GH sprays and related homeopathic GH boosters do little or nothing to stimulate growth hormone secretion, let alone improve muscularity or athletic performance—as anyone who’s tried them can attest. If the dietary supplement industry is ever going to climb out of the dark ages, we’re going to need science to do it. Not witches’ brews or marketing hype. Research. Don’t rely solely on the testimonials of professional athletes who are being paid by the advertisers, read on and delve into the science behind the best GH releaser.

You may have heard about it in the news.

A hormone that has an almost impossible to believe list of health benefits. Body fat reduction. Muscle growth. Even an ability to restore youthful vigor and energy levels. It’s called human growth hormone (hGH), or somatotropin, and it’s been the focus of a lot of press lately. Essentially every cell in our bodies contains growth hormone receptors, including those in fat and muscle tissue. Aside from influencing immune function and many other bodily systems in a healthy manner, hGH stimulates amino acid uptake into skeletal muscle and reduces protein breakdown. And, unlike another protein hormone, insulin, GH actually increases lipolysis (fat breakdown) from adipose tissue at the same time! Giant pharmaceutical companies have spent countless millions on injectable GH product development because they know what it can do for patients (and for sales!). A look at top bodybuilding athletes also gives clear indication of what hGH is capable of. The tissue paper-thin skin and extreme muscular hypertrophy that’s displayed in many bodybuilders simply cannot be obtained without growth hormone.

Of course, not everyone is interested in injecting drugs to improve his physique and energy level; and besides, most physicians and the Food & Drug Administration would oppose its use ‘merely’ for enhancing the quality of life in otherwise healthy people. And there is another consideration. Even patients who rely on injectable GH to maintain health often struggle to afford its outrageous cost. Fortunately, growth hormone can be released by our bodies. Better still, an educated consumer can stimulate his or her own anterior pituitary gland to produce GH at maximum levels! Often called the “master gland” of the body, our pituitary secretes peptide (protein-based) hormones like GH in response to particular physiologic events. Stressors like exercise and fasting stimulate considerable elevations in growth hormone output. Even sleep gives the pituitary a chance to increase serum growth hormone concentrations and maintain health. Because physiologists know that GH release can be manipulated, efforts have been made to develop nutritional means for increasing its release.

After almost two decades of experimentation with various substances, researchers have found specific nutrients that do, in fact, stimulate the anterior pituitary.

During the 1980s, GHB (gammahydroxybutyrate) was used largely by body-builders for its ability to stimulate growth hormone release (see Takahara, 1977) which aids in fat reduction and muscle building. Recently it has gained popularity as a recreational drug offering a pleasant, alcohol-like, “high” with potent positive sexual effects.

GHB is a fairly low toxicity substance with medical and recreational uses. It affects the release of dopamine in the brain (see Chin and Kreutzer, 1992), causing effects ranging from relaxation to sleep at low doses. In the USA it has been used to treat insomnia (see Laborit, 1964) and as an adjunct to the treatment of alcohol dependence (see Fadda, 1989 and Gallimberti, 1989)

Because GHB has been reported, mostly by the media, as a “date-rape” drug, it has now been classified as a schedule 1 narcotic in 31 states.

Drug-related deaths

Even small overdoses (double dose) of GHB may cause unconsciousness and users may be unrouseable for up to 4 or 5 hours. It can be dangerous when mixed with other depressants. Combining a normal GHB dose with alcohol can also cause unrouseable sleep. GHB has been blamed for a few deaths, but most have involved alcohol or other drugs.

GBL (gamma-butyro-lactone) is another GH releaser but has also been dubbed a “date-rape” drug by the US Food and Drug Administration. This dietary supplement was removed from shelves in January when the US Food and Drug Administration claimed that 55 people had suffered adverse reactions to substances containing GBL, and that one woman had died. It can still be purchased on the Internet, where it is described as the “Fountain of Youth”.

Butylene glycol (a.k.a. 1,4-Butanediol, BDO, 1,4-butylene glycol, 1,4-tetramethylene glycol) is a biological precursor of GHB and was sold briefly under the trade name Ultradiol. Butylene glycol is an industrial chemical that is rapidly absorbed and metabolised to GHB in animals and humans. Because of this rapid and extensive conversion, the toxicological profile of butylene glycol probably reflects that of gammahydroxybutyric acid.

Government and media claims

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a warning stating that dietary supplements containing GHB, GBL and butylene glycol may be hazardous to the consumer’s health. American news media then trumpeted stories about butylene glycol and GHB causing people to fall into comas and die. How should we evaluate these claims?

First, we should note that the American news media get such stories from government agencies (such as the FDA, the DEA, and state and local law enforcement agencies). The ‘journalists’ who write up the stories for newspapers or TV news programs seldom investigate the claims to determine their accuracy. So, what we are really hearing are the claims of law enforcement bureaucrats being parroted by the news media.

Would law enforcement agencies distort or lie about the dangers of these substances? We should recall that government agencies have demonized, lied about, and criminalized many other relatively safe drugs and supplements (such as marijuana and anabolic steroids). By doing so, they have been able to achieve astronomical increases in their budgets and power over the public and over the government. Meanwhile, truly dangerous products (such as tobacco and alcohol) are marketed without interference, while the government shares in the profits by levying huge taxes on them.

Although there are ways to use butylene glycol recklessly, the same is true of most other substances. People die from eating contaminated chicken — but it is the bacteria that are deadly, not the chicken. And you can die by using butylene glycol after drinking several glasses of vodka — but it is the alcohol that is deadly, not the butylene glycol. How would we react if the government were to claim that chicken meat is a deadly poison and that, in order to protect the public, laws are needed making the production or possession of chicken meat a felony? Our reaction should be no different when the target is a drug or dietary supplement.