Will this drug reverse ageing?

by ANDREA PERRY, femail.co.uk

A chemical banned in athletics is the latest fad for Hollywood stars, who are shelling out £600 a month on a controversial anti-ageing treatment, which they are injecting in a bid to stay young looking.

Actor Nick Nolte, 59, and director Oliver Stone, 53, are among an estimated 250,000 Americans using bio-engineered HGH - an artificial form of Human Growth Hormone, not yet widely available in Britain.

Twice a day they fill a syringe with colourless liquid and inject it into their hip or stomach.

Nolte, said: 'I haven't met anybody who has dignity with decay. Katharine Hepburn used to say, 'It's a bloody bore!' The point is to stay as healthy as you can up to death.'

Supporters of the HGH injections claim muscle and bone strength is increased, energy restored, and memory enhanced. It is also said to improve skin, sexual performance, vision and sleep, with users claiming they feel generally better all round.

Other celebrities taking HGH include 1970s rock goddess Debbie Harry of British band Blondie - whose hits included Die Young, Stay Pretty - who hopes it will halt her middle age spread.

Harry, 53, who was back at No1 last year, has revamped her image along with guitarist Chris Stein, 49.

Stein recently sang HGH's praises, saying: 'You feel good and your skin looks much better.'

But the treatment doesn't come cheap. A month's course of injections costs at least $1,000 and some experts consider it risky.

Many doctors in the States now believe that it is preferable to increase your own natural supply of Human Growth Hormone by dietary supplements, as opposed to injections.

The strict US Food and Drug Administration approved HGH for 'deficient' adults in 1996 but conventional doctors feel that using HGH to feel 25 again doesn't properly constitute the correction of a deficiency

The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists are concerned that it is being used inappropriately. Its president Paul Jellinger says: 'It is an interesting hormone, we're learning about it, but the full effects of it as we age are far from known.'

Synthetic growth hormone injections are only available on prescription, but growth hormone releasing products made from natural sources are widely available on the Internet.

American fashion designer, Diane Gillman, 55, who has been injecting HGH daily for over a year said: 'My energy level is superb. My skin looks like a 20-year-old's. I dropped 25 pounds. I used to have aches in my back and my knees, and they are completely gone because I have more muscle and my bones are building back up. Every single thing it promised, it has delivered.'

The drug is banned from athletics because of its ability to increase competitors' growth rate and size.

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