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Article: Does growth hormone improve strength and athletic performance?
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- March 24, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2008 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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HEALTH ANSWERS
You might think so, given all the publicity about the use of
growth hormone and other drugs by professional athletes. But in
fact, injections of growth hormone do not appear to improve strength
or build muscle, and they may actually decrease athletic
performance.
That's the conclusion of a scientific review published
last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The leader of that study, Stanford University endocrinologist
Dr. Hau Liu, looked at data from 27 randomized,
controlled studies involving 440 mostly young,
physically fit men, 303 of whom took growth hormone.
Although the studies varied in design -- some
gave just one injection of the hormone, while others
used ...