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Reviews: Hau Liu, Dena M. Bravata, Ingram Olkin, Anne Friedlander, Vincent Liu, Brian Roberts, Eran Bendavid, Olga Saynina, Shelley R. Salpeter, Alan M. Garber, and Andrew R. Hoffman Systematic Review: The Effects of Growth Hormone on Athletic Performance Ann Intern Med 2008; 148: 747-758 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Growth Hormone may require DHEA

James M. Howard   (18 March 2008)

Growth Hormone may require DHEA 18 March 2008
James M. Howard, Biologist independent Send rapid response to journal: Re: Growth Hormone may require DHEA jmhoward{at}anthropogeny.com James M. Howard	It is my hypothesis that all tissues require DHEA for optimal replication and transcription of DNA. Therefore, all tissues and functions compete for available DHEA. I further suggest that DHEA acts with proteins to activate genes as differentiation increases at the expense of replication of DNA. Growth hormone may be one of the most important of these proteins that act with DHEA to promote gene activation. Therefore, growth hormone will act most efficiently with adequate amounts of DHEA. Since DHEA naturally begins to decline around age twenty, the effects of growth hormone will be subject to the availability of DHEA. Therefore, the effects of growth hormone will also be competitive as DHEA declines. I suggest the findings of this report represent the effects of the decline of DHEA and subsequent competition among various tissues and functions. It appears that lean muscle mass is the chief product of this competition which directs available DHEA use away from other tissues and functions. Therefore, growth hormone use increases muscle mass while decreasing strength and increasing fatigue, which are also typical of aging which is a time of overall decreased DHEA. Conflict of Interest: None declared