PHARMA HGH vs. GENERIC HGH - Is There a Difference
The simple answer is...I'm not sure it is. But I'm also not positive it isn't.
Let me lay out a few thoughts and see if you can help me out with a definitive answer.
First of all, why do we use HGH?
Quite simply, after a child reaches puberty, HGH secretion by the Pituitary Glands begins to slow pretty rapidly. Once you reach 30 years old the secretion slows even more. Once you hit 50 years old it is almost non-existent. So we inject HGH to replicate the HGH secretion of a pre-pubescent child. Some of us go over-board, but I'll save that for a later discussion. The HGH signals the liver to produce IGF-1, which is anabolic to muscle. According to William Llewellyn, in his best-selling book Anabolics, "IGF-1, however, also has effects that are also antagonistic to Growth Hormone. This includes increased lipogenesis (fat retention), increased glucose consumption, and decreased glucogenesis. The synergistic and antagonistic effects of these two hormones combine to form the character of HGH. Likewise, they also dictate the effects of somatropin administration, which include the support lipolysis, increased serum glucose levels, and reduced insulin sensitivity.". The reason I mention all this is because, the way our HGH Testing has evolved, we went from HGH Serum Testing being the best way to judge the difference between HGH brands. We found flaws in the process, so we switched to IGF-1 Testing as being the "holy grail". Again, we were not convinced this was the best way. We have now moved on to HPLC and Immunoassay Testing, and as of now, I don't see anything better in the future. Now, let me tie this all together: In none of these Tests have we found Pharma to be any better than any of the top Generic Sponsors on our boards!
CASE CLOSED? I don't think so!
I wrote a while back on ProMuscle about a Podcast I heard. I forgot which Podcast, but one of the participants was Dr. Scott Stevenson, who is one of the most knowledgeable people in our community. Now, I'm going to paraphrase, because I don't remember exactly what his theory was. I will post how I understood it, maybe he will post and give his critique:
I remember his theory as citing a study that said, through extensive testing of Pharma HGH it was found that Pharma actually contained broken or incomplete amino chains that are not found in Generic HGH. The thinking is, "Do these incomplete amino chains act to assist the complete amino chains to "unlock" the receptors to allow the complete chains to bind more efficiently to the muscle receptors."?
Now, I'm not saying that this is the case. Maybe some enlightened and more intelligent people than myself (which is 95% of the planets population) can jump on here add on to the discussion.
In closing, I'm inclined to believe that the HGH we have available here is every bit as effective as any Pharma. Of course, I'm not 100% sure that the "Pharma" we have tested is genuine USA Pharma from Walgreens, CVS, etc. I've heard the Vets on this and every other board claim that the Pharma that was bought from AIDS patients years ago was unbelievably strong. 2 iu's would cripple you for days. I call absolute bullshit on that. Anyone making that statement demonstrates conclusively that they are not entitled to an opinion on the matter. By the way, anyone that has a USA Pharma HGH that has a label (minus personal info) and wants to contribute it to our testing, please hit me up!
Be certain, this is not the end of this discussion. I will return with bigger and better stuff.....Stay tuned!