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How HGH May Affect Thyroid Function

By Lisa Wells, RN

HGH and the Thyroid

Dr. Ronald Klatz states in his book Grow Young With HGH that human growth hormone affects every organ system of the body, and almost nothing escapes its magical touch.1

Jens Sandahl Christiansen of the Aarhus Kommunehospital of Denmark stated in a report:

"Untreated human growth hormone deficient adults have been shown to have a wide range of conditions, including abnormal thyroid hormone metabolism".2

Body composition has also been found to be abnormal with increased fat mass, decreased lean body mass, decreased muscle fat ratio, visceral obesity, reduced extracellular fluid volume, and reduced bone mineral content.

Improving the body's release and use of human growth hormone has been found to help improve the function of the organs and glands in the body and help to stabilize other hormones, and this includes the thyroid gland and the thyroid hormones. Many patients who undergo successful HGH therapy see improvements in their thyroid function also.

Taking HGH Injections With Thyroid Conditions

First of all, everyone with a thyroid condition should consult their private physician before beginning any type of HGH therapy and should always follow their doctor's advice.

It is usually recommended that patients not begin human growth hormone injection therapy if they have a thyroid issue that is not being addressed successfully. If you have hypothyroidism but you are not receiving proper treatment, or if you are taking a thyroid replacement therapy such as T4 medications (levothyroxine) but you are still having symptoms, then the medication you are taking may not be converting properly and/or getting into your cells.

If you are still in a hypothyroid state at the cellular level your body is going to be stressed and your metabolism will probably be slower than normal. Taking HGH injection hormone replacement therapy during this time may cause more stress to your body.

If you have hyperthyroidism that is not under control then your metabolism is already too high so taking the injections while you are in a hyperthyroid state may increase your metabolism even more.

Once you are taking a successful thyroid therapy that is the time to consider starting an HGH therapy that may help to heal your thyroid gland and improve its function.

What About Homeopathic HGH Products?

Because our products are homeopathic they should not cause the issues that may be seen with the injections. Even so, when beginning either of our HGH products your doctor should be involved. Clients with thyroid issues should pay close attention to their body. They should have their thyroid levels monitored while taking the product. The reason for this is because the product may improve the function of the thyroid gland. If this happens their thyroid hormone levels may also improve and so the need for any medication may decrease.

The thyroid levels of thyroid patients should be checked after taking the product for the first two to three months, or immediately if the client notices any symptoms of hyperthyroidism. The client's private physician should decide if and when their thyroid medication should be decreased.

How Our HGH Plus IGF-1 Product Affected One Client

When taking our products usually the improvements are smooth and easy. However, we have had one case reported where our HGH Plus IGF-1 product caused the thyroid gland to improve its function dramatically during the first six weeks of therapy.

This particular client had heard about our product from one of our other clients. She phoned and spoke with me personally. I asked her if she had any health problems and she explained that her thyroid gland had been damaged 9 years earlier as a result of cancer treatment. Since that time she had needed large doses of the thyroid medication levothyroxine. During the 9 years she had taken the medication her thyroid gland seemed to not be functioning and her thyroid levels had never become high.

She is also a nurse so we spoke at length. Because our product is homeopathic we both thought her doctor might not take it seriously, even so, I stressed to her the importance of consulting her doctor and having him monitor her levels while taking the product.

I told her about some other clients who have seen their conditions improve to the point where their doctor's were able to decrease or discontinue their medication. Even though her thyroid gland had not functioned in 9 years I told her there was still the possibility that it would help. If this happened, her medication might need to be decreased. She agreed and placed her order.

After taking the product for few weeks she could feel the product working so she decreased her medication slightly herself while waiting for her appointment with her doctor. Unfortunately her appointment was canceled due to an emergency her doctor was called to, and was rescheduled to a later date.

While awaiting her rescheduled doctor's appointment she continued to take her thyroid medication and take our product. She was very sensitive to our homeopathic formula and so after six weeks of taking both our product and the levothyroxine her thyroid hormone levels became high and her TSH level became low. TSH measures thyroid stimulating hormone so when it is low it means that the patient has plenty of thyroid hormones. She was hospitalized for treatment of hyperthyroidism.

Of course her doctor stopped her thyroid medication and also stopped our product at that time. She was discharged from the hospital after a couple of days. One doctor was impressed with our product, while her general doctor was baffled that he could not explain what happened. He was not ready to accept the fact that a homeopathic HGH product could improve her thyroid function. This client stated that she knows it did help and it helped her in other ways also. She said she would like to resume the product in the future. We both agreed that she would definitely need to take only partial doses because she is so sensitive.

I am sharing this story because I want everyone who is interested in homeopathic human growth hormone to take it seriously. I don't want what happened to this client to happen to anyone else. So, although your doctor may tell you that you will be wasting your money because homeopathy doesn't work, please know that it has been around for over 200 years, and is now the 2nd most popular type of health therapy because it can work.

Q and A About HGH and Thyroid

HGH Injections Requiring More Thyroid Medication

Question: I've been on Synthroid for 10 years. I started HGH injections four months ago. My doctor says I now need a higher dose of Synthroid! I thought HGH helps repair! So why am a needing more medication? I need advice. I don't see a specialist for a month! Is it doing more harm than good?

Answer: HGH can help but your thyroid problem should be properly treated before beginning HGH injections because if not the injections will put an extra burden on the thyroid, since it will need to provide the extra energy needed in order for growth hormone to do its work. If you are still hypothyroid at the cellular level then you already don't have enough energy to function optimally and adding HGH injections only makes the energy requirement more.

I would like to add that it seems that many people who are on Synthroid, which is a man-made version of only the storage hormone T4, are still hypothyroid at the cellular level and their doctor's don't know this because they do not know to check their Free T3 and Reverse T3 levels. Has your doctor checked these important levels? Only these levels can show if your cells are really getting enough thyroid hormone but a majority of doctors, including endocrinologists, only check the TSH and perhaps T4.

T4 is only a storage hormone. It cannot enter the cell receptors and must be converted into T3 to be used. Some people have trouble converting the synthetic T4 in Synthroid to the active T3 the cells require and so the body converts it into Reverse T3, which is unusable by the body and can block the cell receptors so the little T3 you have cannot enter the cells. In these cases the TSH may be normal but the patient may still be in a hypothyroid state.

It is a fact that many people on levothyroxine (Synthroid) do much better on desiccated thyroid (Armour) and some do better on Liothyronine (Cytomel), which is synthetic T3 only.

HGH and Synthroid

Question: I've been on Synthroid for about 18 months now and I see an endocrinologist every six months. Five months ago my TSH reading was 1.x - which is very good. About seven weeks ago, I started HGH (Tev-tropin) at a very low dosage (.5 IU) and I've built up 1.0 IU for five weeks. All was going well until one week ago. I started feeling my old hypothyroidism ways again.

My TSH is now 4.1 so I think I'm heading the wrong way.

I know, why use HGH? I used it four years ago with remarkable success and now I'm 51 and things are not what they used to be. And I'm not just talking sex stuff. I do believe HGH is a great product and I'd like to continue using it. Maybe my Endo will just increase my Synthroid dosage and all will be well again. One complication - my Endo is not aware of my HGH - but that is another issue.

I guess if I had just one question to ask, it would be: is it natural to have to increase thyroid medicine when using HGH?

Answer: Hypothyroid patients may require more thyroid medication when taking the HGH injections, especially if they are still hypothyroid at the cellular level despite taking their thyroid medication. This should not happen if taking growth hormone in homeopathic form. Please see the post above for more information about why this can happen.

HGH Injections Trigger Hypothyroidism

Question: MY HISTORY: Hi. I am 28, height - 177 cms, weight - 83 kgs. On my friend's recommendation I started taking Hygetropin for fat loss. I weight train three times a week, so 2 IU on the days I work out. I started at 83 kgs and in no time lost 2 kgs and hit 81.I kg. I was hovering around that weight for that time. This course of dosing went about for two months (three times/ week - 2 IU per dose). Though I kept working out, because of travel and diet I didn't lose further and kept hovering at the 81.XX weight mark.

SUDDEN WEIGHT GAIN: Suddenly, my weight started shooting and hit 82.XX then 83.XX and 84.XX and almost hit 85 kgs in a span of 10 days. I started panicking. Despite me dieting and increase my cardio and workout I did not lose weight. It struck me that it could be hypothyroidism as this gain was too sudden and too persistent. I got a blood test done and result showed what I anticipated. My T4 & T3 levels have drastically fallen.

CORRECTION METHODS: I started taking T3 (Cytomel) tablets. My dosage started with 25 mcg a day and hit 75 mcg in a week's time. I noticed my weight instantly dropped back to 84 kgs in two days time. Could also feel the effect of the medicine with bowel moments throughout the day. With a little more effort I lost some more and reached 83 Kgs. But the problem is I have hit a plateau. I'm not able to reach my old weight of 81 Kgs despite decent efforts.

CORRECT HGH CYCLE: I need some guidance on how do I use GH without the long term side-effects. I did not have any knowledge and relied on friends at the gym & internet forums. I primarily want to use it for fat-loss over building muscle as I have a endomorphic body which tends to gain muscle and fat quickly. How do I go on a GH cycle and how to make sure I don't end up with hypothyroidism again.

Answer: First I must say that taking a hormone replacement therapy like the HGH injections at your young age is risky because it can shut down your pituitary gland's own release of growth hormone. Unfortunately, taking a day or two off per week may not prevent this from occurring.

That is why when a bodybuilder stops taking the injections they tend to lose the benefits they had gained and sometimes even more.

The HGH injections are usually not recommended while the patient is in a hypothyroid state because it can possibly make the patient's hypothyroidism worse.

Also, because Cytomel (liothyronine, synthetic T3) is active T3 it is much stronger than T4, which is only a storage hormone that must be converted into T3 to be used. T3 is very important to the heart and adrenal glands but because it is strong and fast acting and has a direct action on the heart and the adrenals in my opinion the daily dose of Cytomel should be divided into at least two dose times instead of taking the entire 24 hour supply in one dose in the AM. When the adrenals are fatigued it can affect HGH negatively.

Please see the posts above for more information about how the HGH injections may affect hypothyroidism.

HGH For Hypothyroidism

Question: Background: I'm a married, 47 yr old male, who cycles about 3k miles per year and does kick-boxing five to six times a week. I'm 5'11'' and since high school, my weight has always been 164lbs +/-5lbs. I have a successful career in high-tech. (I joke that I'm one of those recession-proof, propeller-beaned engineers who can always find a good job because there are only about 300 people in the world who can do what I do...) The only health problem was high blood pressure (usually 125/90 but occasionally it would be 155/110).

But six months ago, almost everything in the preceding paragraph changed! The high BP was traced down to Grave's Disease (hyperthyroidism) and two years ago, I started taking daily doses of methimazol. Against my doctor's advice, I stopped the medication -- I felt like crap ("like I'd eaten a bad burrito the night before") and I struggled to get through my workouts. Once off methimazol, I felt great and looked forward to getting my exercise-induced endorphin highs.

Last year, due to some personal circumstances, my wife insisted that I treat my hyperthyroidism and I underwent radioactive iodine treatment. Exactly three weeks after taking that pill, the hypothyroid symptoms started: I gained over 30 lbs in three weeks and I struggled to stay awake during the day.

Though I've been taking increased amounts of a thyroid replacement hormone (today I'm at 125 ug of levothyroxine), the hypothyroid symptoms continued to get worse and here's where I'm at today:

I'm walking around at just under 200 lbs;
I want to sleep 14-16 hours a day;
I'm about to get laid off from my job because I can't concentrate for long periods of time (the "brain fog" that's common with hypothyroidism);
Decreased libido;
Energy levels at the bottom of the scale;
No endurance (I have to take a "rest break" after 40 minutes of yard work);
Constant nausea and diarrhea ("I haven't had a solid poop in six months!");
Anxiety (I get these feelings of impending doom, like I'm about to get horribly bad news);
A tingling, stinging feeling from the knees down, in my fingers and occasionally in my lips and tongue.

My last blood test showed my TSH levels at 17 thought they were as high as 67. And here's where the HGH questions come in:

My endocrinologist is very uh.... "traditional" and I can predict with certainty his response: A slight increase in the dosage with the admonition "give it another four to six weeks to take effect."

I sincerely doubt that he would ever recommend HGH treatment and so I'm coming here for opinions/advice for those who can think beyond the "normal" medical textbook...

Have you heard of HGH to treat hypothyroidism? And what were your experiences? I know I'm stuck taking levothyroxine for the rest of my life so is there any interactions with HGH that could cause me problems? ie, does this effect the type of HGH I should take?

Answer: I will be happy to speak with you by phone to discuss this issue if you are interested. I have much experience with hypothyroidism (I have Hashimoto's myself) and I also have experience with thyroid patients taking our homeopathic HGH products, myself included.

Concerning you starting an HGH therapy, I don't recommend you begin any type of HGH until your thyroid medication is providing relief.

The reason is because if you are in a hypothyroid state then your body is already under stress, trying to keep your metabolism high enough to properly run the various systems. The HGH injections can put even more strain on the thyroid because it requires energy to do the work that the HGH and its growth factors will ask it to do. Our homeopathic HGH products should not stress out the thyroid gland however they would probably not be able to provide you with the same benefits they would if you have good thyroid health.

Once your thyroid therapy is working that is the time when HGH can help the most. Your body should then have the energy needed to work with the HGH.

I would also like to mention that in my opinion there are better thyroid therapies available than the synthetic T4 your doctor has you on now.

Here are some books that should open your eyes about why your thyroid medication may not be providing you with relief.

1: Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms? - by Dr. Datis Kharrazian - especially important for everyone who has an autoimmune disease such as Hashimoto's or Graves.

2: Stop The Thyroid Madness! - by Janie A. Bowthorpe.

3: Living Well With Hypothyroidism - by Mary J. Shomon

4. Solved: The Riddle of Illness - by Dr. Stephen E. Langer.

If you have not read the above books I sincerely believe it will be well worth your time to read them. At least go to Amazon and look them up and read the testimonials written by thyroid patients such as ourselves. I wish you the best.

Follow-up Question: Well, I just wanted to give an update...

My TSH levels dropped to 9.7 -- I suppose this is supposed to be good news but since I've gotten zero relief from the symptoms, I'm not encouraged.

My endocrinologist increased my levothyroxine dosage to 150 ug and promised me I would feel better in four weeks. That was two weeks ago and since I still feel like crap, I'm not hopeful. When I see him in another two weeks, I'll bet my mortgage that he'll increase the dosage and say, "Give it another four weeks."

Interestingly enough, at the mention of using a dessicated thyroid replacement, he said that the FDA is trying to get rid of Armour, that it is difficult to find and that his medical license would be in jeopardy if he prescribed it... (Talk about getting conflicting information!!)

One thing I know for certain though is that Ms Wells is a tremendous resource for the people who visit this board. Her info and advice has been accurate and helpful, and she's been very generous with her time!

(btw, I got book #3 first and I'm about halfway through it now...)

Follow-up Answer: Thank you so much for the kind words, I really appreciate it.

Regarding you not feeling any better even though your TSH has gone down, that is the problem with so many doctors, they treat by lab results rather than by the patient's symptoms.

Did he at least check your free T3 to see if any of that synthetic T4 (levothyroxine) he has you taking is actually making it into your cells? The T4 won't help you at all if your body cannot convert it to T3 and then have it enter the cell receptors.

Concerning what he told you; that is so typical! The major drug companies who make the levothyroxine products have been trying to get the FDA to pull the desiccated thyroid products off the market ever since Synthroid first came out.

Maybe that is because they know that desiccated thyroid is a natural product that contains all the thyroid hormones and co-factors (T1, T2, T3, T4, calcitonin) that our thyroid gland normally makes and in the correct ratios and so it should work better than their product which contains only one synthesized storage hormone (T4).

You should tell him that Armour, Nature-Throid, and other name brand desiccated thyroid products are legal FDA approved prescription drugs and so he won't get in trouble by prescribing it.

They can be in short supply at times because more people are finding out about desiccated thyroid and so they are insisting on switching.

Thankfully more and more doctors are looking at the research evidence and I think they are also seeing how much better their patients do on desiccated thyroid.

In the very book you are now reading: "Living Well With Hypothyroidism" Mary Shomon states that periodically rumors go around that claim that Armour, Nature-Throid, and the other desiccated products are "going off the market" or "won't be available anymore".

She says that all signs say that these drugs are here to stay, and rumors to the contrary appear to have been started by competing drug company sales representatives.

So if you don't start to feel better soon you may want to talk with your doctor again, and perhaps show him some of the evidence.

Thanks again for the praise, it was very considerate of you to take the time to post it in the forum. I am always happy to share my knowledge with those who are interested and may be helped by it.

PLEASE NOTE: The information I have provided is not meant to be medical advice. Please consult your private healthcare provider.

Additional Reading

Hypothyroidism - Undiagnosed and Treatment Failures

How HGH May Affect Health Issues

Complete List of HGH, Anti-Aging, and Health Articles by Lisa Wells, RN

Clinically proven HGH products


Bibliography

1. Klatz, Ronald, Grow Young With HGH, HarperPerennial, 1997.

2. Christiansen JS, Jurgensen JO, Pedersen SA, Muller J, Jurgensen J, Skakkeboek NE. Effects of growth hormone on body composition in adults. Horm Res. 1990;33 Suppl 4:61-4. doi: 10.1159/000181586. PMID: 2245970.

3. Davis, Howard A, Feeling Younger With Homeopathic HGH - The Leading Edge For Anti-Aging, Safe Goods, 1998.