Risks more than possible benefits with anti-aging hormones

In wake of the recently released report by the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Council on Science and Public Health, Dr. Thomas T. Perls, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine condemned the promotion and distribution of growth hormones for non-medical purposes.

The criticism of growth hormones and appreciation of AMA for assessing risks and benefits of DHEA, growth hormone, testosterone, and estrogen was made by Dr. Perls editorial appearing in the Future Medicine journal Aging Health.

From Sciencedaily.com:

There have always been nostrums and potions peddled for eternal youth. Most recently these have been what some entrepreneurs call “bio-identical” or “all-natural” hormones. What they mean by these terms varies from substances made from vegetables — such as soy or yams, which some claim have estrogen-like effects to, more commonly, drugs that are exactly the same as hormones prescribed by endocrinologists for specific diseases. Dr. Perls remarked: “The terms bio-identical or all-natural, particularly in the case of the drugs prescribed by endocrinologists, misleadingly convey a sense of safety to the gullible customer. Arsenic is all-natural to, and it even has some medical uses, but it is anything but safe.”

“The AMA’s review of the risks and benefits of these hormones in the setting of anti-aging and athletic enhancement is very important given its inclusion of the consensus and position statements of the key professional medical societies as well as the federal agencies that guard public health.” states Dr. Perls in the editorial.

Dr. Perls denounced the marketing of hormones, especially growth hormone and anabolic steroids, for the purpose of anti-aging.

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