Growth Hormone for Children

How many of you wish you were an inch or two taller? People conscious of their short height wish that their children at least grow taller. Moreover, parents who want an athletic stature in their child, also look for ways to increase the height of their child. The answer to their desideratum is human growth hormone.

Human Growth Hormone (HGH)

The human growth hormone is a hormone produced by the pea sized pituitary gland, present at the base of the brain. The role of this hormone is to stimulate the child's growth and help maintain tissues and organs throughout the child's life. Increasing the height of a child is the most widely known effect of the growth hormone. However, besides increasing the height of a child or an adolescent, the other functions of this growth hormone are increasing protein synthesis, stimulating immune system, increasing calcium retention, increasing muscle mass and stimulating growth of all body organs, except the brain. This natural growth hormone ensures that they grow well in stature and also controls sugar levels and insulin levels in the body and maintains it's immunity too.

Deficiency of Human Growth Hormone in Children

It so happens that sometimes the pituitary gland does not produce adequate amounts of growth hormone. Inadequate or no hormone can be caused due to abnormal pituitary gland or some syndrome. This low amount of growth hormone production conduces to slower growth of the child and resulting in shorter stature, increased amounts of fat around the waist, low growth velocity, delayed tooth development and the child appearing younger than his or her age. The doctor diagnoses the deficiency by checking the amounts of growth hormone in the child's blood and confirms the condition.

Growth Hormone Treatment for Children

Human growth hormone treatment is basically for children who suffer from a growth hormone deficiency, especially children affected with Turner's syndrome, chronic renal insufficiency and Prader-Willi syndrome. Children with these conditions are predicted to reach a height of less than 5'3" tall as an adult male or 4'11" tall as an adult female. Thus, to increase the height of these children, synthetic human growth hormone injections are available. However, they are only available by prescription.

Taking these injections will cause the pituitary glands to stop producing whatever little hormone it was producing earlier. It will depend on the injections to fulfill the demand for the hormone in the body. Often parents want to try out these human growth hormone injections on their children who have no such deficiency. It is not recommended for children without the deficiency, simply because the FDA does not recommend so. So parents, don't go injecting growth hormone injections into your children simply because you want to see them taller. Moreover, these injections cost a bomb! They range somewhere between USD 10,000 to USD 25,000 a year.

A person needs six shots of this injection a week, for many years; so you know it's going to burn a hole in your pocket! Besides the cost, the problem with injecting growth hormone is that the pituitary gland which normally was producing less hormone will get even more lazier and produce even less hormone. Thus, you will find yourself caught in a vicious cycle of injecting more and more growth hormone and emptying your bank balance.

So, we see that a growth hormone is only recommended for those with a deficiency or syndrome. So if you are short, just embrace the fact and move on by appreciating the way you are made. If you spend your life trying to be fairer, taller, slimmer, etc. you are just not going to have the time to live an abundant life you were deemed to enjoy!