growth hormone info (long post)

[Guest guest]

Growth hormone may be a miracle, but only for those who are very sick

(it's hard to meet the criteria for " growth hormone deficiency " ), and

who can afford the copays or qualify for the free programs.

I've been injecting growth hormone (it's not oral) for about four

years. At first I thought it was a miracle cure, and perhaps it is.

But after a few years it seemed to lose its effectiveness. (In

retrospect, this was no doubt when I began hurting myself by taking

ALA as an antioxidant for a year or two with ten amalgams.... I must

be THE most mercury-poisoned person).

After years of knowing that my hormones were messed up and finding

that endocrinologists were incompetent, I found a good

endocrinologist who has an interest in growth hormone. (I waited a

year to see Dr, Linfoot in Oakland; he's a normal doctor;

Harvard medical school; takes insurance; but he's over 70 and his

office is soon moving to the suburbs so I'm not sure if he's taking

new patients). At that time his office had a little lab room where

he did the Insulin Tolerance Test, a two-hour provocative test in

which hormones including growth hormone itself are measured. At that

time I'd had disabling chronic fatigue for at least five years. Yet

my growth hormone level was on the margin between " deficient "

and " indeterminate " (but not near " normal " ). Since it was

arguably " deficient " , he was able to prescribe it for me.

I don't take as much as he recommends because I'm slightly afraid of

it. (I take 0.3 mg/day and he says I can go up to 0.5). He only did

the provocative test once; now he tests IGF1 (simple blood draw),

which is a proxy for growth hormone and which he wants to be in the

middle of " normal " for my age/sex. But I dose myself based on how I

feel.

At that time I wasn't crazy about taking prescriptions without

understanding what was wrong, (i.e,, why were my hormones low?), but

he said that growth hormone appeared to be one of the key hormones,

and that by raising it, others would raise themselves. And this

seemed to be true. I actually began to feel great. I even went

through a big move with all the physical and mental effort of

settling into a new home, and I felt like a normal person. My days

were limited only by hours, not by energy or brain capacity. (I was

still taking lots of supplements, as I have for over ten years).

Supposedly the risks of taking growth hormone are related to

developing high blood sugar, but I've been on an ultra-low carb diet

for over ten years due to carb intolerance. Also I try to under-

dose.

Growth hormone retails for about $400 for a 6 mg cartridge, which

lasts me 20 days. I used to get it for free through the Lilly

(humanitarian?) program. The criteria were confidential, but seemed

generous -- something like if your tax-filing income was below

$100,000 you could qualify. I got married around the same time the

U.S. Medicare crummy drug benefit was enacted, so between those two

events, I now have a copay of $83 per cartridge (every 20 days).

I can only get an appointment every four months, so I haven't seen

the doctor since I read Amalgam Illness, diagnosed myself, had my

amalgams removed, and started DMSA. But I wrote him a letter and

enclosed my urine porphyrin panel (ordered through a nturitionist;

and positive for mercury). If he's like my neurologist, he won't be

interested. And he probably won't give me any trial prescriptions of

thyroid or hydrocortisone (my baseline hormones feel low-normal but

they lack dynamic response) -- I've asked in the past and he's

refused.