What is Growth Hormone?
Part of what makes human beings exceptional is the ability to grow and adapt over time.
Physiologically we produce hormones that make all of these changes possible in order to help us recover from the daily stressors of life, get rid of excess stored energy, repair cells, and finally help us to become stronger over time.
The hormone that does all of that? Human growth hormone, HGH for short, helps us build powerful, lean muscle that helps keep your metabolism high and maintain most of your strength.
The one caveat for human growth hormone is that a lot of it is produced in our pre-pubescent and early adolescent years, but needless to say, it starts to slow down as males approach the age of 30.
The main reason our cells age so fast is because of declining growth hormone levels. Scientists have been noticing the positive effects of supplementing artificial GH in studies of people who started with low levels of HGH
While we may conclude that supplementing growth hormone could be better for us, the real question is can this be done naturally by just regular diet and exercise?
Problems With “Boosting” Growth Hormone
With more studies of linking low growth hormone levels with aging each year, it creates a large demand in the marketplace for consumers that want to look and feel younger. Supplement companies know this, so more enticing products are released to convince consumers that are unaware of their deceptive marketing tactics.
The chemical formulas for these supplements are usually not tested and the application for the products are generally ineffective. Unless taken by injection, most growth hormone products on the market are useless, as they can’t be properly circulated in the bloodstream any other way.
Human growth hormone is a complex chain of amino acids that can be easily broken down and altered to produce almost no effect on the body if taken the wrong way. Because of this, the FDA have only approved supplementation only in injectable forms for patients under treatment of a doctor.
HGH originates in the anterior pituitary gland and produces several other hormones as well. This means that the product that comes in a spray, gel, patch, or any other type applicator will not have a direct effect on HGH alone, making these products a complete waste of money.
How to Naturally Boost Human Growth Hormone Levels
Now that we know that HGH is only effective by direct injection into the bloodstream, how do you naturally boost HGH levels?
In the human body, a hormone is released from a direct response to another hormone.
HGH doesn’t have much effect on increasing the size of the muscles, but it is released when there is an indication of muscle breakdown. Muscle breakdown generally occurs when a heavy workload performed in a short period of time.
Exercises that promote this type of response in growth hormone secretion are high interval activities or short duration weight lifting/body weight exercises.
Stress emphasized on muscle tissue creates a demand for a hormone called IGF-1, which is released after the secretion of growth hormone by the pituitary gland.
Growth hormone release is also affected by your daily diet and nutrition regiment. The antagonist to HGH is insulin and whenever it’s released the insulin suppresses the release of growth hormone in the blood.
What foods have the highest response to insulin? That’s going to be all of your highly processed foods, usually found in fast food, frozen dinners, and sugary snacks.
Eating junk food throughout the day suppresses growth hormone by continuously having high levels of insulin released from the pancreas.
The highest times of growth hormone release in the day are 2-3 hours after exercising and then during the first 2-3 hours of sleep.
The Wrap Up
HGH supplements bought over the counter in supplement shops or online won’t do anything for boosting your growth hormone levels. As important as growth hormone is for maintaining youth, vitality, and body composition, there are more effective ways to maximize your HGH levels. Start with healthy, high-intensity exercise and avoid snacking on sugary foods through the day, get plenty of rest and you should be fine.
