH is naturally produced by the body but, as we get older production starts to decline so I thought it would be quite important to share with you some ways to boost HGH production naturally.
High Intensity Exercise - All forms of exercise has an HGH boosting effect but the highest increases are experienced when performing high intensity exercises. Exercise also promotes fat loss which is tip number 2.
Drop Some Body Fat - High levels of body fat are strongly linked to low HGH production. One study found that losing fat around the midsection led to a significant boost in HGH levels in the study participants. Losing body fat is strongly related to diet which leads us to tip number 3.
Eat the right foods at the right times - There are a number of foods that are documented to be the best at boosting HGH and they are, Eggs, Fish, Tomatoes, Nuts, Grapes, Raspberries, Pomegranates. High carbohydrate foods such as white bread and sugar tend to spike insulin which has shown to have a negative effect on HGH production. It is for this reason that you should not be eating high carb foods shortly before bed. Try to keep your last meal 2 or more hours before bed.
Intermittent fasting - Studies have shown that HGH levels increase by about 300% when you fast for 3 days and up to 1250% after a week. Many people have praised the positive effects of an intermittent fast and is something worth reading up on if you want to boost your natural HGH production.